A 'meaty' recipe idea for vegetarians

Last month, DK chose the theme for the Free Spirit Bloggers. She wanted us to come up with vegetarian dishes that have ingredients that resemble meat, fish, etc. The idea was immensely challenging and the creative options are endless.

However, last month was a vacation one for me and my brain doesn't work for the blog when I am home in Kerala.

I couldn't let the theme go though so here's more of a recipe idea if you are cooking up brunch for a few friends and you have vegetarians in the pack. Here's a disclaimer, this will only work if you have access to Trader Joe's in your neighbourhood (sorry, non-US folks!)

When I was in the US in March, I met up with some friends for brunch at Joann's place. Since one of us was vegetarian, her menu was eggetarian-friendly. She had a pack of these Soy Chorizos from Trader Joe's. I loved it so much that I smuggled a pack back for TH and I.

All we did was to chop up some onions finely, add 1 tsp oil to a pan and fry them until transparent, add the chorizo to the onion, heat through, and serve! Its an amazing alternative for vegetarians and protein-packed to boot. Doesn't it look exactly like minced meat? I can think of some creative uses for it too, like topping for pizza, wrapped in a chapati, baked up in some pastry sheets like puffs, etc.

Try it!

This goes to Dhivs as my entry to her FSB theme for June! Check out her space to see what others contributed.

Robyn's "Call Your Girlfriend"

How else to explain this week's post other than the fact that I couldn't get this music video out of my head? I kept watching it over and over again until eventually I found myself emailing my friends sentences like: "I want to bon appetempt this video." And I guess when you say this kind of thing to people who happen to be talented and hilarious go-getters that will also allow you to take over a room of their house for the afternoon, borrow their clothes, and helpfully shout directions at you while you dance, the below happens—the below being Bon Appetempt's first music video.

Robyn's version:

my version:

Many many thanks to Heather, Jeana, and Brad for what was easily one of the most fun afternoons I've had in a long time. Let's do it again sometime?

What is Agra Panchhi Petha? (With Recipe)

This post is about 5 months too late. When we visited Delhi-Agra-Jaipur during Chinese New Year, this is one thing I definitely wanted to buy back - Panchhi Petha. Its nothing but cubed ash gourd simmered in sugar syrup and cooled down. Its extremely sweet and juicy when bitten into.

When I went to the same places while in school, we gorged on this super sweet Agra specialty without even knowing what it is or how its made (not that it mattered, especially at that age). I had forgotten whether its available in Jaipur or Agra so during our first stop which was at Jaipur, I asked our guide about it. He had absolutely no clue what we were talking about!

When we came to Agra, our guide immediately cut us short when we began explaining what we were looking for and took us straight to the very popular store called Panchhi which is probably one of the best places that sells "original" petha.

When we were at the railway station waiting for our train back to Delhi, I chanced upon Vanitha in a bookstore and it was a freakish coincidence because that edition had a bit about Lakshmi Nair (the now famous cook that comes in some shows in Asianet) visiting Agra and even a recipe for Agra Petha! I am reproducing it here, in English.

Agra Petha Recipe
Source: Vanitha, Feb 1-14 2011 Edition

Ingredients:
500gm ash gourd / kumbalanga
500gm sugar
Water as needed
1 tsp slaked lime / chunnambu
Saffron strands, optional

Method:

1. Peel and deseed ash gourd and cut into cubes.

2. Add the slaked lime to 2 litres of water and mix well. Add the ash gourd pieces into this and set aside for 2 hours.

3. Rinse the soaked ash gourd 2-3 times in clean water. Poke each piece a few times with a fork.

4. Boil the sugar with 1 cup water. When it begins to thicken, add the ash gourd pieces (and saffron if using) and bring to boil, then simmer for 3-4 mins.

5. Drain from the syrup and lay to cool and dry on a flat plate.

Note: I didn't make the petha in the pics. They are from the Panchhi petha shop in Agra. I just wanted to share the recipe that I saw in Vanitha, that's all.