Sesame Asparagus and Green Beans

I am not a tech-head, that’s a prelude to explaining my delight at finding an entire website dedicated to asparagus. (I can just imagine my sister’s face now – that same expression she had when I asked her what Pinterest was. Anyway she was the one who bought the asparagus and left me to find out a way to cook it). So here’s a dish that turned out surprisingly well on the first try. I’ve given the adapted version. The original recipe is called ‘Sesame Asparagus’ and can be found at www.asparagusrecipes.net

What I used:

½  tablespoon olive oil and ½ tablespoon sesame oil

1 ½ cups sliced asparagus

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

1 tablespoon minced garlic

½ small red onion, chopped, more or less a tablespoon

½ cup green beans, frozen

½ cup chopped red bell pepper

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon soy sauce

¼-½ teaspoon salt or to taste

What I did:

1. Heated oils in pan (used a mix of oils instead of sesame oil alone as the latter heats too quickly). When hot, added ginger, garlic and red onion. Fried for a few seconds, before adding asparagus, green beans (still frozen) and sesame seeds. Stir fried until beans lost their frozen texture. Then added red pepper; cooked for a few more minutes before adding soy sauce and salt. Stirred through until well-coated and it’s done.

South Indian Cabbage

My dad really likes this dish but I ignore  the friendly hints and don’t make it often because of the amount of oil used. 'Absence does make the heart grow fonder' but maybe making this dish once a year, in the middle of winter is a bit too harsh. Well here’s more or less the original recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian…

What you’ll need:

*1/4 cup oil

*Generous pinch of asafetida (this is not a Sri Lankan household must, so I always substitute 1-2 teaspoons chopped garlic)

*1 teaspoon whole brown mustard seeds

*1 teaspoon urad dal, chana dal or yellow split peas (I added 4 teaspoons of urad dhal - like the taste!)

*5-6 whole fenugreek seeds

*2-3 whole dried hot red chillies

*10 fresh curry leaves

*750g cabbage, core removed, and leaves shredded

*1 to 1¼ teaspoons salt

 

What to do:

Heat oil in wok or similar pan over medium heat. Add asafetida (if using) or add mustard seeds and dhal. When mustard seeds start popping, add fenugreek seeds and red chillies. Fry until dhal is reddened and chillies darken, then add curry leaves and chopped garlic, followed by the shredded cabbage. Add salt. Stir through. Cover and let cabbage wilt in it’s own steam, then taste for salt. Fry for a few minutes uncovered (to get rid of any excess moisture) and serve.

Green Beans with Sesame Seeds

This adaptation of a recipe came after we ran out of coconut and I only found that out (as is often the case in this household) in the middle of cooking. Fortunately, we all preferred the adapted dish to the original, which came from Madhur Jaffrey’s World of the East Vegetarian Cooking.

What I used:

*500g frozen green beans

*¼ cup chopped fresh coriander leaves

*2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

*1-2 fresh chillies, used both green and red

*2 tablespoons sesame seeds

*1/2 tablespoon whole black mustard seeds

*1 teaspoon salt

*1/2 tablespoon chilli powder

*1-2 tablespoons butter with 1-2 tablespoons oil

What I did:

Melt butter in oil. Add sesame and mustard seeds, fry for a few seconds, then add chilli powder. Stir through the seeds, then add frozen beans (still frozen). Fry until the beans are cooked through but still crunchy (15-20 minutes, on high heat, uncovered). Then add garlic, salt and fresh chillies. Fry for 5-10 minutes more. Take off heat, stir through fresh coriander leaves and it’s ready to serve.

Raw Carrot Sambol

Had the house to myself this Sunday. Took the chance to cook with music blasting away the cobwebs. The food wasn’t as rocking as the music, with my first choice being a sedate Carrot Sambol, adapted from Chandra Dissanayake’s Ceylon Cookery, which takes minutes to make in a food processor.

What you will need

* 4 small carrots (12oz/340g)

* 1 small red onion

* 3-4 green chillies  

* 3/4 to 1 cup desiccated coconut

* 1 tsp salt

* 1 tsp pepper

* 1 tsp lime or lemon juice

 

What to do:

Peel carrots and onion. Roughly halve or quarter. Then put all ingredients into food processor. Process until finely mixed. (Note: Halving the salt, pepper and lime/lemon quantities brings out the sweeter flavour of the raw carrot.)

