When Life Needs Spice: Add Indian Food

I will let you in on a secret. I hate cooking. Yes, my husband and I used to own a restaurant. Yes, I can apply myself in the kitchen and come up with some interesting dishes. Yes, I enjoy talking about foreign, exotic dishes but I just have to get that little secret off my chest. My husband always finds it odd I never taste what I'm cooking and always serve the meal with a disclaimer, "I don't know if it turned out or not so try it at your own risk." Definitely not a good cook's habit. Alas, I do not let my disdain for cooking stop me from actually doing it.

I've posted about my love for Tiki Masala a few years ago on this blog. I came up with a flotsam and jetsam crockpot recipe I was proud of at the time. I was desperate. I needed the flavors of home, I needed that comfort food to help transport me to a place of great aromas, mixed with family, friends and  familiarity. I still need it, so I decided to fine tune my minuscule Indian cooking skills over the weekend and try to be authentic to some of my favorite Indian food dishes and see if I could get close to the tastes I remember.

Masala, Saag, Somosa, Naan
Made by: Chandra Brown

I have been working on Tiki Masala (without the crockpot this time) and finally have this one down to memory.  I even make my own garlic, ginger paste from scratch. I love Saag and found an authentic recipe online. The ingredients made me venture to our local Indian Grocer, Man Pasand. I found the paneer, and fresh spinach I needed and even brought home Somosas for an appetizer.

I used every pot and pan I own, my food processor did double duty, my grill was fired up in the wet, cold outdoors and my oven was cranked to 400. This meal was firing on all cylinders, my spice cabinet was half emptied onto the countertop  and I just dove in and did it, not tasting as I went but waiting until I sat down at the table to share with my family.

I must say, the Saag Paneer was the real deal. My husband even replied, "You made this!" Ha, his surprised comment was a compliment, if it made him think of authentic Jewel of India's recipe, then I was successful.

I have to thank my parents for the success of this cooking ordeal. They recommended I watch, The Hundred Foot Journey, a delightful, clean, culinary movie about an Indian families' restaurant venture across from a successful, snooty French restaurant. There are hints of Romeo and Juliet and the Father's attitude in the film will make you giggle. I loved the son's passion for food and thought if I could just mimic that, I may come up with something enjoyable.

What foreign food do you want to try to learn to make?

I recently just tried making my own fermented kimchi (Korean). I made some pulled pork to go with it, added BBQ sauce and placed it all in a Romaine Lettuce leaf from our Winter Garden. It was wonderful!

Kefir Taste Test

I am excited to finally get to this post. I have been wanting to talk about kefir for a few weeks but have been waylayed by beautiful flowers, girl scout activities, preparing for Holidays and a healthy load of staging work.

Kefir is one of the products that has hit a market trend recently but has been around for centuries. It is on a health food comeback and I hope it sticks around for good. My good friend Nancy turned our family on to this beneficial product.

When I first took a taste I wondered if my daughter, who is the pickiest of our brood would even try it. It is a bit tart. I am happy to say she is our biggest consumer. She has a small glass for breakfast and takes it to school for lunch, she also asks for it as a treat at night time. It is one of those YES, YES, YES foods, please eat this food, have as much as you want foods.

Kefir Taste Test

Brand 1 : Lifeway

The Raspberry and Strawberry banana Kefir by Lifeway passes the taste test and is our favorite. The sugar content is high and we only have this as a treat. We do like that they make the ProBug pouches that can go in lunches.

I was saddened that my local grocery store started off with a strong start with this brand and product and carried the FAT, PLAIN kefir (a lot less sugar) but as time went by, eliminated it. Most  likely due to the NO FAT, not sweet enough lie that is epidemic in our food culture.

We love putting this in smoothies, on top of fruit in the morning or drinking straight from the glass.




Brand 2: Helios with Kos

This particular brand tastes more along the lines of sour cream. The sugar content was low and the Fat factor was there but the taste was too strong for drinking straight even with a teaspoon of honey. I wasn't about to let this nutrient rich bottle go to waste. I used it in an amazing Indian food recipe and it was what made the recipe! (recipe to follow in a future post) This brand is great for cooking with.

Brand 3: Redwood Farms Goat Kefir

Redwood Hills Farm Goat Kefir is without a doubt my favorite of the store bought varieties. It was also the most expensive. The thick, creamy rich taste with a dollop of honey was delicious. It had all the FAT and low sugar. It also was not as tart as the cow versions. A winner if the budget allows.

Brand 4: Beyond Organic Amasai

All photo and Trademark properties belong to
 Beyond Organic Foods.

OK, folks the buck stops here. This product gets the top rating and blows the competition out of the water. I saved the best for last. Green fed cultured Amasai deserves top honors because one doesn't have to wonder if the product meets organic standards. In fact, it supersedes them. Beyond organic has taken the high road and taken extra measures from soil, to grass, to cow, to production in making sure you receive the healthiest most nutrient dense product.  Not only do you get ALL that was intended from a cultured dairy product; the taste is truly refreshing and perfectly balanced. With flavors like Milk and Honey, Plain and Raspberry you can't wrong in satisfying varied palettes.

The low temperature pasteurization process leaves proteins in their whole undenatured form and keeps enzymes intact along with the good bacteria (probiotics). Amasai is stock full of vitamin A,D,K, and E and is truly satisfying. Drinking (16 ounce bottle) half a bottle sustained me for the entire morning.

Founder of Beyond Organic, Jordan Rubin can attest to the magnificent healing power of drinking cultured beverages and has dedicated his life to bringing the same opportunity of dynamic health to those that truly want to take responsibility for their own well-being.

I didn't mean to get away from the taste test results but when you find someone doing it right when it is so easy to do what the rest of the industry is doing you have to give credit where it is due. If you are interested in obtaining a sample of your own Amasai, contact my friend Nancy by clicking on her name. She is a fully accredited nutritional distributor of Jordan's top of the line products.

I challenge you to do your own taste test and get back to me with your results.

Bon Apetit!

La Dolce Vita

I don't know about you, but when our family goes on vacation we sniff out the food first thing. We look in the hotel books, ask the conceirge, and ask other hotel guests what's good around here and if you can flag down a local they always tell you the best spots. We have made such lasting memories on our hunt for food. We'll get together and say, "Remember the fun we had at La Cocita, or wasn't the squash stuffed ravioli out of this world at Trios."

There's something about sitting around the table, catching up, experiencing the cuisine that brings out the best in our family.

One of our favorite places to go everytime we are in Puerto Vallarta is an Italian place called La Dolce Vita (The sweet life). They have very good pizza and it is right across the street from the ocean. You can see them creating wonderful pies and smell them as they bake in the wood fired oven while looking out the open arched windows and see the tourists and locals bustling up and down the sidewalk. It is a very good place to watch the sunset and begin your vacation.

Look at everyone's faces. HAPPY, full of life, free to be themselves. No outside worries creeping in, no thoughts of what is going on back home. Just living in the moment, enjoying one another, creating an environment of laughter and fun.

If you haven't sat around the dinner table with the family in a while or gone out to lunch with a friend to catch up and have been to busy to really enjoy food and conversation, make the time in the near future. The simple act of sharing with someone else will only "sweeten your life."

What have been some of your food/vacation memories?