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Dabeli!

Food of Trinidad!

I went on a trip to Trinidad this break and was able to try some authentic street food and fruits while I was there. A little background on Trinidad: 

-Trinidad is a diverse mixture of Indian, African, British, Portuguese, and Spanish cultures. This is shown in the food in that all the cuisines are somewhat mixed together. 

- There is a LARGE Indian community in Trinidad. This made me super excited to try new Indian style food. 

Trinidad was originally a large agricultural city, with crops like sugar cane,grapefruit, rice, cocoa and bananas. These plants also grow naturally in the rain forests as well. During our hikes we picked mangoes,cocoa pods and a fruit called Portugal off trees and ate them as snacks along our way. Portugal looks like a lime on the outside, but tastes like a fragrant orange/mangosteen mixed together. During our hike up to Mount Tamana we stumbled upon a nutmeg tree and smelled the spiciness of the seed. We also found cocoa trees and split upon a mature yellow cocoa pod. We sucked on the seeds and sucked the sweet and tart white pulp off the seeds. Rhut loved them so much he held onto the pod and ate them while we hiked up. 

We also tried their street food. On our way back from Paria Bay we stopped by Maracas Bay to try the famous Bake and Shark- well Bake and Cheese for us vegetarians.  Unfortunately I was so excited and hungry, I forgot to take a picture. :-( Basically its a pita-like bread filled with raw cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, and an assortment of sauces you can pick. I added a sweet tamarind sauce, garlic sauce, and spicy hot pepper sauce to mine. It was AMAZING, I still think about it now and drool. I must find a way to make it here!

After our Mount Tamana hike, Emile took us to get traditional roti and a roti stall in St. James, the Edison Little India of Trinidad. The woman made the roti in front of us and filled it with a curried mashed potato mixture and a green pepper sauce. the aloo roti looks like a mini burrito but tastes oh so Indian. The roti is a mixture of rotlie and naan- soft and chewy.I ate one, while Rhut ate 1.75 - he kept eating until he couldn’t eat no more. 

Out last street food stop was after our Pitch Lake tour.We stopped at the South Oropouche junction to try the kachori, doubles, aloo pie, baigan, saheena, and Solo sodas. We were as gluttonous as anyone could get. The kachori was very different from the traditional kachori that I know of. Trinidad’s version of kachori is a hush puppy made of chicpea flour cut in half and filled with curried chickpea and various chutneys. The baigan was by far my favorite. Baigan is eggplant coated in chickpea flour and fried. I usually hate the texture of eggplant, but this was crispy and crunchy. Saheena reminded me of normal methi na bhajia- except instead of fenugreek leaves they use taro leaves (or dasheen as they call it). Once we were loaded with good food we left with our bellies protruding while we tried fighting off the itis as we drove back home. Rhut lost. 

All this food over the week cost us $15 US dollars for the both of us! Rhut and I were so surprised since most of the restaurants in Trinidad are SUPER expensive. We went to our hotel’s restaurant and were charged $304 TT Dollars (60 dollars) for just soup and pasta. The service was poor on top of that. I would suggest if you ever visit Trinidad, skip the restaurants and hit up the streets- it’s worth it. 

My new travel blog

Homemade “Ritz crackers”

I love simple recipes with simple ingredients. Crackers are that type of recipe. SUPER EASY and SUPER CHEAP. The crackers are sweet and salty and buttery and would be great with some chai or cheese. 

Cook time- 1 hour, Serves: creates 4 dozen crackers

1 cup of all purpose flour ( you can use whole wheat if you are trying to be super healthy)

3 tablespoons of cold butter- chopped

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 tablespoon of sugar

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/3 cup of water

1/4 teaspoon of salt

TOPPING:

1 1/2 tablespoon of butter

2 teaspoons of honey (optional)

2 teaspoons of salt ( plus or minus a few depending on your taste)

Preheat oven at 400 F

1. In a food processor- add flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and pulse once of twice to mix well

2. Add the butter and pulse a few times.

3. Add oil and pulse a few more times

3. Add water a little by little and pulse until a smooth dough ball forms

4. Roll out the dough as thin as you can - without it becoming translucent- and cut out your cracker shapes. I used a small baby cup to cut mine out, but you can use whatever you have handy. 

5. Place the cut out crackers on a lightly greased pan and bake until golden brown ( about 6-8 minutes)

6. While the crackers are baking- in a bowl add the butter, slat, and honey from the topping list and nuke it in the microwave for about 20 seconds. 

7. Once the crackers are done baking brush the melted butter mixture on the crackers and let them cool. 

Enjoy! They are delicious on their own or try them with various cheeses or teas. Plus its great for kids since there are no preservatives or unnecessary additives. 

Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu

I love South Indian food, but I don’t havea clue as to how to cook some of my favorite dishes. Dhosa and idli sambhar are a few dishes that  known to be from South India, but are also famous for being notoriously hard to make at home. Today I decided to start small and found a recipe off Sharmis Passions website. As usual I found I had a few missing ingredients and substituted them with other items. Enjoy!

Cooking time: 1 1/2 hr ,Serves: 4-6 people

Urundai

Toor dal  - 1 cup

Channa dal (Kadala paruppu) - 1/2 cup

Onion - 2 tbsp
Ginger paste - 1 tbsp

Garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Coconut grated(optional) - 3 tbsp

Dried red chillies - 4 (to remove some heat, remove a few seeds before hand if you want)

Fennel seeds - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Coconut Paste

Coconut - 1 cup

Big onion – 1 small chopped

Tomato – 1 small chopped

Sambhar/soup/Kuzhambu:

Oil - 4 tbsp

Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 2 tsp

Small Onion – chopped

Tomato - ½ small chopped

Curry leaves – 4-5 leaves

1 lime- squeeze

Small piece of jaggery (can be substituted with ½ tbsp of brown sugar)

Red chili powder- 2 tsp

Coriander powder- 2 tsp

Turmeric- 1 tsp

Salt to taste

1. Soak the toor dal and chana dal in warm water for 2-3 hours.

2. In a food processor add all the ingredients under the urundai section.  Blend well.

3. Make small balls with the urundai mixture and set aside.

4. In a sauce pan heat the oil. Add the mustard seed and wait for them to crackle and pop. Next add the fenugreek seeds, onion, curry leaves and tomato. Let this cook for 3-4 minutes. 

5. Add 5 cups of water to the saucepan along with the turmeric, red chili powder, coriander powder, jaggery, lime juice and salt. Let this come to a boil.

6. Once the water start boiling drop the urundai balls into the water slowly. DO NOT STIR!!! it will fall apart and you will have mush. 

7. Let the balls cook in simmering/boiling mixture for 5-10 minutes, the balls will start floating to the top when they are done. 

8. At this point add the coconut paste to the saucepan and gently stir. Let it simmer until the the gravy gets thick. Cool and enjoy! 

Vegetable Manchurian!

My boyfriend came over to visit this weekend and we decided to make something that I never ever attempted before. I have never made vegetable manchurian, I love it, but I never attempted to make it myself. So after hunting down various recipes, I decided the best thing was to mix up 4 different recipes I found into something I felt I would like. It turned out really good! My bf ended up eating about 6 Manchurian balls in one sitting and then had 2 more the next day for breakfast. It’s actually quite easy and has simple ingredients. Enjoy!

Cook time -1 hour Serves: 3-4 people

Veggie Balls

1/2 cabbage grated

1/2 onion grated

4 carrots grated

1 green chile pepper, grated/minced

3 teaspoons of salt

2 teaspoons of pepper

6 tablespoons of all purpose flour

2 tablespoons of corn starch

oil for frying

1. Mix the grated cabbage, onion,green chile pepper and carrots in the bowl.

2. Add the salt, pepper, flour, and cornstarch and mix well. 

3. Make 1 1/2 - 2 inch balls with the cabbage mixture using you hands. Make sure not to totally squeeze out all the water, otherwise it’ll be a really dense. 

4. Deep fry the balls until golden brown. ( I heated oil in a frying pan (1/2 inch of oil) and just stirred them around when the bottom side was done) 

Sauce

1/2 cup ketchup

sri racha to taste

3 tablespoons of soy sauce

1/2 tablespoon of sugar

1 cup of water

2 tablespoons grated ginger

1/4 onion minced

2 cloves of garlic minced

3 tablespoons of oil

1 tablespoon of cornstarch

1. In a bowl mix the ketchup, Sri racha, soy sauce, sugar, and water.

2. In a saucepan, heat the oil until hot and add the onions. After about 1 minute add the ginger and garlic. Mix for another minute.

3. Add the ketchup mixture to the pot and simmer for 2 minutes. 

4. In a separate cup mix about 2 tablespoons of water with the cornstarch and add to the sauce pan. Make sure you stir fast and quickly so that the cornstarch doesn’t turn into one giant lump! This will make the sauce thicker and into a glaze.

5. Now just serve the fired Manchurian balls with the sauce on top and enjoy! FYI it’s even better the next day! 

so pretty..wonder where i can find these….hmm

click on the picture to see a great sauce recipe to have with these pretty little pasta bowties..

craving fries so bad right now…they are my kryptonite…

(via -easilyamused)

PIZZZAAAA!

