Featured on The Students Mag August 2011 issue.

I'm pleased to share that I have been featured in The Students Magazine in a 3 page interview by Satya Kandala (Sub Editor). She framed the questions around my creative journey, my art, my cooking and how my veganism has woven itself into all these parts of my life. I have answered them in detail.

The August issue of the magazine, in which my interview has been published, hit the stands a couple of weeks ago and is available in leading book stores in Bangalore. Since their website is not completely up and running, they don't have an online version of the magazine available yet. Satya was kind enough to send me a couple of physical copies of the mag for my collection.

I've taken digital images of the 3 pages and have posted them below if you'd like to read. :)

You can click on each image to be taken to a slightly larger version for clearer viewing if you like.

Mediterranean Sun Dried Tomato Bread

1 1/2 C soymilk
2 T sugar
4 T olive oil
2 t active dry yeast
2 T raw flax seed powder
1 t salt
1 C all purpose flour
3-4 C whole wheat flour

sun dried tomatoes (soaked in warm water and re-hydrated)
chilli powder
herbs - oregano, rosemary etc...

Heat the soymilk until lukewarm (test the temperature with your knuckle). Pour into a large mixing bowl and whisk in the sugar, oil and yeast. Leave for 15 minutes for the yeast to dissolve. It should be all bubbly and frothy by the end of this time.

Add the salt and flax seed powder and beat a little. Slowly whisk in the 1 C all purpose flour and 2 1/2 cups of the whole wheat flour a little at a time while continuing to beat it as much as possible. Once the dough gets too thick to beat, add just a little more flour and mix with your palms to obtain a rough dough.

Form this dough into a ball and transfer it onto a flat, floured surface (I use my cleaned granite counter top). Knead well for about 10 mins at least (add a little more whole wheat flour while kneading if the dough is sticky but make sure it doesn't get too dry) until it reaches a smooth, elastic consistency.

An effective way to knead is to press the dough away from you with the base of your palms, then fold the dough over towards you and then it press again.

Form the kneaded dough into a ball. Grease the mixing bowl with a little bit of oil. Place the dough ball into the bowl and swirl it around until it's coated with the oil. Cover with a clean plastic bag and let it sit in a warm spot for about 2 hours, until doubled in volume.

Punch down the dough and give it a quick knead for a few seconds. Divide it into two balls. Roll the balls out into large rectangles about 1 centimeter (a little less than 1/2 inch) thick and place them flat. Lightly coat these rectangles with a very thin layer of olive oil and spread the sun dried tomatoes and sprinkle the chilli powder and herbs over them (you can add sliced olives too but I didn't have any when I made the bread so they're not in there). Gently roll up the sheets and form them into loaves. Place them in loaf pans, cover again with the plastic bags and let them sit for 1 1/2 hours to double in volume.

I actually made one bread with this rolling up method and the other with bits of the sun dried tomatoes and herbs and spices kneaded into the loaf. Both were nice but I personally preferred the taste of the rolled up style bread better.

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F. Bake the loaves for 50 minutes.

A great way to get a nicely browned, crusty top is to spray the bread with water every 15 minutes or so while it is baking.

Cool for some time in the loaf pans. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely. Slice with a serrated knife and serve.

Tastes great with Hummus!

Lazy Pizza

Though I normally prefer to bake my own pizza base, sometimes I get lazy and look for the easy/quick way out. Thankfully Nilgiris carries pretty decent whole wheat flattened bread which works. Well, when commercial products say 'whole wheat', it means they have some amount of whole wheat in there along with the usual lot of maida (all purpose flour), but at least it's a little better than getting breads made blatantly of white flour! Or so claims my slothful side. :oP

I concocted a nice, thick, fairly healthy and more importantly quick pizza sauce last night so all I needed to do is slather it onto the pizza base, bake it for 15 minutes in a hot 200C oven, sprinkle on some herbs, crush some pepper et voila! A super yummy dinner done in less than half an hour. :D



Here's what went into the pizza sauce:

4 Tomatoes
1/2 C Sun Dried Tomatoes
6-7 Cloves of Garlic
1/2 C Pecans
1/4 C Balsamic Vinegar
3 T Nutritional Yeast
1/2 t Jaggery
Chilli Powder
Salt
1/4 C Olive Oil

Rehydrate the sun dried tomatoes in 1/4 C warm water. Blend everything, except olive oil, together (including sun dried tomato water) into a smooth, creamy, slightly thick sauce.

