Sabich (Israeli Vegetarian Sandwich) for #Food of the World

We are visiting the beautiful Middle Eastern country of Israel for this month's Food of the World event. Israeli cuisine includes local dishes by native Israelis and the Jewish dishes brought in by the Jews from the Diaspora. One of the most popular Israeli dish, Shashuka (eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce) was my fist pick for today, but then I saw this mouth watering Sabich sandwich on Serious Eats and it looked too good to pass up.

Sabich is an Israeli street food. It is supposed to be influenced from Iraqi Jewish immigrants. The Israelis took a traditional Iraqi breakfast spread of fried eggplants, boiled eggs etc and put it in a pita and made into a trendy delicacy.

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Ful Medames

Buffet on Table: Breakfasts across Countries

Day 23: Middle East - Ful Medames

For the final day of this week's 'Buffet on Table -- Breakfasts', I have a Middle Eastern staple breakfast called Ful Medames or Foul Medammes. The name sure sounds strange, but it is a hearty and filling dish made with dried fava beans soft simmered with garlic and served with lemon and chopped herbs.

This dish has been on my to-make list for a very long time. I think I saw it for the first time on Vaishali's blog when she made the elaborate Egyptian breakfast last September. I was intrigued by the new bean and wanted to give it a try, it took me almost a year to make the dish.

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Classic Hummus

I love hummus. I use it as a spread on sandwiches, wraps and even made a bread with it. But never made hummus myself at home -- I wonder why!! All it needs is 2 main ingredients -- chickpeas and tahini and that's all you need to make this creamy and delicious dip.
Hummus is known as the poor man's food in the Middle East and it is a versatile dish. It can be served as a snack or with any meal of the day -- it is served for breakfast for Israel. It is an easy and delicious way to add protein to the diet.

This recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine. The recipe is a little unusual in that it uses warm chickpeas -- the author says the heat helps cut the garlic's acidity. It is best to make the hummus from scratch using dried chickpeas (instructions on how to cook chickpeas from scratch are included at the end of the post).

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Roasted Cauliflower & Rice Bowl

Blogging Marathon# 55: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Healthy Family Dinners

Dish: Roasted Cauliflower with Ras el Hanout & Rice Bowl

My theme for he first week of this month's blogging marathon is 'Healthy Family Dinners'. Ever since I signed up for this theme, I have been thinking what 'healthy' actually means. It has become such a subjective matter. what I think as healthy may not be really that healthy.
For example, recently I read somewhere that broccoli has to be eaten as fresh as possible and if it is stored in the refrigerator, it loses its nutrients. So if I cook something with broccoli after about 4~5 days from buying, does that mean it's not healthy or nutritious anymore? The more articles I read on this, the more confused and clueless I keep getting. So, I've decided not to worry about it too much -- I try to cook with fresh ingredients and keep processed foods to the minimum.

So for the next 3 days, I'm going to post 'healthy' dinners that taste good and are enjoyed by the whole family. Roasted cauliflower is my newest favorite and with all the amazing health benefits it has, cauliflower is sure a superfood. Roasting makes it so much more delicious and in this recipe, cauliflower is roasted with tahini and a Moroccan spice powder called Ras el Hanout. It is a very flavorful dish and I served it with some brown rice and veggies.

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Qatar -- Motabel (Smokey Eggplant & Tahini dip)

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: Q for Qatar

Dish: Motabel (Smokey Eggplant & Tahini dip)

We are going to Qatar today because from the little I know there are no more countries that start with Q :-) Qatar is a sorerign Arab country located in Western Asia. It is world's richest country per capita due to the presence of large natural gas reserves and oil reserves.
Qatari cuisine is very similar to other Middle eastern countries. I picked a eggplant dip recipe from Qatar. It seems like some version of eggplant dip is present in all of the Mediterranean cuisines. Motabel/ Moutabel is almost like Baba ghanoush with smokey roasted eggplant as the main ingredient.

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Chickpea & Vegetable Salad with Yogurt Tahini Dressing

Blogging Marathon# 26: Week 2/ Day 1
Theme: Soups & Salads
Dish: Protein Based - Chickpea Salad

We are onto our 2nd week of marathon for this month. My theme for this week is "Soups & Salads" and to add interest and make the theme a little more challenging, Valli wants us to make soups & salads that use one star ingredient for each dish. Today's dish has a "Chickpeas" as the star protein rich ingredient.

I picked this theme because with my husband travelling on business for the past couple weeks I've been cooking for just myself. Salads fit right in since making a single serving salad is much easier than cooking something. 

This salad is full of fresh crunchy vegetables and fruits and the dressing is yogurt & tahini (ground sesame paste) based. I love adding sweetness to my salads in the form of fresh or dry fruits. Blueberries, sliced strawberries, chopped apples, pears, grapes are great in salads and so are dried cranberries, raisins and other not too sweet dry fruits.

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Brown Rice - Vegetable Bowl with Tahini Dressing

We start the 4th and last week of Blogging marathon for this month today. My theme for this week is "Calcium Rich Foods". Here's some information to know about Calcium intake.

Calcium is the most vital mineral for strong bones. It is also essential for blood clotting, muscle contraction, and nerve function. If we don't take in enough calcium, our body uses the calcium reserves in our bones to supply the muscles, heart and nerves. So it's important that we take the required daily dosage of calcium -- milk and other dairy provide over 50% of dietary calcium, it is also found in beans and legumes, some green vegetables, such as spinach and broccoli, and nuts and fruit.

Vitamin D is vital for proper absorption of calcium and produced when the skin is exposed to sunlight. About 15-20 minutes of sunlight a day on the face and arms during the summer months enables the body to store enough vitamin D to last the rest of the year. 

High intake of protein and sodium (salt) increases the excretion of calcium in the urine. Also high intakes of caffeine can reduce the absorption of calcium. 

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Indian Dinner in 30minutes

So now don’t expect to see a whole spread of Indian dishes made from scratch in 30 minutes. That’s not going to happen, it probably will happen in your kitchen, but not in mine. I had to take some short-cuts to make 3 dishes in 30 minutes. Bear with me, this is going to be a long post (I know it's kind of ironic that I've a long post for a quick meal).

I used to watch Rachael Ray’s “30 minute meals” very religiously few years ago. When I tried to make the same dish at home, it used to take more than 30 minutes and I wondered if Rachael was even for real.

Keeping with the theme of “30 minute meals” for blogging marathon, I wanted to challenge myself to make a typical south Indian meal with rice, rasam (pappu chaaru) and curry in 30 minutes. I used frozen toor dal (from past weekend) and store-bought roasted unsalted peanuts to make the gravy for the curry. To tell you the truth, 30 minutes whizzed past pretty fast and if I didn’t have my eyes on the clock and rushed around the kitchen like a mad woman, it might have taken a little longer.

Here’s how dinner was made in 30minutes:

6:40-6:45PM: Washed rice in a pressure cooker and left it to soak for 10 minutes. Heated a sauce pan (for rasam) and sauté pan for the curry on medium-high heat. Cut 2 red onions & 3 green chilies (need twice, chop once).

6:45 – 6:50: Added 2tsp oil to both the heated pans; added tempering (fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves, dry red chilies & hing) in the saucepan for dal and let it splutter. Added half of the onions to the curry pan and sautéed the onions with ginger+garlic paste until onions were browned around the edges (about 3-5minutes). Added the remaining half of the chopped onions to the dal pan and cooked until they turned translucent (about 3 minutes).

6:50 – 6:55: Zapped the frozen dal for 2 minutes in the microwave. Chopped 15 mini-bell peppers and 2 ripe tomatoes. Started pressure cooking rice. Once the onions for the curry were done, removed them into blender jar and set aside. Heated 1 tbsp oil in the same pan; added mustard & cumin seeds and after they spluttered, added the peppers, covered the pan and allowed to soften.

6:55-7:00: Onions for the dal were ready by this time, so added the tomatoes; covered and cooked them for 3 minutes. Next added rasam powder, salt, brown sugar, tamarind paste, cooked dal along with 2 cups of water. Left it to simmer on medium flame. To the cooked onions in the blender jar, added roasted peanuts, bagara baingan masala (store-bought), red chili powder, ground cumin, brown sugar, salt, tamarind paste and tahini and blended them into a smooth paste with 1-2cups of water.

