An Experiment that was a White Bean Salad

“I repent of my diets, the delicious dishes rejected out of vanity, as much as I lament the opportunities for making love that I let go by because of pressing tasks or puritanical virtue.”

These compelling lines are from a book that I finished reading many weeks ago. This book is called Aphrodite which was authored by the famous Chilean writer, Isabel Allende. I picked up her book from my trip to India this year when I was scouting for books about food ( not cookery books per say, but books written about food in various shades). She had me at the opening line itself. Personally, I have had a love -hate relationship with food for ages. Probably it is only now that I feel quite comfortable in my skin and about food in general. Well this post is not about my see-saw relationship with food, but about a little experiment I conducted on unsuspecting folks to see for myself if there is any truth in the claims made by the author. I read the book in a matter of 3 days as soon as I had it delivered in my hands. I fell in love with the way she described food in all its glory and what it does to our body. We are what we eat - the author drives home this point with her sensual writing style that is so addictive.

The book talks about how food influences the different senses within us and has the power to awaken our sensuality. In her opinion,  it is difficult to really separate eroticism and food as one is inextricably linked to the other through memories and  sensual pleasure.

Also, some food is more Aphrodisiac than others, she says. For eg. vegetables and legumes have known to have fewer aphrodisiac properties compared to the meat and sea creatures. Infact, cleaning meat to prepare a sumptuous fare in itself is a sensual activity, she reckons. I do not think there is any truth in that, but it is my humble opinion. Having said that, I haven’t ever felt sensual trying to chop onions or peel potatoes. Maybe Ms. Allende finds it desirable to be flamboyant even in the most disagreeable acts of cooking which is definitely not the case with me. Anyways, this book piqued my curiosity more than I thought it would. Being a vegetarian (90% of the times), I thought I might want to give her hypothesis a little test and gathered a few vegetarian ingredients. I could have tested it with non vegetarian ingredients like chicken or such but I didn’t have them on hand when the urge to experiment was at its climax.

Now I needed some unsuspecting volunteers and calling friends home for a meal seemed the most plausible option. So I quickly tossed up a white bean salad along with other wholesome fare. The salad was much-loved since it was beautifully seasoned and looked very appetizing at the same time. Little chunks of feta cheese provided the much needed diversion in taste when the beans got a bit heavy on the tongue.  The meal also included other kind of wholesome food that would be considered aphrodisiac in their own right. Watching my friends eat with such gusto, I rubbed my hands in anticipation ( ofcourse only in my imagination). After the meal, they went home, without a clue about the conspiracy that they had unknowingly become a part of. Next day, I duly dialed their numbers asking them of how they ended their night, only to be disappointed to know that the experiment was a colossal failure. I could hear peals of laughter echoing at the other end of line and that only strengthened my resolve to try the same experiment with a different set of people. So I made the same salad for another set of people only to be embarrassed again. I feel lucky that I have a wonderful set of friends who understand me and wouldn’t lie to me because they know that whatever I do, I do with fair amount of seriousness. They also know that all the odd things I do are entirely in good spirit so that we all can have  a good laugh at the end of it.

They asked me that I should have tried the experiment on myself first before extending it to others. Well, they were right in stating this, but it wouldn’t have really worked in my case as I already knew what to expect. That would have given me the power to tilt the scale in the favour I desired at that time. So all in all, I still enjoyed tossing up this wonderful salad for my wonderful friends.  So to make the salad and test whether it works for you, follow my lead.

Recipe for White Bean Salad with Cherry tomatoes, Onions and Feta Cheese

Loosely adapted from the BBC Good Food Magazine

Ingredients

White Kidney beans, soaked for a few hours and boiled – 1 cup

cherry tomatoes chopped into halves – 6-7 nos.

Red onion (small) – sliced finely

Balsamic vinegar –  a little more than half a tbsp

Mint/basil/ Coriander  (torn) – for garnish( optional)

Feta cheese – crumbled

Salt according to taste

Pepper according to taste

Lemon juice – just a small squirt.

Preparation

1. The boiled beans need to be rinsed to get any scum off it and they look neater this way.

2. Mix all the other vegetables with the beans.

3. Season well with salt and pepper and garnish if you want

4. drop crumbled feta pieces on the salad

5. Add balsamic vinegar and toss well.

So the world was a little more happy because of this  silly experiment. Aphrodisiac or not, this salad is lovely and refreshing and I feel it would be a bonus if it does anything to your sensual appetite. Try it and tell me if you felt anything!

