ABCD\'s of Cooking

Tangra Summer: Indian-Chinese Pop-Up Dinner July 17th

June 24, 2015 Chitra Agrawal

This upcoming dinner has been a long time coming. Reason being that I have been busy at work on my first cookbook and have also been in the kitchen processing 100s of pounds of Wilklow Orchards rhubarb for my rhubarb ginger achaar at Brooklyn Delhi. After a brief hiatus, Diana and I are bringing Tangra back on Friday, July 17th with Tangra Summer at Court Tree Collective, our friend Stephen and Amy’s gallery in Carroll Gardens.

In case you have not been to one of our past events, Tangra is a series of seasonal and vegetarian Indian-Chinese pop-up feasts that Diana and I collaborate on. The above dish of rhubarb ginger sesame noodles with fried curry leaves is a new recipe we just tested this past weekend and will be serving up! For each dinner, we partner with a local farm and local brewery.

For Tangra Summer, we will be working with Local Roots CSA, an organization started by our friend Wen-Jay Ying who brings the farm to New Yorkers through her weekly CSA subscriptions. She sources her produce from local farms that use healthy growing practices and partners with Brooklyn based small batch producers (including Brooklyn Delhi:) to provide the complete grocery package for her members. Our Tangra courses will be inspired by what is in season from Local Roots CSA.

We love partnering with local breweries as what goes better with spicy Indian-Chinese than beers?? This time around we are working with Transmitter Brewing in Long Island City, Queens. Rob Kolb and Anthony Accardi focus on traditional and farmhouse ales at their brewery. The duo has secured over 20 isolated strains of Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus, as well as a brewhouse library of traditional Belgian, French, English and American yeasts. The flavors they brew are a fine balance of unique and approachable and we are excited to have them at the dinner to talk more about their brewing process.

To secure your spot at Tangra Summer, purchase tickets here.

Tangra Summer
Friday, July 17th
7:30PM – 9:30PM
Court Tree Collective
371 Court Street, 2nd Floor
Brooklyn, NY
Get tickets

Photo Credits
Tangra Noodles: Diana Kuan
Court Tree Collective: Howard Walfish
Local Roots NYC: Wen-Jay Ying
Transmitter Brewing: Jeff Rogers

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Indian-Spiced Vegetable & Cheddar Strata + Cabot Cheese Giveaways

March 15, 2015 Chitra Agrawal

This past year, I became part of the Cabot Cheese Board. I can’t say how much I love the cheese that the creamery produces and also what they stand for. Although you may see Cabot brand cheese in a lot of supermarkets, not everyone knows the company is owned and operated by 1,200 dairy farmers in New York and New England. Just this year, they also came out with a cookbook of recipes from their dairy farm families, which is where I got this strata recipe above. I doctored it a bit with my tomato achaar to give it some Indian flavors. It’s the perfect brunch dish for the cold and snowy winter we’re having.

As a way to celebrate the book, Cabot is running a sweepstakes until April 15th. The grand prize winner will receive a Year’s Supply of Cheese plus a copy of the cookbook, and 10 winners will receive a $25 gift box and a cookbook. You can enter to win here.

It’s hard to keep from eating all the of the cheese before it goes in the oven;) Cabot’s Seriously Sharp Cheddar is what is used in this recipe, but I’m sure any of their aged cheddar varieties like their Farmhouse Reserve, Alpine or White Oak would also be great.

Indian-Spiced Vegetable and Cheddar Strata
adapted from The Cabot Creamery Cookbook
Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup diced red onion
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup diced red bell pepper
1 large bunch kale, washed, stems removed, and torn into pieces (about 3 cups)
8 cups 1-inch cubes bakery-style whole grain bread (about 1 large loaf)
1 1/2 cups (6 oz.) shredded Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheddar
6 large eggs
3 cups fat-free milk
3 tablespoons Brooklyn Delhi tomato achaar, plus more for serving.

Method

Coat a 13 x 9′ baking dish with cooking spray, and set aside.

Heat oil in a large skillet set over medium heat. Add onion, mushrooms, and red pepper, and cook, stirring often, until soft, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add kale and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes longer. Mix in tomato achaar. Remove from heat, and set aside.

