Banana-Papaya Bread with Dried Figs

Banana-Papaya Bread with Dried Figs

My friend S and I decided to bake up a banana bread recently. I was in charge of getting the bananas. Somewhere along the way I got real hungry and ate 1 of the 3 bananas I was supposed to get :(.

Now armed with just 2 bananas in place of the requisite 3, I sheepishly walked over to S's house only to have her promptly come up with a solution...why we can add some papaya to it instead! I had my doubts about the papaya addition, but who was I to say anything given that I had eaten part of the MAIN ingredient..doh!

The end result was that the papaya complimented the bananas just perfectly in this simple yet very tasty banana bread. We eventually got so excited that we started experimenting with chocolate chips in the 2nd loaf (bad idea so won't provide that recipe here ;).

This banana-papaya bread goes to Ahaar's JFI: Bananas event originally conceptualized by the amazing Indira!

Banana-Papaya Bread

Ingredients
1. 2 cups all-purpose flour
2. 2 cups over ripe bananas, mashed well
3. 1 cup ripe papaya, mashed (optional, you can replace this with 1/2 cup of mashed banana)
4. 1 teaspoon baking soda
5. 1/4 teaspoon salt
6. 1/2 cup butter (you can replace this with olive oil for a healthier version)
7. 3/4 cup brown sugar
8. 2 eggs, beaten (feel free to use 2 cups of ostrich egg ;))
9. 1/2 cup dried figs or any other nuts/dried fruit you have at hand

Method
1. Pre-heat the oven at 350 degrees
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar
3. Stir in eggs, mashed bananas, papaya and dried fig until well blended
4. Gently stir this mixture into flour mixture where it just moistens
5. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes or until brown.Insert a toothpick into center of the loaf, where if it comes out clean, the bread is ready to eat!
7. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove, slice and eat
Enjoy :)

Ostrich Egg Frittata

Ostrich Egg Frittata

We got this humongous egg home one day, half expecting a baby dinosaur to come out of it the longer we refused to crack it open. When we finally did, we were rewarded with a bounty of wonderfully tasty and healthy (lower in cholesterol) version of the regular egg!
Camera used to take the pics below: Non-SLR. Olympus Digital, C-720 Ultra Zoom.
That's what it looked like when we got it

Hammer, chisel? It actually came with instructions!!


Yes, ALL that from one ostrich egg!

This is what we did with it :)


I have been meaning to write about my Ostrich egg escapades for a while now. Just as I am about to do that, I notice that Jai and Bee's 1st photography event theme is EGGS!! Serendipity anyone?

I am sending this eggstatic post Jai & Bee's way. For those who have not tried ostrich egg before, it pretty much tastes like regular egg, only 1 Ostrich egg tastes like 21 of the regular ones ;). Yup, thats right 1 ostrich egg yields yolk and egg-white equivalent to 21 regular eggs :)

Now how did we come about an ostrich egg you may ask. Well, R and I were on a tour of the California missions starting from San Francisco and going all the way down to Santa Barbara when we spotted an ostrich farm on the way! What again? Yes, an ostrich farm where they raise ostriches and allow people to go feed them. The brave ones who decided to go feed the large birds were given a LONG list of Dos and Donts (well Donts mostly :)).

R was just fascinated by the ostrich egg shell and was about to buy just the shell, when the person raising the ostrich convinced him to buy the actual egg with its goodness all intact instead. I kept nodding very vigorously, but alas R was already like a lil kid asking her all kinds of questions as to how many eggs does an ostrich lay in a week, do they protect them like mammals do etc etc. At that time I knew this was a lost cause..oh well...next thing I knew we had this HUGE (understatement!) egg sitting in our backpack where we were instructed to err keep it warm and covered???