Transfer to airtight container and add the olive oil on top. Mix well. Close lid and store in fridge for up to a week and use as required.

As always, I made this instinctively by throwing in handfuls and splashes so the quantities mentioned are indicative. Taste and adjust as you blend. Follow your tongue. :)

Raw Vegan Hazelnut Cheese

The first time I tasted nut 'cheese' was at VegFest 2010 at Portland, Oregon. I can still remember the explosion in my tastebuds when I put that delicious cheese made of Hazelnuts by Heidi Ho Organics into my mouth! Mmmm mmm!

It's such a pity they were only giving out samples that day. DH and I wanted to buy loads to stuff our faces with. Needless to say, the next time I'm at Portland, Ima gettin' me some Heidi Ho hazelnut cheese.



Since nut and seed cheeses are made of raw nuts and seeds which have been put through a fermentation process, they are rich in enzymes, nutrients and lactobacilli (the good kind of bacterial cultures). A most delectable way to put probiotics into your system! :)

I've been wanting to experiment with nut cheese making for a while now but I was under the impression that it is a difficult task and that it needs some 'exotic' ingredients like miso or dulse. That was until I saw this recipe by Dr. Nandita Shah on the Sharan India website. From the first step until the cheese is ready for consumption it takes a few days so it is time consuming process, but the effort which you need to put into it is hardly much. With patience, anyone can make raw, vegan cheeses right in their home. And as we already know, homemade is always the tastiest and healthiest option. :)

So couple of days ago, on a whim I decided to attempt making nut cheese. Luckily, I already had a little bit of rejuvelac on hand and it was enough for the small, experimental quantity I intended to begin with. I decided to go for hazelnuts. Firstly because I was out of cashews and almonds and secondly because hazelnut cheese is the only kind I'd ever tasted (and loved!).

I pretty much followed Dr. Nandita's recipe except that after the cheese was ready, I pressed out the water from the it by putting it into a cloth bag inside a colander and placing a weight over it overnight. I preferred the taste and texture of the pressed version more than the softer kind.

For flavoring, I used nutritional yeast, salt, oregano, a pinch of turmeric for color and a dash of chilli powder (hey, come on, I had to Indianize it at least a wee bit).

So here it is, my very first batch of Raw Vegan Hazelnut Cheese! :)



It's the first of many more to come. I wouldn't call it perfect but it was gosh darned scrumptious! Notice that I say 'was' (past tense)? It's because we gobbled up almost the whole batch during lunch. :D

Next time I'll be tweaking things. I plan to use a combination of nuts and seeds. I'll be blending them into a more creamy finish. And I'll be adding the spices before the fermentation process begins.

Earlier today I was reading up more about making home made raw, vegan cheeses in this amazing, highly informative post. I found the part where it speaks of cheese 'seasons' and moon cycles extremely interesting. I already try to do certain things based on the moon cycle in my day to day life and it makes complete sense to me that the behavior of the lactobacilli would be dependent upon them too.

After having read that post, I'm all riled up and really looking forward to more successful adventures in raw, vegan nut and cheese making. Can't wait to get the next batch started! :)

Pristine Nature and Lettuce Tomato Pecan Salad with Pudina Red Rice

My friend K recommended an online site called Pristine-Nature when I was looking for fresh, organic vegetables. They source a good variety of organic produce, grains, beans, lentils, spices and oils from mainly local (in and around Bengaluru) farms and offer a once a week home delivery service.

Inspired by the founders of Adi Naturals (a community service organisation aiming at connecting the farmer directly with the consumer to lower costs), this is what they have to say about themselves...

"Pristine-Nature does not offer any goods or services of its own, and neither do we buy or sell any products. We only provide an online presence and voluntary service at no-charge, to like-minded community service organizations who work for no profit or minimal profit for covering their expenses. These organizations purchase from marginal organic farmers and retail their wares. Our idea is to enable such organizations to reach wider audience / customer-base over the internet and enable them with IT services with the help of volunteers, to streamline their operations."

In less than half an hour of me registering at the site, I got a call from their customer service representative (a very nice, polite lady) who patiently explained all about Adi Naturals and Pristine Nature to me. The call really encouraged me to go ahead and avail of their services without feeling hounded in any way.

