Going veggie with Allison and Rob (&B-boo)

April 25, 2011 at 2:30 pm | Posted in Dinner, Entertainment | 4 Comments

Remember when I told you I went to Hopkins for grad school? Well maybe I never told you.. trying to repress those memories…. I left with my master’s and I left with a whole bunch of great friends, but aside from those two things, that was all that was good! Two of these friends, Rebecca (B-Boo as I like to call her) and Allison lived right down the street from me and we would have lots of fun adventures. Becca also helped me ace an advanced NMR class! The lives of my two friends are changing up alot this year and because of that I get/got to see them! Allison recently graduated from Cornell with her PhD in Engineering and moved from Ithaca to DC (with Rob, her wonderful boyfriend) and Becca will be graduating soon with her PhD from Yale in Biophysics and will be moving to San Diego for her post-doc! (Did I also mention my friends are supergeniuses?? It’s something I deem worthy of lots of bragging!)  Becca’s sister, Jess, just came back from Lahore Pakistan where she was working for the state department and so we found a weekend where we could all get together!!!! 😀

There were so many fresh vegetables used that night, it was ALL vegetables actually! Oothapams, a yellow curry potato dish and spiced cashews were on for dinner and Allison made us chocolate dipped orange slices for dessert.  I love learning new ways to eat vegetarian (different from my normal lunch routine of a huge bowl of salad with a good dollop of hummus, an apple and a Chobani!)  Rob took charge of cooking our meal and we helped (well mainly I just took pictures) (what a nice boyfriend!!!) Go for the jump and see our delicious meal…

Becca cut up some jalapeno

peppers for the oothapams (recipe on link and I love how that word sounds)…

Fun with the Penguin.

Too much fun actually.. Did you know that carbonating white wine doesn’t really work??   Scratch that from Becca – it does work, just makes an amazing mess! 

Here was some of the mid-cooking shots of the potato dish. See the black mustard seeds?

I have no idea what green that was, spinach?? Help me Allison!

More ingredients for the oothapams.

The first oothapam in the pan (doesn’t really work for stick pans, non-stick was better!)

The most delicious cashews I have ever eaten. Soaked cashews are the way to go! (see below for recipe) Loved the coconut and cilantro flavors with the nuts.

And a complete and filling plate of vegetarian goodies.

Dessert! Deeeeelicious.

Cashews in a green spice paste:
(from World Vegetarian, Madhur Jaffrey)
1.5 c raw whole cashews
2 green chiles
3/4 c chopped fresh cilantro
2 tbls unsweetened coconut soaked in 2 tbls hot water for 1 hr
2 tbls canola oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
15-20 curry leaves (optional)
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
1 tbls tamarind paste
1 tsp salt

Soak the cashews overnight in water, covered by at least 3 inches of water. Drain.

Put the green chiles, cilantro, and coconut into a food processor. Add 1/4 c water and puree, pushing down the mixture with a spatula when necessary.

Put the oil in a pan, set over med-high heat. When hot, add the mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds pop, a matter of seconds, add the curry leaves, if using, and the garlic. Once the garlic browns, add the green spice paste, the tamarind paste, salt and cashews. Stir to mix well. Turn the heat to low, cover, simmer for 4-5 minutes. Serve hot.

Serves 6.