Restaurant Review Project 19- Salad Boutique

It has been such a long time that I haven’t made an addition to my ongoing Restaurant Review Project. Not that I haven’t been eating out. I have been too lazy to take pictures and write about the food. I have had excellent opportunity to sample some extraordinary food and that is the reason why I had little patience to keep it waiting to take pictures. When there are no pictures to support the gastronomic crime committed, posts cannot be written, simply because a picture is worth a thousand words.

But my reviews have pictures and thousand words!

Anyways, on a day when I wasn’t extremely ravenous but wanted a nibble, I was reminded of a new place in town called, Salad Boutique. This quaint little place is located in the heart of the posh Block 338, Adliya.  As the name suggests, they specialize in serving Salads as the main course.

Salad Boutique sports a charming, candle lit opulent interior. It has a cream and purple decor with sparkling chandeliers that oozes indulgence and elegance in the same breath.

Upon entering, we were given a warm welcome by a smartly dressed server and were shown our seat. Since it was Ramadan, there weren’t many diners even on a weekend. That was perfect for us since it meant, Mimi could roam around the restaurant being friendly with the staff.

Soon, we were presented the menu and that I suppose is what has the potential to set this restaurant apart. We were handed the Apple iPad that functions as a menu card. This is such a novel idea and it was supremely exciting to peruse through a comprehensive menu. When the initial excitement was over, we made our order to the server. That is where I felt it had a failed a little. Having an iPad and not using it to its full potential is a waste, in my opinion. It is like having a cell phone only to scroll through the contacts and not actually being able to make a call!! It should have been possible to even place an order through the iPad instead of the server taking down notes. Anyhow, we did place our orders and it was surprising to note that they not only had a wide variety of salad, but also sandwiches, burgers, risotto, pastas and all kinds of sides.

We ordered a Falafel Salad - which consisted of Falafel, lettuce, Cucumber, Parsley and Rocca  and served with Tahina Dressing. Not exactly low-calorie food, I was hoping for. But when it arrived it looked like a sumptuous meal that I could eat at the restaurant and then later pack the leftovers back home. It tasted as good as it looked on the plate.

and a refreshing drink called Vanilla Rocca. I would recommend this restaurant for this drink alone. It has the power to change the world! Okay, I may be exaggerating a little bit, but you get the drift.

Some Grilled Chicken  Sandwich – which had a Grilled Chicken Breast, Lettuce, Rocca, Parmesan and Mozzarella Cheese with Special Sauce. This sandwich wasn’t the best chicken sandwich but it was filling with a coleslaw side.

And Grilled Veggies Sandwich - Grilled Zucchini, Eggplant, Green Bell Pepper, and Rocca Leaves, Mixed with Light Mayonnaise-Tahina Sauce. This sandwich was really tasty and I would recommend this even if you are a meat lover. The eggplant and the tahina sauce combination gives this sandwich a meat-y  flavor.

Apparently, all the sandwiches are presented in similar manner so the photographs of the chicken and the vegetable sandwich look the same.

and a bottle of chilled water in a glass bottle designed by Paul Smith which I took home to plant my money plant.

Overall, the dinner was definitely not light as I had assumed it to be, but it was sure sumptuous. The total bill came to 20 BD for 3 adults.

So I am proud to announce that Salad Boutique has been SLICED and the verdict is as follows,

Food – 3/5

Ambiance – 4/5

Service – 3/5

Overall – 3/5

Salad Boutique has other outlets in Kuwait and Jeddah.

 

Weekend Dinner – Veg. Lasagne, Whole Meal Loaf & Tomato – Feta Salad

You must all know Mimi by now. What you may not know about her is, she is a very peculiar toddler. While I know of kids who love to eat out and gorge on fried chips, munchies, chocolates, biscuits, flavoured milk, burgers and cola, my child detests it with all her might. She prefers eating home-made meals. Hot and piping, right off the stove. Going out with her never means a break for me from the kitchen. I have to make her meal, feed her and only then step out. Else I have to carry her dinner of roti & sabji or dosa & sambar and feed her on the go. When I rant about it to my girlfriends, they feel, I am blessed. They narrate to me their struggles of trying to get their children to eat home cooked meals.

