Food, Lately

During my 1st trimester, I could barely stomach the smell if I cooked at home and I was way too tired to prepare any meals. I relied a lot on take-out and prepared meals from PCC.  Now a days I have way more energy to cook meals.  I've been hankering for foods and flavors of Indian/Trinidadian food that I grew up on. Here are a couple of my recent dinners:

Paneer Tikka Masala with rice and salad

Aloo jeera (Potatoes with cumin), tindora, karela (bitter melon), rice and salad with chilies

Okra, rice, chilies, lime

Black eyed peas, browned seitan, rice, salad

As you can tell I'm loving the rice-salad-lime-chili combination!

For my paneer, I opt to bake the cubes before simmering them in sauce. Usually, it's fried in a lot of oil before simmering. I never have much luck frying paneer...oil splatters everywhere, I'm racing to turn the cubes before they burn, and the house just smells smokey. Instead, I massage the cubes in some olive oil and pop them into the oven at 350 degF for about 10 minutes, then flip the cubes over once and bake for another 10 minutes. You want both sides to be a little golden brown.  They come out perfectly and I don't get oil burns all over my arm!

My okra, tindora, and karela are all cooked pretty much the same way...sauteed or fried in some olive oil until browned with onions, garlic, salt, black pepper, chilies, a little turmeric and LIME!  I find that the lime really helps get rid of the sliminess from the okra and cuts the bitter taste of the karela.  You will also have to fry them for a bit to really fix those problems. The more raw they are, the more slime and bitter taste you get. A friend also suggested soaking the karela in some salt water before cooking to diminish the strong taste. (Note: Some  say that karela can induce early labor in pregnancy and cause uterine bleeding. You would really have to eat a large quantity of bitter melon for this to happen. I only had a small amount and was completely fine afterwords. However, I wouldn't recommend eating it all-day, every-day during your pregnancy. Think of it like caffeine....a little is ok in moderation.)

For the peas, I just sauteed some onion, garlic, and chilis together, then added tomatoes, black eyed peas, paprika, turmeric, cilantro, salt and black pepper. I simmered everything in water together until there was a minimal amount of gravy/sauce with the peas.

What dishes are you all craving these days?