Cilantro Chutney (an herb sauce)

Some yeas ago, Edward Hamann, a culinary expert on food from the Asian subcontinent and a wonderful cooking instructor who is now at Sur La Table, taught a small group of us how to make his fabulous Fresh Cilantro Chutney (Dhaniya ki Chatni ).  I started with his amazing recipe, added turmeric, black pepper, and made a few other minor changes, and that’s how this Cilantro Sauce recipe came to be.

This delicious sauce transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary – and it’s easy to make. We love it! For a while this sauce was the new “ketchup” at our house. I served it with everything from scrambled eggs to pan fried fish, and, of course, curries. In fact, it was this Cilantro Chutney that made me want to learn more about herb sauces and led me to create the other herb/vegetable sauces on this blog: Charmoula, Arugula Pesto, and Artichoke Lemon Pesto.

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
¾ cup chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon peeled and roughly chopped fresh ginger
4 cloves peeled garlic
2 Serrano peppers, stemmed and roughly chopped, including some of the seeds
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ – ½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
3 bunches (about 7/8 pound) fresh cilantro, including all but the very ends of the stems

Note: I like to add dry ground or finely chopped fresh turmeric (and freshly ground black pepper) wherever I can get away with it. It’s so healthy! Adding 2 teaspoons of ground turmeric to this recipe does not negatively affect the taste, in fact you hardly even notice the turmeric, so why not add it?!

DIRECTIONS

Food processor

Add all the ingredients to the food processor fitted with the metal blade and process to desired consistency.

Blender

Place the ingredients into a blender – in the order given above — but do not put all of the cilantro into the blender at one time. Blend and then add more cilantro and blend again. If needed, stop the blender; push the cilantro down toward the blade; then place the cover on the blender and blend until a lovely smooth sauce results.

HOW TO STORE

• Store in the refrigerator for a few days

• Freeze in 100% food grade silicone muffin pans. When frozen, just pop the frozen “muffins” out, and place them in a plastic freezer bag; store in the  freezer for use anytime.

A FEW OF THE MANY WAYS YOU CAN USE THIS CHUTNEY (SAUCE)…

• Use as a condiment to liven up almost everything, including fish, chicken, eggs, or tofu.
• Use as a hot or cold sauce to go with almost everything.
• Mix with ripe avocado to make a lovely dip or spread. I just put some of this Cilantro Sauce-avocado mixture on slices of daikon and it was fabulous. The next time I need to bring an appetizer to someone’s party, this is what I plan to bring – it’s delicious and a great conversation starter too!
• Sauté any vegetable in olive oil and mix some of this sauce in at the end.
• By the way, I just mixed some of this sauce with some sautéed greens. Superb!
• Add to soups — bean soups, chicken soups, vegetable soups, fish soups.
• Add olive oil to make this sauce into a salad dressing!

Quick and Delicious Dal

Tandoor Chef’s Dal Rajasthani

I had company coming for dinner the other night, but had no time to cook the chana dal recipe that I had planned to make. So I simply combined a few packages of Tandoori Chef’s Dal Rajasthani with some plain cooked chana dal. Delicious!

Plain Cooked Chana Dal

At the table, each person topped his or her dal with chopped fresh onion, chopped fresh tomato, and chopped fresh cilantro. We also passed the Cilantro  Chutney for those who wanted a bit more spiciness.

Tandoor Chef’s Channa Dal (available at Whole
Foods and some supermarkets in the frozen food section)

Ingredient list:
water, split lentils (moong, toor, channa, urad & masoor dals), onions, diced tomatoes (tomatoes, tomato juice, salt, citric acid, calcium chloride), canola oil, spices, tomato pasts (tomato past, water, salt, citric acid), garlic, sea salt, turmeric, curry leaves, fenugreek leaves, oleoresin of paprika, bay leaves.

Nutrition information, per 5 ounce serving:
6 grams fat
0 grams saturated fat
0 mg cholesterol
470 mg sodium
14 g carbohydrate
5 g protein

And…after you mix the Tandoor Chef dal with your plain cooked chana dal, you end up with a delicious dal that’s lower in fat and sodium and has a lower glycemic index than Tandoor Chef’s Rajasthani Dal. So easy! So delicious! And so nutritious!