After all this while, I realize, I am truly blessed, for various reasons. Mimi’s habits not only ensure that she eats  healthy and fresh meals  but also prompts me to try different cuisines in my kitchen. One such weekend dinner was about experimenting with Italian. Vegetarian only.

I prepped up for some vegetarian lasagna, a crusty loaf and some easy tomato – feta gorgeousness of a salad.

Vegetarian Lasagna : The silly thing about reading recipes is that they make you feel that it is the simplest thing in the world to do. But when you get around doing it with your bare hands, you realize you completely lack co-ordination. It happens to me all the time. Lasagna was tricky to make especially the boiling of the sheets. I wanted it all ‘al-dente’ and micro observed to get it right. But when I was done, peeling them off of each other was a task that took me the maximum amount of time. The vegetable part was easy since it was just about going chop, chop, chop. The white bechamel sauce was something I make  regularly so that did not take any time either. Layering was enjoyable like artwork. Cheese scraping was done by my friend Namit to help me get the dinner on the table before the clock struck mid night. The result was remarkable and worth all the effort. Mimi loved it and had an extra  helping. This is definitely winner of a recipe.

Recipe for Veg. Lasagna

Ingredients

Lasagna sheets  - use as required, I had to use about 24 of them since I had a large tray to fill

Salt to taste

White Sauce* – 1 1/2 cups – 2 cups

Cheddar cheese grated – 1 cup ( more the better)

Oil – 2 tbsp

Butter- 2 tbsp

Garlic crushed – 8 cloves

Onions chopped – 2 medium

Mushrooms  chopped finely – 7-8 nos.

Brinjal / aubergine chopped finely – 1 large

Zucchini chopped – 2 medium

Capsicum chopped – 1 no.

Tomatoes chopped – 4 medium

Dry Basil – 1 tsp

Dry Oregano – 1 tsp

Maggi vegetable stock – 1 small cube

Fresh Parsley chopped  - about a handful or less

Preparation

1. Heat a lot of water in a deep pan. Add enough salt such that the water tastes like sea water. Add lasagna sheets and a little olive oil to the water. Boil it for 10 minutes and take them out. Spread them out carefully without burning your fingers and cover with a damp cloth.

2. In a separate pan, heat oil & butter. Saute the chopped onion till they are translucent and then add crushed garlic. Add the Maggi vegetable stock cube. You will see it dissolving in the oil in sometime.

3. Add all the chopped vegetables except capsicum and tomatoes. Let them cook. Add salt but with care since the Maggi vegetable stock has a lot of salt in it already.

4. Now add the tomatoes and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Once they turn soft add capsicum, dry basil, dry oregano and parsley. Mix well and cook for some more time. Take it off the stove.

5. Preheat the oven to 200C  and butter your baking dish.

6.First lay down a the first layer of the pasta and then the white sauce on top of it. Then put another layer of pasta and a layer of the vegetable mixture. A layer of pasta and then the white sauce. Alternate layers like that and fill up the baking dish.

7. Once the last layer of pasta has been laid, spread grated cheese on top and cover completely. Shove it in the preheated oven for about 20-22 minutes or until the cheese has turned golden. Serve hot.

*Notes – For the white sauce/bechamel sauce,  you need 4 Tbsp of all-purpose flour, 2 cups of hot milk, 2 tbsp of butter, salt to taste and pepper.

To prepare- Take a heavy bottomed pan, put it on the stove and melt the butter first. Add the flour and stir well. Do not let it brown and cook well for about 2 minutes. Add the two cups of hot milk and stir continuously. You will find that the sauce has thickened. Add salt and pepper and let it cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from fire and let it cool. While using if the sauce has thickened too much then you could add a wee bit milk and heat it a bit to loosen it.

Whole Meal Loaf – Sometimes I feel, we demand a level of convenience that is immodest. But when you make bread with your bare hands, kneading and toiling , it presents itself as the most humbling experience. I followed the same recipe as in the post about Nigella Lawson’s bread. Only that I shaped it like a baton and made some deep gashes  atop to give it a rustic feel. The loaf was crusty on the outside and on the inside the crumb was a delight to bite on. I made some garlic infused olive oil which was such a splendid accompaniment along with blobs of butter.