DH and I decided to place an order with them over the weekend. We ordered a variety of red rices along with a few vegetables, some yelakki bananas and turmeric powder. After much excited waiting, today the stuff arrived! :)

I was very happy to note that they didn't use unnecessary plastic bags to pack the things. Except for the red rices, all items were without packaging. The young man who was delivering my order carried everything into my kitchen in a crate and transferred them onto the counter. The produce was very fresh and healthy looking. The rice seemed clean and in very good condition. He informed me that the chou chou (chayote) I'd ordered was in a slightly poor condition so he voluntarily asked me to subtract the amount for it from the payment even before I could take a closer look at the vegetables and he left the single chou chou behind anyways. I found that to be very professional.



The prices of the products are slightly on the higher side compared to inorganic products (which is to be expected) but compared to the prices of organic products at some other stores, Pristine Nature seems fairly competitive. They used to be a lot more expensive last year but according to what they told me, the prices are lower now in comparison because they've stabilized more. I believe that as more and more people switch to organic food, the prices will come down further.

The only issue I have with Pristine-Nature is that they charge 20% of the total bill as the delivery fee (with a capping meter of Rs.150). That in my opinion is a tad high. It discourages one from buying too many things because each time the total increases, so does the delivery fee. In fact, I had originally added a few more items to my shopping cart but ended up removing them simply because they were high priced items and would run up the delivery fee too much. Gingelly (sesame) oil for example is around Rs. 165, which by itself is a pretty good price for organic gingelly oil, but the thought of the price going up another 20% discouraged us from buying it. I think if they had fixed delivery charges of Rs.50 to Rs.100, depending on the distance of the house from their place, it would surely encourage people to add more items to their cart.

Overall though, I was very happy with the transaction and very much intend to continue ordering from them on a regular basis. All this time I had not made the change to organic simple because I didn't have an organic store close enough to me to walk to but now with everything coming right to my door, I have no excuses.

I recommend Pristine-Nature to everyone in Bengaluru who is looking to switch to a partial or full organic diet.

***

Now lets come to my lunch...

There is nothing more inspiring to a cook than a fresh batch of produce spread out on the kitchen counter. Greens, herbs, vegetables... my mind was whirring on high speed with all kinds of ideas! Do I make quinoa tabbouleh with the fresh mint, coriander and country tomatoes or do I make capsicum stuffed with rice and beans with a pasta salad on the side? Or better yet, a hummus and pita bread sandwich stuffed with loads of cruncy, munchy lettuce?

I finally settled on making a simple lettuce salad with red rice on the side. That would meet my objective of making a large portion of our meal raw and yet have a cooked dish in the mix to make it more filling.



For the Lettuce Tomato Pecan Salad with Balsamic Sambar Powder Dressing:

Lightly Shredded Organic Lettuce
Halved Organic Yellow Cherry Tomatoes
Pecan Halves
Splash of Tamari
Splash of Balsamic Vinegar
Sprinkle of Sambar Powder

Mix the lettuce, tomatoes and pecans together and keep aside. Just before serving, add the remaining ingredients, toss well and serve.

Note: If you mix the dressing ingredients to the salad in advance then the lettuce will lose its texture and taste lousy.

For the Pudina Red Rice:

1 C Organic Red Rice
2 C Organic Pudina (Spearmint Leaves)
2 Spicy Green Chillies
Allspice Powder
Salt
Lemon Juice
Nutritional Yeast
Freshly Crushed Pepper
Small Splash of Agave

Wash the red rice well. Bring 4 C of water to a rolling boil and add the rice. Reduce the flame to the lowest, cover and cook.

Meanwhile, chop the mint leaves and the green chillies and add them to the boiling rice along with the allspice powder. Cover and continue to cook for about 40 minutes. Check once after 30 minutes and add salt at this point. Cook till all the water is absorbed and the rice has split.

Turn off the flame and take the pot off the stove. Add the lemon juice, nutritional yeast, agave and mix well. Crush pepper on top.

How to proceed:

In a plate, spread the salad all around the sides and leave a small space in the center. Place the rice in this space. Top with a few pieces of pecans and tomatoes. Enjoy! :)

This was a very satisfying, delicious and filling meal. The tomatoes were the best part. Bursting with flavor and so juicy! If you place a order with Pristine Nature Organics, be sure to get some of them.