Kimchee, vegan & with Gochujang

My love for kimchee has all begun since 2020, after I discovered K-dramas. I love how they eat Kimchee with everything and so I started making my own. 

There are multiple recipes on the internet on how to make vegan kimchee, and this recipe of mine is derived from all those - this one uses Gochugaru, the chilli flakes. 

Now that am in India, I noticed it is much easier to get access to Korean food items, and a friend got some Gochujang for us from Korea town near Ananthapur. I had to make kimchee with that, and the taste is totally different and yummier. 

Gochujang is also pre-fermented , so it acts like a starter to ferment the cabbages. Plus, since we are in warmer temparatures in India, the kimchee, as it is sitting on the counter, has fermented much quicker. I also choose to use the normal cabbage available in the grocery store for this recipe. But am sure it would taste better with the Napa cabbage too.

Here are all the references I used for this recipe - 

1. FoodbyJonister - Kimchee
2. FoodietakesFlight - This post has fermentation tips too.

Allam Pacchadi, for pesarattu

I love allam pacchadi (ginger pickle), and I have always eaten Pesarattu with this, so much so that I cannot imagine eating pesarattu with anything else. I always ensure we have a big bottle of this in the fridge so we can eat pesarattu anytime we want. 

Long ago, I worked along with Mom to come up with this recipe, this is her's and she is a total boss with her kickass allam pacchadi. 

However, over the years, using her recipe as a based, I have come up with my own method, to suit my kitchen and cooking style. Here it goes... 

1. Tamarind (1C, tightly packed) - soak in water and set aside.
2. Jaggery (1C) - Chop or powder and set aside.
3. Ginger (350gm) - Wash, dry and chop ginger. Shallow roast in some oil, set aside to cool. Once cooled, grind with some tamarind-paste or water to a paste.
4. Mustard & Fenugreek seeds (1/4 C each) - Dry roast these together. Cool and dry grind them to a powder.
5. Red Chillies , dry (roughly 2C in their dry state; half and half of regular and Kashmiri chillies) - take the tips off and shallow roast in oil. Set aside to cool. Dry grind to a powder.
6. Hing - 1Tbsp, Turmeric powder - 1Tbsp, Salt - to taste.
7. Mix all the dry ingredients - the roasted chili powder, hing, turmeric and salt - together and keep aside.
8. Mix the ginger paste, tamarind paste and jaggery together.
9. Now mix the dry and wet ingredients together to a paste.
10. Curry leaves & Red chillis (to taste) - Heat some oil, sauté the curry leaves and red chillies. Add the mixed ginger paste to this and mix well. Keep mixing till the ginger paste leaves oil in the pan.
11. Take off heat and set aside to cool.
12. Keep in an airtight container. Can be eaten for upto 6 months if refrigerated.
13. Serve with Pesarattu

Mirchi ka theccha

A friend of ours always has Mirchi ka Theccha in her fridge and she pulls it out like a superpower when she is making anything desi. This is where I first discovered this amazing dish and have since kept it ready in my fridge too. We eat it for many things - spread inside grilled cheese, toppings on dips and with roti. 

Here's the recipe - 

Ingredients

Green chillies
Garlic cloves
Cumin
Coriander
Sesame seeds
Cooking oil

All the quantities for the ingredients are per your taste.

Method

1. Wash and dry the green chillies
2. Heat the pan with oil in it. Put the green chillies and sauté well. The chillies will blister and get charred in places. Once all the sides of the chillies are blistered well and it looks like they are cooked, keep aside.
3. In the remaining oil, sauté the garlic cloves. They can be charred a bit too. Take off heat and put aside
4. Coarsely grind the charred chillies and garlic together. Take care to not make them into a paste, the texture retains some of the taste.
5. Dry roast the cumin, coriander and sesame seeds, together or separately. Take care not to burn them. Dry grind once they are cold.
6. Mix the ground powder with the coarse chilli and garlic mixture well.
7. Store in a glass container. Keep refrigerated, should stay good for at least a month.

Optional

1. You can add asafoetida while dry roasting the spices and grind them all together for additional flavor
2. While storing the theccha, cover it with lemon juice to preserve it and for a tangy taste

Where to use

1. Spread for grilled cheese sandwich
2. Any Indian dish that is lacking in spice, for that oomph factor
3. Topping for hummus and other Mediterranean dips
4. Along with Roti or Thepla

Laksa Noodles

 I figured an easier, quicker way to make Laksa Noodles, or at least a version of them. 

