Chana Masala

Felt like comforting Indian food the other day. Also, I had just bought some new boxes of my favourite Indian spice mixes, this one for Chana Masala. The second ingredient is salt... no wonder I always liked these mixes! Chana Masala is pretty much the easiest thing to make, so I quickly got to work using this Canadian Living recipe as a guide.

First in the frying pan was two small chopped onions, 4 garlic cloves, and, after a few minutes, 2 Tbsp of the spice mix. Always good to toast your spices for a minute, stirring constantly so they don't burn, to get the most flavour. I then added 1 cup of water, 1/4 cup tomato paste, 1 tsp of brown sugar and one can of chickpeas.




Let that stew for 10-15 minutes so it gets nice and thick and tomato-ey. I made a rookie mistake, though - I wasn't totally sure how potent my spice mix was, and it turned out quite spicy! So I decided to tame it with some big spoonfuls of sour cream (yogurt would've also worked).

As you can guess, the sour cream made it rich and the spice mix made it salty and it was a delicious bowl of Indian deliciousness. I like living close to Little India, but I do buy those honey desserts too often...

Prairie Honey Oatmeal Muffins

More muffins! I wanted to try something new, so I flipped through the Complete Canadian Living Baking Book, a great bargain find at Winners, and picked out their Prairie Honey Oatmeal Muffins (p. 286). I guess the term 'prairie' means wholesome ingredients? I picked them because they seemed quite simple - and I had all the ingredients. After a delicious taco dinner at Grand Electric, I didn't want anything too fancy. Yes, readers, on Fridays we have an early dinner and come home and watch TV and make muffins. The epitome of cool.

First, stir 1 cup oats with 1 cup buttermilk, let sit 15 min. The recipe called for large-flake oats - I had quick, don't think it made too much of a difference. Also, my buttermilk, as usual, was just regular milk with some cider vinegar added to sour it. Yum. Mix the dry ingredients: 1 c whole wheat flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp each baking soda and cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp salt.


The wet ingredients were stirred into the buttermilk/oat mixture: 1/3 cup each oil and honey, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 1 egg, which were then added to the dry ingredients. It was a much thinner batter than I'm used to. Originally the recipe called for 1/3 cup sunflower seeds as well, but alas, the seeds I had in my freezer had gone bad (when they smell like Play-doh, throw them away!) so walnut pieces it was. Bake @375 for about 17 minutes.

No idea why the recipe said it made only 10 muffins - it made 12 easily. They had a nice crunchy top, and were super tender and fally-aparty - I guess because I'm used to 2 cups of flour, and these were half oats instead. Maybe the honey helped. Either way, they were sweet and delicious, and while a little plainer than I usually make, quite satisfying at breakfast/work break.

Shakshuka

I've found a few recipes for shakshuka over the last year, and was very intrigued about trying this Israeli breakfast dish - though of course I made it for dinner. It's sugary cereal for me in the mornings. I was recently given the new Toronto Star Cookbook as a birthday gift and to my surprise, there was shakshuka right on the cover! So for a quick weeknight dinner on my own last week I made Pita Break's Poached Eggs in Spicy Tomato Stew (p. 20).

First I fried up one diced onion, 3 green onions and 6 garlic cloves - this sounds like a lot but they turned out to be a little elderly, and so not very strong tasting. After 5-7 minutes, I stirred in everything else: 2 chopped red peppers, 2 chopped plum tomatoes, 1 can tomato paste (that's a lot!), 2 Tbsp ketchup, 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 2 tsp oregano, 1 tsp red pepper flakes and 1.5 cup water.



This recipe also called for mushrooms - which I omitted because they are gross. Simmer for 30 minutes to thicken. Then comes the fun part - breaking 4 eggs into the tomato stewy mix. Cover, and cook 5-7 minutes - though I found I need more like 8-9 minutes for the whites to cook. Of course the authors suggested eating this with fresh pita, and such other goodies as bagels, olives, pickles, hummus, lox etc. I just had toast.

All in all it was pretty good, but a little bland - next time I would add more spice and fresher garlic. It was also really thick and tomatoey - I may try a recipe that uses a can of diced tomatoes instead of tomato paste and water as a base. Fairly comforting, however, as I sat down to watch my library find: a recent Russian movie called Hipsters that featured 1950s teenagers singing and dancing. What more could a girl ask for.

Egg Salad: Two Ways

Who doesn't love egg salad? Well, if you don't eat eggs, you may think you're doomed to live without it. Not so - a delicious tofu version is available and may be better than the real stuff! Make both and decide.

I decided to make a more jazzy version of egg salad than usual - a curry-spiced one with apples featured in Bon Appetit (May 2012). A bit more fun than mayo and paprika! It involved a dressing made of a bit less than 1/4 cup mayo, 1 green onion, 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp Dijon, 1/2 tsp curry powder, and 1/4 tsp cumin. I only had 3 eggs so the amounts are a little different from the recipe. The dressing is mixed with hard-boiled eggs and most of a peeled and diced green apple.


The result is super good - there's a sweet crunch from the apple to cut through the mayo, curry to add flavour and a really nice tang from the vinegar - something I may add to normal egg salad in the future.







Next up is a really good recipe I got from a vegan cookbook - Vegan A Go-Go by Sarah Kramer. The book is full of tips if you're a vegan traveler, but for me, I just enjoy the recipes. The Faux Egg Salad (p. 50) is made by mashing a block of firm tofu with a variety of delicious things. This time I used 2/3 block of tofu, 1/2 chopped red pepper, 2 green onions, 1.5 Tbsp Dijon, a big spoonful of relish (I only eat Bick's Tangy Dill), and about 1/4 cup mayo.

Now this stuff is addictive. The mustard and relish are delicious - I never thought of adding them to egg salad until I made this recipe. Now they're my go-to condiments when I want to cut down on the mayo. One thing to know, though - this makes one messy sandwich. Tofu is not like boiled eggs - it stays chunky and will fall out all over the place. But you'll want to scoop it back up to stuff it in your face, I promise.