To eat or not to

Last summer I decided to stop having chicken not completely but cut down as much as possible, I allowed myself to have a chicken dimsum/wantons that I made myself at home but other than that I mostly ate fish, lentils and vegetables. Summer in Sweden is awesome for vegetarians we get all kinds of greens and greens I like starting from hangam (mustard leaves), leibak kundo (purslane),  amaranth, methi leaves and many other varieties of greens we eat in Manipur.

One of the most interesting greens I found was leibak kundo, a vegetable not commonly known to even fellow manipuris. My mother once made kangsoi with some nga ayaiba (smoked fish) and I still remembered the taste, from my days in The Hague I knew that it is available in Turkish vegetable  stores but here I buy it from stoles owned by people from Arabic speaking background. One can even make kanghou with come potatoes and leibak kundo but kangsoi taste the best.

It is much easier to stick to a meat less diet in summer but I do need my daily does of fish and Sweden is Salmon heaven  :) thanks to the neighbouring country Norge we get both farmed and wild caught salmons but also several varieties of sea food.  I was anyways never a fan of meat and since the only meat I ate was chicken it was easy to give it up and for some weird reason whenever I used to cook chicken it used to taste horrible so I stopped cooking chicken long time back. My husband makes really yummy chicken but I normally eat just the gravy.

With summer on the way I plan to continue my meat less diet and some interesting recipes will be uploaded soon.

Purslane (Leibak kundo)

Comfort Food- 1 Thambou Singju

Thambou Singju

Recently I met my dear fren 'CT' and the first thing she said was 'Why did you never made singju for me?'. I laughed and said because I never had the right ingredients while we were in Hague but I promised that I will make it for her very soon once I procure all the ingredients including Thambou and even Thoiding. We make different kind of singju (Manipuri salad mixed with herbs, chillies and sometimes with Ngari) but Thambou Singju reminds me of my childhood and the uncountable times I have had this comfort food with Aloo-saak, the combination of these two item was lethal, it still is :).

Thambou or Kamal Kakdi (in hindi) is available in many vegetable market in Delhi most of the vegetable stalls/shops in INA Market stock Thambou and even my neighborhood vegetable vendor sells it, in fact INA market sells almost all the Manipuri vegetables, which make me double happy whenever I visit the market. Before making it for 'CT' I decided to make it for myself and it was quite good. The recipe is below:

Ingredients:

1. Thambou (Kamal Kakdi/Lotus Root)

2.Cabbage

3.Spring onion

4. Toningkhok (Houttuynia cordata- Roots and leaves)

5. Thoiding asuba

6. Besan (Lightly roasted)

7.Chili 

8.Salt to taste

Steps:

• Finely (as fine as possible) chop the cabbage,spring onion, Toningkhok and thinly slide the Thambou.
• In a plate/bigger bowl mix the chili with salt and add the chopped vegetables, mix the ingredients well and add Thoiding and Besan, mix all the ingredients again and garnish with coriander leaves (optional). 

Enjoy the super healthy and yummy Singju. 

Stir Fried Vegetable in Black Bean sauce

Stir Fried Vegetable in Black Bean sauce

Ingredients:

1.       Cauliflower florets

2.       Cabbage ( 2-3 leaves)

3.       French beans (100/150 gms)

4.       Mushroom

5.       1 medium size onion

6.       5-6 garlic cloves

7.       1 inch ginger

8.       2-3 green chili

9.       Soya sauce (Kikkoman)

10.   Black bean paste (1 tbsp- Available in INA market in Delhi)

11.   Salt to taste

12.   2 tbsp corn flour

13.   1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

Steps:

1.       Boil water in a pan and once it comes to a boil  add the chopped french beans, cabbage leaves  and cauliflower ( DO not add the Mushroom). Cover the pan and keep it for about 5 mins.

2.       Drain the hot water and immediately run cold water  over the veggies for  2-3 mins.

3.       Take a Wok/Kadhai and add oil, once it’s hot add the chopped garlic followed by slit green chili and onion. Fry for 4-5  mins.

4.       Add the vegetables and fry it for another 5 mins, add the soya sauce* , also add the black bean paste and mix it well with the vegetables.

5.       In a bowl add the corn flour and ½ cup of water. Add this paste and mix it well with the vegetables.

6.       Add salt to taste and if you feel you need to add more soya sauce add ½ tbsp.*

7.       Cook for another 10 mins on medium flame and enjoy with fried rice.

*Always add 2 tbsp of water to 1 tbsp to soya sauce and mix it well.