Roz Ka Khana

I love technology! I just love, love the fact that I now have lunchbox and recipe ideas at my fingertips, literally. Yes I am officially an app junkie!

So I was debating what to pack for Nikhil’s lunchbox last night. A quick run through the crisper gave me the following ingredients: half a head of broccoli, a quarter cut green bell pepper, some baby carrots and some scallions. Like many other app junkies, I’ve downloaded more apps on my Ipad/Iphone than I use them. Most of them were purely because I love to read the “top 10 best apps” articles on all the daily tech feeds out there…and download them just because:)

I’d read so much about the Epicurious app and hadn’t really put it to its test. So I got back 36 recipes for noodles with the ingredients. Of course it helped that Nikhil also contributed to this recipe search and added noodles to the ingredients. Basically, half the battle is having your child pick what he or she wants for lunch …did I really need an app for that? Of course I did.

We picked the first recipe…Peanut Sesame Noodles which asked for a few more ingredients from my pantry and which, thankfully I had in stock. I chopped the veggies last night and cooked the noodles and mixed the sauce this morning. I didn’t make it cold the way the recipe suggested but heated the sauce for about 1-2 minutes (not more) and garnished with lots of cilantro. Nikhil loved it..I know this already because he couldn’t stop eating it this morning and wanted it for breakfast:) Hopefully it lasts through lunchtime.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup warm water
• 2 tablespoons chopped peeled fresh ginger
• 1 medium garlic clove, chopped
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Asian sesame oil (I used regular sesame oil available in Indian stores but I’m sure the Asian sesame adds to the flavor)
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
• I tsp Sambal sauce or any red chili sauce (this was not in the original recipe and you could omit if you dont want to the noodles to get too spicy)

• 3/4 lb dried linguine fini or Haka noodles (I used Haka Instant Noodles)
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips (you may use red or yellow bell pepper as well)
• 2 tbsp grated carrots or julienne cut
• 1/2 cup broccoli florets

Method:

A very Happy New Year to all. I know this is a belated wish as with most of my recent posts. I’m not going to start this year with another resolution like last January….resolutions are jinxed, at least mine seem to be:).
Amidst the pick ups and drop offs from school, work and back, its been chaotic. But there is always time for food, lunch box food and otherwise. I try hard to not compromise on that. Its just writing it all down that I find it hard to keep up with. Trust me, I’m trying to get better at it, so hopefully 2011 will be a better year for RKK.

I had not personally tasted Kothu Parotta as it is dished out in the streets of South India, Chennai and south of it. Girish told me about it as he remembers eating it while in college in Chidambaram at the Railway Station. So when our local Indian restaurant (the same one that had Pondicherry Masala Dosa on thier menu) had this on thier menu, we had to venture out to try it. That was my first taste of Kothu Parotta, probably not close to the authentic street food version, but enough to tantalise my taste buds and try it for myself. A search online led me to Kanchana’s blog “Married to a Desi“, where she tastefully recounts her connection to India after being Married to a Desi, that is. I used regular wheat chapathis here but as she specifies, layered parottas or flaky flat bread will add to the aunthentic taste. I followed her recipe for the most part, and Nikhil loved it for lunch. I added some cucumber
raita as an accompaniment and to cool it down a bit (we like our food spicy if you haven’t figured it out with the extra green chilies in the recipe:)
Ingredients:

• 2-4 leftover or store bought parottas torn into pieces (if using store bought, use the Malaysian parathas or any parathas with layers)
• 1 large tomato chopped or 2 small tomatoes
• 1 red onion chopped
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp pav bhaji masala
• 3 Thai green chili minced
• 1″ piece ginger minced
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 egg beaten (optional)

Method:

Saute the green chilies, ginger, and then onions in oil. Add the turmeric, and chili powder.

