Archive for the ‘Food’ Category
Quickie: Indian Food
Posted by Nirav | Filed under Food
Turns out it’s not that hard at all to make Indian food. At least, not that hard if you’ve got a Trader Joe’s nearby (seems like most of my stories start that way: “Turns out it’s not that hard to smuggle heroin across the border. At least, not that hard if you’ve got a Trader Joe’s…”); many key ingredients are easily acquired there.
I sautéed onions, added tomatoes and a can of garbanzo beans, and then dumped in a third of a can of Masala Simmer Sauce. I also added in some tomato paste to thicken the masala, which is a term for the gravy or sauce that vegetables are cooked and served in. In this case, the dish is called chole, and it’s eaten with naan (Indian bread). I also managed to pick up the naan at Trader Joe’s (you can see it in the cart picture from a previous post); this just went in the microwave for a bit to defrost and then into the toaster.
You can see the results in the picture. There’s a reason for the fact that I haven’t included much detail here, and that’s because the recipe is a secret. Just kidding: it’s somewhat complicated and a lot (like exact cooking times, proportions) is decided on the fly. It’s the kind of dish that can be pretty personal, so you’ll never find it made the same way from two different people. Anyways, here’s the (rather mouth-watering, I think) picture, which is what you’re here for:
Potatoes and Such
Posted by Nirav | Filed under Food
First, I’ve figured out some issues with photos: if I take a picture on my iPhone, WordPress throws a HTTP error when I try to upload it, but it uploads anyways. However, I then cannot insert a thumbnail of the picture into a post; it has to be the whole picture, resized down to 400 by 300 pixels, apparently in-browser with standard HTML image resizing: not the best algorithm. Solution? Take pictures with my camera.
(Update: never mind. Problem happens with my camera too. Will investigate further; thanks for bearing with me.)
The other day, I fried up a couple of potatoes with some onions and tomatoes. Before frying, I wanted to cook them, so I called my mom (of course) and she walked me through an excellent way to cook potatoes using only a microwave and a plastic bag.
It depends on the size and number of potatoes, but the basic idea is that you seal up some halved potatoes in a plastic grocery bag, microwave for a number of minutes, flip them over, microwave again, and then let them sit. I say “a number of minutes” because I’m not sure quite how to figure that out, and I don’t want to lead anyone astray (not that anyone jumped up at this paragraph and tried frantically to cook potatoes in their microwave).
The Epic Sandwich
Posted by Nirav | Filed under Food
The sandwich has been one of my favorite foods for as long as I can remember. Grilled-cheese made with plasticky Kraft Singles brings me straight back to elementary school, and lettuce-tomato-hard-boiled-egg sandwiches will remind me of last summer’s trip to Maine for quite some time.
It’s also probably one of the more perfect and versatile dishes out there: almost every ingredient is variable (and that’s not even talking about what to put on the side), and over the years, people all over the world have created everything from tiny snacks of cheese betweeen crackers (perhaps pushing the definition) to gigantic quadruple-decker monsters. (Here’s some history and more information about the sandwich on Wikipedia; quite interesting.)
To Build a Better Pasta
Posted by Nirav | Filed under Food
Often, when you consider making pasta, you think of simply slapping microwaved marinara sauce onto boiled noodles. However, there are a lot of easy and simple ways to make the typical pasta a lot better and tastier. I’m going to go through what I did to create my Better Pasta.
Portabella Mushroom Burritos
Posted by Nirav | Filed under Food
To save the awkwardness of a “first post” post, I’ll just jump right into it.
Portabella Mushroom Burritos
First, I tossed a can of black beans onto the stove, mixed with some salsa and salted to taste.
While that was going, I sautéed a couple of sliced portabella mushrooms (my favorite mushroom, I think) and half a tomato (diced) in olive oil and made sure to add in a good amount of freshly-ground black pepper to give the mushrooms a kick.