Mung Sprout Salad

 

Why does a massacre have to take place every time before the world decides to take action?   Why do we wait for genocide before we take a stand against it?  Syria has been an issue for the past months.  We know that there has been shelling and killing of innocent victims.  We know that the UN has been helpless in breaking the cycle of violence there.  We have seen endless reports on the brutality of the regime and the helplessness of its people.  Then why did the massacre of Houla have to claim the lives of more than a 100 men, women and children before the leaders of our nations decided to take some action – small action – albeit some action.

Syrian diplomats have been asked to leave in several countries to show outrage over the Houla massacre.  Ties now have been completely cut off with Syria.  When I am upset with my children for misbehaving or bringing home bad results, I cut off ties with them for a day or two – things just get worse.  They rebel; they test the limits even more.  Through dialogue and encouragement things work differently.  I do hope the Syrian regime is not like my children.  I do hope they do not test the limits they can go to with their atrocities now that the world has decided to cut them off.  

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

2 cups Mung sprouts

1 medium white onion

2 medium red and firm tomatoes

½ cup coriander leaves

1 green chili

1 cup potatoes, boiled and cubed
1 firm ripe mango
2 tablespoons roasted groundnuts/peanuts

1 tablespoon orange juice

3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste

Method:

1. You can make 2 cups of mung sprouts by washing and soaking 1 cup mung bean overnight.  Wash and tie in a fine muslin cloth the beans and keep in a dark place for about 8 hours.  Occasionally sprinkle with water to keep the cloth damp.  For longer sprouts, leave for another 2 to 4 hours. 
2. Chop onions, tomatoes, chilies and coriander finely and keep aside.   
3. Chop mango into small cubes and mix with the vegetables gently.
4. In a bowl, whisk together the orange juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.   
5. Add the dressing to the onion mixture.
6. Stir in the potatoes and groundnuts and garnish with coriander leaves before serving.

 

Baked Spinach with Spaghetti

Sometimes before my children even finish their breakfast, they are already inquiring about what’s there for lunch or dinner.  Before today has even started, they want to know what is going to be done for the weekend.  If they were good planners or strategists, I could understand them asking these questions.  But they are just 14 and 10 years old – why do they have to know what even I sometimes have not bothered to think through.  Why not enjoy what’s in the moment?

A lot of information is available at our fingertips these days.  I put on my digital television and have the program schedule for over 100 channels for the next week in seconds.  I log on to my internet provider and I can see how much my internet usage has been over the past days, how much I need to pay them for my bills and all the upgrades I can get if I just agree to pay them a few euros more.  I log on to a news website, and all articles I might find interesting are suggested to me based on my past reading statistics.  Are we getting overloaded with information?  Do surprises scare us?

Preparation Time: 45 minutes

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

800 grams Spaghetti or Fettuccine

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups milk

4 tablespoons cheddar cheese, grated

1 teaspoon black pepper powder

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 eggs

1 cup dried soya

500 grams spinach

1 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Salt to taste

Method:

1. If the soya pieces are not pre cooked, wash and soak them in water for 20 minutes.  Squeeze out the water and keep aside.  
2. Wash and drain the spinach leaves.  In a big vessel, blanch the spinach.  Drain the water and cut roughly and keep aside.  
3. Heat the butter in a pan and add the flour and stirring continually.  When a nice aroma comes, add the milk gradually still stirring.  
4. When the sauce thickens, add the cheddar cheese, salt, pepper and the cayenne pepper.  
5. As soon as the cheese has melted, add the eggs and beat them in the sauce.  
6. Now add the blanched and drained spinach and soya pieces.  Mix well. Put off the flame and keep aside. 
7. Cook the spaghetti according to the package instructions.  From the pictures you can see that I have used fettuccine which takes lesser time to cook than spaghetti.  Drain and keep aside.  
8. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.  Oil a baking tray and add the spinach sauce and spaghetti. Mix well.  Garnish with parmesan cheese and put in oven for 15 minutes.  This can be served warm or cold.
   

 

Black Chickpeas & Rice

I came across a very interesting quote today:

“The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people!”  - Napoleon

I genuinely believe that the world is filled with good people.  There are very few people who commit bad deeds.  But the overwhelming majority is the good people – people like you and me.  Then if people like you and me is the majority and we wince every time we see what is happening in Syria or want to take action to save the millions in Sudan or know we are heading towards environmental catastrophe with the way we are abusing our natural resources – is it you and me to blame for the suffering of the world because we choose to keep silent and “go along” with what is happening?  When did the minority become stronger?  Were we not always told that good prevails over evil?

What can I, an individual entity, do to change the state of affairs of the world?  What can I do to stop injustice?  How can you and I get to break the silence of the good people to stop the violence of the bad? 

