Memorial Day BBQ: I'll Bring the Potato Salad!

Well, just so you know I TOOK THIS PHOTO! All thanks to my droid Sheldon and sweet photo apps

My family has never been big on BBQs we never frequented them, and when I was little my parents didn't BBQ at all. We didn't eat meat often. When we were little meat was in our house from time to time, and we didn't cook it that often. I also think having a grill would have been pointless, and I have a slight suspicion that our deck would go up in flames...

Well for Memorial Day Weekend 2011, we decided that we were going to be brave and BBQ! By we I mean my uncle, who has yet to set his deck on fire. My uncle got an amazing deal on seafood from Groupon, and before you wonder, it wasn't shady and it was all high quality. We gorged ourselves on the follow: lobsters, mussels, scallops, shrimp and crab cakes. That was just the seafood, we also enjoyed: grilled corn, grilled garlic bread, potato salad and cake. Just writing this post makes me hungry all over again.   

Instead of narrating everything, I think I'm going to let my photos do the talking. 

Grilled Corn Dusted with Chili Lime Salt and Butter 

Mussels in a Spicy Tomato Sauce Served with Grilled Garlic Bread 

Sam Adams IPA Latitude 48

Right, we also had a beer tasting.....seriously awesome BBQ

Crabby Patty Crab Cake Burgers with Spicy Mayo!

Soooo yummy

Grilled Lobster with Garlic Lemon Butter 

Now we come to the piece de resistance (is that even spelled right?), the main event, GRILLED LOBSTER! *cue heavenly music* These were fresh, yes that means alive, lobsters that were sliced in half and then coated with lemon garlic butter. I did not take part in killing the lobster, I actually freaked out when I held the live thing. If this isn't decadence then I don't know what is. Just salivate at the photos.

One Joshi likes the lobster

The other fears the lobster 

Well, I mean roasted garlic does deserve its own picture, after all roasted garlic is the bees knees. 

Oohhh Lobster! 

Fighting to get claw meat 

Alton Brown's Potato Salad! Recipe courtesy of Food Network 

I've never made potato salad before, I've only had it two or three times. I think my first time making it went over really well. I even tried to make it look pretty :) 

Ohh, let's not forget about cake..........

Vanilla with Buttercream and Strawberry Ricotta Filling 

Yayay Northeastern! Someone want to give me a job?

Rosemary Garlic Shrimp & Scallops with Mustard Butter Sauce 

I forgot to take a picture of the scallops, a shame I know. However there is a good reason why, I was eating.

This was a good day, and I'm sure all of you foodies won't disagree. Thank you to my uncle and aunt for getting us all of this scrumptious food! Now I can see why people like grilling so much!!! Perhaps this should become an annual thing?

Plantains: Plantin' Flavor In Your Mouth!

I've never been a fan of bananas. Actually, I really REALLY don't like them. Their mushy texture and interesting taste makes my taste buds cringe and want to run away. This is perhaps a dramatic reaction to bananas, but I really don't like them. I however don't share the same feeling towards plantains. For those who don't know,  these are bananas starchy green brethren.

This starchy staple is seen in tropical regions. You can't exactly peel a plantain and eat it like a regular banana. You have to peel and cook it into a nice savory concoction. In Telugu we call plantains aratikya, and we cook them in dozens of ways. Last night I made it more of a dry fry. Well it was an attempt at a dry fry, my parents really need to get a non-stick pan so cooking starchy vegetables will be easier. Also when working with plantains your hand get a grimy, so make sure you wash them after! 

Aratiky Kura

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of plantains
• Salt 
• Turmeric 
• Chili Powder 
• 2 tsp. oil 
• Lemon juice 
• Poppu
• Udad dal
• Cumin seeds 
• Chana dal 
• Toor dal
• Mustard seeds 

Directions

1. Cut the ends off the plantains and then peel them. 

2. Rub a small amount of oil on your hands and then cut the plantains in to narrow length-wise pieces. 

3. In a large pot, fill it with water. Add a pinch of turmeric, salt and oil. Add the plantain pieces to the pot. 

4. Boil the pieces in water and cook until they have some yellow color. 

5. In a large pan heat oil. Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds; when they pop add the rest of the ingredients needed for poppu. 

6. When the poppu ingredients cook for about 30 seconds, add the boiled plantain pieces. Season with salt and chili powder. 

7. Cook until the a fork can break one of the pieces. Mix periodically allowing the pieces to crisp up nicely. When it is thoroughly cooked, splash with lemon juice and mix in. 

*Notes*

*Usually eaten with rice 

Ease: Pretty easy to make, but breaking down the plantains can be annoying 

Ayurvedic Friendly: Yes 

Yummy: It is nice, but it's very starchy so don't mix with a lot of rice unless you like tons of starch. 

   

Smashed Potato Kura!

Kind of wish I knew this baby.....

My diet sometimes bothers me, for the sheer fact that I can't eat a lot of the things I like. What's the deal with cutting out all of my favorite vegetables, dairy and sour things? Party foul Dr. Naram, party foul.

Most of you may have noticed that I tend to break my diet and blog recipes that are most certainly not Ayurvedic approved. On Friday, I made this smashed potato kura that seemed to go over quite well, just ask my sister.

Smashed potato eh? Yes, I didn't mash the potatoes, but I smashed them. This makes this easier to eat with rice as opposed to mashed potatoes. Then that would just be a weird carbo paste mix that resembles baby food.

I liked this recipe a lot. One thing wish is that I had used a larger fork. My fork was small, and did it more mashing instead of a smashing. Lessons to remember for next time.....

