Posts tagged: food
We (humans) think we are the smartest creature that God ever created… yet we cannot tell real food from the fake ones… when these ants do it so easily! I have this notion that we are the least evolved creatures on our planet. We have so much to learn!
Pomegranate flavoured popcorns
Well, I had made pomegranate molasses/syrup a few weeks ago and I was pretty happy with myself. There were two pomegranates in our refrigerator and they had been lying there for a long long time. They weren’t good enough to eat but I could still juice them and make some molasses out of them. So, I did! You can follow the same steps as making sugarcane molasses to make pomegranate molasses. They yielded 36 grams of pomegranate molasses.
You can also buy pomegranate molasses from a store near your house if they keep such things. I made mine at home because a) I was curious, b) things like pomegranate molasses aren’t available where I stay and c) I had two very old pomegranates lying in my refrigerator. But I am sure buying it will be cheaper and less time consuming… I am just guessing.
The ingredients are as follows:
- 2 cups of popped corns.
- 3-5 tbsp butter.
- 1 tbsp olive oil.
- 1 tbsp onion powder.
- 36 g or 2-3 tbsp pomegranate molasses.
- salt to taste.
You can start right off with popped corn but as usual I start with corn kernels and that too, on the cob. Don’t you think they make a good picture with their neat rows of corns?
Anyway, so I was being overconfident as usual and I assumed that I was born with the ability to pop the perfect popcorn. So, I put in all the corn kernels in a deep pan and put the pan on top of a gas stove. I thought I knew how to pop corns since we used to make it at home when I was small (it’s been quite a while since we made popcorns at home). It turned out that it wasn’t me who knew how to pop corns but my parents! Disaster struck and my corns didn’t pop properly. I got more “cracked” corns than popped corns. And most of them were burnt! I had put the lid on the whole time and was waiting for the popping sound to stop. But when they did, I opened the lid and found “failure” staring straight back at me.
Okay, it was time to rush back to my computer to research some popcorn science! The easiest way to pop corns would be to microwave them but I had vowed to stop using a microwave oven and had not used it for almost a year now. I didn’t want to give in for some popcorns! So, I decided to go with the good old stove top method… which, I had earlier believed, I was following.
The proper way is to melt some butter in a pan or pot.
And when the butter has melted, add one or two corns to check if it is heated enough. When the corns start to pop, it is ready and you can add more corn kernels to it. Make sure you do not overcrowd the corns as it might result in some corns only cracking and not popping. The corns need space to pop. The lid should have an opening to allow moisture to pass out. This allows the corns to be fluffy and not too chewy. If the lid doesn’t have an opening, keep it ajar.
Now I finally have some gorgeous looking popcorns!
Mix the pomegranate molasses, olive oil, onion powder and salt together.
Pour it on the popcorns…
… and mix them well so that the popcorns are uniformly coated with the mixture.
Preheat the oven to 121 degrees celsius and bake the coated popcorns for 9 minutes.
This uniquely flavoured popcorns are so unique that no one has been able to guess what its sweet-savoury-sour flavour is. It’s a must try!
P.S. And someone did try it out.
See the popcorns here.
Korou had made this pork with mustard greens a few months back. I remembered it today and I just had to share this photograph!
Wasabi wings
I love raw mustard oil so it is kind of obvious that I have a huge appreciation for wasabi. Don’t you think that they taste a bit similar?
This is a recipe that has been cooking in my mind ever since I had a piece of wasabi prawns in Tasty Tangles (Bangalore). My sister tried recreating the wasabi sauce at home using wasabi paste and cream. It came out pretty close and would have been a very tasty snack if it had not been too salty. Well, I did some internet searches and found out a couple of recipes that used mayonaise instead of cream. So, I am going with it for this recipe. I also added a couple of things like raw mustard oil to make it more tangy. I, however, made a grave mistake while making my wasabi wings. The mistake will be discussed later with the suitable picture. Read on.
Tharoi thongba (river snails cooked in spicy sauce)
I think I might lose some followers after this post (or maybe not). Snails are like clams or mussels only in a different shape… at least, that’s how I see it.
Manipuri cuisine includes a variety of fresh water snails (and clams… did I mention clams?). Snails are usually cooked with loklei (galangal) and heavily seasoned with fermented fish and various strong herbs. Snails don’t carry a strong taste but have a faint fishy algae-ish smell.
I am cooking lai tharoi, which are fresh water river snails. They also dwell in higher altitudes in the surrounding hills of Imphal along small streams. They are the costliest among the edible snail varieties found in Manipur and can cost up to 50 rupees per can (snails are measured in recycled tin cans). Their shells are harder than some of the other varieties of edible snails found here.
Kangsubi / Candied black sesame
Those who know Manipuri cuisine well know that when we talk of something sweet and something Manipuri, we are talking about the fascinating array of Kabok. Kabok can refer to any food grain which is heated and puffed… like popcorn or rice puffs. But because grains are traditionally puffed only to be candied and shaped with molasses into various shapes and sizes, the word, kabok, can interchangeably mean both puffed up grains and also foods (mostly grains and seeds) that are candied and shaped with molasses.
Kangsubi or thoiding/sesame kabok happens to be one of my favourite. And ever since I had decided to venture into kabok making, I have been eager to try this recipe. I haven’t perfected it yet… in the sense that I have not been successful in giving it a refined shape. But, the crumbly texture makes a good photograph. Let’s see what I can churn out from my kabok factory in the future!
As some of you might already know, I am obsessed with making things from scratch. And so, I harvested a sugarcane stalk from our farm and decided to make the molasses from its juice myself. But you can always start your kabok from sugarcane molasses or buy sugarcane juice to make things easier.
Yongchaak singju / stink bean salad
I have been putting off a post on yongchaak singju for some months now. But, I realised that yongchaak season will soon be over and then I wouldn’t have the chance to do a post on it and photograph this beautiful vegetable (yongchaak, that is) in all its splendor for another year.
Yongchaak is popularly known by the name stink bean, but is also called bitter bean, twisted cluster bean, sato, kampai, zawngtah, peteh or petai. It has a unique smell which is often compared to the smell of natural gas and because of that, you either hate it or love it. The beans inside the pods are a rich source of protein and it is more pungent in taste than the rest of the pod. The pods are flat when young because of the undeveloped beans and it is the best stage to eat them as singju/salad. Mine were a little matured for yongchaak singju but it can pass.
For yongchaak sinju, you will need:
