Category Archives: Indian

Modern Aloo Gobi (Indian Cauliflower with Potatoes and Peas)

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AlooGobe_Dish

Roasted vegetables,  fingerling potatoes, and green peas make it prettier, tastier, and healthier. (As pretty as it can be, anyway; the cilantro sprig helps.)

Aloo Gobi, that savory combination of cauliflower and potatoes, is the perfect dish to continue my series on the familiar white crucifer while also introducing my next set on Indian food. This dish is no Navratan Korma, I won’t lie, but it’s a great, easy meal to have as part of your plant-based repertoire—and it takes a fraction of the time to prepare.

I’ve made Aloo Gobi a number of times over the years. My husband and I agreed that this recipe was the most authentic and delicious, which I used as a guide. The modifications I made were:

  • Including sautéed onion
  • Roasting the cauliflower and potatoes instead of boiling
  • Using a mix of fingerling potatoes rather than simple white
  • Adding green peas

The change that made the key difference was—you guessed it—roasting the cauliflower and potatoes. Boiling simply cannot compare, which extricates flavor and nutrients. The other changes helped, too. The colorful fingering potatoes are more interesting and higher in nutrition than the Russets commonly used. It’s hard for me to make anything without sautéed onion, which adds flavor and complexity to any dish, so I did that, too. Finally, I included peas because I always prefer to see green in my dishes. For all of these reasons I call this a “modern” take on the classic that yielded a definite improvement in taste, texture, aesthetics, and nutrition over the traditional.

Below are some cooking photos and instructions to supplement Aarti’s recipe.

1. Drizzle the potatoes with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast at 425 degrees F for 45-60 minutes, tossing every 20 minutes. Note: This is the longest step, and it does take a while given how hard potatoes are.

AlooGobe_Fingerlings

2. Prepare roasted cauliflower, described here. Note: it can be in the oven the same time as the potatoes and will take far less time to cook. 

Cauliflower_Roasted3. While vegetables are roasting, prepare the wet masala, described here. Note: I used 2 tbsp grated ginger and 2 tbsp crushed garlic and 1 tsp canola in lieu of the paste. Works just fine. I also sautéed a finely diced onion in a bit of oil before adding the masala. I almost took a photograph. But then I didn’t. Sorry. 

4. Cut the cooked potatoes into bite-sized chunks. Aren’t those prettier than white? Purple is my favorite.

AlooGobe_FingerlingsCut

5. Following the recipe, mix everything together, minus the peas, making sure to cook on very low heat an additional 10 minutes or so to let the flavors come together. (Since the vegetables were not boiled in the sauce, this is an important step.)

6. Add peas, allowing to sit and addition 3- 5 minutes until they are cooked and still green. Taste to ensure all flavors are incorporated.

AlooGobe_Pot

Best Aloo Gobi I’ve ever made, by far.

And you thought only cauliflower came in purple!

P.K. NewbyDr. P. K. Newby is a nutrition scientist and educator with expertise in the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases through diet and the relations between agriculture, food production, and public health. She is currently training for the Boston Marathon, her third (more here and here), to raise money for cancer research. She brings together her passions for food, cooking, science, and sustainability through her writing and videos to help people eat their way towards better health, one delectable bite at a time. If you like what you see here at The Nutrition Doctor is In the Kitchen, please subscribe to my blog from the home page, become a fan on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, check out my food porn on Pinterest, watch my videos on YouTube, and peruse my recipe page for soups, salads, seafood, sweets, and more. Thanks for reading!

If you can't find colorful fingers, regular potatoes work just fine.

P.S. If you can’t find colorful fingerlings, regular potatoes work just fine. I can’t always find them, either: here’s a pic where I used red bliss.

Navratan Korma: A Labor of Love

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Never heard of navratan korma?

Nine gems (“navratan”) includes lots of brightly colored vegetables—er, nine, to be exact—simmered with garlic, ginger, onions, cream, yogurt, cashews, and raisins. It’s a spectacular vegetarian dish that will definitely satisfy your Indian craving. Whether you keep it mild and sweet or add some hot peppers and cayenne for kick, make it your own and take vegetarian cooking to the next level of “yum.” Not an everyday affair, it’s a labor of love that takes some time but is lots of fun, very rewarding, and will definitely show someone you care.