7:00 – 7:05: Added the peanut paste into the pepper mixture, seasoned with some salt; covered the pan and left it to simmer on medium flame. The cooker had whistled once already.

7:07: Second whistle and the rice was done.

7:08: Rasam simmered long enough, turned that off.

7:10: Curry simmered long enough and the peppers were tender but a little crisp, turned that off.

The next 15 minutes were spent in cleaning up the mess and some dirty dishes. By 7:30 we were ready to have dinner. Now for the recipes in a more leisurely pace.

Pappu chaaru (Rasam with dal)
Ingredients:
Dal – 1 cup, cooked
Onion – 1 medium, thinly sliced
Green chilies – 3, slit vertically
Rasam powder – 2tsp
Red chili powder – ½ tsp
Tamarind paste* – 2tsp (see note 1 below)
Jaggery (or Brown sugar) – 1tsp (or to taste)
Turmeric – ½ tsp
Salt – to taste

Tempering:
Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tsp
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Dry Red chilies – 2
Hing – pinch
Curry leaves - 6

Method:

• Heat 2tsp oil in a medium sauce pan. Add the tempering ingredients and once the seeds start to splutter, add onions and green chilies and sauté until onions turn translucent, about 3 minutes.
• Next add chopped tomatoes and turmeric; cover and cook until tomatoes are cooked and turn into mush, another 3 minutes.
• Then add rasam powder, red chili powder, brown sugar, tamarind paste, cooked dal and salt along with 2 cups of water.
• Bring to a simmer on medium-high heat; lower heat to medium and simmer until all the flavors combine, about 10 minutes. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Mini Peppers in Peanut Gravy This dish is a 30 minute spin off on the very famous Hyderabadi mirch ka salan and bagara baingan.

Ingredients:

Mini Sweet Peppers – 15, chopped

Red onion – 1 large, chopped

Ginger+garlic paste – ½ tsp

Roasted peanuts (preferably unsalted) – ¼ cup

Bagara Baingan masala powder (or garam masala) – 1tsp

Red chili powder – ½ tsp

Jaggery (brown sugar) – 1tsp (or to taste)

Tamarind paste* - 1tsp (see Note 1 below)

Ground cumin – ½ tsp

Tahini (Ground sesame seeds paste)** – 2tsp (see Note 2 below)

Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

Salt – to taste

Method:

• Heat 2tsp oil in a sauté pan; add onions and sauté on medium-high heat stirring frequently until browned around the edges, about 3-5 minutes.
• Add ginger+garlic paste and cook for 1 minute.
• Remove onions from the pan; heat 1tbsp oil in the same pan; add mustard & cumin seeds and once they start to splutter, add the chopped peppers; cover and cook until half way cooked through, about 5-8 minutes.
• In the meantime make the peanut gravy, to the onions, add peanuts, tahini, masala powders, salt, tamarind paste and brown sugar and blend into a smooth paste with 1-2 cups of water.
• Add the gravy to the peppers, cover and cook until peppers are tender, about 6-8 minutes.

Note1 : Tamarind Paste - I make tamarind paste at home with tamarind that my mom sends me from India. Take about 2 cups of tamarind with 2 cups of water in a saucepan, bring the mixture to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool. Then blend it up into a smooth paste. If you have time and energy, use a strainer to take out the strings so the paste is really smooth. Use as needed.

Note 2 - I recently found that I can add tahini to gravies instead of making my own roasted ground sesame powder. Both of them are basically the same but tahini has some oil in it and is a liquid. If you don’t have tahini, then add some roasted sesame seeds to the peanuts when grinding.

Lets see what my fellow marathoners have cooked up for the 6th day of our 7 day marathon:

30 Minutes Meals:

Priya Mahadevan

Seven Days of Salad:
lla
Divya Vikram

For Ongoing 7 Events:
Priya Suresh
Harini
Suma Gandlur

Kids Friendly:
Vatsala
Jay
Kamalika

Seven Days of Rice:
Veena Krishnakumar
Priya Vaasu
Padma Rekha