Now the moment I heard the words keep it warm and covered, I had scary visions of a lil ostrich staring at us from the back of our car by the time we got home!
Well all ended well with us discovering the joys of ostrich egg, and for some reason we came away wondering if everyone raised ostriches instead of chicken, would that reduce the need to buy eggs as often as we do??? Hmm....now thats a thought, silly one albeit ;)

Kanchana of Married to a Desi was nice enough to highlight eggs as this month's WBB event event originally conceptualized by our favorite neighborhood doc Nandita. This way we get to click our eggs and eat them too ;). Am sending this ostrichy frittata her way!

Ostrich Frittata
Ingredients
1. 4 cups of ostrich egg well beaten. Alternatively you can use 4 regular eggs.
2. 1 cup peeled, cleaned shrimp
3. 1 cup broccoli cut into florets
4. 1 cup mushrooms, cleaned and chopped thinly
5. 1 tsp Black pepper
6. 2 tsp cajun spice (or paprika)
7. 1 tsp olive oil
8. Salt to taste
Method
1. Pre-heat the oven at 350 degrees
2. In a deep vessel, add all the ingredients above and mix well
3. Spray a thick bottom skillet with oil
4. Add the mixture to the skillet and let cook in the oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes of till the egg turns brown
5. Once cooked, cut into wedges and serve.
I served this with some garlic bread. Made for a very satisfying meal!
Enjoy :)

Modaks, modaks everywhere!

Modaks, modaks everywhere

Modaks Galore

Waiting to be Fried

Last day of the Ganesh festival

Today was the last day of the Ganesh festival. It was so great having friends hop over for the evening aartis...felt very festive and a small taste of the festival in India. I made some modaks for this occasion, and it turned out to be one sweet journey with friends bringing over yummy besan laddoos, cashew laddoos, a variety of fresh fruits and chocolates!! Boy do I love festivals :)

Besan Laddoos made by my friend T

Incidentally, I was in India (Mumbai) 2 days prior to the actual festival start date, and boy was the city already geared up for the big event! Huge pandals with people working till the wee hours of the morning putting in the final touches....aah pure nostalgia :)

I have previously posted the recipe for Modaks as well as additional information on them a while back, which you can check out here :)

Back from Mexico...gourmet heaven :)

Back from Mexico!

Apologies for the long blogging silence, but the main reason is that I have been extremely busy with a lot of travel (fun and work related) and dealing with the amazing response to the new product we just launched.

I will be back with more posts soon. In the meanwhile enjoy the food from our recent trip to Cabo in Mexico :)

When in Mexico...

Simple homemade tacos

Unbelievable crab at Alexander's

Lobster, lobster everywhere!!

Isn't it g8 when your food is grilled right by your table?

Margarita time...

Where the Mayan civilization comes alive...

Papaya Margaritas at the famous Hotel California

The OTHER hurricane ;) and it says DP!!

Street side food

Can't wait to go back....

Idyllic Beaches

60 Glorious Years & Refreshing Panha!

Indian Flag

Panha Concentrate

Mango Panha

Its been 60 years since India got its Independence, where its fascinating to see how far we have come, as also to know how much more is left to achieve. The last 60 years has seen us work towards eradicating poverty and illiteracy on the one hand, and launch our own space programs on the other. We have seen the green (agriculture revolution) as well as concrete steps to go green and make the environment a healthier one for generations to come.

We have seen the growth of the middle class, with cell phones becoming more of an equalizer across societies every day. We have seen an onslaught of malls, cable TV, yet retained the essence of who we truly are!

We surely have a long ways to go with eradicating poverty, social inequality and corruption, but I have faith and confidence that its only a matter of time before we collectively do so!

My mango panha is a tribute to India's meteoric rise as well as the actual meteoric temperatures we are experiencing this summer :). Its a refreshing drink to a refreshing start of the next set of glorious years for India!!
Refreshing Mango Panha (A tart summer cooler made from raw mangoes, flavored with cardamom and saffron).


