Aloo Paratha (Indian Potato Pancakes)

Hey, did you know "aloo" means potato? One of my favorite foods, for sure.

Aloo parathas are delicious anytime. While some people eat them for breakfast, they're also great to wrap up fillings like cucumber-yogurt salad, eggs, chutneys, lentils, beans, or anything your imagination suggests. The most difficult part, if there is a difficult part to this simple recipe, is rolling out each cake. Be gentle and sprinkle your surfaces with flour as you need it.

Though my Indian-American friend Sheilja has made these before, she called her mom in New Jersey to get a specific recipe before we cooked together this week. Sheilja says her mom can toast these cakes on three or more griddles at once without losing her head or getting flustered.

Ingredients

6 cups potatoes, boiled and finely shredded
1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 tsp red chili powder
4 tsp cumin powder
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp salt (or more, to taste)
About 3/4 cup flour (we used whole wheat flour), plus more for rolling
2 tbsp vegetable oil, plus more for cooking (about 1/4 cup total)

Directions

Stir together all ingredients. Form the potato mixture into balls the size of a golf ball - about 2" in diameter. Coat each of the balls in flour and let rest for 5 minutes.

Gently roll out each ball on a floured surface, until it is about 1/4 inch thick and 4 or 5 inches in diameter. Place on waxed paper while rolling the rest.

Heat a flat skillet on high until a drop of water sizzles off it immediately. Place one or two parathas on the skillet, making sure they don't touch while browning. Swirl a drop of oil on the top of each pancake, then flip it when the first side is browned. Put a bit of oil on that side as the uncooked side browns and begins to bubble a bit.

Serve warm with any variety of chutneys, vegetables, yogurt, or the delicious raita - a cucumber-yogurt-mint sauce.

Makes about 30 pancakes.

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Seafood-Stuffed Portobello Caps

I'm torn between presenting this stuffed mushroom recipe as an appetizer or a meal. If you want to use baby portobellos (crimini mushrooms) or white button mushrooms instead, these make a tasty bite-sized appetizer. We stuffed them with white fish and shrimp, but if those are not your favorites, stuff them with any seafood combo you like.

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil

1/2 cup chopped white onion

1/3 cup chopped celery

1/2 small jalapeno, seeded and minced

4 oz. any kind of white fish, chopped

3 oz. shrimp, cleaned, tails removed, and chopped

2 tsp Old Bay seasoning

1 tbsp butter, melted

1 cup white bread crumbs

3 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

8 large portobello mushrooms, or 1 pound white mushrooms

3 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Optional

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 1/2 tsp wasabi paste or powder

Instructions

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and finely chop them. Grease a baking sheet and set the mushroom caps on the sheet. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Heat the oil in a medium skillet. Add the mushroom stems, onion, celery, and jalapeno, and saute until tender. Add the chopped fish, shrimp, and Old Bay spices and cook until just opaque. Try not to over-cook the shrimp, because they'll get rubbery.

In a bowl, stir together the butter, bread crumbs, and Parmesan cheese. Add the seafood mixture and stir well. Fill each mushroom cap with the fish stuffing and top with the shredded cheese. Bake at 350 degrees 20-30 minutes, until the mushrooms are tender and the filling is bubbly and toasted on top.

If you want, whisk together the mayonnaise and wasabi. Just before serving, drizzle the wasabi mayo over the hot mushrooms. Serve the mushrooms piping-hot.

Serves 4 as a main meal; serves 6-10 as an appetizer.

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Olive-Stuffed Italian Bread

My siblings share with me a special love for olives - something that has become a bit of a joke at holidays. We would not dream of a holiday celebration or family party that didn't include a big bowl of olives.

If you make extra chopped olives and don't stuff it in the bread, you can use it as a tapenade for our recipe Crispy Polenta Wedges with Olive Tapenade - or if you end up with extra tapenade after making that recipe, by all means stuff it in your next loaf of homemade Italian bread!

Ingredients

2 cups warm water (110-112 degrees)
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast or 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast from a jar
1 tsp sugar
5 cups white flour, plus 1/2 cup or more for kneading
2 tsp fresh chopped oregano, or 1 tsp dried
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups mixed olives, pitted and chopped (we used green ones with pimientos, Kalamata olives, and oil-cured Italian olives)
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 egg white
1/4 cup sesame seeds

Directions

In a mixing bowl, stir together the warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let sit for 20-30 minutes, until the mixture is bubbly (this is called "proofing the yeast"). Stir together the flour, oregano, and salt, then gradually stir into the yeast mixture.

Turn the dough out onto a floured counter or kneading board. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic and no longer sticky.

