Pacific Northwest

So far I've been through San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and the northern and eastern Cascades. I'm loving it so far. Here are some pics through the eyes of a happy tourist - and one that has very easily fallen in love with the Pacific northwest. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

I arrived soon enough to drive through the northern Cascades to experience the changing of seasons.

Viewpoint from Lake Diablo.

Eating lots of home-cooked foods such as these above and these below:

Access to lots of west coast beers (yes, yes, i know where Victory is located).

Visiting friends in Portlandia. 

Nico and Allison showing off Portland. 

Love the markets with so many green leafy veggies (will miss this variety in Belgium!)

Nico happens to make the best pizza dough and breads, and kimchee fried rice, and ginger butternut soup, and blueberry Danishes, and did I mention amazing pizzas?

Columbia River Gorge, Oregon.

Multnomah Falls, Oregon. 

Views from the Space Needle in Seattle, WA. Expensive, but worth the view.

Views from the Space Needle in Seattle, WA. 

So yes we did touristy things too, such as visiting the Experience Music Project. 

More touristy things: Pike's Place Market.

Sampling many regional foods with Neil and Deep.

Visiting Jacquelyn and Jimmy in Seattle for some local treats (e.g beers and eats).

Yellow split pea and calabash squash curry

Split yellow peas.

Calabash squash, a type of young bottle gourd.

Onions, ginger, and garlic sauteing along with fenugreek, udad dhal, and mustard seeds. 

Prepping the calabash squash.

A thicker consistency before adding the split yellow peas.

Thin the dish with enough water to let everything fill out.

Squash chunks get added.

June 14, 2012 update: Laura, of the ever-spectacular Hip Pressure Cooking, was kind enough to share my (mom's) recipe in her Reader Recipes. I've been a fan of pressure cooking for a long time, and her cooker reviews and lessons can be transformational to anyone that cooks. Her approach is to bring this method of cooking to about any cuisine, and after scanning her pics, she pretty much nails them. My personal favorites (those I have bookmarked until I get my own pressure cooker) of Laura's are: tamales, eggs, crema Catalana, and artichokes.

If you're new to pressure cooking, but are intrigued and curious, check out the July 2012 Pressure Cooker Challenge. Join a community of support, build up skills, and share your recipes and techniques.

Mom's dudhi channa shak or yellow split pea and squash curry. One of a dozen recipes I have carefully gleaned on my trip home. 

In getting the Gujarati term for this squash/gourd correct, I did a few web searches, and asked each parent to spell it before settling on a spelling. Dudhi. Doothi. Doodhi. In Hindi, lauki.  Calabash squash is a type of bottle gourd which is used when it's young and green. If you can find it (usually at an Asian or south Asian market) peel the skin off and remove the seeds. It's mild, and it holds its shape well in curries or soups which are simmered. However, don't let it scare you off - yellow summer squash or zucchini squash can be used instead of the calabash squash.

Although the recipe ingredient list looks long you can omit many of the spices you don't have, or add spices such as increasing the heat with extra jalapenos or red chili powder. First read the recipe all the way through. Soak the lentils first, then prep the ingredients. This soaking time will help reduce the total cooking time of the lentils. This dish can be cooked in a pressure cooker which can cut cooking time in half, or can be cooked in a pot on the stove. A pressure cooker is high on my wish list of solid kitchen tools. 

The cooking times and directions have been written for stove-top and pressure cooker cooking methods. Serve the finished dish alongside some buttered hot pita bread, or over rice. Since it's close to Thanksgiving, it would make an excellent vegetarian/vegan main course, or perhaps even a one-pot meal for the weekend. With days of steady rain projected for the Pacific Northwest weather, this dish really hits the spot. 

Yellow split pea and calabash squash curry

(Dudhi channa ni shak)

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup yellow split peas; soaked in water in a bowl, set aside.

1 tbsp peanut oil

1/4 tsp udad dhal, optional

1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds, optional

1/2 tsp mustard seeds, optional

pinch asafoetida, or hing, optional

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 tbsp ginger, chopped fine

1/2 cup onion, chopped fine

water as needed

2 cups calabash squash, peeled and cut into 1" chunks. Remove the seeds (ok to substitute unpeeled yellow summer squash or zucchini squash)

1/3 cup tomato chunks, thinned with about 2 tbsp of water

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin, ground

1 tsp coriander, ground

1/2 cup chopped cilantro, divided, safe half for garnish

1-2 tsps garam masala, to add just before serving

red chili flakes to be passed when served

Directions for stove-top method:

Approx. cooking time: 40 minutes

1. Wash the yellow split peas well. Place them in a medium size bowl and cover them with water.

2. Add the oil to a medium-sized pot, and heat up over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add in the udad dhal, fenugreek and mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds begin to pop (about 1 minute) add in the asafoetida powder. Stir everything together and then add the onions, garlic, and ginger. Continue to saute, turning the heat down to medium. If omitting the optional ingredients, add the onions, garlic, and ginger to the oil and saute until golden. 

3. Add the yellow split peas (along with the water they are soaking in) to the pot along with 1-2 cups of water. Add the tomato chunks thinned with a bit of water, turmeric, salt, cumin and coriander. 

4. Add the calabash squash chunks (see note below about subbing squashes), and half of the chopped cilantro. Stir everything together and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Let cook 30-35 minutes. Stir it often, and check to see how the lentils and squash are cooking. The dish is done when the lentils are cooked, the squash is easily pierced with a fork, and the dish can be served over rice without being too soupy.  