Green Peas with Coconut and Continental Parsley

That’s my version. The original from Madhur Jaffrey’s 'World of Vegetarian' cookbook is called 'Green Peas with Coconut and Cilantro' aka Chinese Parsley aka Coriander leaves. Madhur’s recipe also includes 1 teaspoon of sugar which I omitted and found preferable.

What you’ll need:
* 3 tablespoons oil
* Generous pinch of asafetida (used 1 minced garlic)
* 1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
* ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
* 15 fresh curry leaves
* 2 ½ fresh or frozen green peas
* 1-2 hot green chillies, finely chopped
* 1 teaspoon salt
* ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
* ½ teaspoon ground cumin
* ½ teaspoon ground coriander
* ¾ cup freshly grated coconut- used desiccated coconut, fluffed with a little water.
* 3 tablespoons very finely chopped continental parsley (or coriander leaves)

What to do:
Heat oil in a pan, add asafetida or if adding garlic wait until the next few steps– add mustard and cumin seeds. As soon as mustard seeds begin to pop, add curry leaves, then garlic. Stir. Add peas, chillies, salt, turmeric, ground cumin and coriander powders. Stir until peas turn bright green. (The book also suggests adding 4 tablespoons of water and bringing to a boil, then cooking, covered, until peas are tender. Since frozen peas take minutes to cook – I don’t bother adding water or bringing to a boil). After a few minutes, add the desiccated coconut and parsley, stir for a few minutes then it’s ready to serve.

Mukunuwenna Mallum

The Asian Fruit and Veg shop in Dandenong Plaza has started selling mukunuwenna. In Sri Lanka, this popular greens-herb is sold door-to-door by the Keera Karaya or Greens Man who carries bundles of herbs in a woven basket balanced on his head (or in a wooden cart depending on the scale of greens-eating house-holders in a particular neighbourhood).

I’ve adapted this recipe for broccoli elsewhere in this blog, but here’s the real thing from Chandra Dissanayake’s Ceylon Cookery cookbook.

What you’ll need:

* ½ lb or 250g mukunuwenna (usually 1 bundle)

* Sprig of curry leaves

* 2-3 green chillies

* 1 cup water (left that out)

* ½ cup scraped coconut (I used desiccated coconut)

* 1 small onion (I used half a medium red onion)

* ½ teaspoon turmeric

* 1 ½ teaspoon salt

Mukunuwenna

What to do:

 Shred mukunuwenna leaves (used a food-processor). The book advises mixing the coconut with curry leaves, sliced onions and green chillies, turmeric, salt in a pan with the cup of water and cooking until the onions are done. Then adding the mukunuwenna and tossing for a few minutes, so the leaves are cooked but remain green.

I mixed the chopped leaves with everything else (except the water) and cooked for a few minutes until fragrant. Done.

Made with Methi

Checking out what was what on the fresh herb shelves at the Asian vegetable shop in Dandenong Plaza, saw fenugreek leaves. Bought a bunch a home, then searched the web on what to do with it as Sri Lankans cook with fenugreek seed but not the leaves.

Apparently, fenugreek leaves or methi is so popular in Indian cooking, there are entire web sites dedicated to this herb. So guess I’ll have to buy a few more bunches and try out some more dishes. In the meantime, this is one cobbled together from three or four different recipes on the web for Aloo Methi aka potatoes with fenugreek leaves

What I used: 

* 1 ½ cups fresh fenugreek leaves/methi (washed and chopped) = 1 bunch from the Asian veg store

* 500-750g potatoes (cubed and cooked in the microwave)

* 2 small onions, sliced

* 1 large sprig curry leaves (about 15-20 leaves)

* 2-3 whole dried red chilles (broken into large bits)

* 2 garlic cloves, chopped finely

* ½ teaspoon cumin seeds

* 1 teaspoon red chilli powder

* ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

* Pinch garam masala

* ½-1 teaspoon cumin powder

* 1 teaspoon coriander powder

* 2-3 tablespoons oil

What I did:

To hot oil, added cumin seeds, then curry leaves and broken dried chillies. Next added the onion, which was fried until translucent. After that, added chopped fenugreek leaves and fried for a few minutes, then the put in the rest of the spices with the cubed potatoes. Stir-fried until the potatoes were well-coated for about 5-10 minutes.

Bok Choy Specials

Bok Choy

Bok Choy was on special at the local market the other day and we ended up with 2 kilos worth. So guess what we’ll be eating all week… same veg, different dish. Here are two I tried out:

The first version is what you’d expect from this ‘Chinese vegetable’, a stir-fry. From Margaret Fulton’s ‘Encylcopedia of Food & Cookery’, the original recipe is titled Baby Bok Choy with Oyster Sauce. However, my version should be called Mature Bok Choy with No Oyster Sauce.

What I used:

* 500g bok choy, washed clean of soil, then chopped into bite-sized pieces

* 375g pre-sliced button mushrooms

Then everything else on Ms Fulton’s list except for 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, though I was thinking that black bean sauce, Hoisin sauce or other vegetarian sauce could have been substituted

* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

* 1 teaspoon sesame oil

* 4 cloves garlic, chopped

* 1 tablespoon ginger, finely grated   

* 1 teaspoon soy sauce

* 2 teaspoons rice wine vingegar

* ½ teaspoon cornflour

(* Oh and I added 1 teaspoon of salt, not on the list of ingredients)

What I did:

Mixed soy sauce, cornflour, rice wine vinegar in a glass and set it aside.

Heated vegetable and sesame oils in a pan. Added sliced mushrooms straight from the supermarket container. Fried until the mushrooms lost their ‘raw look’. Added garlic and ginger, stir-fried for a minute as Ms Fulton suggests. Added bok choy and tossed until wilted. Then added sauce mixture, until vegetables were coated. Took off fire.

The second bok choy dish is adapted from a Leeks White Curry recipe in Chandra Dissanayake’s ‘Ceylon Cookery’ book. (Never miss a chance!). This is the adapted Bok Choy Very Yellow Curry.

What I used:

* 500g bok choy, washed well and sliced finely.

* ½ teaspoon turmeric

* ½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds

* ¾  cup coconut cream diluted in ¾ cup water

* 1 small onion, chopped

* 2 green chillies, chopped

* 1 sprig of curry leaves

* 1 teaspoon salt

* Extra ½ cup of coconut cream (undiluted)

What I did:

Separated the sliced bok choy stems from the sliced leaves. 

Added the sliced stems and all other ingredients (EXCEPT the extra half cup of coconut cream) into a saucepan. 

Cooked on high heat until mixture boiled, then added the extra half cup of coconut cream. 
Cooked again until curry starts to boil. 

Fenugreek seeds

Then took off fire and added the sliced bok choy leaves. This is to retain some of the green-ness of the leaves, which will cook in the heat of the curry.  

In Yellow and Green

The Green: BROCCOLI MALLUM

Broccoli is a versatile vegetable but it tastes best with a minimum amount of cooking, like in stir-fries. So why not a ‘mallung/mallum’, usually a shredded-leaf dish that's cooked for a few minutes. So here’s a mallum adapted from Chandra Dissanayake’s ‘Ceylon Cookery’ book for ‘Mukunuwenna Mallum’.

Used broccoli as I didn’t have mukunuwenna – a popular green weed that is still sold door-to-door by ‘greens’ hawkers, in Colombo. I like this dish because it doesn’t use oil. And I make it in bulk to freeze for weekday dinners.

What you’ll need:

1 to 1½ kg broccoli

2 sprigs curry leaves

4-6 green chillies, chopped (or 1-2 teaspoons crushed chillies)

1 cup desiccated coconut, rehydrated with half a cup of water

1 red onion

1 teaspoon turmeric

2-3 teaspoons salt

What to do:

In a food-processor, finely chop broccoli and onion together. Then into a saucepan, add broccoli-onion mixture, curry leaves, re-hydrated desiccated coconut, chillies, turmeric and salt. Dry fry (no oil) for a few minutes until the broccoli is done.   

The Yellow: CABBAGE MALLUM

I once served this cabbage mallum with string hoppers but it tastes just as good with rice. Best of all it’s on and off the stove in minutes. Again this is a favourite from the ‘Ceylon Cookery’ book by Chandra Dissanayake.

What you’ll need:

* 250g cabbage

* ¼ teaspoon turmeric

* ½ cup desiccated coconut

* 1 sprig curry leaves

* 1 small onion

* 2 dried red chillies, broken into bits

* 1 teaspoon mustard powder

* ½ teaspoon pepper

* 1 teaspoon salt

* ¼ cup of water or less (I don’t use any)

What to do: 

Shred cabbage and onion together in a food processor. Empty cabbage mixture into a saucepan. Add curry leaves, salt and water, if using. Cook for a few minutes. Then add coconut and spices. Stir for a few minutes more and take off fire. I generally add all the ingredients in one go and take off the fire after a few minutes.