Enjoy and be healthy!
~Leni

Desi Chickpea Recipes — with my comments and changes

 

Showmethecurry.com’s Kala Chana Curry
I just made this Kala Chana or Black Chick Pea Curry and loved it – but that was with some changes. So here’s how I changed their recipe to make the dish we loved:

• Instead of using a pressure cooker to cook the black (whole) desi chana, I used the crock pot method described on the Mendosa page (see yellow highlighted box, “Preparing and Seasoning Chana Dal” found at bottom of the webpage.) Note: Since in this Desi Chickpea recipe, we are cooking the whole bean, not the split bean (chana dal), I prefer to soak the desi chickpea overnight in cold water, drain the water, and then cook the soaked desi chickpea per the directions given for cooking in the slow cooker on the Mendosa website.
• I used twice as much: asafoetida, ginger, and garlic.
• I used 4 times as much turmeric (1 teaspoon instead of 1/4 teaspoon) and I added 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. (For why turmeric and black pepper should always be used together, see Monamifood: Why turmeric and black pepper .)
• I used 1/4 more garam masala (1 1/4 teaspoons instead of 1 teaspoon)
• I used half as much salt.
• I used canned organic diced tomatoes instead of pureed tomatoes, and when I added the tomatoes to the dish, I smashed the tomatoes with a potato masher. It worked fine.
• I did not cook the tomato mixture down “until the oil separates from the mixture,” because I thought I might burn the mixture and my pan, so I just cooked it down until there was very little liquid left.
• Note: The showmethecurry.com recipe calls for chili powder, but they must be referring to red chile powder (ground red chiles), not chili powder (a mixture of ground spices used to make American style chili).

At the table, we passed chopped fresh tomatoes, chopped fresh onions, and chopped fresh cilantro so everyone could mix these into their curry as they liked. This mixture of cooked and fresh ingredients made the dish superb.

• Note: Early in the harvest season, onions are relatively sweet and when they have been stored a long time, they become sharp. If you want to take the edge off of sharp onions, just soak the chopped onions in cold filtered water for 15 minutes and then drain well.

I like serving this desi chickpea curry with (or over) steamed kale and along with slices of baked sweet potatoes. If you want rice, then a little brown basmati rice would be my choice. I also like to serve this with Monamifood’s Cilantro Sauce (chutney).

Vegetable Platter Blog’s Chana Dal Tadka
This is a really delicious dish! I will definitely make it again!

I made this recipe with the following changes and specific ingredients:

• The green chiles I used were green finger hot chiles (a chile that’s common to Indian cooking).
• I used the seeds of 2 green cardamom pods (not the whole pods).
• The cinnamon stick I used was Ceylon cinnamon (which is soft and can be ground up as specified in the recipe).
• Instead of cashew nuts I used walnuts (because they are a good source of the pre-cursor to omega-3 fatty acids).
• Instead of ghee I used canola oil.
  I used less red chile powder (only 1/2 teaspoon) instead of 2 teaspoons red chilli powder (by which I think the recipe writer must have meant red chile powder).
• I added freshly ground black pepper because I always use it in combination with turmeric.
• I “ground” the mixture in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. And next time I make this recipe, I will be sure to process the mixture until the pieces of cinnamon have become tiny. (I left a few big pieces this time and just removed them before serving.)

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

Why turmeric AND black pepper?

DRY/POWDERED OR FRESH TURMERIC – PEEL, CHOP, FREEZE AND USE ANYTIME!

Curcumin and other chemicals in turmeric are powerful anti-inflamatory agents. In the lab, it has been shown that curcumin inhibits a many different cancers.

Research shows that in the Petri dish the bioactive compound found in turmeric (curcumin) and the bioactive compound found in black pepper (piperine) — when combined — are a potent anti-cancer combination.

However, turmeric can interfere with some chemotherapy treatments and reduce their benefits, so if you are getting chemo (infusion or oral) be sure to check with your doctor about whether it’s OK to add turmeric to your diet.

TURMERIC AND BLACK PEPPER – THE COMBO!

Think of these two spices as one – because black pepper multiplies the body’s absorption of turmeric. Turmeric is not easy for our bodies to absorb, so to get the most turmeric actually into your system, be sure to consume turmeric as part of a recipe or meal that also contains black pepper.

Ideally, turmeric must also be dissolved in oil or consumed at a meal with oil or some other fat such as the fat from grass fed meat or butter.

For more information about turmeric and it’s healthful properties (and some cautions)….

• Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s website – Integrative Medicine, Herbs. Here you will find all the details and background research on turmeric!
• NIH National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine
• U of Maryland Medical Center – Complimentary Medicine
• Q & A with Andrew Weil, MD and Huffington Post Article by Andrew Weil, MD
• Wall Street Journal article about research on health benefits of turmeric and also which supplements contain most bio-available form of turmeric, bcm-95.

You can buy fresh turmeric at Whole Foods, Asian supermarkets, and even on Amazon.

Fresh turmeric – peel, chop, freeze and use anytime! I always buy a few pounds at a time and then process it for storage in my freezer. Here’s how:

Peeling turmeric

• Wash the turmeric to get the dirt off.
• Using a vegetable peeler, peel the skin off; discard the skin.
• Rinse the peeled turmeric with water.
• Place the peeled and rinsed turmeric into the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process until the turmeric if finely chopped.

Turmeric after processing in food processor

• Line a rectangular storage container with 2 pieces of parchment paper, with the paper overlapping the sides of the container. (The photo below was taken before I found that using 2 pieces of parchment paper, one on top of the other, would make it easier to remove the contents of the container when it’s frozen.)
• Use a spatula to spread just enough of the “grated” turmeric to cover the parchment paper with a thin layer of turmeric.
• Place 2 sheets of parchment paper over the turmeric (with the paper overlapping the sides of the container).
• Spread just enough of the “grated” turmeric to cover the parchment paper with a thin layer of turmeric.
• Repeat until container is full: alternating 2 sheets of parchment paper and one layer of turmeric.

Thin layer of turmeric over parchment paper

• Cover and freeze.
• When frozen, remove all of the turmeric at once from the container, by pulling up on the parchment paper.
• Take this frozen block of turmeric and parchment paper layers and place it into a plastic freezer bag; store in freezer.
• Break off any size chunk anytime!
• Or, you can break the turmeric into pieces before you freeze it, as shown in photo below. However, since I took this photo, I have found that sometimes when I freeze turmeric in pieces as you see in photo below, the turmeric sticks together in large clumps. So I now leave the turmeric pieces in the parchment paper in the freezer bag.

Pieces of frozen turmeric in freezer bag

Note: When using fresh turmeric, use at least about twice as much as you would if you were to use dry powdered turmeric, since it is less concentrated and has a milder flavor. And…remember to always add black pepper to your recipe and serve with food that has some oil or fat!

BTW: Fresh garlic and ginger

I also store fresh garlic and fresh ginger in the same way! Just peel, process, freeze, and store! This way you never run out of the healthy foods you need for cooking!

Want to create some great food using these ingredients? Go to How to Create Fabulous Fresh Herb Sauces!

from left: frozen pieces of garlic, turmeric, ginger

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

SPINACH AND ONION CRUSTLESS QUICHES

After creating the recipes for Egg White Puffs and for Carmelized Onions and Roasted Spinach, it suddenly dawned on me that I could combine the two recipes and make Spinach and Onion Egg Puffs – now fondly known as Spinach and Onion Crustless Quiches.  Wow! They turned out great and my family and I have been enjoying them for breakfast, lunch, light dinners, and snacks ever since!

SPINACH AND ONION CRUSTLESS QUICHES ( aka SPINACH AND ONION EGG PUFFS)

Makes 6 crustless quiches (each one the size of a muffin)

If you would like to see a video showing how this recipe is made, just click on this link for the YouTube video that I made with the help of my friend Ludo Van Vooren, who served as my director and film editor, and my husband, Charles Nazare, who cheered me on. Also a big thanks to my friends Shelley and Fred and cousin David who looked this video over and told me it was good enough to share. I had my doubts, but I’ve swallowed my pride and learned to live with the fact that I don’t look as young as I used to when I made my other videos…and I’m out of practice, besides. But making this video was fun, so I plan to do more of them for this blog in the future. I hope you enjoy viewing the video.

Ingredients

• Extra virgin olive oil (for greasing the inside of each muffin cup)
• 6 tablespoons caramelized onions, prepared according to the post, Monamifood Caramelized Onions & Roasted Spinach
• 6 tablespoons roasted spinach, prepared according to the post, Monamifood Caramelized Onions & Roasted Spinach
• About 1½ teaspoons ground turmeric
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  
• Aleppo pepper or any mild red pepper, such as paprika (not the hot variety). The purpose of the red pepper is to give the quiche a nice warm color.
• fresh thyme leaves (or dried thyme leaves or dried oregano – or a mixture of these), to taste
• 1, 16-ounce container of liquid egg whites
• 1 tablespoon shredded or grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Equipment Prep Step

• If you are going to cook these quiches in a microwave oven, you will need a 100% food-grade silicone muffin pan (for regular, not mini size muffins).
• Unfortunately, in a microwave oven, the food in a muffin pan does not cook evenly. (The food closer to the walls of the oven cooks faster than the food farther from the walls of the oven.)  So using a pair of kitchen shears, I cut my silicone muffin pan into 6 muffin cups as you see below. Now I can arrange the muffin cups in a circle for even cooking.
  