Add the tomatoes and cook them until they get mushy. You may also add the salt to make it a little pasty. Add the beaten egg now and mix well till it resembles a scrambled mixture (this step is completely optional as the parotta tastes great even without eggs) Add the pav bhaji masala, and then the parotta and mix. Garnish with cilantro. Serve with a squeeze of lime, and cucumber or onion raitha.

Nupur from One Hot Stove was my inspiration to try this out for Lunchbox Series this morning. Nikhil is not a huge fan of Egg Salad Sandwich so thought I would give this a try. He has acquired some “desi” tastebuds from both Girish and I so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this lunchbox will come back empty and eaten, of course:) I thought it was a brilliant idea by Nupur to Indian-ise this lunchbox staple with the paprika, cilantro and “kitchen king” masala.

Ingredients:

5 hard-boiled eggs (I use a color-changing egg-timer for perfectly boiled eggs, that I bought at Bed Bath and Beyond, but you can find this in many home/kitchen specialty stores)

1 small chopped yellow onion

1 small tomato, chopped

1/2 tsp crushed green chilies (I use thai chilies but you can also use jalapenos)

1/4 tsp crushed garlic

1/4 tsp crushed ginger

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 tsp red chili powder

1/4 tsp kitchen king masala (available in Indian grocery stores)

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp mayo

1 tsp spicy brown mustard

1- 1 1/2 tsp oil

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Peel the eggs and chop into small chunks.

2. Heat the oil in a pan and add the chopped onions.

3. When onions become transluscent, add the crushed ginger, garlic and green chilies.

4. Add turmeric, red chili powder, kitchen king masala and salt to taste.

5. Saute for a few minutes and then add the chopped tomatoes. Cook till the mixture is a little dry.

6. Cool the mixture and add this to the chopped boiled eggs.

7. Add the mayo and mustard and mix well. Add chopped cilantro.

8. You may also add a dash of red chili powder for additional color.

9. This egg salad will taste great in pita bread or pita pockets. I used bread this morning but will suggest toasting the bread a little and adding a lettuce leaf to the bread slices to prevent them from getting soggy by lunchtime. I used red cabbage today but only because I didn’t have all the ingredients.

This is a follow up to the recipe from yesterday on the Asparagus Soup. I served this sandwich along with the soup for lunch. Once again, this is inspired from Vegetarian Times, with a few changes. I didn’t use French baguettes but whole wheat subs. Also, I used regular cream cheese (not the vegan kind) and radish instead of radicchio and sweet and hot roasted red peppers, for some kick.

Ingredients:

• 1 8-oz. container cream cheese, softened
• 17-oz. jar roasted red peppers, drained well, finely chopped
• 3 Tbs. finely minced onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced (1 tsp.)
• 2 18-inch whole wheat subs
• 3/4 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
• 12 romaine lettuce leaves
• 2 cups thinly sliced radish

1. Mix the roasted red peppers, cream cheese, onion, and garlic in bowl.

2. Halve each sub lengthwise. Tear out some of center from bread to make space for fillings.

3. Spread cream cheese mixture on bottom halves of bread. Top with cucumber, lettuce, and radicchio, and cover with top half of bread. 

The verdict: The sandwich turned out a little too sweet for Girish and Nikhil’s liking. I think it was because I used the sweet and hot red peppers instead of the regular roasted pepper. Will I try this again for a lunch box recipe? Of course, but with the right kind of red pepper this time!

I’ve tried almost all the frozen vegetable burgers available in grocery stores here..Morningstar Farms, Boca, Amy’s, but none come close to the “veggie patty” burger that I was used to growing up.  I’ve also realized that one reason why most hamburger eaters think that veggie burgers are “gross” is probably cos they are. They are often dry, hard as a rock, with processed fake meats holding them together. Most of the brands I mentioned above were staple when I was in school here, only because I didn’t have the time to look for anything different or make one from scratch and were my only go-by for a meatless option, hard to find in most college town fast food joints.