5. Stir in garam masala and the chopped cilantro and serve. 

(Note: if subbing in summer squash or zucchini, let the lentils cook for 30-35 minutes before adding the squash in. The curry can be cooked an additional 10 minutes. This will prevent the squash from over cooking and falling apart. 

Directions for a pressure cooker:

Approx. cooking time: 25 minutes

Follow steps 1-4 in the directions above, but only add 1 cup of water. Because the pressure cooker cooks everything super fast the extra water is not necessary to accommodate the water that boils off on the stove top. Once you bring the curry to a nice simmer as in step 4, set the pressure cooker to 3 whistles on medium-high heat. 

If using summer squash or yellow squash, increase the soaking time of the lentils to 1 hour, and cook the mixture to a max of 2 whistles. It may take some adjustment, but it will prevent the squash from turning into a soggy mess, and should cook the lentils. Finish the dish by stirring in garam masala and chopped cilantro. 

I am the bean queen

I am the bean queen. Seriously. I had forgotten what an impression my mom's pantry had on me when growing up. I mean do you know anyone that has this much healthy protein lying stocked in their pantry? I think I missed one big and major first impression, and that is how freaking delicious home-cooked food tastes. Everyday, I've been flittering around my mom while she's cooking, and then I rush to my computer to type like mad when she starts telling me exactly how she did everything. I even forced her to measure things so I could come up with semi-recipes of her tried and true transplanted Gujarati recipes. My mom has been cooking things that her mother used to cook when she was a child. I'm looking forward to typing it up and sharing it on here.

Then I took out all of her beans and lentils from the pantry to bring you this bean and lentil pictorial. Belgian goodies promised to anyone that can name at least 3 types of beans and lentils that are not pictured here.

I love how my mom has used these old Tropicana orange juice glass jars. She collected all of them while she was working as a preschool teacher when I was in preschool. It's kind of scary to think of all that juice that was served to us preschool children.  

Below, I have tried to specify whether to cook like lentils or beans. Remember, lentils don't require long-soaking times to rehydrate. Lentils can be cooked quickly, up to 30-35 minutes. Dried beans need to be soaked, then cooked. See this post on the specifics to cooking beans and lentils. 

Green mung beans (cook these as you would lentils; they do not require long soaking times to rehydrate)

Cooked as lentils.

I have seen both types of chickpeas sold as "Kabuli." Treat both types as beans. 

Can be cooked as lentils; soaking them briefly should speed up cooking time. 

Split black gram lentils, or udad dhal, cook as lentils, but can be soaked. 

Mung vs moong. These are mung beans that have skinned and split. Cook like lentils. 

Treat as beans. 

Whole green peas can be treated as beans. When these are split in two, they are split green peas and should be treated like lentils. I always soak them just a bit (30 minutes) to get them softer. 

Pintos. My favorite beans.

Similar to channa dhal, but thickens up much more when cooked. Please ignore that I wrote pigeon peas. This was the last guy pictured, and I was just copying down a re-used label. 

First impressions

It is my first time back in the US since March of last year. I am not usually sentimental but this time I felt nostalgic, homesick, and bits of dread as the plane descended and I saw suburban sprawl, McD's signs, and the lack of bike lanes. Once I stepped out of the international arrival area, I teared up. I wasn't even trying to be dramatic, but when I stepped out of the customs area and there was no one to greet the realization that I still had another 7 hours depressed me.  

Dramatic. I know. I've been back for a few weeks, and have been trying to remember what things caught my fancy. Being away from your home country after an extended period of time is, well, weird. You get used to adjusting to the differences that you forget what your "normal" was before you moved.

• Geographically, the US is huge. It can take 7 hours to travel coast to coast. That is nearly the same time as my international flight. 
• When I landed state-side, I was not prepared, nor had I remembered correctly, the cultural drinking style of the US. This includes ID checks, the absence of alcoholic and gas water in food kiosks and other grab-and-go food and drink stations, and how expensive these items seem in contrast to other beverages. While the sheer number of restaurants and choices were remarkable, it was odd that food kiosks can sell a bevy of soft drinks in every caloric and sugar-free requirement, but there is not a single bottle of sparkling water, or chilled beer, or wine in the entire refrigerated section of drinks. How totally annoying.
• My Belgian residence permit is a controversial form of ID. Just so you know, passports are not an acceptable form of ID for verifying age.
• Urban and community gardening seems to be everywhere. Chicago O'hare has an urban vertical garden located upstairs in a semi-atrium at Terminal G.
• Flights heading west from Chicago provide stunning views of the American southwest.
• US tobacco laws have banned smoking from public spaces so effectively, that I noticed the first time I smelled smoke because I hadn't smelled it once since landing.
• Bathrooms! The stalls huge and clean, and free!
• Waitstaff that bring you water! It's free!
• Tar-jaaaay! I went to Target for a day trip. I just walked around and stared at stuff. I admired how cheap things were (yes, I did), and that everything seemed to be on sale.
• Veggie bacon; onions in the produce section are abnormally large; chips and salsa!
• Massive overabundance of every ethnic food a person could eat or want. I love.
• Vegetarian meals, splitting and/or sharing meals, complimentary water, and being able to take leftover food home are totally normal things. I never realized how much I absolutely hate this about Europe.
• Mexican food. Mexican food. Mexican food. How I have missed you.
• The Pacific Northwest has amazing coffee and so much good beer. There are small coffee/espresso huts everywhere. Every "local" brewery has some double IPA, or fresh hopped beer, or Belgian-style saison. It is blowing my mind.
• While I would have expected the portion sizes in restaurants to be huge, I didn't think they were exceptionally larger than the portions I have seen all over Europe.