Ingredients
1. 2 raw mangoes
2. 3/4 cup sugar
3. 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder (elaichi)
4. a pinch saffron soaked in warm water
5. Black pepper
6. 1 tsp lemon juice (per glass)
7. Salt to taste
Method
1. Peel the raw mangoes and chop into pieces
2. Boil the chopped mango and sugar in water till the mango is very soft.
3. Drain all the water from the mangoes.
3. Strain the mango pulp.
4. Add the cardamom powder and saffron and mix well.Boil again for another 4-5 mins
5. Store in a bottle and refrigerate. This panha concentrate has a shelf life of 2-3 months if kept frozen.
6. When ready to serve, put 2 tablespoons of the mixture into a glass and top up with chilled water and ice. Add a pinch of salt, pepper and 1 tsp lemon juice.
Note: Instead of the cardamom and saffron, you can add cumin powder and black salt.

This is a perfect summer drink that can be easily packed and carried over to that fun picnic in the sun. Am sending this to 2 super fun events: Anupama's innovative "Fun in the Sun" event & Meeta's Monthly Mingle event!!

Zero Oil Kebabs

What's that again you say? Zero oil kebabs!! Why, and how and why again ?? Well, I have been gorging on some amazing food lately with recent visits to Bong Su (beyond amazing dining experience!), Cascals, Menara...you get the drift!! Given that, I decided to try a zero oil recipe from Nita Mehta's book, Zero Oil Cooking. This is a fantastic book, where every recipe is extremely well thought out. Especially, given how hard it is to make traditional dishes with little or no oil, she works wonders with this theme!

The book has a large variety of dishes, ranging from oil free Chocolate Sandesh to Baked Eggplant to Paneer Makhmali. I decided to try out the minty dal kebab recipe from her book as it was simple and I had all the ingredients ready at hand. And no, in case you are wondering, when the recipe said no oil, it also meant no butter, no margarine etc etc ;). This is truly without any oil or substitutes thereof..I know, hard to believe right!

This goes straight not to the stomach (no oil remember ;)), but to Nupur for her "Z" letter event in the A-Z of Indian Vegetables series.

Zero Oil Minty Dal Kebabs (adapted from Nita Mehta's Zero Oil Cookbook)
Ingredients
1. 1 cup chana (split chickpea) dal
2. 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
3. 1/4 tsp cardammom powder
4. 1-2 cloves crushed
5. 1-2 peppercorns crushed
6. 11/2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
7. 3-4 green chilies, grated
8. 7-8 mint leaves, finely chopped
9. 1 onion, finely chopped
10. 1/2 tsp garam masala
11. 1/2 tsp chaat masala
12. Salt to taste

Method
1. Cook the dal with salt, cumin, cardamom, cloves, peppercorn and ginger-garlic till its ready to be mashed.
2. Once cooked, mash the dal with a flat spoon. Make sure all the water is cooked off before you mash the dal.
3. Add the remaining ingredients to the mashed dal.
4. Make small round flat rounds/kebabs
5. Grill at 450 degrees F for about 20 minutes.
Enjoy :)
I served this with some hot sauce and mint chutney.

Even without oil, the kebabs did not stick to the baking sheet after they were cooked. You almost didn't miss the oil in fact, given that the dal was already cooked and tasted more like a savory chaat!
However, next time if I am eating these kebabs by themselves, I think I will add some oil while grilling them. If I am making a ragda pattice or a chaat with yogurt and sweet date-tamarind chutney, I will use the recipe as is, with no oil.

Zafarani Harvest Grain "Pulao"

Nupur's fantastic series the A-Z of Indian Vegetables Series is coming to an end :( This has been an amazing culinary journey for me where I saw bloggers come up with the most amazing variety of entries, where the recipes were mostly Indian but the ingredients were necessarily not!

In order to honor the culmination of this series where the letter "Z" is being celebrated, I decided to prepare a dish with the king of spices, Zafaran or Saffron. Saffron is one of the most expensive spices in the world and also one of the most ancient. It not only elevates the flavor, color and fragrance of the food it is added to, but takes it to a whole new level really. As if that one was enough, saffron has some pretty cool medicinal properties as well!

Now moving on to the Pulao bit, I am not a huge fan of white rice which is why I decided to make this pulao with this amazing harvest grain blend from Trader Joe's. The savory blend consists of orzo pasta, baby garbanzo beans and red quinoa. The instructions on the package said one can make an entrée by adding shrimp, so though why not use this to make a flavorful zafarani pulao instead!

I am happy I decided to do so, as this was as tasty as it was healthy. The best part is I got to use the dried apricots sent to me by jen last week. This is my entry to the “Z” series of Nupur’s A-Z of Indian Vegetables

Zafarani Harvest Grain Pulao
Ingredients
1. 1 cup harvest grain blend (mixture of orzo pasta, baby garbanzo beans and red quinoa). I used the one I got from my local Trader Joe’s
2. 2 tsp dried apricots of Zardaloo, fine chopped
3. ¼ cup lima beans
4. 1 tsp paprika powder
5. 1/2 tsp biryani masala (available in any Indian grocery store)
6. 2 tsp saffron strands
7. 11/2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
8. 3 cups vegetable stock or water
9. 1 tsp olive oil
10. Salt to taste

Method
1. Soak the saffron strands in ½ cup of water and keep aside
2. In a heated pan, add the olive oil
3. When the oil is hot, add the apricots and ginger-garlic paste. Sautee for a 1-2 minutes
4. To this add the paprika and biryani masala and roast for half a minute
5. Add in the lima beans and mix well. Sautee for 1-2 minutes
6. Add the harvest grain blend and sauté for a minute
7. To this add the vegetable stock/water and salt
8. Let cook for 10 minutes or till the beans are done. The harvest blend does not take more than 10 minutes to cook
9. Garnish with some zafaran and zardaloo
Enjoy :)

I paired this with some roasted pappadums.yumm…

Summer Salad in a Jiffy

Refreshing Watermelon-Papaya Salad
Mint plant I am taking care of for my friend S while she is away!
Its summer, and you have a million things to do and ummm, one has to eat! So what does one do? Cook up quick, refreshing salads of course!

I was inspired by this super simple, but loaded with flavor watermelon salad over at Madhuli's blog. I added a few additional ingredients like mint (given that I now have a HUGE pot overflowing with it!) and some fresh mozzarella. Everything is better with Mozzarella ;)

The entire recipe including prep time took less than 20 minutes to put together. The marriage of the summer fruits with the mint and ginger-honey dressing was just fantastic!! It made for a great summer lunch paired with some freshly baked corn bread. I am quite sure I will be making this my lunch few more times this summer!

Note: anyone looking to add more honey in their diet should get some from their local farmer's market if available. I have been enjoying unbelievably good wildflower honey, as well as a range of honey flavors that took me by surprise!
16 flavors of honey at the Mountain View farmer's market

Summer Salad in a Jiffy
Ingredients
1. 2 cups watermelon, scooped into balls. You could also just cut up the watermelon into bite sized chunks
2. 1½ cup papaya, scooped into balls. You could also just cut up the papaya into bite sized chunks
3. 1½ tsp freshly grated ginger
4. 3 tsp honey
5. 2 tsp lemon juice
6. 1½ tsp red chili Flakes
7. 4 tsp fresh mint, torn into smaller pieces
6. 2 tbsp fresh mozzarella, cut into smaller pieces
7. Salt to taste

Method
1. In a bowl, combine the watermelon and papaya. Keep aside.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the honey, ginger, chili flakes and salt to make the dressing. Mix well.
3. Add the dressing to the fruit and toss well.
4. Top with the mint and mozzarella.
5. This salad tasted best when chilled, but could also be eaten right away.

Enjoy :)

Blogging By Mail Package is Here!

