Vegetarian Fusion Cuisine From Around the World

For any readers coming here for vegetarian food recipes and philosophy, I've decided to reinstate this blog, but as part of my brand new CurryElvis.com website. I'm still putting the site together at the time of this writing, but I for technical reasons, I need to post this message before I switch the blog configuration. So the posts at this blog will be repeated over at http://www.curryelvis.com/blogs/vegetarian-fusion shortly after this post. Hope you enjoy my new food and drink site when its fully functional. (If you get a "page not found" message in your web browser, that's simply because I haven't finished setting up the blog/ site.)

Thanks,

curry elvis/ elvis parsley

After a couple of weeks of trying to maintain 4 different cooking blogs, I've decided that instead of doing a poor job on all 4 blogs, I'll incorporate most of them into my Curry Elvis Cooks blog. From this point forward, I'll be posting all of my vegetarian-related entries over there. It is actually the first step towards a more sophisticated cooking website that I'm working on. I have big plans for the new website, but the fact is it'll take some time for all of them to manifest. When they do happen, however, I'm hoping they'll be a nice treat for you.

(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://www.chameleonintegration.com/blogs/vegfusion

Technorati : vegetarian, veggie dishes, veggie meals

When I was a vegetarian for 3 years (it took me 8 years to get to that state), one thing I missed constantly was the texture of meat, especially burgers. The packaged, commercial veggie burgers were not only expensive but they just didn't cut it. That was around 1997. I have yet to taste a commercial veggie burger that had texture and taste to satisfy both vegetarians and meat-eaters. Well, there's one at a Canadian burger chain known as Harvey's. But their's is the only one. So, I had to create my own. It took me nearly 5 years of trying, but I managed it. Unfortunately, I never wrote down the exact recipe, and have never been able to make it exactly the same. Que sera sera.

The one time that I did turn out a great veggie burger was for a party that some friends were throwing. I was still a vegetarian at the time, and I thought hard about something appropriate, since most of the guests weren't vegetarians. Success. My burgers were so popular that night that I saw one guy, Willie, with a stack of 12 on his plate. After three hours of preparing and cooking, I'd only made 60 - 2 per expected guest. Willie told me how much he loved them, hence the tower on his plate. But he was in for a shock when I told him there wasn't any meat in the burgers. He actually wouldn't believe me at first.

What did I use? Now here's the part you aren't going to like. This recipe is still sort of a secret, so even though I'm going to give you ingredients, I'm not going to give you measurements. I'm also not going to give you precise instructions, but I will refer you to my mushroom fritters post, which you should follow as far as the cooking part goes.

1. I used two types of mushrooms: button and canned shiitake. I diced both up very fine with a sharp chef's knife.
2. I used chickpea flour (called "besan" in East Indian and West Indian groceries). You can also grind up dried chickpeas. Chickpea flour has a great binding agent, so it's perfect for veggie burgers, high in protein, tasty, and surprisingly under-utilized - apparently good with beer. It's used daily in India and other nearby South Asian countries, as well as in Italy.
3. I also used grated raw potato, grated raw onion, grate cheese (mozarella and cheddar), salt and pepper, a bit of red chili flake, and ground cumin.

Still with me? Okay, now this recipe is really just a mutation of my great-grandmother's and grandmother's mushroom fritter. So the preparation and cooking instructions there apply. I suggest using a cast-iron frying pan or a cast-iron pancake griddle. Cast-iron holds heat well, so you can reduce heat down to low and still have items cooking for 20 minutes or more, especially if you cover the pan. And that is the basis of one more secret: follow my "grandma" recipe, but use cast-iron, turn the heat to low and let each batch of veggie burgers cook, covered, for about 25 minutes. Enjoy.

(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://www.chameleonintegration.com/blogs/vegfusion

Technorati : chickpea burger, mushroom burger, vegetarian, veggie burger

In yesterday's post, I gave a recipe for simple dal/lentil soup. As I've said in a previous post, lentils are very versatile. You can make a simple soup or add ingredients to it to make it a chunky soup or even a stew. To make a stew, either add a bit less water, or cook on low a bit longer. (Don't forget to keep an eye on the dish as lentils burn quickly. And the burnt protein not only stinks up your place, but it'll ruin your pots, sometimes beyond repair.)

Today's recipe follows yesterday's. Just add any of the following ingredients at the same time you add the lentils:

• Green beans, snapped into 1-2 inch lengths.
• Potatoes, large-diced.
• White radish, cut into 1/4 inch wide strips of about 1 inch in length.
• Eggplant, diced. For a bit of difference, try the small, globe-shaped green-striped Thai eggplants.
• Broccoli, cut into small florets. Don't use ground up pieces, as they'll make the soup/stew mealy.
• Large diced onions (cut in 1/8ths) or slivers.

Don't add delicate items like peas, snow peas, celery. They just don't work. Trust me.

(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://www.chameleonintegration.com/blogs/vegfusion

Technorati : cheap cusine, dal, east indian food, lentil soup, vegetarian stew

In the last post, I talked about how lentil soup (dal) is a staple item for East Indian and other cultures' diets. Dal can be made like a smooth soup, or it can be made into a thick stew. Here is a recipe for a basic Dal.

Ingredients

• 1 tsp cumin seed
• 1 tsp whole mustard
• 1 tsp whole coriander seed
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flake [optional]
• 1 cup lentils
• 1 tbsp turmeric
• 2-3 tbsp cooking oil (canola or vegetable)
• 1/4 cup diced cooking onion [optional]
• 4 cups water
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Preparation

• In a spice/coffee grinder, grind the cumin seed, mustard, coriander seed, and red pepper flake. Remove the mix and set aside. [It's okay if you are missing some of these items, but try to at least have cumin.]
• In the same grinder, grind up the lentils in one or more batches and set aside.
• Heat cooking oil on high in a medium sauce pan or a ceramic cookpot, if possible.
• Turn the heat down to medium high. Add turmeric and the freshly ground spice mixture. Roast the spices for about a minute.
• Reduce the heat to medium. Add the ground lentils and roast for about 2 minutes.
• If using, add the onions and saute for about 1 minute.
• Reduce the heat to medium low. Add the water, stir and cover partially. Let simmer for 30 - 45 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning on the bottom. Add extra water if the consistency is too thick, then simmer for a few more minutes. Lentils can burn easily and ruin your pots, so watch the dal carefully.
• Normally, you would not grind the lentils. However, I tried this to speed up the cooking time and it actually worked rather well. If you do not have a coffee/spice grinder, you can still use this recipe. However, turn the heat down to low, add an extra cup of water, and let the dal cook an extra 10-15 minutes, uncovered.
• Whether you use ground lentils or not, if you find the dal getting too thick but the individual lentils are still hard (uncooked), add another cup of water, stir gently, and let simmer. With lentils, until you get the hang of them, keep tasting a spoonful at different times until you find it has a satisfying texture. I like a very smooth dal, others like to use non-ground lentils that do not fully dissolve.
• When you are satisfied with the texture of the dal, remove the pot from the heat and sprinkle on salt and black pepper to taste.

Serving
Serve on rice or with flatbread toast points

(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://www.chameleonintegration.com/blogs/vegfusion

Technorati : cheap cusine, dal, east indian food, lentil soup