Smashed Potato Kura

Ingredients 

• 1 bag of baby potatoes 
• 2 medium-small onions diced 
• Salt
• Pinch of turmeric 
• Chili powder 
• Pinch of hing powder 
• 2 tsp. of cumin seeds

Directions 

1.Wash the potatoes and then boil them in salted water until they are fork tender. Pour into a colander and let them dry.

2. Dice the onions and set aside. 

3. In a large pan heat oil. Once the oil is heated, add the hing powder and let it sizzle. Then add the cumin seeds and cook for a minute.

4. Add the onions to the oil and cook until they are translucent. 

5. Once the onions are translucent, add the potatoes to the oil. With a large fork, press the potatoes down until they are slightly flat and break around the edge. 

It's not Stonehenge, its Potatohenge!.......

6. Season the potatoes with salt, turmeric and chili powder. Mix the potatoes periodically so they brown properly. Add extra oil if necessary.

Got more smashed that I wanted it to be.

*Notes*
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUJIMAMMA!!! aka my super cool uncle

Ease: Super easy and can take about 30 minutes to cook, probably less.
Yummy: Clearly it is, I mean look at it!
Ayurvedic Friendly: Well, the beginning of my post clearly states that it's not. 

Eggs Eggs Eggs! This Time They Are Scrambled!!

I realize that with the new phone this kind of looks like meat, but it's not! It's eggs I promise 

I realize that this is my third post where eggs are the main ingredient. Do I have an egg fetish? No, but I think my cousin would beg to differ, heyyyy Theters! It's hard not to enjoy eggs! They are so versatile and all cultures seem to exploit them to their finest flavor. 

The kura I made was a scrambled egg kura. I usually do a very basic version of this with just salt, turmeric and chili powder; however, today, I decided to turn up the flavor volume and add some garam masala and kala jeera. I also used green garlic instead of regular garlic. We had some in our freezer and I thought it would be interesting to use. If you don't have any green garlic, then regular garlic will work just fine. Behold the recipe below! 

Kala Jeera Scrambled Eggs 

Ingredients 

• 6 eggs 
• 2 tsp kala jeera 
• Salt 
• Turmeric
• Red chili powder 
• 2 tsb garam masala 
• 2 small onions diced 
• 1/8 cup chopped green onion or 1 cloves of garlic chopped 
• 1/2 in. ginger diced 
• Splash of milk

Directions 

1. Dice the onions, green garlic and ginger and set aside. 

2. Heat oil in a pan and add the garlic and ginger. Cook for 1 minute and then add the onions. Season with a small amount of salt and 1 tsp of kala jeera. Saute until the onions are translucent.

3. In a medium size bowl crack the eggs. Do 3 whites-only and 3 whole eggs, we do want to be heart healthy here people.....well, sometimes. Add the salt, milk, garam masala, 1 tsp of kala jeera, chili powder, and turmeric. 

4. Vigorously whisk the eggs so that there is no white visible. I hate when scrambled eggs have a bunch of white showing. That's not a scrambled egg, that is a broken fried egg.....

I don't know if mine is the way I like it, I think I found small bits of white when I cooked it.

5. Once the onions are translucent, add the egg mixture. Cook on medium low. Constantly mix the eggs so they don't brown/burn on the bottom. Mix until the eggs soft and have set. 

I really don't know what's with the yellow stripe. Lighting much?

*Notes*

*Always serve this piping hot. Like I've said before, nothing is worse than a cold egg

*This goes well with rice, but would be equally delicious on its own or with any bread

* I mention to season the onions with some salt. The reason why I say this is so you can avoid over or under salting your dish. This is the advice I got from Giada de Laurentiis, she says "season every layer of your dish". Don't go over the top, add a small amount of salt to each layer. It's best to use your best judgement. Mistakes happen so it's not the end of the world! Unless its related to the atom bomb....then we are talking about something else. 

*Also, I got a new snazzy droid that has a great camera on it, so I'm trying to take better pictures. Now I know some of the photos look odd with a weird yellow patch in the middle, I hope I figure it out in time for my next post! 

Ease: Very easy to make! If you can make scrambled eggs, then add a few more minutes to prep and cook time and you can make this dish! 

Ayurvedic Friendly: Yup

Yummy: I think I should have made mine more spicy, it got diluted when paired with the rice 

Quickest Lunch Ever, Toasted Flat Rice Mixed with Avakaya

I'm terrible at eating lunch, I tend to stare at the contents of the fridge and hope there is something to eat. Today was no different, so for lunch I decided to have avakaya atukulu. Atukulu or poha is flattened rice that is sold in the Indian store. It is used for an assortment of things and one of them being quick unhealthy lunch options. Usually the atukulu are toasted and then tossed with chilies/onion or onion/avakaya and then served warm. Seriously void of nutrition, but rather delicious. My favorite version of atukulu is with avakaya and onion. You can see the recipe before, it really takes about 10 minutes to make.

Avakaya Atukulu

Ingredients

• 1 cup atukulu/poha
• 1 small onion diced 
• 1 big spoon of your favorite avakaya 

Directions

1. In a pan toast the atukulu until they are crispy and there is some light brown color. 

2. Once they are toasted add the diced onion and mix well. Turn off the heat. 

3. Mix in the avakaya thoroughly with the onions and atukulu. Drizzle some oil on top and serve immediately. 

*Notes*

If you want to have this with fresh green chilies, just mix the diced up chili with the toasted atukulu and onion. 

Ease: Take about 10 minutes 

Ayurvedic Friendly: 90%

Yummy: It's good for a quick fix.