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Vaghaarelli Rice ..or is it vaghaarelo bhaath...

2012-01-24T20:23:00.000-08:00

Oh the comfort of home cooking.. even when away from home. I made the examples below when travelling:)

I tend to add my own experimental twists to my foundation of cooking knowledge built from my family's (mostly indian) cooking.

Vaghaarelli rice as I have always understood it is fried leftover rice. Another dish, Vaghaarelli rotli (fried leftover flatbread soup) has got to be one of if not my favorite dish.

Vaghaar is a Gujarati term for the step in cooking "in which whole spices (and sometimes also other ingredients such as minced ginger root or sugar) are fried briefly in oil or ghee to liberate essential oils from cells and thus enhance their flavors, before being poured, together with the oil, into a dish."

In vaghaarelli rice, the vaghaar is prepared first, then the rice is added and then the turmeric powder and yogurt..etc. Traditional dahi is the best yogurt to use for vaghaarelli rice because it gives it a thick, creamy texture and adds a subtle tang when made well. I didn't have dahi in these instances though...

Utah 2010

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NY 2011/12

Here is a traditional method of making vaghaarelo bhaath:

Hummus & mmm..Pita puff...or rye bread!

2010-09-05T00:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, I didn't make the pita puff... I hope when I attempt to, it turns out at least half as good as the one I got from Phoenicia =P.... Al took me to this specialty store the other day... what would we do without specialty stores hehe...
so, I decided to finally try to make hummus...
I think it turned out really tasty~
... my mom had rinsed and boiled some dried chickpeas/ chanaa & she kept them in the freezer...

1st I defrosted the mass a bit and took out maybe 5 handfuls of whole chanaa..

I looked up a recipe and also looked at the ingredients in the hummus from the store. This is the recipe I looked at. And, yogurt and milk were the other ingredients I remembered from the store hummus.

2nd, for tahini.. I just took some sesame seeds and briefly toasted them and then ground them (not too much since it was to go in the blender anyway) with the good ol' stone grinder..

3rd I took the blender and followed the directions of the website... I set the water from the chanaa aside and dumped the rest of the ingredients in the blender... I used some old garlic hehe.. my mom's planning on growing it, I think.. there were actually baby garlic cloves growing within the old ones!

Anyway..

I blended chanaa, sesame seeds, 2 small crushed garlic cloves, a bit of salt and about 5 caps of lemon juice.. should try it with fresh lime though ;) ...

Every now & then when the blender got stuck I would mix it around and pour a little olive oil and a bit of the chanaa water in.

After I got tired of the endless blending =P .... I poured it out and mixed in cilantro/ dhaanaa instead of parsley.. And, I mixed in a couple spoons of homemade yogurt, a dash of 2% milk, red chili powder and a little cumin powder. I also tried a bit of it with ground black pepper, as suggested by my mother-- great idea. There were still a couple whole or bits of chanaa and.. I liked those bits:) It's pretty good on rye bread as well.

now that's a pantry.

2010-02-27T18:28:00.000-08:00

pita's (father's) masala chai.. is the best

2010-02-27T18:20:00.000-08:00

gujaratis know how it's done haha:)
water and milk boiled
+masala (mixed spice powder includes ginger powder, cloves, black pepper...)
+chai (kenya loose tea)
+freshly shredded ginger
+ground pepper
+lemon grass
(other things you can use ..+honey, sugar, mint)
& boil over as many times as needed for the amount of flavor you desire

oh and, my personal fav~~~top with powdered cinnamon!

apple pie

2010-02-27T18:18:00.000-08:00

lasagna

2010-02-27T18:14:00.000-08:00

*needed more sauce so, it came out too dry.
*tip from a masi: use cottage cheese instead of ricotta for more moisture and a different texture.

Al's chinese dumplings

2010-02-27T18:05:00.000-08:00

rice noodles+mushrooms+egg+green pepper+celery..all to be chopped and blended for the filling

the finger sandwich platter

2010-02-27T17:58:00.000-08:00

sour cream+pepper jack+mushroom+tomatoes+romaine+jalapenos+rye bread

kiwi+banana+almond butter+peanut butter+cinnamon+honey

al's cucumber and brie sandwich seasoned w/ pepper & yummyyy Almond butter+honey+cinnamon on french country white

veggie patties and patty sandwich

2010-02-27T16:19:00.000-08:00