My friends have gotten into the act. Why not a Maharashtrian vegetarian favorite, a rice-potato pulao? Here’s one from Lalita…

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VARHADI ALOO BHAT Serves 6
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INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups rice
4 large potatoes, cubed
2 medium carrots, cubed small
3/4 cup yoghurt
5 green chillies, chopped
5 cm ginger
2 pieces cinnamon
1/2 cup coriander leaves, chopped
1/4 cup dry coconut (copra), grated
3 tsp coriander seeds
1/4 turmeric
salt to taste

PREPARATION
Soak the rice.

Boil the potatoes in salt water for 5 minutes. Drain and dry. Now fry them lightly. Add the carrot cubes, Saute lightly and set aside. The idea of boiling the potatoes is that you then use less oil.

Saute the cashewnuts separately. Set aside.

Blend or hand grind the green chillies, ginger, cinnamon, coriander seeds and turmeric. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil and fry the ground paste.

Add the fried potatoes and carrots.

Add the yoghurt. Add the drained rice and stir fry for about 5 minutes.

Add 3 cups water, salt and cook the rice for 20 minutes without lifting the lid. If you add some water onto the lid, it’s a good indication whether you need to add more inside. Check here for more details on how to cook rice.

Empty using a fork into a serving dish.
Add fried cashewnuts, dry grated coconut and coriander leaves to garnish.

More Vegetarian Recipes

Easter is on its way but Lent is right here. For those who don’t know it means Catholics are called to fasting and abstinence from meat on the Fridays of Lent. I have friends who drop the drink out of their lives all month, and other sweet-tooths (teeth?) who abstain with much suffering from desserts. But there are lots of others who go without meat, poultry or fish all through Lent. I’d say for them, some more vegetarian recipes are in order.
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MINI SPINACH CALZONES Serves 6

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A calzone, sometimes referred to as a stuffed pizza, is an Italian turnover made of pizza dough and stuffed with cheese.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Mozzarella cheese

1 lb/500 gms Ricotta cheese

2 cups spinach

1 onion

6-7 pods garlic

Pizza dough Try this great recipe if you can’t get it ready made.

Extra flour

Extra Olive Oil

(more…)

Well, I suddenly have new interests in babies and baby food, so these are articles that jumped out of all the reading I’ve been doing.

Dos and don’ts when cooking baby foods - April Lynch
You take cooking even more personally when you’re playing personal chef to your baby.
What are the most nutritious foods to cook? Am I handling them safely? How will I store homemade baby food? When will I ever have time? And after all that, will my kitchen’s smallest customer like what I make? Read more…

The Baby Gourmet: I’m having trouble finding food!
I’ve always joked that one day, my 1-year-old would grow up to become a chef. It sometimes seems as if he’s my little Baby Gourmet, growing tired of any food he has had more than once….
…The problem for me is this: He has allergic reactions to milk, therefore, all dairy has been cut out of his diet. Read more…

Tidbits: Frozen baby-food cubes – Al Sicherman
…Even so, he didn’t expect the next step: Happy Baby organic baby food in little frozen 1-ounce cubes, in “very smooth” for babies 6 months and older, and “a little chunky” for babies 9 months and older. One microwaves in about 20 seconds (or carry it to thaw in a plastic bag), and you haven’t opened a jar that’s too much for one serving… Read more…

You don’t like the (alleged) pesticide in your Cola, drink something else, don’t waste the time of the courts!
Don’t like adult content on TV, switch it off, sell it, whatever. Don’t like what a book, art, person says about your religion?- don’t buy it. Write one that says the opposite.

Trans-fat is everywhere again. Amazing how we affectionately attach ourselves to pet peeves, that, like like fashion seasons, come and go. I remember reading the word at least 10-12 years back (and I wasn’t even as ‘foodie’ as I am now) but suddenly it’s as if it suddenly landed from Mars and went straight into the Dictionaries across the globe!

New York is banning it out of all eateries and kitchens. Soon everyone will be pressured to follow suit. Great, one way you look at it. On the other hand, how far does this go? Good or bad, surely adults of the most intelligent species on earth can make their own decisions about what to eat? If you hate trans-fats so much then don’t eat food that has it! If you believe trans-fats are bad — write a book — don’t use the government as a tool to limit the freedom of others.
Something the Supreme Court here in India has just said to the guys who’ve filed Public Interest Litigation against the Cola Kings. You don’t like the (alleged) pesticide in your Cola, drink something else, don’t waste the time of the courts!
Don’t like adult content on TV, switch it off, sell it, whatever. Don’t like what a book, art, person says about your religion?- don’t buy it. Write one that says the opposite.

Now I digress, slowly vanishing freedoms in a world that prides itself on FREEDOM being the ultimate utopia for all nations, gets my goat.
Back to TransFat…

There’s an interesting interview with a lady, Mary-Ann Shearer, that I think is really worth reading, if you missed it…