My silcone muffin pan after surgery to separate the muffin cups

Directions (Microwave cooking)

Note: Oven cooking directions are given below the microwave cooking directions.

• Using a pastry brush and olive oil, lightly grease the inside of each silicone muffin cup with olive. (You may not need to grease these muffin cups. If you find that your little quiches slide out of their cups without greasing the muffin cups, that’s great; just skip this step.)

• If you can, remove the glass “go round” inside your microwave oven and place it on your kitchen counter. (If you can’t remove the glass “go round” from your microwave, then just use a large round microwaveable platter.) Arrange the 6  individual greased silicone muffin cups in a circle on the glass “go round” or round platter. Try to make sure that each of the cups is about the same distance from the outer edge of the glass “go round” or platter.
• Put 1 tablespoon of caramelized red onions inside each of the muffin cups.
• Put 1 tablespoon of roasted spinach inside each of the muffin cups.
• Sprinkle a scant ¼ teaspoon of ground turmeric into each of the muffin cups.
• Sprinkle a little freshly ground black pepper into each of the muffin cups.
• Sprinkle a little Aleppo pepper into each of the muffin cups.
• Add as much fresh thyme as you like to each of the muffin cups
  
• Shake the container of egg whites (as it says on the carton). Pour the liquid egg whites into the partially filled muffin cups, filling each cup almost up to the top. You will use – or almost use – the entire container of egg whites.
• Using a small spoon, gently mix the contents of each muffin cup to distribute the veggies more evenly.
• Place the “go round” or platter with the filled muffin cups into the microwave oven.
  
• Cook on high for 3– 4 minutes or until outer half of each of the mini quiches is starting to look slightly cooked (not so runny).
  
• Carefully rotate the each muffin cup 180 degrees so that the inner edge becomes the outer edge.
• Cook on high for another 2-3 minutes or until there is no more liquid remaining on the top of each quiche. In the final minute or so as they cook, you see them puff up high above the top edges of the muffin cups and then drop back down when they’re done. It’s dramatic and fun to watch!
• If desired, top each little quiche with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, and heat for another 10-15 seconds to melt the cheese.

• When the muffin cups are cool enough to handle comfortably, remove them from the oven.

One muffin cup with a Spinach and Onion Crustless Quiche inside

• Invert each muffin cup and the little quiche should slide right out. When you turn the quiches  right side up they look beautiful — and, I think you will agree, taste GREAT!

Directions (Oven cooking)

• To cook these mini quiches in a regular (not microwave) oven, follow the directions given above, but bake at 350 degree F — either in a silicone muffin pan or in regular metal muffin pan. I made three little quiches in my toaster oven (using cut-up silicone muffin cups) and they were ready after baking for about 20 minutes. It should take around that long to cook these in a metal muffin pan, too.
  

Notes

• After posting this recipe (and that was after making it at least 25 times), I discovered that adding fresh thyme made the little quiches even more delicious. And, since thyme is an anti-cancer food in its own right, (as explained in my earlier post, Roasted Grape Tomatoes and Thyme), go ahead and add plenty of thyme. Just buy (or grow) fresh thyme, wash it, dry it, and store it in your freezer. Storing in your freezer will make it easy to remove the leaves from the stems (as explained in the Roasted Grape Tomatoes post) and it will still taste fresh.
• If you are out of fresh thyme, no problem. Use dried thyme or dried oregano leaves. Oregano and thyme (as well as rosemary, basil, and mint) are members of the terpene family and have anti-cancer properties.
• These Crustless Quiches do not freeze well. But you can store them in your refrigerator for a few days.
• By using a silicone mini muffin pan (cut up into individual cups), you can make mini quiches. (And, if you don’t want to cut up all your silicone bakeware, use the pan as is and take out the cooked mini quiches and return the pan to the microwave to cook the rest.) I served these mini quiches at a party not long ago and they disappeared!
• I learned the hard way that if I follow the manufacturer’s direction that came with my silicone muffin pan: “do not place in the dishwasher,” then the muffin cups remain non-stick and I do not need to to grease the muffin cups.
  +++++++++++++++++++++++

And here’s another Crustless Mini Quiche recipe from Monamifood: Updated Crustless Mini Quiches. The newer version does not require silicone muffin pans. And it is easier to make. However, it does not include turmeric. I now use turmeric (including fresh turmeric) in a lot of other foods I cook, so I don’t mind not having some for breakfast.

