North Indian Potatoes

Adapted from this aesthetically unappealing recipe, http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/recipe.cgi?r=175603, I ended up making enough food for 8 people that 2 people gladly ate all by themselves. It's a little like mashed potatoes, but with all the Indian spices you love, plus some extra vegetables for color, texture, and nutrients!

I didn't take any pictures because the consistency is nothing to brag about. It looks like tumeric-colored mashed potatoes with chunks of vegetable. The real secret is in the taste.

First, place eggplants (I used Japanese) right under the broiler on some foil. Don't remove anything, just rinse them, prick them with a fork, and stick them under there. Wait about ten minutes until the skin is black, then turn them over to get the other side. They're done when they smell delicious and when the skin is blackened. Be sure to prick them, or they will quite literally explode in your oven! Remove when done and set aside to cool. When cool, peel skin off easily. Chop.

At the same time, boil a big pot of water. Cut 2 potatoes in half. Salt the water. Add potatoes. Boil for half an hour or until a fork goes all the way through the potatoes easily. This always takes longer than I expect. Remove and peel potatoes. Mash.

Whilst the eggplant and potatoes and cooking, heat some olive oil in a pan with a whole chopped onion and several minced cloves of garlic. Add about half an inch of minced or mushed ginger, as well. Proceed to dump in 2 generous heaping teaspoons cumin, 1.4 teaspoons coriander, 1 teaspoon garam masala, 1/2 teaspoon cloves, 1 spoon tumeric, cayenne pepper to taste. Add four coarsely chopped mushrooms and a handful of chopped carrots. Cook til tender. Shake a few generous shakes of garlic salt. Add the eggplant.

Mash potatoes with a masher and add the vegetable ingredients. Add chopped or shredded cheddar cheese. Continue mashing. Add crumbled feta cheese, if desired. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve the gloriousness!

Mattar Paneer

Mattar paneer, take two! The second attempt is much better, but still doesn't taste as good as the restaurants. However, I discovered that avocado is the perfect silky-smooth complement! I love avocado. I could make a meal out of straight up avocado.

The paneer in my version is actually tofu, because they don't sell paneer in Okinawa, and because I am not ready to attempt to make my own paneer (yet?). By the way, paneer is a type of hard cheese that you can make by boiling milk with lemon juice, then squeezing dry the curds that form. Mattar is green peas. I used a recipe from Manjula's Kitchen, complete with YouTube video!



I made a few changes because of the ingredients I had on hand. For one, I used tofu instead of paneer. First, I dried the tofu a little to make it firmer so it wouldn't break apart in the sauce. I wrapped it in paper towels, put it under a heavy dish, and stuck it in the microwave for a few minutes. Much water sweated out! Then, I pan fried the tofu using more oil than Manjula.

I also added some sliced shiitake mushrooms at the last step. They add a yummy bit of butteriness to the acidity of the tomatoes. And I added some ground almonds to the final thing, to see if that would make it creamy. I didn't have enough almonds!

I'm proud of this dish because it's vegetarian and it's darn tasty for being meatless and low in fatness. *mental note to make more dishes like this.



I ate it over brown rice/grains, and, of course, avocado!!! This is the first avocado I've had in Japan, because they're so expensive. They're worth the 100-yen. Just like the 498-yen architechturally pre-cut fresh pineapple!

I made two batches of bread pudding in the last three days. Suffice it to say, I'm getting pretty good at it. I think french bread makes terrific bread pudding because it adds fluff but also a bit of sourness to offset the sweetness. I attempted to make banana pudding, but the egg ended up cooking and becoming all grainy. Will attempt a banana dessert this afternoon, since I have so many monkey bananas!

From Marrow to Pore: Ripe is the Flavor of Life

From marrow to pore:
ripe is the flavor of life,
and sweet it will be forever.

That's been my motto for a few years now, and my time in Okinawa has given me ample opportunity to explore one of my passions: food! I've been living here for a few months now, and while I've always been big on food tourism, food photography, food blogging, and gluttony in general, I've never gone food-nerd in the way of chefdom before.

Today I attempted to make Vegetable Korma, one of my favorite dishes when I eat Indian food. Why did I attempt to make an unfamiliar dish from a cuisine I had no experience with? Well, let me tell you something about food in Japan: It's Japanese food. No, really, it's all Japanese food.

I never knew there were so many different varieties of Japanese dishes! Japanese was always my favorite cuisine, so I'm happy to have access to the myriad dishes that Japanese people eat, instead of the Westernized and overpopularized versions of the boring things we're all too familiar with: chicken teriyaki, california rolls, sashimi limited in variety to maguro, tamago, and ebi, lackluster miso soup, ramen, shrimp & vegetable tempura . . . before I walk into almost any given Japanese restaurant on the US mainland, I can already tell you what will be on the menu. As a teacher in Okinawa, I can tell you that the school lunch (you heard me--school lunch!) in Japan beats the food at many a Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles County.

One thing I miss about Hawaii (and the US in general) is my ability to go out for Indian, Thai, Mexican, Italian, Korean, and Chinese food. You would think that as a former tributary of China, The Kingdom of the Ryukyus (aka Okinawa) would have a few Chinese restaurants. Instead, they have taken some aspects of Chinese culture and simmered them down into the larger Okinawan stew. Basically, if you want anything other than Japanese food, you have to learn to cook it yourself.

I got my Vegetable Korma recipe from Manjula's Kitchen, but modified it for the vegetables I had on hand (carrots, cabbage, and peas). However, even with the instructional video on YouTube, I managed to screw it up and curdle the milk, resulting in a decidedly non-creamy korma. The photographic evidence is too unappetizing to post here. I will be attempting similar dishes again, hopefully with better results. Here is Manjula making Vegetable Korma in her kitchen: