Vegetarian Frugal Housewife

By far my absolute favorite ethnic vegetarian dish in the world is Aloo Mutter. Being from the U.S. I have always wondered if that is the correct spelling, as the spelling differs depending on which Indian restaurant you visit. I prefer spelling it Aloo Mattar.

When I lived in Britain they called it Aloo Peas, which I always found funny. If you are saying the potatoes in Indian (Aloo) then why say the peas (Mutter) in English? That’s weird.

But the westernization of ethnic foods does generally tend to result in some changes to names and flavors.

At any rate, I have been desirous of testing this one out ever since a fellow Grad student whom I studied with in England (though he was on exchange from India) made some homemade Aloo Mutter for me. Thanks Sandeep!

It just occurred to me that I should have asked him the correct spelling. Oh well. His homemade Aloo Mutter was so fantastic that I couldn’t believe it was homemade, and he made it so quickly too.

I tried making some for the first time tonight and, though not EXACTLY like the restaurant version, it was so close to perfection.

Trying not to be too proud, I am secretly astonished at how easy the creation of my favorite meal was. Why didn’t I try this sooner?

The dish is usually paired with basmati rice and naan bread. We had it with the basmati and some lavash flat breads that we bought at the supermarket. I have not conquered the making of naan yet, mainly because I haven’t figured out how to make it without dairy and without a tandoori oven. ;)

So, the Aloo Mutter, or Mattar, recipe for you all…

Aloo Mutter

Ingredients:

4 large potatoes (cut into chunks)
1/2 or 1 cup of cooked peas
1 inch piece (or 1 tblsp) grated ginger
2 green chilis chopped small (and/or 1 tsp chili powder)
1 medium onion (diced)
1 large tomato (chopped) or 1 can stewed tomato
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp coriander
1 tblspn or 1 clove chopped garlic
1 and 1/2 cups water (or veggie broth)
3 bay leaves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 cup soy cream
2 tblspn salt
olive oil

1. Dice and slice both onions and chilis.

2. Heat oil in a saucepan, then add onions, ginger and chilis. Fry for a couple of minutes.

3. Add all spices and continue to fry over medium heat until onions soften.

4. Add tomatoes and potatoes, pressing some of the tomatoes with the spoon to squash them a bit.

5. Add watter or broth.

6. Cook for 15-20 minutes over med-low heat until potatoes soften.

7. Add the peas and simmer a few more minutes.

8. If the mixture has not thickened to a consistency that you like, add a tblspn of corn starch and wait a minute or two.

9. When ready, serve with basmati rice and a couple of pieces of naan or some other flat bread.

Today is THAT day. Black Friday, the most evil, spendthrift, Chinese-import shopping day of the year.

Some of those “Green” types of people started a little thing a few years ago called “Buy Nothing Day.” in the spirit of which I thought I would post on my plans for making more gifts this year than last and then (hopefully) more again next year as well.

Why? Well what gifts do you remember from childhood? The handmade ones right? And what stuff do any of you still have from your childhood? If anything, I bet it’s handmade.

What I love, besides the crafty outlet that hand-making gifts gives me, is the opportunity to also recycle some stuff: fabric, yarn, paints, jars etc…

Gift-making ideas can include candles, soaps, jellies, wine, hats, purses, blankets, beaded necklaces, tree ornaments, even your cards that you mail out during this festive season. Nothing is off-limits.

I will be including handmade soaps in peoples Yule stockings and also like to give crocheted hats, blankets and scarves made from luxurious natural fiber yarns.

We’ll see how much I actually end up making by hand this year.

No matter what percentage of the gifts are store-bought you can bet that you won’t be bumping into me in a Walmart.

Go on, have fun, grab some yarn, some glue, some glitter or some clay and make something for a loved one. I’m certain that it’ll make more of an impression than that designer golf shirt.

Well Thanksgiving without turkey is different, at least for the eater, but I did still have to manage the cooking of a bird (for the meat-eaters who came to dinner.)

I had a choice for the veggie heads of either Tofurky or Quorn Turk’y Roast

The ingredients listed in the Tofurky, though completely vegan, led me to believe that I would not like the taste of it very much.

Now, the Whole Foods didn’t carry the Quorn turk’y, oddly enough they carried other Quorn products though.

I continued looking until I actually found it at a more mainstream grocery store, on sale too…Frugal Bonus!

The ingredients, though not vegan in any way, were at least a bit more tasty-sounding than the Tofurky. So, purely for research purposes, I decided to give it a try.

The main ingredient in Quorn products is Mycoprotein. According to the Quorn website is, “Mycoprotein (“myco” is Greek for “fungi”) is a nutritious member of the fungi family, as are mushrooms, truffles, and morels. The fungus used in all Quorn™ products is Fusarium Venenatum.”

Well it sounds interesting enough to me, so I’m trying it for all of you. ;)

On first removing it from the package I thought two things. 1) “Dude, that looks like a big sausage” and 2) “This is overpackaged.”

I like very much that it only takes about 55 minutes to cook. The only thing that I found disconcerting, given the fact that most vegetarians are trying to detox and not re-tox, was that you cook it in a plastic sleeve. I mean tightly wrapped in plastic while sitting in a 425° oven.

You can’t tell me with a straight face that there isn’t some leeching occurring into the food. I just can’t truly believe that.

The directions say to poke some holes through the plastic sleeve before cooking, which I did. Only one word to the wise, don’t poke them on the sides or the bottom. This causes juices to leak out of the package and smolder in a smoky fashion on the bottom of your cookie sheet.

As for flavor and texture, I did not expect to be all that wowed by either of them.

I cut the slices rather thick and paired them with mushroom gravy. The flavor was surprisingly turkey-like. The texture was relatively palatable, though something about it reminded me of lunch meats or high school cafeteria food.

Overall it left me only slightly envious of the meat-eaters with their steamy, glistening hunks of turkey breast.

The Quorn Turk’y Roast: I would recommend this product, on a 5 star scale, at about 3.5 or maybe even 3.75….worth trying and, with some creative modification, should please most dinner guests.

I would suggest slicing it thin for better texture and using a very yummy gravy along side of it. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Never, in all the years that I have been in love with Thanksgiving (and addicted to cranberry sauce) have I attempted to make homemade cranberry sauce.

That all changed this year when the November/December issues of Vegetarian Times Magazine arrived in my mailbox.

Their recipe for Jellied Cranberry Molds seemed so easy that I decided to give it a try.

Fresh cranberries in hand, I made the molds this evening in preparation for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving meal.

The recipe called for Port wine which I definitely do not have around (too dry for me) but I substituted Cabernet Sauvignon. I know, I know. I can already hear you saying: “Oh, and THAT’S not a dry wine?” LOL. It was an experiment, I won’t buy it again either.

So anyhow, while the sauce was cooking I took the top off so that I could stir it. I nearly got drunk off of the faceful of fumes that hit me. I think it should be called Drunkards Cranberry Sauce. “Lay off the sauce Granny.” ;)

After it all cooked down a bit and I worked feverishly to press it through the sieve, I had something that darn near resembled Cranberry Sauce.

As suggested in the article, I used mini bundt cake molds, except for Serge’s helping (the one with all the skins and stuff left in the sauce.) I placed that one in a heart-shaped mini mold. Awwwww, how sweet!

Surprisingly, the mess was minimal, just a couple of sticky red blobs on my counter….no more than making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Those who licked the remains from the mixing equipment seemed to be impressed with the flavor and a check into the fridge an hour later showed the molds to be jellifying nicely.

Kudos to Vegetarian Times for coming up with such a great a no-sugar, no-gelatin vegan treat!

THANKSGIVING UPDATE: When they say that you should use cooking spray to grease the molds, I guess they mean it.

I refused to use that stuff and since my molds were non-stick I just poured the cranberry mixture right into them.

They looked quite jellified but came out, with prodigious shaking, as a cranberry blob. No pretty mini-bundt shaped jelly here, just mush.

Suggestion: use either spray olive oil, or switch the agave for sugar which makes a more solid jelly.

Woohoo! Serge and I have finally given steamed dumplings a try.

Serge, who was born in Kyrgyzstan but grew up in Ukraine, has very fond memories of steamed dumplings from his childhood. On special holidays the whole family would get together and make over two-hundred dumplings within a 24-hour period.

I only recently fell in love with steamed dumplings, during our feasts in Toronto’s Chinatown. But I have been aching to learn the mastery of them ever since.

A little online exploration on the topic gave me some much-needed courage in the undertaking. I compiled the simplest instructions from 7 or 8 great recipe-sharing websites and came up with my own filling combinations in an effort to recreate those that we ate in Chinatown.

Today we made an Asian feast which, in the end, resulted in Sweet Oolong Tea, Steamed Dumplings, Fried Wontons and Hot-n-Sour Soup, all homemade! YUM!

We made dumplings wrapped two different ways (one Chinese and one, that Serge knows how to do, which is from Kyrgyzstan) and with two different fillings.

Check them out…

Dark “Meat” Dumplings

Ingredients:

Large Wonton Wrappers
Water (in a bowl)
*Scrambled Egg (in a separate bowl)

*: optional

Filling:

Lightlife Smart Ground (Regular Flavor)
Scallions (chopped)
Onions (diced)
Portobella or Shitake Mushrooms (diced)
Soy Sauce
Nutmeg






Light “Veggie” Dumplings

Ingredients:

Large Wonton Wrappers
Water (in a bowl)
*Scrambled Egg (in a separate bowl)

*: optional

Filling:

Carrots (diced)
Asian Cabbage (sliced and diced)
Ginger (grated fresh)
Extra Firm Tofu (sliced tiny)
Black Pepper


Other Necessities:

A round Dough Cutter (I used the lid to a jar)
A stovetop steamer, the more layers the better
A cheese grater or garlic press, for the ginger

1. Make sure that all ingredients are diced as small as possible, you may even use a blender or food mill to get them cut up very, very small.

2. Mix equal amounts of Smart Ground, mushrooms and onions (OR carrots, tofu and cabbage) in a bowl with just a touch of the other filling ingredients.

3. Prepare wonton wrappers by cutting them into the largest circle possible.

4. Fill wontons one at a time, begin by dampening the whole inside of the wrapper with a finger or two of water.

5. Using a tablespoon, fill the center of a wonton wrapper with the stuffing mixture.

6. With your finger, wet entire edge of round wrapper with scrambled egg liquid (or water.)

7. Fold and press or pinch shut along edge, beginning on one side and working towards the other.

8. Repeat until all wrappers are filled, or you run out of filling.

9. Once the steamer water is really boiling, place a single layer of dumplings into a greased steamer pan.

10. Steam 15-20 minutes until the dumplings are translucent, do not turn.

11. Turn steamer basket over and gently tap with a spoon until dumplings fall into your serving dish.

*If the dumplings stick, you can wet the underside of them with a little water or oil to ease them out of the pan.*

~

Of course I like to do things pretty big and fancy sometimes, so we had a large, coordinated place setting for each person at the table and a couple of dipping sauce choices.

I prefer the Nama Shoyu, Soy Sauce. Serge is now thoroughly converted to the Rice Vinegar. He even drank some from the dipping bowl to prove his level of enjoyment. ;)

So we had half-moon Chinese dumplings and some rose-shaped ones from the former Soviet regions, so pretty.

The meal was amazing, and so much more frugal than how I usually get my Asian food fix, take-out style.