Enjoy and be healthy,

~Leni

BROWN RICE: Golden Rice

Why brown rice?

It’s a lot better for you than regular white rice! “…ordinary white rice should be avoided and replaced by brown or white basmati rice, for which the glycemic index is lower.” (David Servan-Schreiber, Anti Cancer, page 63)

This doesn’t mean you should eat LOTS of brown rice. As Dr. Servan-Schreiber says, “Above all it’s much better … to eat vegetables and legumes (beans, peas, lentils). Not only are their glycemic indexes low, but their potent phytochemicals fight cancer growth every inch of the way.” (David Servan-Schreiber, Anti Cancer, page 63)

GOLDEN RICE

In order to make brown rice rich in the “potent phytochemicals that fight cancer growth,” I now add turmeric and black pepper to every pot of rice I cook. And the result is a gorgeous golden rice!

For example, when we had friends over for dinner one night, I made two stir fry dishes – an Asian stir fry and Indian stir-fry (like a biriyani) — and both were made with Golden Rice, (but in the Asian stir-fry, I used less turmeric than in the Indian stir-fry).

Ingredients

Brown rice

• Previously on this page, I mentioned that I like to use a variety of brown rice called Sweet Brown Rice or Korean Sweet Brown Rice – available in the Asian supermarkets and by mail order. The word “sweet” in the name of this rice is misleading. It’s not sweet; it’s just sticky. It’s a short grain rice that clumps together when cooked so it has a very chewy texture. Well….now I’ve learned that sweet sticky rice has a higher glycemic index than the more common rice varieties. So now I use brown Basmati rice — for Indian foods — and regular brown rice for other foods.

Filtered water

Turmeric and freshly ground black pepper

• Turmeric and black pepper are a potent anti-cancer combo, as discussed in an earlier post, Turmeric and Black Pepper . In addition, new research indicates that turmeric and black pepper are especially effective against breast cancer (stem cells). For a summary of this new research, see Dr. Servan-Schreiber’s blog.

• How much turmeric and black pepper should you use when making rice? It’s up to you. Experiment; start with a little turmeric and add more next time until you get the proportion of turmeric to rice that works for you. But here’s a rough guide based on my experience:

1. For a light golden color and a slightly but not noticeably earthy taste, I add about a teaspoon of turmeric and a few grinds of fresh black pepper to two cups of raw brown rice.
2. When I want the earthy spicy flavor of turmeric and black pepper, I add about 1 tablespoon turmeric and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper to two cups of raw brown rice.

Note: I will measure carefully and report more exact proportions here soon.

Directions (rice cooker, my preferred way to cook rice)

• Rinse the rice under cold running water until it’s no longer cloudy (about 3 rinses).

• Place the rinsed rice into the bowl of the rice cooker. Add the water according to the directions for your particular kind of rice. Someone once told me that the water level should be about one knuckle above the rice and this works pretty well for me (I have small hands, though).

• Add turmeric and black pepper, according to your taste.

• Press the button for cooking and wait until it’s done. That’s it!

Directions (stove top)

• See the Purcell Mountain Farms for stove top (and rice cooker) directions for preparing many different varieties of brown rice.

Enjoy and be healthy,

~Leni

EGG WHITES: Egg White Puffs

Why egg whites?

Egg whites are a good source of protein and they’re fat free. (The fat and cholesterol in an egg are entirely in the yolk.) Because cooked egg whites are pretty tasteless, they need to be perked up with flavor, and that can come from healthy foods such as herbs, spices, and vegetables. So while egg whites, themselves, aren’t an anti-cancer food, the foods you make with egg whites can be great anti-cancer foods.

EGG WHITE PUFFS

I used to make scrambled eggs (mostly egg whites) in large batches in non-stick pans and refrigerate them so it was easy to have some eggs for breakfast for the next few days. But recently I have come up with a better idea — Egg White Puffs – which just take minutes to make in the microwave. Now I whip up a batch or two at a time and refrigerate what we don’t eat that day so these delicious puffs are ready for breakfast the next day.