Veggie burgers are a pretty common feature in the Indian fast food restaurant menus and one of my favorite food growing up, so it was no wonder that I was looking for a similar texture and taste in the frozen section. Amy’s California burger came close to the taste …at least it didnt have the heavy soy taste that the others did. But it didn’t pass the lunchbox test. The dryness came back once the burger cooled. I tried making my own, and that worked, but again, making a whole batch of them to use in lunches was a lot of work, so the quest for that perfect frozen burger was still on. And then I found one in Costco. It was recommended to me by a friend when we had a veggie barbecue party at home, and was such a hit, that it’s been staple in my refrigerator ever since. Carrots, bell peppers, potatoes and other veggies make up this burger, and it’s best served grilled. Manufactured by Don Lee Farms, they have a range of meat and meat free products. The best part is, that it doesn’t dry out, probably because it’s thinner, uses vegetables as the biding agent, and doesn’t have the fake meat.

Nikhil, my 7 year old food critic loved it too, so it made it’s way into his laptop lunch, of course! Grilled veggie patty, served on a wheat kaiser roll, with organic hummus,  lettuce, swiss cheese , onion and tomato make this a very wholesome lunchbox staple. Add a banana, some salad greens and yoghurt and you have a nutritous and wholesome lunch.

No..I don’t really have any excuses for my long silence. Call it a mix of emotions, the elation after the November election results or the shock and utter disbelief at the attrocities of the Mumbai massacre, November was an emotionally draining month. Enough to get one out of a writer’s block, but not so in my case. I have about 4 “drafts” in my blog dashboard that are begging to be finished, but unfortunately may remain drafts until something else inspires me to finish them. The good news is that while I couldn’t get myself to write, I continued to experiment with food, both the cooking and the tasting of it:) That was my way of battling the depressing news outside…my distraction.  

The one thing that I did do religiously everyday…to fuel my Roz Ka Khana (everyday food) was experiment with Nikhil’s lunch, of course, and add to the Lunchbox series that I started a while back. All in draft mode! So here is the second of the daily lunchbox musings…inspired by none other than Chipotle!

The burritos at Chipotle are a favorite in my family and beat all other Mexican fast food eateries hands down, so it was no wonder this became Nikhil’s favorite lunchbox item.

Burritos always remind me of the time when I first came to this country and started attending school in Illinois. I was just a week old on the University of Illinois campus and was just starting to explore the places to hang out or just eat a decent meal. I missed home, and my roomies were still warming up to me, so eating at home wasn’t always an option, especially since the groceries weren’t all mine anyway! I was starting to get tired of eating the “cheeseburger with no meat” at MickeyD’s…it just wasn’t the same as eating the vegetable cheese burger at Universal’s in Hyderabad! 

And so it was on a billboard on Green Street that I spotted this sign that read “Burritos as big as your head” with a guy sporting a burrito on his head like a sombrero. I’d heard from other Indian friends that the cuisine was similar to Indian cuisine…the rice and beans reminded one of rajma chawal (rice and red kidney beans curry) and the tortillas were similar to chapathis (Indian bread) but I had actually never eaten a burrito before.

And so I found myself at La Bamba restaurant to get my first taste of this “chapathi-rajma” combo. Only to realize that they weren’t joking when they said “as big as my head”. I was asked to choose my fixings and being quite ignorant, I added everything that was meatless in there. The result was this humungous burrito almost bursting at the seams from having an overdose of ingredients. One bite into it and I gagged. There were 2 kinds of beans (didn’t know I needed to choose only one), guacamole, extra cheese , sour cream, lettuce, salsa and the rice….the spanish rice I had this taste I definitely didn’t like very much.  Or it was just my gluttony attempt at stuffing more than 5 ingredients into a simple, soft tortilla and probably overstimulating my senses.

Anyway, that experience made me wary of the huge burritos and I lived on Taco Bell’s Bean and cheese burrito for the next year in school, always steering clear of the rice. When Chipotle opened in my neighborhood, I experimented with rice again only because it looked different from the spanish rice. It somehow reminded me of the Indian lemon rice and needless to say, I’ve been hooked to Chipotle since. I suppose it makes you think that the Indian-ness to the dish is probably what makes me like it so much? Probably so…and did I mention the spice?