My mom is famous for her pizza. I have family member who come over specifically asking her to make pizza for dinner. In my kitchen I always end up being the prep chef, so I have seen her little secrets to a perfect crust. My parents actually had some of my pizza when they came over and loved it, so I know this recipe is a keeper for sure!

Pizza under an hour- it can be done! with the right ingredients that is :-) I use Fleischmann’s Pizza Crust Yeast . Just follow the directions on the back of the packet and you’re set. 

Cook time- 1 hour           Serves- 4 people ( makes one 12 inch thin crust pizza or one 9 inch thick crust pizza)

CRUST

1 packet Fleischmann’s Pizza Crust Yeast

1 3/4 c - 2 1/4 c of all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar

3/4 teaspoon of salt

2/3 cup of very warm tap water

3 tablespoons of oil ( I did 2 tbsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp of garlic oil)

1 tablespoon of dried oregano

Pizza Sauce

 1 can of diced tomatoes

1/4 tablespoon of dried oregano

3 teaspoons of garlic powder

1/4 tablespoon of dried basil

1/4 tablespoon of crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

1 teaspoon of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F

2. In a bowl mix 1 cup of flour, yeast, sugar, oregano and salt. 

3. Add water and oil and mix for 1 minute.

4. Add 1/2 cup of flour or more slowly to the mixture and knead until a smooth dough ball is formed. 

5. Knead for 4 minutes with floured hands. You know the dough is done when the sides of the bowl are clean because the dough has picked up all the flour. 

6. Grease a pizza pan or baking sheet with oil. I pour about 2 teaspoons onto the sheet and then spread it around with my fingers. Then i ball up a napkins and wipe the board with it so that there isn’t an excess of oil and that it is coated evenly. 

7. Using your hands press the dough into a 12 inch circle (thin crust) or 9 inch circle (thick crust). Make sure the dough is level and even.

8. In a blender add all of the pizza sauce ingredients and blend for 30 seconds. Pour the sauce onto the crust.

9. Add your toppings. I did the following:

a. sauce, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese, bell peppers and onions

b. sauce, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese, onions, spinach, and tomato slices. * my favorite one so far

10. Once you have added the toppings,brush olive oil along the edge of the pizza to get a nice crust. 

11. Bake in the oven on the bottom rack for 25-30 minutes. You can see it is done when you lift the pizza you have a even browning of the crust and all the cheese is nice and melty. 

ENJOY! Seriously so good, I am never ordering delivery again. 

Gnocchi (eggless)

My mother came to visit this weekend. That means an absurd amount of food has been given to me. I am now left with enough groceries to feed a family of four for 2 weeks. I received 15 potatoes…..I know….

As I am a huge fan of the starchy tuber, I figured I should probably try something new. I have had fried, baked,sauteed, boiled, mashed potatoes, which is pretty boring. Then I realized I have never made gnocchi. It seems like a pretty simple recipe, and it is. Once again minimal ingredients make the best food, at least in my opinion. 

Cook time- 2 hour Serves- 4 people

2 large potatoes

all purpose flour

1/2 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon of flavored or herbed olive oil (optional)

1. Boil the potatoes in salted water for 30 minutes.

2. Remove the potatoes and let them cool. 

3. Once they are cool, peel the potato skin off and then mash in a bowl with a fork. Make sure you “fluff” them with a fork after you are done mashing them. 

4. Add the salt and a little bit of flour (~ 1/4 cup) and start mixing with your hands. Add the flour little by little until you form a smooth un-sticky ball of dough. ( I added a tablespoon of garlic EVO to my mix to give it more flavor, you can do the same with other flavored oils or herbs. 

5. Drape a clean cloth over the dough and let it sit for 20 minutes. 

6. Roll portions of the the dough in to a 1/2 inch thick ropes. Lay the ropes down on a flour-dusted board. Cut each rope in to 1 inch nuggets of potato-y goodness :-) 

7. I rolled each gnocchi down a fork and curled them in half. To do this- gently push the gnocchi against the back of a fork and then curl the gnocchi over so that both ends meet. 

*****If you have more than you need, you can freeze them at this point for later like I did. IF you do decide to freeze the gnocchi, put them in an airtight container. When you recook them just boil until they float to the surface. 

7. Cook the gnocchi in boiling water until the float to the surface and remove them with a slotted spoon. (this takes less than a minutes so be quick) You will see the gnocchi puff up and it’ll be a little soft when you take it out. The gnocchi with firm more as it cools. 

I had some leftover homemade marinara sauce which I ate with the gnocchi, but you can do pesto, alfredo, or my favorite, Gorgonzola sauce. 

Enjoy!