Ingredients

Extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup of egg whites

• ½ of a 16-ounce carton of egg whites or the whites of about 6 eggs

Ground turmeric

• For information about turmeric and it’s anti-cancer properties,  see the post, Turmeric and Black Pepper.

Freshly ground black pepper

Aleppo pepper or any other hot or slightly hot dried pepper you like (optional)

• Penzeys is a good source for Aleppo pepper and all herbs and spices.

Directions

Grease a silicone mini-muffin pan with olive oil; set aside.

Whip air into the egg whites using one of the following methods (optional):

• Pour the egg whites into a 2-cup measuring cup. Use an immersion blender to whip the egg whites up so that they have an inch or so of foam on top.

• Pour the egg whites into a blender and blend until nice and foamy.

Note: Whipping the egg whites as described above does not change the taste, it just makes the puff puffier, and I like that, but not everyone does.

Pour an equal amount of egg whites (whipped or not whipped) into the prepared mini muffin pan. If you have whipped the egg whites, most of the froth will remain in the measuring cup or blender. Use a teaspoon to evenly divide the froth among the muffin cups.

Sprinkle a little turmeric, black pepper, and Aleppo pepper (optional) on each one of the egg whites in the muffin pan.

• Since I use turmeric a lot, I keep it in a jar with a shaker top (one that used to have cinnamon in it).

Put the filled muffin pan into the microwave oven and microwave on high for 2 minutes. You will see the egg whites puff up and then fall back somewhat.

• In my microwave oven (but maybe not in all microwave ovens) the egg whites on the outside cook completely in 2 minutes, but those in the center need another 30 seconds.

Use a teaspoon to lift each of the cooked (no longer runny) puffs out of the muffin pan.

If needed, put the muffin pan back into the microwave oven for 30 seconds to cook the last two or three puffs that need more time. Then use a teaspoon to remove the last couple of cooked puffs.

Serve your Egg White Puffs with Sauted Herb Flavor Cubes or  Sundried Tomato Flavor Cubes or both.  They’re absolutely delicious and so very healthy!

Enjoy and be healthy,

~Leni

TURMERIC & BLACK PEPPER: Tomato & Onion Chutney Flavor Cubes

Why turmeric and black pepper?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, turmeric and black pepper are a great cancer fighting combo.

After reading over my earlier post on turmeric and black pepper, I realized that it probably sounds complicated. So I asked myself how to simplify the preparation that I described earlier and here’s what I came up with:

1. Make plain scrambled eggs.
2. Make plenty of the chutney — all at one time.
3. Freeze the chutney in small batches for later use.

Then when you make scrambled eggs all you have to do is defrost a few flavor cubes to go with your eggs!

So…here’s a generic recipe for a healthy tomato and onion chutney — very much like the one I described in the previous post about turmeric and black pepper (only I like this version a little better). And by the way, this recipe is nothing new. In Indian and Pakistani cuisines, versions of this chutney have been around for ages.

TOMATO & ONION CHUTNEY FLAVOR CUBES

Ingredients

2 tablespoons canola or olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
4 medium fresh tomatoes, chopped
2-4 green chilies, very thinly sliced
2 teaspoons canola or olive oil
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1 heaping teaspoon of turmeric
½ teaspoon ground cumin
Plenty of freshly ground black pepper
A little salt, to taste
Fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions

Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in a large heavy skilled over medium heat. When the oil is warm, add the onions to the pan and sauté them until they are lightly brown.

–A large skillet is recommended so that the onions can cook evenly and not sit on top of one another which would make them steam instead of brown.

When the onions are slightly brown, add the tomatoes and green chiles; mix. Stir occasionally until the tomatoes become soft and mushy.

In a small non-stick skillet, over medium heat, heat the 2 teaspoons of oil until warm. Add the cumin seeds and watch carefully. When the cumin seeds just start to turn a little browner, grab your spatula (a silicone one is great) and scrape the spice mixture into the pan with the onion mixture; stir to mix.

Add the  turmeric, ground cumin, black pepper and salt  to the onion mixture; stir and continue cooking on medium-low heat for a few minutes to let the flavors meld.

Mix in the chopped cilantro.
–Or leave the cilantro out and add it later to the defrosted the frozen chutney.

What to serve with this chutney?