This recipe was an attempt to mimic the Chipotle experience at home, maybe a tad Indian-ised with the tomato chutney/salsa added to it instead of the Chipotle salsa, but I think the overall flavor was not far off at all. As I said earlier, it is a staple lunch menu at my house, so is an addition to the Lunchbox series…I have also tried it with an even more Indianised tomato chutney and the taste gets even better according to me.

Chipotle style Cilantro and Lime rice

Ingredients:
1 tsp butter
2 tsp chopped cialntro
2/3 cup white basmati rice
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1 lime

Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add rice and lime juice, stir for 1 minute.Transfer to a rice cooker. Add water and salt and cook till done. Add in the cilantro and fluff rice with a fork.

Black beans:

Canned or washed and boiled black beans – 1 can or 1 cup beans

2 tbsp salsa

Garam Masala (optional)

1. Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a saucepan. Add the salsa to the hot oil and the garam masala and heat till it starts to boil lightly.

2. Add the black beans, mix well and cook for about 3-5 minutes.

The Burritos:

1. Take a flour tortilla. Add some chopped lettuce, the lime rice, salsa, black beans, sour cream and shredded Monterey Jack cheese. Add fillings, lengthwise.

Layer the contents down the center of the tortilla, lengthwise. If you’re using a 12 inch large tortilla, the filling can be up to 4 inches wide and approximately 7 inches long. Leave at least 4 inches on the bottom end of the filling.

2. First Fold.
Fold the short end of the tortilla up. This keeps the contents from spilling out from the bottom.

3. Second Fold.
Fold one of the long sides over the top of the filling. Place your fingers perpendicular across the fold, cup the tortilla over the filling and push the edge against the filling to make sure the fold is tight.

 4. Third fold.
Wrap the remaining long end over both folds.

I packed the burrito with some sour cream or salsa for dipping, or a mix of sour cream and salsa as a dip. Sliced peach, yoghurt and a leftover brownie cake for dessert makes for a hearty lunch, don’t you agree?

When my son started public school, I discovered something about myself that I didn’t know before. I actually enjoyed packing his lunches! I liked to plan out a weekly menu for him just like his school calendar, scour the various blogs and sites for back-to-school lunch ideas and yes, also make his lunch look colorful enough for him to want to eat it! It felt very satisfying to pack greens, nuts, veggies, fruits and grains and get a lunch review from him every day. On most days the lunches come back empty, and on some, there are a few half eaten bites. The rule is to leave everything in the box so I can keep track of what he is eating every day.

I tried to be a little more creative than packing mac n cheese and PBJ and being vegetarian, I also had to ensure there was enough protein and fibre in his lunches. And so began the search for a lunch box that would go beyond the basic brown bag. Laptop Lunches did the needful for me! The simple, colorful, plastic containers were just what I needed to get my creative juices flowing and make those lunches look edible too. What follows is a series of some lunch ideas for your school goer…and it works for those work lunch totes too.

Sprouts and Potato Sandwich

Ingredients:

Moong Sprouts – 1/2 cup

Potatoes – boiled and mashed – 2

Whole wheat bread – 4-6 slices

Chaat masala – 1 tsp

Onion, chopped – 1 medium

Green chilies – 1, finely chopped

1. You can prepare the filling the night before. Boil and mash the potatoes, add the onion, green chilies, chaat masala, salt to taste. Mix well.

2. The next morning, preheat the sandwich maker. Butter each slice of bread, add the filling in between, and toast the bread till golden.

Note: You can also add green chutney to this mixture before you add the filling to the buttered slices. Adds some spice to it, so this may be an option for the grown up lunches.

To pack Nikhil’s lunch, I used a kitchen shear to cut the sandwich into smaller triangles, and added orange wedges and yoghurt to make it a filling laptop lunch!