Grease a bowl that is at least twice as large as the volume of dough. Place the dough in the greased bowl, and then turn it over to coat the other side of the dough. Cover with a damp dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Stir together the chopped olives and parmesan cheese and set aside.

Punch down the dough and divide it in half. Sprinkle a flat surface and a rolling pin with flour. Roll out half of the dough into an 8x12 oval. Sprinkle half of the olive mixture evenly over the surface. Starting at one of the long ends, roll up the dough jelly-roll style, tucking in the sides occasionally, and pinching the end shut. Place it in a greased baking sheet. Repeat with the other loaf.

Cover the loaves with a damp dish towel and allow to rise until dough has doubled - about 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cut diagonal slashes in the top of each loaf, then brush with the egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the crust is golden and the loaves sound hollow when rapped with a knuckle.

Turn out of the pans and cool on a baking rack. For best results, slice it at room temperature.

Makes 2 hearty loaves.

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Hanoi-Style Pork and Chicken Vermicelli Soup (Bún Chả Hà Nội)

Ah, our jobs keep us too busy to travel in the near future. Instead, Joe and I whipped up a savory bowl of this traditional soup from Hanoi. According to Vietnamese chef Eric Nguyen, this is popular street food in found only in that northern city. People eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

We simplified his original recipe in the cookbook My Vietnam by using chili-garlic paste instead of a bird's eye chili, and instead of pork terrine, we added tofu that we needed to use up. This was fresh-tasting and satisfying, and the leftovers were just as good.

Ingredients

8 cups hot chicken broth
2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup fish sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp chili-garlic paste
2 tsp salt
3 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
3 oz pork fillet, cut into matchstick slices
4 oz firm tofu, cubed
9 oz dried rice vermicelli noodles
2 eggs
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp green onions, cut into matchstick slices
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1/2 cup mint leaves
1 cup mung bean sprouts
Shrimp paste, to taste

Directions

In a large pot, stir together the chicken broth, sugar, fish sauce, garlic, chili-garlic paste, and salt. Bring to a boil, then drop in the chicken, tofu, and pork. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the meat and tofu to a bowl and keep it warm; keep the broth simmering until ready to serve.

Cook the vermicelli according to package directions, until it is barely tender. Rinse in cold water and allow it to drain, stirring to prevent it from sticking. Add a little oil if the noodles start to clump - rice noodles can be very sticky.

Slightly beat the eggs. Place a large non-stick frying pan on the stove and warm the oil. Pour about 1/4 of the egg into the pan in a thin layer. Cook for one minute, until just set, then flip it over and cook the other side. The egg should be very tender. Slide the egg off onto a cutting board. Repeat with the rest of the egg mixture, stacking the egg "pancakes" on the cutting board. Then roll the egg stack into a cylinder and cut it into thin slices.

Ladle the broth into each person's bowl. At the table, let each guest add vermicelli, then the meats, then the egg strips. If desired, stir a little shrimp paste into the bowl. Top with green onions, mint, and bean sprouts, and provide extra fish sauce for dipping. Store leftovers separately so that the tofu and rice vermicelli don't get gummy by soaking in the broth.

Serves 4-6.

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Curried Pumpkin Hummus

As well as pumpkin, you can also use any kind of winter squash in this recipe. Those slightly sweet fall squashes pair naturally with Indian spices like curry powder, ginger, and coconut milk. If you use a squash like butternut or acorn, just quarter it, scoop out the seeds, and microwave the pieces for 15-18 minutes, until it's tender. Let it cool a bit before measuring out 2 cups of squash into the food processor.

Serve this hot with naan and cucumber-yogurt raita sauce, and you have a healthy Meatless Monday meal. Skip the yogurt, and it's vegan, too!

P.S. The toasted pumpkin seeds in this recipe are shelled; we buy them from the grocery store that way. I've never shelled my own but I don't think I'd want to. Sometimes you can find these in ethnic aisles of grocery stores, labeled as "pepitas".

Ingredients

1 15 oz. can garbanzo beans, drained
1 15 oz can pumpkin
2 tbsp sweet curry powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup roasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1 Thai chili pepper, seeded and minced
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup light coconut milk
1 1/2 tsp sesame oil

Directions

Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry frying pan until slightly browned and fragrant.

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor, and process on high until smooth and creamy. If you like a little texture to your hummus, reserve 1/4 cup garbanzos, add them towards the end of the processing time, and blend them until the mixture is just a little chunky.

Put the hummus in a saucepan and heat until steaming hot, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Pour into a bowl and top with extra roasted pumpkin seeds, if desired, and serve with naan, pita bread or wedges, or crackers.

Makes about 4 cups of hummus.

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