And it’s okay if that person is you, too: you deserve it.

Nine vegetable gems: cauliflower, broccoli, eggplant, red pepper, onion, green pepper, zucchini, sweet potato. and carrot. (Poblano and jalapeño pepper not included.)

I cook a lot of Indian food, like baingan bharta, roasted eggplant soup, and aloo gobe, for starters.  It’s not just because my husband is Indian, either. We both love dishes with big flavors, and Indian food, ike many other ethnic cuisines, definitely fits the bill. I had been having quite a craving and decided to try something new this past weekend. The timing was perfect, as the autumn harvest is in its glory and all of the produce above, including the garlic and ginger, came from my local farmers’ market.

If you’re not familiar with this dish, you can learn more here: Wikipedia helpfully reminds us that this is a recipe for “korma,” not “karma.” Too bad, because I’d love a recipe to make a big batch of good karma. Anyway, as I’d never made this dish before, I scoped out a few recipes online and ultimately made my own version taking a bit from each, using Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipe as a starting point.

Begin by prepping the vegetables. There’s a lot of them, I know, but that’s why this dish is crazy nutritious. It’s a veritable rainbow of veggies. (I almost reorganized them accordingly, but I’m not that OCD.)

I can’t tell you how many times I counted to make sure there were in fact nine different vegetables. Carrot was my ninth, but I just used one because my husband has issues with cooked carrots. The nine gems don’t need to be only vegetables, anyway, and may include cashews and raisins among the goodies. You get the idea.

Blanch the vegetables and set them aside until they’re later added to the sauce (often referred to as “gravy” in Indian cooking). Blanching is simply boiling briefly then dunking in cold water to stop the cooking; this also retains the color of the vegetables. I don’t regularly boil vegetables (other than corn-on-the-cob), as it leads to nutrient losses. Indeed, the blanching liquid was mildly colored from the water-soluble phytonutrients and vitamins that had leached into the water. Sounding like a quick vegetable stock, yes? Bonus: no need to waste water! Some of it was used in place of the water called for later in the recipe, and the rest went into the fridge for a future soup.

While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the various pastes. I won’t lie, I found the number of “pastes” required daunting. Perhaps if they’re sitting in your fridge, or you buy them from the Indian store, you’ll be all set. As I was making everything from scratch, I decided to cut a few corners. My online research and comments from other cooks suggested that the cashew paste was key, as was the onion paste. And, once I get out the food processor these things whir right along (pun obviously intended). I followed Sanjeev’s basic recipe for the cashew paste but added water and a bit of almond and peanut butter to make a larger supply in case I needed it. (I did.) Lovely. I improvised my onion paste by processing finely an entire onion with water then simmering it on the stove while the rest of the recipe came together. I believed the reviews that this step is critical in flavoring the gravy: the boiled onion paste is one of the major liquids in the dish, and  chopped onions will certainly not achieve the same effect. I did, however, decide to blow off the garlic and ginger pastes and instead employed several cloves of crushed garlic and an inch of grated ginger root; I felt very okay about it.

Putting it all together is fairly straight-forward and resulted in a richly flavored dish that tasted like the korma I know and love. Almost. Sanjeev’s recipe called for cardamom pods, which I didn’t have, so I used dried cardamom instead. Who knows whether that or my omission of the garlic and ginger pastes were critical factors. Perhaps, but I don’t think so, as I’ve made other recipes of his. His version did not call for a few spices included in other versions, such as turmeric, cumin, mustard (seeds or dry), paprika, or garam masala. Not unlike chili or stews of American fare, there are many different recipes out there, so I played around to achieve the taste I liked: I reseasoning with the spices above plus a dash of cayenne, a bit of palm sugar, additional nut paste, and a cup or raisins, which brought the dish to the glorious flavor profile I expected. (Note: many recipes call for coconut, but I make so many coconut-based curries that I decided to leave it out per Sanjeev’s recipe. I’m glad I did, because coconut is very pronounced and I was challenged to create the recipe without relying on creamy, delicious coconut milk. Do what makes you happy.)