I was sooo excited to receive a wonderful gift hamper filled with the most amazing goodies from Jen of Fallen Souffle! This is part of a fantastic project started by Stephanie, where I can say with even more conviction now that this was a brilliant idea ;)

Jen put put together a list of her favorite things: very tasty home baked chocolate chip cookies (with whole wheat yay!) and her recipe to go with it, apricots, cherry jam, espresso chocolates, tea in the cutest package saying "We will always have Pearis", and Jack Daniels flavored coffee (w00t!).

Thank you Jen for lovingly putting together such a fantastic array of foods!. I can't wait to make your chocolate chip cookies and of course try the Jack Daniels flavored coffee :P. My favorite part was the prettiest note written by Jen explaining the contents and how much she loves Trader Joes. Guess what Jen, me too!

The Blogging by Mail event has been such fun, where I got to send a package to Becke in Ohio, and received mine from Jen in NC!! I will write about the stuff I sent soon. In the meanwhile you can read Becke's post on it here :) Can't thank Stephanie enough for going through the trouble of pairing the bloggers up and just bringing back the joy of snail mail based interaction :)

Indian Markets & a Meme

When I was tagged by 3 wonderful bloggers The Cooker, Bhags & Priyanka, I was absolutely thrilled! Thanks so much guys! My very 1st meme, and that too by 3 people ☺...
Now comes the tough part...what does one write for a meme like this however? Well, here the the 7 things that came foremost to my mind!
Also, as part of this meme, here are some fun pictures of a local market in my hometown, Pune

With a smile like that, how can you resist the veggies

Ooh, fresh shrimp anyone?

1. I always want to say I grew up in Pune, but the truth is I moved to a new city every 3 years during most of my childhood. However, the longest years I have spent in one place are Pune, and it was where I met the people who had most impact on me and my life! Will admit however that it was just as fun moving to new places every few years, where the place and the people gave us way more love than we could ever give them!

2. Another fantastic place I lived in was Bangkok. Whyevers? Well, believe it or not, for school! I went to Asian Institute of Technology, which is an amazingly beautiful school 40 kms from Central Bangkok. We had professors and students from over 30 countries, each sharing in each other’s cultures. I had a blast there…traveling, eating great food and making some amazing friends now spread across 5 continents!

3. I adore food. That is the true word to describe it I think! In fact, the men in our family lament that their wives will leave them rather than let go of a certain food! Hehehe….

4. Even though I like food this much, I didn’t enter the kitchen till I moved to the United States. Back in India, I just enjoyed the amazing goodies being churned out in my mom’s, aunt’s, granny’s, neighbor’s kitchens…but never really bothered to learn or try to make then..alas…

5. When I did start cooking, it was a disaster! The 1st attempt to impress R resulted in burnt kheer and burnt omelet…of course I quickly blamed that on the weird hot plate like cooking stove in our new home in the US :-0). Soon R and 2 of his friends who lived next door became my test candidates…I kept experimenting new dishes on them, which they wolfed down with no complaints..other than the occasional “there is more rice inside right?” to my surprised look that all the rice I made (barely enough for 1-2 people!) had been polished off within 5 minutes!!!

6. Other than food, I love the mobile/telecom space. I am that geek you see who changes their phone every few months and has to have the latest phone. No, I don’t have the iPhone however…That’s a whole different story ☺ Every time someone asks me why I love the mobile field so much, I always tell them that when the internet happened we were too young to be at the beginning of it. With mobile however, we now have that chance!

7. I wanted to be a chef at one point of time (werd!), but after a couple of weekend classes at the California Culinary Academy, I realized just how tough it is to be in this business. My amateur chef's hat is off to all those hard working chefs, restaurateurs and just anyone directly connected with the food industry!