Everything…almost…
Scrambled eggs
Chicken
Fish
Cooked grains (rice, wheat berries, quinoa, etc.) – just mix the chutney in or serve alongside the cooked grains
Potatoes
Beans

How to freeze the chutney

Fill the muffin pockets of a silicone muffin “tin” (mini or regular sized silicone muffin tin) with the cooked mixture; freeze; pop the frozen “muffins” out of the muffin tin and place them in a ziplock bag (the kind that’s made for the freezer).

If you don’t have a silicone muffn tin, you can use a metal one following the procedure given in the earlier post about basil pesto.

Enjoy and be healthy,

Leni

TURMERIC & BLACK PEPPER: Frittata

Here’s my recipe for a delicious egg and vegetable “frittata” that features turmeric and black pepper, plus lots of veggies.

EGG AND VEGETABLE “FRITTATA”

Ingredients (This is what I had on hand this morning):

–a container (still frozen) of Kirkland Real Egg Product (made with 99% pure egg whites)
–eggs (cage-free, omega-3 eggs from Whole Foods)
–6 cherry tomatoes from our garden, sliced in half
–1 red onion, chopped
–1 bunch organic green onions, green part only, cut into small pieces
–canola oil or olive oil
– ~1 teaspoon turmeric (a yellow/orange powder) from Penzey’s Spices

Why turmeric?

–freshly ground black pepper
–1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

Here’s how I made an Egg and Vegetable ‘Frittata’ this morning:

Because I forgot to defrost the Kirkland Real Egg Product, I put it into the microwave for 6 minutes on power level 2. Then I shook it vigorously and put it back into the microwave for 4 minutes on power level 2.  I continued heating it on power level 2 and shaking it until it was defrosted (or almost so).
–Note: I had previously cut open an empty Kirkland Real Egg Product container to check if there was any metal in the container’s lining and found none.

While defrosting the Kirkland Egg Product, I sautéd the red onion in a little canola oil, on medium heat in a medium size sauté pan, stirring the onions occasionally using 2 silicone spatulas (which I love because I can use them for so many things in the kitchen).

When the onions were halfway cooked, I added the tomatoes to the onions. I let the mixture cook until the tomatoes softened; stirring occasionally. When the tomatoes were soft, I turned off the heat and removed the pan from the burner.

I put a small high quality (!) non-stick omelet pan on another burner and added a few teaspoons of oil. Over medium heat, I heated the oil and then added the green onions, and sauted them until they began to wilt. When they were wilted, I added them to the pan with the red onions and tomatoes and mixed all the sauted veggies together. Then I sprinkled the veggies liberally with freshly ground black pepper.

Next I took a second small high quality (!) non-stick omelet pan and put that on another burner over medium low heat. I added a few teaspoons of oil to that pan and when the oil is warm/hot, I added the cumin seeds and let them warm up for about 15 seconds (don’t let them brown) and then I added the turmeric for a few seconds. Then I immediately scraped this spice mixture into the onion and tomato mixture and mixed it all around.

We’re almost there…  I know it seems like a lot of work…but this makes a great breakfast (or a nice lunch) for a few days!

Next I took the defrosted Kirkland Egg Product and mixed it, using a whisk, with the fresh eggs. Since I’m making enough for a few days for my family, I used about 6 eggs and about ¾ of the carton of the Kirkland Egg Product.

Now to cook the eggs…

I put the 2 non-stick pans that are empty and already slightly greased (because they’ve been used to cook the green onions and sauté the cumin and turmeric) on two burners over medium heat. When warm, I poured half of the egg mixture into each of the pans. I let that sit for about a minute (maybe less, depending on how hot the pan was to start with), and then I added half of the sauted veggie mixture from each of the pans to each of the eggs mixtures and stirred it around with a silicone spatula. I kept stirring and also flipping the cooking egg-veggie mixture until it was all cooked.

Note: I didn’t add salt, but each person can sprinkle a little on top of each portion, if desired.

NON-STICK PANS?

In the book, Anti-Cancer, Dr. Servan Schreiber recommends that you use “flawless Teflon, or else non-Teflon pans, such as stainless steel 18/10” instead of using “scratched Teflon pans.” (page 6 and 7 of the center insert in the book).

P.S.  After putting this post up, I wrote the post which covers just how to make the Turmeric and Black Pepper Onion and Tomato Chutney, and also how to freeze it for use later.

Enjoy and be healthy,

Leni