Author: Faith

The Indian Slow Cooker

We’ve just received word that the powers-that-be have green-lit Cookbooks on Trial for a second season! I’m going to kick off this round of reviews with one of The Indian Slow Cooker by Anupy Singla, or as I like to call it: “Lentils, Lentils, Lentils!”

I first read about this book at CityMama and since Stefania is a fantastic cook and she liked the book I put it on my wishlist. I’m really glad I picked it up.

Aloo Gobi is one of my favorite Indian dishes and so it was the first recipe I tried from the book. We liked it so much that I made it again a week later but decreased the amount of red pepper a bit. I love really spicy food but the first time around my mouth was ON FIRE.

Aloo Gobi on the right with some curry shrimp and rice

Aloo Gobi (Spiced Cauliflower and potatoes)
from The Indian Slow Cooker
Yield 7 cups

Ingredients

  • 1 large cauliflower, washed and cut into 1-inch pieces (about 8 cups)
  • 1 large potato (russet or yellow), peeled and diced (about 2 cups)
  • 1 medium yellow or red onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
  • 1 medium tomato, diced (optional)
  • 1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled and grated
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped, minced, or grated
  • 3-4 green Thai, Serrano, or cayenne chilies, stems removed, chopped or sliced lengthwise
  • 1 Tablespoon cumin seeds
  • 1 Tablespoon red chili powder (Too much for me–decreased it to a heaping teaspoon)
  • 1 Tablespoon garam masala
  • 1 Tablespoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 3 Tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
  • 1 heaping Tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions

  1. Put all the ingredients except the cilantro in the slow cooker. Mix well.
  2. Cook on low for 3 hours. Mix once or twice during cooking, especially in the beginning. Eventually the cauliflower will release enough liquid to prevent anything from sticking to the sides of the slow cooker
  3. Add cilantro. Mix well but gently so as not to break up the cauliflower. Serve with roti or naan and a side of onion and cucumber salad.

The Verdict
4 1/2 (out of 5) stars. If you want to learn to cook Indian food this slim volume (130 pages) is surprisingly useful. Cooking Indian food can be pretty time-intensive but the recipes in this book enable you to dump everything in your slow cooker and go along your merry way. The book focuses on healthy recipes and leans heavily towards the vegetarian (the breakdown is 27 recipes for lentils and beans/peas, 11 for vegetables, 8 for meat dishes, and a few for sides/desserts) so if you’re looking for a book to help you recreate heavy Indian restaurant food, this is not it.

This book is useful for cooking vegetable sides to go along with other dishes. I can get flustered when I have too many dishes going on at once so when I want to make Indian food for dinner I like being able to have a side bubbling away in the slow cooker so I can focus all my attention on a more demanding main dish. The list price of $19.95 seems a little high but it’s under $12 at Amazon which is a good deal and where I got mine.

Wrapped in (Miranda’s) Love

N’s sister Miranda knitted Mimi this pink blanket. I love the yarn she used–the blanket is insanely soft and perfect for snuggling! I’m tempted to knit a throw blanket out of the same yarn for our couch–it would be perfect to curl up with while watching tv.


While I was taking these pictures E decided that one thing was sadly lacking–him! What a little ham. 🙂

Speaking of ham…I hope you have a happy Easter! (See what I did there?–Transitions!) I’m scheduled to teach our Relief Society lesson in church this Sunday and so I’m looking forward to preparing some remarks on Christ’s resurrection.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Letter to E: Month Forty-One

Dear E,

You’re in kind of a funny phase right now. Maybe you’re just trying to help us out by giving us a preview of what life with a hormonal 15-year-old girl will be like so we’ll be able to handle it when your sister hits puberty because, um, YEAH.


You are often, as your Uncle Ken put it, all id. You have such strong (and often conflicting) emotions and sometimes struggle with how to channel them. You want to be independent (which you often mistake for contrary) and yet want to please at the same time. I try and give you choices whenever I can but they usually go down like this.

me: “Do you want strawberry or peach yogurt?”
you: “I want to watch a show!”
me: “It’s time to eat breakfast right now. Do you want strawberry or peach yogurt?”
you: “I want to watch a show!”
me: “If you don’t choose, I’m going to choose for you.”
you: “I want to watch a show!”
me: “Ok, you can have peach yogurt.”
you: “NO!!! I WANT STRAWBERRY!”
ME: (strangled scream)

(AND scene)

Fortunately even with all the drama you continue to be a great big brother to Mimi. If she cries you try to help her by popping her binky back in her mouth and if she’s fussy when we’re in the car you tell her, “It’s okay Baby Nomi, don’t cry. Look–a truck! Look–a excavator!” It’s very sweet to see that you already love your little sister and want her to happy.