Singapore noodles, Vegan

 

Notes - 

1. Soy sauce can be added, if you choose to,  along with sesame oil. 
2. Other vegetables to add - Spring onions, cabbage, more garlic, bok choy. 

Ramya's Pappu Chaaru - The Best!

My friend Ramya makes the best Pappu chaaru, EVER! 

She gave out a large portion when she made it last week and we relished it with rice and ghee. I always think I should attempt this dish, but this time, I took time to try out her recipe, and was able to create something in the ballpark. So here it is!

Ingredients, makes enough to last for 3 meals for two people

Toor daal - 3/4 cup
Tamarind Paste - 2 Tbsps of thick paste, mixed in water
Oil - 2Tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1Tsp
Cumin seeds + Garlic paste (coarse) - 1Tbsp (made from 5-6 mashed garlic cloves)
Chillies - 4-5
Curry leaves - 5-6
Veggies - 2C
Onion - 1, sliced
Coriander powder - 1Tbsp
Fenugreek powder - 1Tbsp
Jeera powder - 1Tbsp
Turmeric - 1Tsp
Salt - To Taste

Method

1. Boil the daal in the pressure cooker and mash it to a nice pasty texture
2. In a heated hollow bowl, add oil, when hot add jeera and mustard seeds. Let it splutter
3. Add onions, split green chilies, curry leaves
4. After the onions are fried a little, add all the veggies and a small pinch of fenugreek powder (very imp as it balances the tangy tamarind taste). Then add the coarsly crushed garlic and cumin paste.
5. Add turmeric and salt, close the lid for 1-2 min
6. Add the tamarind juice to this, and let the vegetables cook in this liquid for 8-10 min on a medium flame
7. Add cooked dal and some more water, bring it to a boil
8. Add the coriander and jeera powder, and let it boil for 5 min

Serve hot, with warm rice and ghee. 

Veggies to add

1. Dosakaya (yellow)
2. Drumsticks
3. Bottle gourd (Sorakaya)
4. Brinjal
5. Okra
6. Dondakaya
7. Chayote squash (seeme badnekaayi/seema vankaya)

Vegan Kimchi

Ever since I started watching Korean dramas during the pandemic and drooling at all the yummy food they lay out on the tables (almost every day has key scenes around food and people are around books most of the times, and I LOVE this!), I have developed this interest for Kimchi, and I have been making Kimchi fried rice and Kimchi ramen almost every week. This has now reached comfort food status for me. I had already been eating curd with a little Kimchi with it at night, so now I have three uses for Kimchi.

Buying Kimchi from the stores was not an option, especially during the COVID19 pandemic, because I did not have the time and bandwidth to stop at the aisles, look for a vegan Kimchi, look for its ingredients to ensure it is all natural etc. Also, store-bought Kimchi turned out to be too expensive for the frequency and quantities I was cooking these dishes. Hence the search for the perfect Kimchi recipe.

Notes -

1. Authenticity - I do not claim that this is the authentic version of Kimchi, I have developed this recipe after reading on multiple food blogs, and wanted a Vegan option. This recipe has worked for me for a while now, doesn't go bad, is spicy enough for our palette and refrigerates well for at least 2 months (that is the maximum one batch of Kimchi has stayed in my fridge).

Chocolate chip cookies, eggless

Original recipe source - DessertForTwo

Few notes -

1. Modified the recipe from the original to suit the standard butter stick and 1oz mark for cream cheese, it helps with my pantry management. :)
2. I've noticed that the cookies turn out a bit brown if I bake for 9 min, so might reduce baking time next time to 7min, and remove from cookie sheet immediately for cooling
3. I use Ghirardelli chocolate chips.
4. I tried the same recipe with whole wheat flour. I felt it was a little dry, so might reduce the flour by 1Tbsp next time. 

Peanut butter cookies, eggless

Original recipe link - Flavor Mosaic's Best old-fashioned eggless peanut butter cookies

Soup-ey Ramen

Recipe for a soupy ramen after all the K-drama watching and drooling at the yummy food!

I didn't want to eat Maggi and the seasoning from instant noodles , hence this recipe.

Suggested replacements -
1. Replace Kimchi and sambal with chilli sauce
2. Add miso paste/powder for flavor along with the water in step 3. 

Spanish Tortilla, eggless

Rasam, quick & easy

Boil water, add finely chopped tomatoes, garlic, green chilli to this. Bring mixture to a boil. Add cooked toor Dal and mix well. Add rasam powder, turmeric, salt and bring the whole thing to a boil. 