I was delighted I could still see the many brightly colored vegetables. If only this picture were scratch and sniff…

Additional Cooking Notes

I reiterate that this dish is a true labor of love if you are making it homemade and don’t have the pastes previously prepared or from the pantry. In other words, Sanjeev’s time estimation is way, way off. If you love to spend time in the kitchen, you’ll find it an outstanding opportunity to indulge in a little cooking meditation, jam to your favorite tunes, or sip on a glass or two of wine. There’s peeling, chopping, blanching, simmering, smashing, grating, processing, boiling, reducing, and mixing for a good hour, after all, and that doesn’t include the extra 20 minutes it took me to figure out “what else does this need?” As well, while this dinner did take a while to prepare, a container went into the freezer for another meal, some stayed in the fridge for a lunch for my husband, and I’m one step closer to making my next soup.  When you think about it from that perspective, the time invested more than pays off.

And I had a wonderful Sunday evening.

Possible accompaniments include brown rice or Indian bread. (Do you really need both?) I served mine with a garnish of cilantro and homemade whole wheat garlic naan. On its own is just delightful, too!

P.K. NewbyDr. P. K. Newby is a nutrition scientist and educator with expertise in the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases through diet and the relations between agriculture, food production, and public health. She brings together her passions for food, cooking, science, and sustainability through her writing and videos to help people eat their way towards better health, one delectable bite at a time. If you like what you see here at The Nutrition Doctor is In the Kitchen, please subscribe to my blog from the home page, become a fan on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, check out my food porn on Pinterest, watch my cooking videos on YouTube, and peruse my recipe page for soups, salads, seafood, sweets, and more. Thanks for reading!

Orange and Cardamon-Scented Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake

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With spring comes a variety of fabulous fruits and vegetables, including asparagus, peas, and rhubarb. Of course, in New England spring doesn’t happen for a while, so finding such treats grown locally isn’t possible. After several weeks of the constant barrage of recipes, tweets, and posts dedicated to these favorites, I thus broke down. You all know how I cherish my local farmers’ markets, but I am a realist rather aware of the global food system in which we live. I eat locally as much as possible, and I love it; I’m also grateful that many wonderful foods are available year-round, which contribute substantially to my health and happiness. Some things I consume regularly will never be local, after all, including such staples as coffee, avocados, olives, and nuts.

Getting back to rhubarb – hey, it’s in season somewhere - my purchase was stimulated by my desire to bake. I grew up baking but don’t do it frequently, as keeping sweets around the house is generally not a good strategy for healthful eating.  Sunday was a special occasion, however, as my husband’s family was in town for a visit.  I had dreamt of making a coconut cake with vanilla buttercream on a bed of bright blackberry coulis, but such an undertaking requires more time than I had. That would have been divine, as coconut actually is in season right now in Boston. (I’m kidding, I hope you know. Come on.) Nonetheless, I’m a fan of the upside-down genre, which is quicker to prepare and stars seasonal fruit. Not unimportantly, they also tend to have fewer calories than many other cakes, double-layer coconut cake slathered in silky buttercream included.

I modified this recipe from Bon Appétit, which is actually for a plum upside-down cake I made last summer. (See how infrequently I bake cakes?) Modifcations include the following: (1) Replace cinnamon with 1 tsp cardamom; (2) Replace almond extract with 2 tsp freshly squeezed orange juice; and (3) Add 1-2 tsp orange zest. Why do this? Why not! Orange is classically combined with rhubarb, and cardamom is a warm spice often used in Indian baking, making a classy substitute for cinnamon. The result was lovely, though next time I’ll probably add a bit more cardamom as the flavor was more subtle than I’d have liked.  I served the cake with Grand Marnier infused whipped cream and a sprig of mint.

Incidentally, this cake also pairs beautifully with a morning cup of coffee, not that I encourage such things. Fortunately, the cake you see served 7 at dinner and I left half of the remains with my in-laws, thus bringing home only 2 additional pieces for breakfast dessert for my husband and me.

See now why I don’t keep cake around the house?

General Cooking and Baking Reminders

It is always good practice to read recipes through in their entirety before embarking on any culinary venture. I do in fact do this and you should, too. Yet, sometimes the baking takes a bit longer than expected when I’m using my convection oven, in which case I run out of time. This is a big deal when making an upside-down cake, as it needs to be turned upside down after the proper cooling time to make sure that (a) it comes out of the pan at all and (b) it comes out of the pan in one piece. Now, of course I am always running late, especially when trying to bring food, such that I had to carry the right-side-up cake in the car with me, hold it for 30 minutes, then carefully invert it in the car. Did I mention this was a brand new car? We had just picked it up the day before. I am not making any of this up.

I am delighted to report that my mad baking skills resulted in no disasters, despite the additional challenge of completing the process in a moving vehicle. Luckily, my cake, er, turned out beautifully despite my less-than-stellar planning.

Nevertheless, if you make this splendid and pretty cake at home – and you should – I’d go ahead and try to do the turning-over part in a stationary environment.

P.K. NewbyDr. P. K. Newby is a nutrition scientist and educator with expertise in the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases through diet and the relations between agriculture, food production, and public health. She brings together her passions for food, cooking, science, and sustainability through her writing and videos to help people eat their way towards better health, one delectable bite at a time. If you like what you see here at The Nutrition Doctor is In the Kitchen, please subscribe to my blog from the home page, become a fan on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, check out my food porn on Pinterest, watch my cooking videos on YouTube, and peruse my recipe page for soups, salads, seafood, sweets, and more. Thanks for reading!

Eggplant, Part 2: Metamorphosis

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EggplantSoup_UpdateI love leftovers!  I really do. In fact, I specifically cook most things to have remaining portions, which I either freeze or eat for dinner on subsequent evenings. Plus, as much as I adore cooking I only have so much time, like all of us. I need some of my regular dishes to stretch a few days.

All that said, I had eaten baingan bharta on several evenings since I was at the theatre and had no time to cook. Delicious, yes, but could I find something creative to do with that one remaining serving? And could I perhaps even extend it into several more meals?

Certainly you must have guessed that I would make soup, much like I did when I syphoned some of my fresh tomato sauce to make a velvety tomato soup. Sure, the dishes start with the same ingredients and spices, but it’s a great way to put a fresh twist on a dinner you enjoyed less the fourth time than you did the first.  In other words, it prevents leftover burnout.

Making Roasted Eggplant Soup

Set the stove to medium heat and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil (or canola, if you prefer) to a pot. When it’s hot, add 1 medium diced onion, season it with a bit of freshly ground pepper and salt if you like (1/2 tsp, perhaps), and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes or so.  If you like things spicy, feel free to add some minced hot pepper of your choice at this time as well. Don’t forget to use gloves when handling hot peppers. No, I’m not kidding. Sometimes it’s fine but other times you can seriously burn your fingers, along with whatever else you touch.

Next, add 1-2 chopped garlic cloves and stir until fragrant, about 45 seconds.  Mix in 2 large diced tomatoes and a handful of chopped cilantro (aka, fresh coriander), then add about 1/2 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp cumin, and 1 tsp garam masala or curry powder. Let the flavors come together for 7 minutes or so. It will start to look and smell like an Indian-style tomato sauce. Stir periodically.

In the meanwhile, get out some vegetable stock from your freezer or pantry. Store-bought stock from a can, carton, or bouillon is fine but I recommend using a no- or low-sodium brand in that case; more nutritional information about vegetable stocks can be found here. You’ll also need some vegetable or tomato juice.  Again, if you don’t have homemade that’s fine but the same note about sodium pertains, and here’s another post with additional nutrient information about vegetable juices.

To the onion/tomato/spice mixture add your leftover baingan bharta; I had about 2 cups. Stir together and let the flavors develop for another 5 minutes at medium heat.  To this mixture add your stock and vegetable juice. This really isn’t exact. How much liquid you use will depend upon the size of the tomatoes and amount of leftover eggplant curry you had on hand.  Start with about 2 cups of juice and 2 cups of stock or so and see how it looks. (More liquid=thinner soup, less liquid=thicker soup, as you might guess.) Check out my tomato soup video if you like, as the general approach is the same.