You have been really into superheros lately. Sometimes we’ll watch a Batman cartoon with you and you have a lot of fun bopping around the family room pretending to be Batman. But anytime there’s conflict on the show you get really sucked into it and like to pretend you’re a bad guy which usually translates to scowling and glaring at us and announcing, “I’m a bad guy!” We implore you to be a good guy but you already seem to sense that sometimes it can be more fun to be naughty.

This last month definitely had its rough moments: you threw more tantrums than you did in the last six months combined. I’ll admit it, at times I lost my patience. It was hard dealing with a new baby and with you acting out. I tried to remember how drastically your world had been rocked and that your behavior was just you trying to deal with feelings that you couldn’t articulate or control. It’s been hard dealing with you as you vent your frustration at us but it’s definitely to your credit that you haven’t tried to take your angst out on the baby. It has definitely been a lesson in patience for me as I’ve tried to look beyond your acting out and give you the extra attention you needed. Some days were more successful and some days I counted down the minutes until your dad came home.


Fortunately, I think we’ve turned the corner. The tantrums have decreased and you seem more confident that even though the baby’s here you still have a place in our family–You always will.

Love,

Mama

Racing the clock

E sitting down to dinner at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Pusan.

A while ago I bought a Groupon for A&I Books, a California company that prints high-quality photo books. This morning I checked the date on my voucher and saw that it expires oh, next week.

So now I’m sifting through the hundreds of photos I took on our Korea trip and editing them for printing. (Why oh why is it that I seldom get anything done unless I’m working against a deadline?–argh!) Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing how the book turns out.

Off The Wagon

I have a documented weakness for cookbooks. For the last year or so I’ve been pretty good about not picking up any new ones, but a few weeks ago I received an unexpected bonus from work and so I indulged a bit by getting a few things I’ve had my eye on.


(Clockwise: Sugar Baby, Entice With Spice, The Indian Slow Cooker, & The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook)

And on a related note (ahem) I’m going to start up Cookbooks On Trial again soon. I may not be able to do a post every week but I’ll try and keep it fairly often.

Wheatgrass for spring

I’ve always wanted to grow some wheatgrass in little planters for indoor decoration. It looks so fresh and spring-y. Well friends, this is the year!

Photo from Freshly Picked

After seeing Susan’s post yesterday I made up my mind to put a couple of planters together this weekend. This morning I picked up some hard red wheat from the bulk section of the health food store and a couple of serving dishes to plant it in from a thrift store. Now I just need to go get some potting soil and some rocks for the bottom of the dishes and we’ll be good to go.

E has been fascinated with gardening lately and so he was excited this morning when I told him that we’d be planting some grass together. I’ll let you know how it goes. Apparently wheatgrass takes about a week to grow so if you get some started this weekend you can have a cute centerpiece ready for Easter.

Wrapped in (Meemaw’s) love

Several family members and friends graciously gave us beautiful handmade baby blankets for Mimi, and I thought it would be fun to take her photo with each of them.

This lovely quilt was made by my mom. It is all-the-more special since her health has been poor lately and it took quite a bit of effort for her to make it.


Lately I’ve been tempted to try my hand at quilting. I definitely do not need any more hobbies (N will agree wholeheartedly with that statement) but I love browsing fabrics and putting together combinations I like. We shall see.

Stretch Marks, Be Gone!

I saw a charming commercial for Merderma Stretch Mark Therapy that said it was clinically proven (science!) to lessen the appearance of stretch marks. And since having a near 11-pound baby left me with some marks on my stomach (and I had a coupon) I thought I’d give it a try. Not that pre-baby I was baring it all in a bikini but you know, a girl likes to look/feel good.

I’m too chicken to post before-and-after photos but I’ll let know how it works. I’ve only been using it for about two weeks (out of the recommended 12) and like it so far. I haven’t noticed any dramatic results yet but my skin is nicely moisturized and the scent isn’t too bad.

So, um, there’s that. It doesn’t solve any of the heart-breaking problems in the world but at least my tummy is well-moisturized.

Fun with Cousins

We had a great weekend. N and I had fun catching up with Ken and Mindy and E had a blast hanging out with cousins Dylan and Caitlin. This was the first time he was old enough to (mostly) keep up with them.

He was pretty bummed to see them head home and begged to go to the airport with them. I seriously considered it (without telling Mindy) but ultimately declined (last minute plane tickets are pricey!)

Seeing how quickly the kids are growing up makes me feel old. (See this photo of Dylan and E for comparison.)

And now that I’ve had my fun I’m finally going to stop procrastinating and finish my taxes (blarg.)