As I mentioned in the previous post, Mark is not the biggest fan of Indian food, so I often try to get my fill of it (I love it) when we aren’t eating together. Unfortunately, this usually occurs on nights when I don’t have a lot of time to experiment, so tonight it was the old stand-by, aloo gobi. Fortunately I happened to have a nice cauliflower waiting for me in the refrigerator. I can’t vouch for the authenticity of this recipe: when I want to make it, I just pick Indian spices off my spice rack and dump them into the pot with abandon. I’m hopeless, I know.

This recipe doesn’t make loads because it was just for me, although I wanted enough for a lunch or two too. I actually have trouble scaling my cooking down; quantity-wise, I tend to cook like an Italian grandma. So what I did tonight was use the adorable cocotte my awesome aunt gave me for Christmas. If I had made it in a larger pot, I’d have kept adding stuff until it was full. So the cocotte is a great way of curtailing my overzealous nature.

Aloo Gobi

1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1″ piece ginger, grated or minced
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp brown mustard seeds
2-3 red potatoes, chopped
1/2 head small cauliflower, cut into small florets
1/2 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, with juices
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 springs cilantro (I used 2 of those frozen cubes from Trader Joe’s again because I haven’t yet acquired a new cilantro plant to kill)

In an aptly-sized pan, heat a small amount of oil (or vegan ghee) and add the cumin and mustard seeds, frying until they start to pop (about 30 seconds).

Add the onions and fry until translucent, then add the garlic and ginger and fry until onions begin to brown.

Add the potatoes and fry for a minute or two.

Add the tomatoes, remainder of the spices, and the water and simmer for 10 minutes.

Note: I called for canned tomatoes because that is what I usually use, especially in the winter when fresh tomatoes and tasteless and expensive, however, since I had half an overly ripe tomato that needed to be used up, I chopped that up and then added about 1/4 cup pizza sauce (the recipe for which you can find here) that I also had leftover. As I mentioned in my pizza tutorial, one of the benefits of not spicing your pizza sauce is it’s easy to use leftovers later. This is one way I try to cut back on wasting food.

Add the cauliflower and simmer until everything is tender and the sauce has reduced by about half. Stir in the cilantro (and if you are fancy, hold a little cilantro back for garnish).

I forgot to take a picture in the pot after it was done, probably because I was starving by that time.

The final meal, served with brown basmati rice. Also a crappy picture due to that whole starving/impatient thing. I really don’t know how all the food bloggers who actually take quality photos of their food manage to take the time to set up pretty shots!

Just after plating, I noticed there was nothing green in my meal and remembered that I usually add peas. Oops. If using frozen peas, stir them in just a minute or two before serving. It didn’t look too pretty, but it was tasty. It would have been even better with peas.

Does anyone else’s cat LOVE water?

And lest you think my other cat never gets any attention, you should know that although Tigger helps me prepare just about every meal I make, Brachtune is the one who helps me eat it:

If you’re curious, Brachtune’s current reading material is Alan Moore’s Watchmen.

It’s Memorial Day here in the U.S. and we are supposed to be thinking about the contributions of those who died in combat in the name of our country. I think most people are thinking about grilling hamburgers and drinking beer instead. I like to make holiday-appropriate meals so in that spirit, I made Vegan Dad’s Perfect Tempeh Burgers (atop homemade whole wheat rolls), baked beans (*cough* from a can, I’m so embarrassed *cough*), and potato salad. I also drank some beer like a good American.

Potato salad is one of those things for which I don’t understand the need for a recipe, so I feel a bit stupid offering one. But I’m training myself to be better about remembering to take pictures so I can share recipes with you when stuff turns out well, so I photographed my potato salad and will thus give you a recipe. I used red potatoes, because it’s what I had on hand, but I think next time I will try to pick up some Russets for this recipe because they sort of disintegrate and make for a creamier salad that is more like what my family made when I was growing up.

My family also always added hardboiled eggs to potato salad. For that reason, I used Indian black salt instead of regular salt in this recipe. Indian black salt – which is actually pink – smells heavily of sulfur and therefore tastes sort of like eggs, so I add it to things I want to remind me of eggs…which honestly isn’t much. Mark hates the smell of it, but I sort of like it. If you don’t have black salt, you can substitute regular sea salt, but don’t use salt that is actually black (lava salt) because it will turn your potato salad gray.

Potato Salad

1 1/2 lbs potatoes, cubed (any kind is okay; baking potatoes will be creamier)
2 stalks celery, diced
1/4 cup Vidalia or red onion, small dice
2 small or 1 large dill pickle, minced
2 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 cup Vegenaise
1 tsp Indian black salt or regular sea salt (optional)
2 Tbsp chopped fresh herbs – I used dill and chives because my dill and chive plants are taking over my indoor herb garden, but parsley would be good, too.

Chop the potatoes into 1″ cubes, place in a pot, and cover with water. Simmer until a fork pierces them easily (about 20 minutes).

While the potatoes are cooking, combine the celery, pickles, onions, and herbs.

When potatoes are done, drain and mix with all other ingredients.

Chill for at least an hour to allow flavors to blend.

Here are the rolls I made:

I used this recipe.

Here is the meal plated, although it’s a lousy photograph:

In other kitchen-related news, yesterday I successfully re-seasoned a cast iron Dutch oven that I tried to destroy a few weeks ago by leaving it empty on a hot burner for an hour or so. I have a really bad habit of wandering out of the kitchen in the middle of doing something and then immediately and completely forgetting I have something going on, leaving my husband to ask me much later if the stove is SUPPOSED to be on fire. The great thing about cast iron is it’s virtually indestructible, and in fact, being forced to re-season this piece turned out to be a good thing because it was one of those pre-seasoned Lodge pots and I was never really happy with the seasoning, which wasn’t nearly as non-stick and wonderful as my antique Griswold skillet. It turns out you really should season those so-called pre-seasoned items, so why you should spend twice as much on them, I do not know. You might as well just buy a non-seasoned one if you’re going to have to season it anyway. I guess you don’t have to pre-wash the pre-seasoned ones as thoroughly. Anyway, I rubbed the pot with Earth Balance shortening, in lieu of the much-hyped seasoning power of lard (which is not to say I’m not a fan of The Power of Lard, and if I didn’t think she’d absolutely kill me, I’d share a picture of my mother wearing my Dead Kennedys sweatshirt at my niece’s birthday party this weekend). The Earth Balance worked really well; I baked it at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for a couple of hours. It didn’t smoke much and the finish is really nice. I did a test-run in it by caramelizing some onions for our tempeh burgers tonight and that went very well. The pot is much better than it was before I tried to incinerate it! I’m inspired to go find some more vintage cast iron and re-season it!

The other thing I’m proud of myself about is the fact that I sharpened my chef’s knife all by myself a couple of weeks ago and it’s actually sharper than it was before I sharpened it! I bought a whetstone a while ago, but every time I tried to use it, I’d just make my knife duller, so I’d force my very handy best friend to sharpen it for me whenever he was around. (I make that boy work for his meals.) He’s been a bit complainy about driving to Virginia lately, though, so the last time he was here I made him show me how to do it properly and I later actually managed to do it without his supervision. But I’m still a little surprised every time I use it and it chops things. Tonight it sliced a very ripe tomato (which may sound like an easy task, but you really need a very sharp (or serrated) knife to pierce the skin)!