Preparation Time: 45 minutes

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

2 cups black chickpeas (kala channa)

2 cups basmati rice

1 big yellow onion

1 green chili

1 teaspoon dried mango powder

2" piece cinnamon

3 cardamoms

6 cloves

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

100 grams tomato puree

3 cups hot water

1 tablespoon corn oil

2 tablespoons coriander leaves

Method:

1. Soak the chickpeas for 12 hours in water.  Now pressure cook this with 1 cup water for 20 minutes.  Keep aside.  
2. Wash and soak rice in warm water for 15 minutes.  
3. Chop onions and slit the chili and keep aside.  
4. Heat oil in a vessel and when hot, add the cumin seeds, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves.  Now add the onions and the chili.  Fry stirring continually for 8 minutes or till the onion is golden brown.  
5. Now add the chickpeas and the mango powder and stir for another 5 minutes. 
6. Add the tomato puree and drain and add the rice.  Mix well.  
7. Boil three cups of water and add to the rice chickpea mixture.  When it boils, reduce flame and cook on low flame covered for 20 minutes or till the rice is fully cooked.  
8. Garnish with coriander leaves before serving.

 

Vegetable Vermicelli

I was on a two week vacation in Yemen and returned last week.  When asked about my holiday, I am sometimes at a loss of what to say or how to describe it.  We met the family, which was nice.  We met friends, ate and had fun – which was all very nice.  We even went to a private beach every day.

Holidays are sometimes about running away from your daily routine and engaging in a new one to charge up when you get back.  Holidays are about relaxing and eating and having fun.  I did get all of it during my vacation in Yemen.  Then why can I not say I enjoyed my vacation when asked about it.  Why am I at a loss of words?  Should the lawlessness we observed be ignored since we were on vacation?  Should the poverty be overlooked?  Should the fact that schools were converted to asylum centers for the homeless not really be my concern since I was only on a vacation?  The fact is that we did have a good time but what we saw could not be ignored.  The plight of the children brought up in a zone where the army and tanks were everywhere, the extremes of poverty and wealth witnessed amongst the population, the fact that people rely on generators rather than electricity, where planning makes no sense as you have no idea if the roads would be open tomorrow or you could fill your tank with gas or if the airports could be closed. 

I asked my children aged 13 and 10 what they thought would improve the situation of the country.  My son very wisely answered, “Educate the next generation…this generation is a lost one”.  I wish his words were not true – what would happen to a nation who has lost an entire generation.  But as the days went by and our vacation came to a close, I thought his observation was accurate.  

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

500 grams vermicelli

3 medium sized potatoes

3 medium sized carrots

100 grams French beans

8 florets cauliflower

1 medium sized green capsicum

1 medium sized red capsicum

½ cup green peas

2” piece ginger

2 medium sized white onions

1 green chili

8 curry leaves

4 tablespoons corn oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

3 teaspoons black gram split (urad dal)

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

4 tablespoons lemon juice

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Peel, wash and cut potatoes and carrots into one centimeter cubes.   String, wash and cut French beans into one centimeter pieces.  Wash cauliflower florets. Wash, halve, deseed and cut capsicum into one centimeter cubes.   Wash and drain green peas.  Peel, wash and finely chop ginger and onion. Remove stems, wash and slit green chili.  Wash and pat dry curry leaves.  
2.  Boil potato, carrot and cauliflower in 4 cups water till nearly done.  Add the French beans and peas and boil further for five minutes.  Drain and cool.  
3.  Heat 8 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Add vermicelli, salt and 2 tablespoons of oil.  Cook for one minute or till slightly underdone.  Drain, refresh under cold water and keep aside.
4. Heat remaining oil in a pan, temper with mustard seeds and curry leaves.  Add black gram split, ginger, onion and chili.  Sauté till the onion turns light brown.   
5. Add the capsicum and turmeric powder and fry for another five minutes.  Now add the cooked vegetables and continue to stir.   
6. Add the cooked vermicelli, salt and stir gently. Cook for another five to six minutes.  Remove from heat.  Mix lemon juice and serve hot.

 

 

Salmon with Dill

There are some things that might not last forever if mankind is going to abuse his natural resources and does not change his ways.  And one thing I fear for is that the Great Barrier Reef in Australia might fall victim to our greed and disappear forever.  I did not have this on my places to visit.  Instead I was thinking of either Hawaii or Seychelles – a place where I can do nothing and just admire the blue ocean.  And then the thought about the rising temperatures of the ocean struck me and I thought that the Great Barrier Reef might not be there forever – I have to visit it.  So that is how it came by on my list.  It was not planned, but I have to see this natural protected wonder that we still have.  And this would give me an opportunity to visit the Aussies.

Again, like the name suggests, the Great Barrier Reef covers a very large area and is estimated to be 1000s of years old.  It has been the home to the Aboriginals – so there should be so much of history in the waters there – untold stories.  Again, it is the mysticism of who might have lived and what could have happened there that draws me to the place.  Imagine touching a rock that might have been silent witness to so many tales.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4

4 pieces Salmon

1 teaspoon red chili powder

2 teaspoons dried Dill

1 teaspoon honey

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt to taste

Corn oil for frying

Method:

1. Clean, wash and pat dry the salmon pieces.  
2. In a bowl mix the salt, chili powder and the lemon juice.   
3. Now add the honey and mix well.  Place the salmon in the bowl and let it marinate on both sides for about 20 minutes in a cool place.  
4. Now sprinkle the dill on the salmon till it is coated on both sides.   
5. Heat oil in a flat pan.  When hot, shallow fry the salmon pieces till golden brown on both sides.  Serve hot with Dill & Pea Rice.