Check salt by tasting, adjust it, and boil a little. 

Temper with ghee + mustard + Curry leaves + hing and pour over rasam

Serve hot with coriander as garnish. 

Moong Dal Pakoda

Moong Dal - 1C, soaked for at least 1 hour

Green chill - 5-6

Garlic - 5-6 Cloves

Ginger - 1 inch piece

Spinach Leaves - a bunch

Coriander leaves - a bunch

Onion - Half, chopped fine

Jalapeno peppers - 2, chopped fine

Red chilli powder - 1 Tbsp

Amchoor powder - 2 Tbsp

Hing - 2 Tsp 

Salt - to taste

Method 

1. Grind half the soaked Moong Dal with the chilli, garlic and Ginger to a fine paste

2. Mix the powders and salt to this mixture

3. Mix in the chopped veggies and greens

4. Heat a pan with oil. Once heated , drop a spoonful of this mixture and deep fry.

5. Serve hot

Chilli Garlic Noodles

Green chilli - 2, chopped fine

Garlic - 5-6 cloves, chopped fine

Onion - 1/2

Green peppers - 1/2 ; use other colored peppers too, if available

Carrots - 1

Tomatoes - 1

Source of protein - shelled Edamame or Lima beans or sprouts

Cabbage - 1/4, if using

Spring Onion - a bunch , use only whites for cooking

Noodles - 2 cakes; cooked per instructions

Chilli sauce - 2 Tbsp

Soy sauce - 1/4 C

Greens from the spring Onion - For garnishing

Lime juice - from 1/2 lime

Method

1. Chop all the Vegetables length wise

2. Heat the oil, saute the garlic and green chillis together.

3. Now saute the rest of the onions, and the vegetables, till cooked

4. Add the chilli and soy sauces and mix well. Add salt to taste.

5. Mix this vegetable mixture with the cooked noodles. 

6. Top with garnishing , sprinkle lime juice and serve hot 

Appam & Stew

Appam - 

https://www.cookingandme.com/2013/02/18/kerala-appam-recipe-palappam-recipe/

Stew - 

Heat coconut oil. Do tadka with cinnamon, clove, cardamom and bay leaf. Optionally add whole black pepper (I don’t add). When this splutters, add finely chopped ginger and slit green chillies. Sauté. Add chopped onions and curry leaves. Sauté till pink and translucent. Add veggies(potatoes+peas+carrots), adjust salt. Add thin coconut milk (I use tetrapack coconut milk.. dilute 1/4th cup with 3/4th cup water).. close and cook till veggies are done. When it’s done, add thick coconut milk (undiluted from tetrapack), mix well and switch off (do not let it cook or boil after adding thick coconut milk). Add a tsp of coconut oil on top for aroma.

Veggie Fritatta

Saute all veggies together with garlic, green chilli and red chill flakes. Add salt.

Mix some salt to the besan, add yogurt, and mix till smooth. Pour this on the veggies while still hot. Transfer this to a baking pan and bake at 375C for 30min.

Tomato Pachadi

Recipe Sources - Five Morsels of Love (link) and Sailus Food (Link)

Peanut chutney

Ingredients

Peanuts - 1C - roasted

Puttanalu - 1/2C - roasted

Chana dal - 2Tbsp

Urad dal - 1 Tbsb

Red Chilli - 10

Sesame seeds - 2Tbsp

Mustard - 1Tbsp

Cumin - 1Tbsp

Hing - 1Tbsp

Oil - To roast all the above

Tamarind paste - 1Tbsp

Onion - 1 finely chopped

Garlic - 6-8 cloves

Method

Roast the tadka ingredients in oil and let them all cool. 

Grind all the roasted ingredients together till a fine-coarse paste is formed.

Add onion and garlic to it and grind to a finer paste.

Mix in salt and tamarind paste. 

Cold not-sesame noodles Salad

No, even I don't know why this is named this way... I simply got inspired for this salad from the NY Times salad article and went ahead with it. :-)

However, the name makes this salad feel very exotic, at least to me ;-) If you love peanut butter, you will definitely LOVE the idea of this dressing. What's not to like about peanut butter mixed with soya sauce? :-)

Easy & Healthy Stir-Fry Noodles

Yeah, by now, it is known that I cannot cook something that doesn't a little health associated to it. That means, greens, fresh veggies, some protein etc.

So, this week was noodle mania week at home. I discovered Lotus Foods' Brown rice and millet noodles, and we love the consistency and taste of these.

This is an easy recipe that I made one weeknight.

Lo-Mein Noodles