Tomato-Feta Salad - First, this salad is such a stunner to look at. Second it demands nothing out of you except a few firm and sweet tomatoes sliced and arranged on a plate adorned with a few pinches of feta. No seasonings required to perk it up. The feta does what is required of it, that is, give it that tangy-salty twist.

 

 

The dinner goes down as one of the most memorable ones. To be able to put a smile on my family’s and friend’s faces makes it worth my while. Every attempt that I have made that seemed outside my comfort zone has met with mixed results. But it is only practising the craft again and again that has made all the difference.

There is so much more that I yearn to learn through such wonderful dinners.

For the beautiful collage and photographs I have my friend, Namit to thank. While I was busy preparing the dinner, he made use of that time to click some wonderful frames. Thank you so much for your patience.

It is all about Salads: The Summer Platter

I have stopped exercising. Those who know me would realize that something is absolutely not right. I have always, always, ALWAYS exercised; whether it lead to weight loss or not is a different story. I got a bit tardy mainly after the birth of my daughter. Being careless and not taking out time for myself are few things that have become mainstream in life right now. I keep complaining about not having enough time or something to that effect all the time. When I say this to others, I hear the old ‘me’ laugh out loud!! I don’t go to work, I have no ‘outside’ pressures  to talk of which means I should spare atleast an hour a day to exercise. But I haven’t been for the last 2 months. The whole idea of stepping into the gym and on the treadmill depresses me.

But, but , but…… nothing stops me from eating healthy and keeping it light on the food side of things. Well, that isn’t happening the way I want to either with my experiments in baking. I feel trapped with nowhere to go. On one side, I have an obsession - baking - threatening to devour me with all that gorgeous butter and chocolate and on the other side, my reluctance to do anything that resembles exercise.

So once in a while to balance things out, I go ahead and make myself some Salad! So I prodded and mulled to come up with something fantastical. About the same time I saw Anamika’s post about baked potato chips. I thought it would be good to indulge in some carbs. Then I felt, it wouldn’t be enough so I decided on some more carbs in the form of burghul. While putting all these together, I felt a craving for some tasty proteins. So I scavenged my refrigerator and found some lovely Halumi Cheese. Together, I made myself a satisfying salad which I dared to call the “ Summer Platter”

Recipe for Summer Platter

Ingredients

a carrot

a cucumber

A slice of tomato

2 Russet potatoes

3 tbsp of olive ( 1 for baking potatoes; 2 for the dressing)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 and half tbsp for honey

2 tsp of white vinegar

A block of halumi cheese

3 tbsp of burghul

2 tbsp of lemon juice

Preparation

1. Make baked potato chips like this and arrange them on a plate.

2. Soak the burghul in some water for half  hour till it fluffs up.

2. Wash all the vegetables and cut them into slices. Arrange them around the plate in any fashion you like

3. Cut the block of halumi into slices and roast them in a pan till they take a golden crust on both the sides.

4. Lay the burghul in the middle and arrange the halumi on top.

5. For the dressing; Mix honey, olive oil, white vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Drizzle all over the salad.

6. Tuck in.

The sweetness of the honey balances out the tartness of the vinegar and lemon juice. You ought to be a little careful about the salt though, since Halumi is a salty cheese on its own. The dressing goes fabulously with the salty halumi.

Halumi,  is one cheese I discovered after moving to Bahrain. I find it so different and versatile compared to other cheeses. Halumi is made from the milk of the goat and sheep. It is salty and firm in texture compared to most cheeses. I was amazed to discover that when you roast Halumi it does not disintegrate like other cheeses. It retains its texture but takes this gorgeous golden-brown hue which tastes divine.

What I find incredible is, when I bite on a halumi slice it makes a squeaky noise and it makes my daughter laugh. Then I bite some more and she rolls on the floor laughing (literally). For that alone, I can keep eating halumi for the rest of my life!

Also, if you have no patience to lay down the slices of veggies on the plate then you can rough them up into smaller bite sized portions in a bowl. Either ways, it is filling while you tune in to watch your favourite programme on BBC lifestyle!

I am sending this post to the Salad contest on Taste Junction just in time!