Now its my turn to tag 7 fellow bloggers for their meme..yay! I call on these wonderful bloggers:
Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness
Jen of Fallen Souffle
Becke of Columbus Foodie
Sia of Spice Corner
Sharmi of Neivedyam
Cynthia of Tastes Like Home
Jyothsna of Curry Bazaar

Play along if you have time or haven't been tagged before and are bored of talking about yourself ;)

Yellow Dahi Bhindi/Fried Okra with Yogurt

Many have wondered about the origins of this dish where some people speculate it to be a Gujarati dish and then at times as a Maharahstrian preparation. I am quite unsure of this as well, but what I am sure of is its amazing taste. This is one okra dish that never fails to please. It has converted one too many okra haters into okra lovers!! In fact our friend S loved this dish so much, he had his wife make this for him every day for few months....unbelievable but true!!!

So what is this amazingly transformative dish that is so simple to make? Its a yoghurt based okra dish, which can be the star entree of any party! I do think one of the reasons for this version if Okra's popularity is that the deep frying process completely eliminates the usually disliked sliminess of the okra. Those who are averse to deep frying the okra could also just drizzle with some oil and bake it in the oven instead.

Given the yellowness of this dish, I am sending it to Nupur for her 'Y' of Indian vegetables series.

Yellow Dahi Bhindi/Fried Okra with Yogurt
Ingredients
1. 2 cups okra cut in small, bite sized pieces
2. 4 cups plain yogurt
3. 1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
4. 3-4 green chilies, grated
5. 1 tsp mustard
6. 3/4 tsp turmeric (this is where the yellowness comes from!)
7. 1 pinch asafetida or hing
8. 2 tbsp Oil for frying the okra. 1 tsp oil for tempering
9. Salt to taste
Method
1. In a deep pan/kadhai, heat the oil. when oil is hot, fry the okra (till crisp) in batches and keep aside on a tissue paper (to drain the excess oil)
2. In a separate bowl, beat the yogurt till its smooth. Keep aside
3. In a pan, heat 1tsp of oil. When hot, add the asafetida, mustard, green chilies, cilantro and salt till it all splutters
4. Remove tempering from heat and add to the yogurt. Do not add the yogurt to the tempering, but add the tempering to the yogurt instead
5. Add the fried okra and mix well.

Server with Paratha or Rice. If you have leftovers of the Dahi Bhindi, so not heat it, but bring it to room temperature and consume!

Enjoy :)

Watermelon Margarita & Stuffed Watermelon Bites

Watermelon Cheese Bites

Watermelon Margarita

You know summer is here when you get not one but two HUGE watermelons home the same day! Yes, thats exactly what happened to R & me. I picked up what I thought was a nice juicy watermelon from the local grocery store, and the very same day R decides to pick one up from Costco on his way home. We both lay our respective watermelons down and started laughing...more so from the fact that when put next to each other they looked like Laurel and Hardy!!! Well, those who know Costco well can probably guess which came from which store ;)

Given our sudden bounty of watermelon, I decided to make a cheesy watermelon appetizer to match our cheesy grins! Then blended some pretty looking watermelon margaritas to wash down our silliness!!

While we are happy and well cooled with all this watermelon consumption, we still have a fridge filled with more and more and more what else, watermelon!!! I am so excited that Jai & Bee of Jugalbandi are hosting this month's AFAM event where the theme is watermelon. I surely need ideas to use up all that great watermelon in new and innovative ways :)
This is also my submission to this month's AFAM event.

Watermelon Cheese Bites
Ingredients
1. Seedless watermelon cut into 6 individual blocks
2. Crumbled feta cheese. I used fresh Mozzarella as had some ready at hand
3. 1 tsp Olive oil
4. 1/2 tsp Italian herb mix. You could also use just basil, thyme or oregano
5. 2 Green chilies sliced
Method
1. Cut the watermelon into square blocks. Remove the center flesh to make an indent leaving the bottom part intact.
2. In a bowl, combine the cheese, olive oil and herbs. Mix well
3. Scoop out a small spoonful of the cheese mix, and fill the indented portion of the watermelon squares
4. Top with green chili slices (optional)
Serve chilled. These make for great summer party finger food. Enjoy :)