Stir in the liquids, raise the heat to high, bring up to a boil, and then turn down to a simmer. I generally tend to let my soups stew for awhile. In this case, however, much of the flavors had already come together in the original dish, so I only gave it an additional 20 minutes. Give it a taste. Readjusting the seasoning could be necessary depending on your initial baingan bharta flavors, the sodium content and flavor of your stocks and juices, and your own palate. At this point I often add more black pepper, cumin, and garam masala. Add a bit more of whatever you think it needs 1/2 tsp at a time to avoid over seasoning, then stir and taste again. Continue with this process until you say “Mmmmmm…” and find yourself reaching for a bowl.

By the way, this is real life, not the Food Network, where everyone usually exclaims “It’s just perfect! It’s doesn’t need a thing!”  Personally, I find that somewhat annoying.  Sure, sometimes that happens for me, too, but more often than not I spend some time in this phase readjusting to get things exactly right – and sipping spoonfuls of soup in so doing. Remember, I make these recipes up, and I’m sharing with you what I’ve done, but you’ll want to adjust to your own tastes. This is why cooking is an art, and so much fun.

It also explains why I’m rarely hungry once I sit down to eat.

Anyway, soup’s on!  And let me tell you that it was absolutely wonderful. I have made many a curry-based soup (red lentil, butternut squash, and Thai coconut curry all come to mind) but never have I made a roasted eggplant and tomato soup. This was a hearty, chunky soup with hunks of eggplant and diced tomatoes. Yum.  Although fabulous on its own, I garnished mine with a dollop of plain yogurt, a traditional Indian accompaniment, and a sprinkle of chopped scallions.  Feel free to omit either, but you might especially appreciate the yogurt if your soup was spicy.

So here’s my final note on the eggplant soup. Guess what motivated this recipe? You’ll never guess, so I’ll just tell you: Au Bon Pain. They have a fairly extensive soup bar, and they had roasted eggplant soup on that particular day. It just so happened that I had been munching on baingan bharta all week long and it inspired me to morph my leftovers into my own variant. I make tons of soup, but I have never begun with leftover Indian food.

You just never know when and where inspiration will strike!

P.K. NewbyDr. P. K. Newby is a nutrition scientist and educator with expertise in the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases through diet and the relations between agriculture, food production, and public health. She brings together her passions for food, cooking, science, and sustainability through her writing and videos to help people eat their way towards better health, one delectable bite at a time. If you like what you see here at The Nutrition Doctor is In the Kitchen, please subscribe to my blog from the home page, become a fan on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, check out my food porn on Pinterest, watch my videos on YouTube, and peruse my recipe page for soups, salads, seafood, sweets, and more. Thank you for reading!

Eggplant, Part 1: Baingan Bharta

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Nothing not to love about eggplant, in my opinion, especially given its glossy purple skin and spongy flesh that can take on a variety of flavors and textures.

Baingan Bharta: Roasted Eggplant, Indian Style

A member of the nightshade family, it’s quite a versatile vegetable and very low in calories. There are lots of things I like to make with it: eggplant terrine with tomato, basil, and goat cheese; grilled eggplant drizzled with balsamic vinegar; eggplant and red pepper purée with whole wheat pita chips; eggplant and lentil salad with toasted walnuts; and grilled vegetable parmagiana with eggplant, zucchini, portabello mushrooms, and buffalo mozzarella all come to mind. I occasionally also add some to tomato sauce when I’m in the mood for a heartier variant.  I love all of these dishes, and have made them many times, but the days of farm-market-fresh eggplant were quickly waning: I wanted to try something new.

Enter baingan bharta, one of my favorite North Indian dishes. I adore Indian food and have made lots of it in my time, but I had never made baingan bharta. No better time than the present, right?

As this was my first time making it, I simply googled “baingan bharta” to peruse what was out there and eventually employed a variant of this recipe.  I began by roasting two big eggplants and two large tomatoes; I also added some mustard seeds during preparation. The big difference is that I could not bear (she says, dramatically) to throw out the nutrient-rich skins of both eggplants. I do think that a good portion of the eggplant needs to be mashed to retain the authenticity and flavors of the dish, so one skin had to go. However, I decided to chop the second eggplant into large bite-sized chunks and add them unmashed, peel and all. This provided alluring color, as you could then see some purple peeking through the dish (above, left).  Retaining chunks and peels also added lovely texture and increased the nutrient content.  Finally, because the eggplant hunks required more mastication (chewing) than mashed eggplant, my version of the dish takes more time to eat. Combining the increased chewing time and extra fiber helps you to feel fuller on fewer calories, which are both great strategies to manage weight. (I recently added a new page to my blog “On Weight” so check it out if you haven’t seen it yet.)