Place half the bread cubes evenly in prepared baking dish, and then top with half the vegetable mixture and half the cheddar. Repeat layers of remaining bread cubes, vegetable mixture and cheddar.

Whisk eggs in a large bowl, and then whisk in milk. Season with salt. Pour egg mixture evenly over bread, vegetable mixture and cheddar in baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil and press down slightly to help egg mixture soak into bread. Refrigerate several hours or overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake, uncovered, 45 to 60 minutes or until golden brown and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Serve with more tomato achaar.

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Posted in Breakfast, Lunch, Mains, Vegetarian, Winter | 3 Comments

Brooklyn Delhi Video on The New York Times!

February 25, 2015 Chitra Agrawal

Ben and I were recently featured in a video on the New York Times all about our business, Brooklyn Delhi. The short film captures what we do at Brooklyn Delhi and also comes along with us on our first trip together to visit family in Delhi! The video, which was produced by the folks at T Brand Studio & Blue Chalk, is visually stunning and really gets at the vibrancy of the food and streets in India. I am so happy to share this with you all.

Thanks to the teams at T Brand Studio, Blue Chalk & Emirates Airlines for such beautiful footage of us and our family that we’ll always have: Kaylee King-Balentine, Catherine Yrisarri, Jamie Francis and Gayatri Kaul & to our friend Josh Ethan Johnson for his footage of our wedding that also appears in the vid.

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Indian Stuffed Eggplants (Bharwa Baingan)

February 2, 2015 Chitra Agrawal

Coming back to Brooklyn after being in India for a month has made me crave some of the dishes we had on our trip. One of them is a North Indian recipe that my father likes to make called ‘bharwa baingan’ that translates to stuffed eggplant in Hindi. He got his recipe from my Great Aunt Kumud who lives in Delhi. The eggplants that are used are usually baby ones that you can find in Indian or Asian markets, but I’m sure you could also sub in thin Chinese, Italian or Japanese eggplants.

Before filling the eggplants, you have to slit them in a specific way. You make two cuts, almost quartering the eggplants but stopping right before the stem.

The filling is made from blended up onion, tamarind paste, amchoor powder (dried mango powder), red chili powder, fennel seed powder, kalonji (nigella seed), coriander powder and salt. The original recipe has grated green mango but I’m subbing in the tamarind and amchoor for the sour tang flavor.

Then it’s time for the messy, fun part where you spoon in the filling between the eggplant slits.

What gives the eggplant a truly decadent and unique flavor is the mustard oil you use for frying. You can find unfiltered mustard oil in the Indian store.

We usually have this curry with hot chapatis or parathas, but you could also serve them over rice with a yogurt sauce.

Indian Stuffed Eggplants (Bharwa Baingan)

Ingredients
8 Indian baby eggplants (can sub in 4 Chinese, Italian or Japanese eggplants)
1/2 big onion or 1 medium onion, quartered
1 teaspoon amchoor powder
1 teaspoon tamarind paste (Tamcon)
1 teaspoon coriander powder
pinch of kalonji (nigella seeds)
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1/2 teaspoon fennel seed powder
salt to taste
2 tablespoons mustard oil
water for frying

Method
Wash and slit eggplants twice to almost quarter them but stop your cutting just before the stem. Set aside on a plate

In a blender, first grind the onion. Next add in and grind the tamarind and the rest of the spices and salt with the onion.

With a spoon fill the eggplant slits with the onion mixture.

Heat a non-stick pan to medium heat. Add in mustard oil. When the mustard oil is hot, gently place the stuffed eggplants into the pan. You can put any leftover filling on top of the eggplants. Turn the heat to medium low and add a little bit of water to the pan. Put a cover on the pan. Fry the eggplants like this for 20 minutes, check on them every 5 minutes and turn them gently to cook on all sides. Each time add a little bit of water if the eggplants are sticking. Some filling will be falling out into the pan, which is fine as it tastes good when fried:) The eggplants are done when they are tender to the touch of a fork.

Serve them hot with roti or rice.

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Posted in Autumn, Curry, Dinner, Favorites, Gluten-Free, North Indian, Recipes Index, Sides, Stir-Fry, Summer, Vegan, Vegetarian | Comments Off

Hen-of-the-Woods, Havarti & Green Chili Pasta

December 22, 2014 Chitra Agrawal

While in Wisconsin for our wedding, Ben’s mother found some beautiful Hen-of-the-Woods mushrooms right in their backyard. This variety of mushroom is usually found in Autumn and is sometimes referred to as maitake (means ‘dancing mushrooms in Japanese), sheepshead mushroom or ram’s head. They have a full flavor to them that is rich and kind of woodsy and are known to be extremely nutritious.

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Update: Martha Stewart American Made Awards

November 6, 2014 Chitra Agrawal

Thank you to everyone that voted for Brooklyn Delhi. I know that many of you came back to vote for us everyday and we really appreciate it! Although we were not one of the 9 American Made winners, the judges at Martha Stewart selected a few honorable mentions out of the pool of 3,000+ applicants and we were one of them! They chose us specifically in the category of Heritage for how Brooklyn Delhi is preserving Indian cooking traditions with local ingredients. They also invited us to be a special guest at the Martha Stewart American Made Summit, which is open to the public. Here’s more on that if you are interested in attending. It’s taking place Nov 7 and 8th. Before we could put together our comprehensive list, we first took tens of hours to read through hundreds of user reviews. This allowed us to not only find the Best Catfish Rod but also to put together in-depth reviews for each. Of course, if you aren’t ready to make your final purchase yet, we have also taken the time to produce a highly-detailed buying guide, which will tell you everything you need to know to find the right rod for your needs. Catfish make for some of the best eating freshwater fish available in the USA and catching them sure is a heck of a lot of fun.

You can read more about us and the other makers chosen in the Heritage category here.

And thank you again, so appreciate the support!

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Paneer Stuffed Mini Peppers w/ Green Pea Chutney

October 21, 2014 Chitra Agrawal

Last week, we received a delivery from Farmbox Direct full of organic vegetables, fruits and cheese.

I was most jazzed about these mini sweet peppers.

Looking for some recipes, I posted to my Instagram to see what friends recommended cooking with these beauties. My good friend Oscar had the idea of stuffing them with spiced paneer and I went with it! And without even realizing it, I kind of created a deconstructed mattar paneer (North Indian peas and cheese curry).

I made a paneer stir-fry flavored with shallot, garlic, ginger and green chilies that I stuffed into the sweet peppers for baking.

Then I blended up the easiest chutney in the world from green peas, cilantro, yogurt and lemon. It was a nice sweet complement to the spicy paneer curry.

These were delicious right out of the oven.

Paneer Stuffed Mini Peppers w/ Green Pea Chutney

Ingredients

1/2 pound mini sweet peppers, stems removed, halved

Paneer Stir-Fry
4 oz. paneer cheese, crumbled or cubed small
1 tablespoon oil
1 small shallot, minced
1 inch ginger piece, peeled and grated
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Indian green chills (can sub in Serranos or jalapeño)
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1/3 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon garam masala
salt to taste

Green Pea Chutney
1/3 cup blanched green peas or thawed out frozen peas
3 tablespoons yogurt
3 tablespoons cilantro leaves
squeeze of lemon
salt to taste

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease a cookie sheet pan.

In a pan under medium-high heat, place 1 tablespoon of oil. When hot add in cumin seeds. When seeds start to brown after a few seconds, add in shallot. Turn the heat to medium and cook until translucent, a few minutes. Then add the garlic, green chili and ginger. Fry for 30 seconds, mixing about until fragrant. Add in the coriander powder, turmeric, garam masala and mix well. Fry for a few seconds. If pan is getting dry, can add in a few drops of water. Add in the paneer cheese and mix well. Sauté paneer for few minutes. Add salt to taste and turn off heat.

Layer the halved sweet mini peppers on a greased cookie sheet pan. With a teaspoon, fill the pepper halves with paneer stir-fry. Place in the oven to bake for 15 minutes, until peppers are soft and drying out a little on top.

Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender, add in the peas, cilantro and yogurt. Puree and transfer to a bowl. Add squeeze of lemon and salt to taste.

Line a plate with the baked peppers and drizzle the green peas chutney on top. Serve immediately.

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