Watermelon Margarita
Ingredients
1. 16 oz seedless watermelon pieces
2. 1/2 lime
3. 6 oz tequila
4. 3 oz triple sec
5. 1 tbsp sugar (optional)
6. 2 cups ice
Method
1. Blend the watermelon slices in a blender and liquify
2. Add remaining ingredients, including the ice and blend until smooth
3. Add sugar if needed
4. Serve in a margarita glass with a sugar coated rim. Garnish with fresh mint
Enjoy :)

Xtraterrestrial Gobo? Or Good Ol' Burdock Root!

Burdock Root



Burdock Root Pickle

Masala Burdock Root

Now most of us are familiar with those TV ads going BOGO or Buy One Get One Free. But what on earth is Gobo! I recently discovered this amazing vegetable also known as Burdock root in my local Japanese store. Now why would I try to cook something that looks so different from anything I have ever made? For Nupur's 'X' of Indian vegetables event ofcourse! Given that 'X' is such an ahem unique alphabet, Nupur came up with the innovative idea of using that as an opportunity to cook a vegetable we have never made before. Now given a wild card like this, I could not help BUT go wild ;).

So what do I do? I go pick up the craziest looking vegetable that looks barely edible, and resolve to make something R & I can enjoy! I come home, promptly fire up my internet browser and look up what this is and how one cooks it. Much to my surprise, I was delighted to find that the Gobo root has incredible medicinal properties and actually looks quite pretty as a young plant :) Now with even more motivation, I started looking for recipes, most of which were South East Asian style preparations.

Given that Nupur's event calls for predominantly Indian flavors, I decided to cook it 2 ways: a. as a pickle (yumm!) and b. as a spicy vegetable cooked Indian style.
The pickle I absolutely loved (its been pickling a few days now and tastes great!). As for the Indian style vegetable preparation, was not too bad either, where it tasted a bit like potato sabzi.

The key thing with the Burdock root is that it needs to be cleaned well and steamed for 15 minutes at least to make sure it loses its initial hardness. Once you are past that stage, you can use this in fried rice, noodles, and stir frys.

This is what the Gobo looks like once its cleaned and julienned...


Gobo/Burdock Root Pickle
Ingredients
1. 1 Burdock root
2. 1 cup readymade Pickle Mix. I used KaPra's mango pickle mix (available in any Indian store)
3. 1 cup oilve oil
4. Salt as desired
Method
1. Wash and scrub the burdock root with a rough sponge or metal scrubber
2. Cut the root into juliennes and steam for 15 minutes till soft
3. Mix together the burdock root, pickle mix, salt and oil. Mix well.
4. Store in a air tight container. Make sure the oil rises 2 inches over the pickle mix for a longer shelf life
5. The pickle is ready to enjoy in 3-4 days

Masala Gobo/Burdock
Ingredients
1. 1 Burdock root
2. 1/2 cup thinly sliced onion
3. 1½ tsp ginger-garlic paste
4. 1½ tsp red chilli powder
5. 1 tsp dhana-jeera powder
6. 1/4 tsp garam masala
7. 1 tsp turmeric powder
8. 1/2 cup chopped coriander
9. Salt to taste
10. 2-3 tsp olive oil
11. 1 tsp lemon juice
Method
1. Wash and scrub the burdock root with a rough sponge or metal scrubber
2. Cut the root into juliennes and steam for 15 minutes till soft
3. In a heated pan, sauté the onions in oil
4. To this add the turmeric and roast well
5. Add the ginger garlic paste and sauté for a minute or two
6. Add the dhana-jeera powder, red chili powder and garam masala. Roast well
7. Add the steamed burdock root and sauté well
8. Add salt, lemon juice and coriander
9. Let the mixture cook well. Add some water if needed
Server with Naan or Rice

Enjoy :)