Raita: Indian Yogurt Sauce

I was delighted with the way this dish turned out, and it worked beautifully served with brown jasmine rice and raita.

To Peel, or Not to Peel: That is the Question

(Groan. Work with me here, I’m desperately trying to find something amusing to say about eggplant, but it’s been a long couple of weeks and I’ve got nothing. Clearly.)

The skins of vegetables are loaded in nutrients and fiber. Remember that it’s the deep colors of vegetables that often indicate valuable phytonutrients (i.e., bioactive, health promoting chemicals found in vegetables). This is one reason why consuming a variety of brightly colored vegetables and fruits is so important to health.  In addition to other beneficial nutrients, eggplant skin contains an anthocyanin known as nasunin, which is a powerful antioxidant with a deep purple hue. Some skins are incredibly fibrous and can’t easily be consumed or digested by humans, but I think a lot of people peel vegetables out of habit, or from what they experienced as a kid. I encourage you to rethink this strategy. I never peel carrots, for example. And potatoes? I eat them infrequently, but if I use chopped potatoes like thin-skinned yukon gold in a soup or, say, aloo gobe, l don’t peel them. Eggplant and other vegetables have fiber inside as well as out, but you’ll get more if you keep the skins on. As well, there are many different types of fibers (soluble and insoluble, for starters), and consuming both the skin and flesh ensures you are getting the most nutrition out of your vegetables.  We all need more fiber, which is associated with less cardiovascular disease and some cancers, and antioxidants are important in fighting off our daily oxidative insults that are associated with aging and some cancers.

One caveat is because the skins are what came into contact with the earth and/or whatever chemicals were used to grow them, it’s important to wash your vegetables really well before using them. (Water works just fine.)  It is always better to choose organic produce if you are able in order to reduce your pesticide exposure, but if you can’t find it, can’t afford it, or whatever, the health benefits of eating any vegetables and fruits far outweighs whatever risks you incur from consuming non-organically grown produce. More on this topic is coming very soon!

Shakespeare AND eggplant, all in one post? (“To thine own self be true” is one of my favorite lines from Hamlet, by the way.) Herein lies the beauty of writing: you never quite know where exactly things will go. Nevertheless, I hope you’ve found a little inspiration somewhere in here today at week’s end, whether via eggplant, Indian food, or the Bard.

And don’t forget to check back soon for eggplant, part 2, where I’ll tell you what I did with some of my leftover baingan bharta…

(So Shakespeare walks into a farmers’ market…)

P.K. NewbyDr. P. K. Newby is a nutrition scientist and educator with expertise in the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases through diet and the relations between agriculture, food production, and public health. She brings together her passions for food, cooking, science, and sustainability through her writing and videos to help people eat their way towards better health, one delectable bite at a time. If you like what you see here at The Nutrition Doctor is In the Kitchen, please subscribe to my blog from the home page, become a fan on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, check out my food porn on Pinterest, watch my videos on YouTube, and peruse my recipe page for soups, salads, seafood, sweets, and more. Thanks for reading!

Holiday Cooking Has Begun! (Indian Food Included)

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No, I haven’t made Christmas cookies yet, and I’m only vaguely considering what to bring for Thanksgiving dinner, which I am not hosting this year, alas. I actually just found a bag of a Christmas sugar cookies from last year hidden in the depths of my freezer. (Notes to self: Bake fewer cookies this year and/or give more away. Also, discard last year’s cookies that now likely have freezer burn.)

My holiday baking began with last Monday’s impromptu Halloween pumpkin whoopie pies with maple buttercream – recipe still to come, I promise – and culminated in the weekend’s brownie making to bring to a Diwali celebration. Diwali, the Festival of Lights, is a major holiday in India; I was specifically asked to bring brownies to add to the dessert table’s array of mostly Indian sweets; usually, I’d make something a bit more enthralling.

I actually rarely prepare brownies from scratch. (See above note.) I bake many trays twice yearly for our shows, like the hilarious farce Lend Me a Tenor opening this week on Friday, November 11. I make several pans per performance, however, so I don’t do that by hand. Too time consuming, and too expensive. Why am I telling you this, you ask? It’s no big secret; I never take credit for things I haven’t done, so I simply say, when people oooh and aaah over the brownies – and boy do they – that they can simply buy a box of Ghiradelli triple chocolate chunk brownies and they, too, will have warm gooey brownies oozing with chocolate chunks. There are a number of really stellar brownie mixes on the shelves, which is very helpful in these situations.

That said, if I’m making something for my home or a party, clearly I’m going to make it from scratch. I used Martha Stewart’s recipe and it did not disappoint. These were intensely chocolately brownies that I have no doubt would satisfy the most discerning of palates. I thought they were outstanding, but couldn’t find the exact recipe online as mine was hardcopy from one of the magazines this year. When I tried to find it, there were way too many variants from which to choose – including one where she bakes brownies with Snoop Dogg (insert obvious references here, or check out the article and YouTube video and see for yourself). I added about a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter, which used mainly dark chocolate (70% cacao). I also used white whole wheat flour, which worked splendidly and had no deleterious effect on taste and texture whatsoever. I would tell you, trust me; I take my baking very seriously and there are times when only white flour will do. (No, the substitution of 100% whole wheat flour for white flour for does not make brownies a health food.)

Baingan Bharta (Indian Roasted Eggplant Curry)

Brownies aside, I had already been thinking that it’s been awhile since I’ve made Indian food, so, inspired by Saturday’s Diwali feast, I got a few dishes underway on Sunday. I made baingan bharta (right), which is roasted eggplant, as well as aloo gobi (below right, cauliflower and potato). Both are North Indian curries that perhaps some of you have had before. I also made some raita (below, left) and jasmine brown rice to accompany the curries. I prepared extra, as I don’t have a lot of time to cook this week and I wanted to have food on hand for those late post-theatre evenings.

Aloo Gobi (Cauliflower, Potatoes, and Peas Masala)

Between the Indian dishes, my copious salad ingredients, and a night or two of take out, I will be set for the week. Getting my salad greens prepped and some cooking done on the weekends to have food on hand for the week is really critical for me: it’s a strategy that keeps me healthy, happy, and enjoying fresh meals even when I don’t have time to cook. I also made enough food such that I’ll put a container of each Indian dish into the freezer for future consumption.

Raita (Indian Yogurt-Cucumber Sauce)

As we move into the cooler months, you will see that cooking ethnic foods from the Eastern world is a big part of my repertoire, including Indian and Thai in particular but also Japanese and Chinese. I had so much fun taking a cooking class when I visited Thailand a few years back, where I learned to make such staples as pad thai, vegetable green curry, and chicken lemongrass soup, among others.

Anyhow, I agree that it feels a bit early to get into all the holiday hullabaloo already, but the lights are coming up along the streets, travel plans are in development, and a slew of seasonal films are arriving in the theaters. Thanksgiving is just about two weeks away, and visions of bourbon pecan pie dance in my head, alongside pumpin bread pudding with homemade vanilla bean ice cream and caramel sauce. (The latter is one of the top desserts I made last year, hands down, and I will definitely be making that again. Perhaps this year I’ll try it with caramel ice cream or crème anglaise…)

Plus, this year the holidays will take on a discernibly different twist, as I’ll be sharing them with you, my readers – and I very much look forward to that.

P.K. NewbyDr. P. K. Newby is a nutrition scientist and educator with expertise in the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases through diet and the relations between agriculture, food production, and public health. She brings together her passions for food, cooking, science, and sustainability through her writing and videos to help people eat their way towards better health, one delectable bite at a time. If you like what you see here at The Nutrition Doctor is In the Kitchen, please subscribe to my blog from the home page, become a fan on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, check out my food porn on Pinterest, watch my videos on YouTube, and peruse my recipe page for soups, salads, seafood, sweets, and more. Thanks for reading!