Paneer + Lassi!

After yummy guacamole + mexican casserole night I watched cooking channel all day. I was going to order from bricklane, but decided that I should venture out at least once during the day, so I went to the store to pick up ingredients I would need to make Mango Lassi and Matar Paneer.

And the star of the show! Paneer. From whole foods. I didn't have time to go to curry hill to buy my groceries. You can make paneer from scratch, but I haven't done this since like 2004.

Fry away!
Frying the paneer. You can skip this step if you want to be healthier.

Browning the onions, garlic and ginger

Once the onions are browned, I threw in some diced tomatoes, the frozen peas, and garam masala

Simmering away

VOILA!

As if I couldn't get enough mango from my prior week...of course, back for more!

Adding some ground cardamom

Sweet and creamy and refreshing mango lassi!!

Matar Paneer, loosely adapted from Nigella Lawson (she measures in US metrics) and various recipes from Bawarchi (measures in foreign metrics and I don't know how to measure grams)

• Enough oil to lightly fry the paneer (should you choose to do so). Otherwise, enough oil to sautee the onions, garlic and ginger
• 8 ounces of paneer, cut into cubes
• 1/2 an onion, thinly diced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• Sliver of ginger - thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon garam masala (yikes - I don't know where to get this if your mom doesn't give you some. Whole Foods?)
• 1 package frozen peas
• 1 tomato, diced
• Handful of cilantro, chopped

Start by frying the paneer. Once all cubes are golden brown, let the "dry" on a plate covered with a paper towel.

Remove most of the oil, leaving just enough to sauté the ginger/garlic/onion. Once those are browned, add the tomatoes and peas. Let those all simmer till the peas are defrosted and warm. Top with paneer and chopped cilantro and mix to blend all. HOM NOM NOM

Mango Lassi adapted from Bal Arneson

• 1 whole mango, diced, the works, etc
• 1 cup yogurt
• ice cubes
• ground cardamom, to top the drink
• Sugar or agave nectar, if you want it

Blend mango, yogurt, ice cubes, and sugar in a blender. Pour into a glass, top with cardamom. HOM NOM NOM!

Guacamangocassa

I was in a guac mood, and Asmi and I were cooking dinner together. I threw out the idea of having a mexican food themed night. * pats self on back *

Hello, healthy shiny hair...

Mash-ups...

We go together like tequila and lime...or avocado and lime...

I bought a ton of cilantro, and it always ends up rotting in my fridge. I happened to find a cilantro plant at the farmer's market! So we will be replacing our dead rosemary with a fresh pot of cilantro. Hoorah!

And...VOILA! Guacamole to salivate over! So good!

Tortilla chips + guac! It was so good I had to make another batch Sunday night and tonight.

Asmi's mexican casserole. Best way to spend Friday night...EVER!

Guacamole, loosely adapted from both Elle Krieger and Rick Bayless' recipes from the cooking channel website.

• 2 Avocados
• 1 Onion
• 1 Tomato
• 1 Garlic Clove
• Fresh-Squeezed Lime Juice - from 1 wedge
• A handful of cilantro sprigs

Take the avocados and cut them into a bowl. Dice up the tomatoes, onions and garlic clove and mix them in with the avocados. Squeeze the lime juice over the bowl. Mash everything up together. Chop up some cilantro, and add it to the top of the bowl, and mix it in for a final mash.

mango-palooza

Lavina and I decided to go mango crazy. Well, I wanted to make passion fruit ice cream, but for some reason Whole Foods doesn't have passion fruit pulp. Boo hoo hoo :( I'll try China Town next time.

I took my strawberry fro-yo recipe and just replaced mangos into the recipe. HOM.

In America, we only get the reject mangos. I actually don't even like mangos in America. I was pleasantly shocked during my first trip to India in which all mangos I ate were delicious (also refer to Sanjay's tribute to mangos). Asmi later told me that I should try all kinds of varieties and figure out which one is best for this summer treat. I am on a mission now! (after I find the passion fruit).

I'm making frozen mango lassi ice cream! yippee!

Blend away...

VOILA!! Mango frozen yogurt

Now, time for some healthy stuff....Mango Slaw, courtesy of smitten kitchen

Our masterpiece...

Time to eat! nom nom nom

Mango Frozen Yogurt, adapted from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, for Strawberry Fro-Yo:

• 1 bag of frozen mango chunks (or, you can use fresh mango, but this is what I chose to use). This substituted the 1 pound of fresh strawberries from The Perfect Scoop
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 cup plain yogurt (I used fage 0% to make this "healthier")
• 1 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Mango Slaw:

• 2 mangos, peeled, pitted and julienned
• 1-1 1/4 pound napa cabbage (trader joe's is great and has a bag of pre-shredded cabbage. This will be more than you need so you can save it for something else)
• 1 red bell pepper, julienned
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 6 tablespoons of fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp. oil
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (or to taste)
• 1/4 tsp. thinly sliced fresh mint leaves (yay for our herb garden)
• 1/4 cup toasted cashews (coarsely chopped)*

*Lavina picked up some fabulous thai-lime spiced cashews from Trader Joe's, which we used instead. It was a great substitution!

Chocolate-Coconut Sorbet

The girls were coming over for some wine, cheese and SORBET. I think that chocolate-coconut sorbet was a good choice.

Bitersweet chocolate:

The Final:

The recipe is from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

pinch of salt

8 ounces of bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

2 cups Thai coconut milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

The texture of the ice cream was somewhat grainy, but still delicious, and pretty light. Perfect for summer! cin cin...

Bunny Chow*

Below is a photographic adventure of the food I ate while in South Africa and Namibia

The first meal in Africa - at Africa Cafe. Essentially, our waitress brought us out 8 different dishes from various regions in Africa. Some were delicious (Tanzanian Mango Chicken). Others not so much (The dish in the center). The waitresses also performed a traditional dance while we were eating. fun!

Dinner at the Codfather after a long hike at Table Mountain. Delicious prawns for Mozambique!

Springbok loin + pasta on my wine tour. SO YUM.

Mai and "simba chips"

A feast in the desert. This meal included vegetable stew, orix (a type of antelope), chicken and bread.

Passion fruit mousse.

A very delicious candy bar that Mai gave me. It sure did hold me over on our 4 hour car ride!

A pink & white cookie from a german bakery

Some kind of mousse...

Beautiful bbq ribs at Belthazar in Cape Town

Ostrich steak....oh...so good....yum...drooling....

At the airport in Amsterdam...I had some mini-waffles. Farewell, lovely vacation!

*Bunny chow is a South African dish in which a bread is hollowed out (like a bread bowl) and filled with chicken curry