Dad’s Katta Sambol

Katta sambol

This could also be called my father’s red hot ‘ow! ow! ow!’ sambol. Actually it’s not that hot and it’s delicious with bread and cheese as I just had for lunch. It’s another Dad recipe put together by experimentation and a lot of taste tests during cooking.

What he used:

* 100g crushed chillies

* 1 red onion, chopped

* 2 teaspoons salt

* 1 teaspoon sugar

* 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

* lime/lemon juice to taste

* 1-2 tablespoons olive oil

What he did:

Fried the onion in olive oil until translucent or it lost the ‘raw’ look. Added chilli, salt and balsamic vinegar. Stirred the lot until well-reddened. Then added sugar, and after taking off fire, added lemon juice to taste.  

Dad’s Gotukola Sambol

 

Gotukola aka Pennywort

The lovely thing about living in multicultural Melbourne, besides the Asian fruit and veg shop in Dandenong Plaza, is that we can have 'Gotukola' growing alongside European herbs in our home gardens. My sister recently was given a carrier bagful of 'Gotukola' by a friend and my Dad did a great job making this iconic sambol.

Gotukola

Red Onion

Desiccated Coconut

What he used:

1 bunch of Gotukola (or 1 bag)

Less than a cup of desiccated coconut

Half a large red onion

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Green chilli, seeded if preferred

What he did:

Process altogether. And you’re done.

A different kind of ‘Fried’ Potato

This recipe is from a wonderful book called ‘Ceylon Cookery’ by Chandra Dissanayake. It’s not available in Australian bookstores. I got the book as a gift from family friend, Aunty Tulsi, returning from a holiday in Sri Lanka.

Before this book, I served Tofu Stroganoff for dinner, now it’s ‘Ala Thel Dala’ and so many other dishes that bring a delicious taste of nostalgia during mealtimes.

 

‘Ala thel dala’ roughly means ‘potatoes fried in oil’ .

You will need:

1kg of potatoes - about 6 medium sized spuds - any kind will do

½ kg onions - I used 2 large red onions

2-3 sprigs of curry leaves - fresh is best, dried if you must, omit if you have no choice.  

½  teaspoons turmeric

2 heaped tablespoons chilli flakes (yes, tablespoons, this is not a typo)

2 teaspoons salt

3-6 tablespoons of oil. (Ms Dissanayake recommends 8 dessertspoons, I went with 4 generous tablespoons)

What to do:

Peel, cube and microwave potato. Ms Dissanayake recommends mixing the turmeric, salt and chilli pieces in with the cooked potato at this stage.

Peel and slice onion. 

Heat oil in wok. To test if oil is hot - toss a sliver of onion into the oil, if it sizzles it’s good to go. 

Add curry leaves, then immediately after, the sliced onion. Fry until onion turns a golden brown or until the onion start to brown at the edges.

Add all other ingredients, stir fry for a several minutes until the potatoes are well-coated and aromatic.

Curly Parsley Sambol

 

This is one of my favourite ten-minute recipes. It’s adapted from a cultural icon – Gotukola Sambol or Pennywort Sambol - which is an essential ‘health food’ on a Sri Lankan family menu.

In Australia, I found that Curly Parsley was a good substitute, more easily found in Melbourne supermarkets and healthy too.

You’ll need:

1 bunch of Curly Parsley

½ to 1 whole onion  (depending on how much you like onion)

½ to 1 cup desiccated coconut  (depending on how much you like desiccated coconut). Option: Re-hydrate the coconut by adding a few tablespoons of water to fluff up the tiny flakes.

Salt to taste. Personal choice: 1 tsp.

Also optional: squeeze of lemon/lime juice. I used: 1 tablespoon.

What to do: 

Wash parsley. Peel and cut onion into halves. Pop everything (parsley, onion, desiccated coconut, salt) into a food processor. Whiz until the parsley is finely shredded. Add lime juice. And you’re done.

Yes, truly that’s it. No cooking, just shredding. You can have this sambol with rice, lentils and a spicy vegetable dish, like the potato dish that follows.