Have You Had Broccoli Varai?
You’ve had broccoli steamed. You’ve had it boiled. You’ve had it boiled to death (very sad). You’ve had it tossed with olive oil and roasted. But have you had broccoli varai, with seasoned onions and coconut and salt and pepper and turmeric? Mmmm….
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Sri Lankan Broccoli Varai
(30 minutes, serves 4)
A good way to get green vegetables into children.
Note: I keep this fairly mild, so my kids will eat it, but for a spicier (and more traditional) version, chop 2-3 green chilies, and stir them in during step 1.
1 pound broccoli (crowns and/or stalks), chopped fine (by hand or in food processor)
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1-2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
6-12 curry leaves
1 1-inch cinnamon stick
¼ tsp. black mustard seed
¼ tsp. cumin seed
1 tsp. black pepper (or cayenne)
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground turmeric
½ cup shredded unsweetened coconut
2 Tbsp. oil (optional)
1 tsp. sugar (optional)
1-2 tsp. lime juice (optional)
1. Sauté onions in oil on high with curry leaves, cinnamon, mustard seeds, and cumin seeds until onions are golden / translucent (not brown).
2. Add broccoli, salt, pepper, and turmeric; fry, stirring, for a few minutes. (If the broccoli starts sticking to the bottom of the pan, you can add a little water.)
3. Add in coconut and stir for five minutes.
4. Taste, and stir in sugar and/or lime juice if desired. Serve hot, with rice and curries.
What Type of Recipes Should I Cover?
Hey, quick question(s). I’ve been doing a vegan recipe / day for several days, and planning to continue for the rest of the month. But there are 140 recipes in the cookbook, and I’m wondering whether people have any preferences for what types of recipes I cover.
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So far, I’ve just been alternating, with some veggie curries, some starch bases (rice, etc.), some accompaniments, and one beverage. I was going to do a dessert this weekend, probably.
What would you like to see more of?
– vegetable dishes
– starches
– accompaniments (pickles, chutneys, symbols)
– beverages
– desserts
– appetizers / snacks
And do you have a preference for food that’s likely to be easy to cook with what you have around already, or dishes that might require a little more hunting for ingredients?
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So far (I might be missing one or two…)
• cauliflower poriyal
• kale sambol
• milk rice
• pol sambol
• cucumber salad
• deviled potatoes
• green mango curry
• tamarind rice with lentils
• chai
Meals of Veganuary
It’s been interesting trying to cook a vegan dish every day for a month. We’ve obviously ended up with a lot of vegan food in our fridge, more than we usually have, so it was a good thing that I had a staff meeting here on Tuesday, so I could feed people.
I ended up making a beef curry too, though — I found myself sort of hesitant to serve several people an entirely vegan meal without checking with them first, because I think people who are used to eating meat regularly often don’t feel quite satisfied with an all-vegan meal.
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That question of ‘satisfaction’ is a really interesting one, because it’s mostly a mental thing, I think? Partly it’s craving / expecting a certain kind of firm texture — chickpeas and green jackfruit give some of that, but a lot of other vegan dishes, especially curries and pickles and chutneys, are…soft?
I’m not sure what else goes into it — something to keep thinking about. Maybe this will turn into an essay at some point. 
Would love to hear whether you find vegan food satisfying, and why or why not?
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This meal was beef curry, deviled potatoes, green mango curry, kale sambol, cucumber salad, all on a bed of rice.
By contrast, I’m including an entirely vegan meal from a few days previously: tamarind-lentil rice, cauliflower curry, kale sambol, coconut sambol, a little plain rice. Personally I found this quite satisfying, I think because the cauliflower has some textural sturdiness, and the lentils are crunchy and protein-rich. (I could have skipped the plain rice, honestly, but I was trying to use some up.)
We Know How to Eat in this Department
I ate really well yesterday at the Global Asian Studies start of semester potluck. My plate was very full, so please imagine me eating rice and chicken curry and okra-potato fry (pictured), but also spam musubi, green chicken and chili tamales, a fabulous matcha and fruit curd cake, homemade bread with homemade ramp butter…I pretty much rolled out of that potluck. Very happily.
This department, we know how to eat! Lovely to catch up with colleagues and students again…
A Nice Cup of Heartening Chai
Midway through the first week of the semester, and I’m already tired! Time for a nice cup of heartening chai, to help me get through ’til Friday… And it turns out, it’s easy to make a vegan version of chai too!
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Chai
I’ve been delighted to see coffee shops across America start serving chai; as someone who for most of her adult life rarely drank coffee, it was lovely having other options. (I’ve recently become a coffee convert, mostly by necessity!) But I admit to often being disappointed in American coffeeshop chai—it’s often made from powder, and is painfully grainy. And even when it’s smooth, it’s generally under-spiced and over-sweetened.
This is chai the way I like to make it when I’m feeling indulgent with myself; I vary the spices, and might also add peppercorns or nutmeg. Though I admit, most of the time at home, I just use Stash’s ready-made Chai Tea bags, which are surprisingly tasty. I often have a cup of the decaf version at night, as I’m getting ready to go to bed, and then I sleep like a baby.
4 cups coconut milk or your favorite non-dairy milk
6 black Ceylon tea bags
2 2-inch cinnamon sticks
5 cloves
5 cardamom pods
5 slices fresh ginger
jaggery or brown sugar to taste, about 2-4 tsp.
1. In a saucepan, bring milk almost to a boil (but not quite).
2. Turn down heat and add tea, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and ginger. Simmer tea and spices in milk until well-brewed. The mixture should be aromatic and have a light-brown color.
3. Add sweetener to taste; stir until well blended.
4. Strain mixture through a fine sieve into four mugs. Serve hot.
6 Seconds of Simmering Eggplant Curry
6 Seconds of Coconut Milk Added to the Sautéed Eggplant, For Eggplant Curry
6 Seconds of Frying Seasoned Onions, for the Eggplant Curry
Eggplant Curry / Kattharikai Kari
Whoops, I forgot to post yesterday’s recipe. Please count this for Tuesday — I don’t want to break my daily streak!
Last night, I cooked this eggplant curry to take to my Global Asian Studies start of semester potluck; I wanted something luscious and richly satisfying, for vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores. Lovely with rice or bread; I happen to have naan in the freezer, so I’m going to grab that and bring it along.
Don’t hesitate to use plenty of oil for the first stages, so the eggplant fries and browns well — that’s where you get a big burst of flavor. If it’s starting to stick to the bottom of the pan, just add a little water and scrape up the browned bits; that’ll make a lovely sauce.
If you have excess oil at the end, you can always drain it off. You can spoon the oil out, but I’ll usually just tilt the pan and let any extra oil collect in one area, then blot that up with a paper towel. Easy!
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Eggplant Curry / Kattharikai Kari
(30 minutes draining time + 30 minutes, serves 6)
My mother’s eggplant curry was always a huge hit at Sri Lankan dinner parties, and is particularly popular with vegetarians.
1 lb eggplant, roughly 1-inch cubes
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 onions, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup oil or ghee
1 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp black mustard seed
1 dozen curry leaves
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp Sri Lankan curry powder
1/2 cup coconut milk
1. Prep eggplant — rub with turmeric and salt and then set in a colander to drain at least 30 minutes, which will draw out the bitter water. Blot dry with paper towels.
2. Sauté onions in oil on medium-high, stirring, with cumin seed, black mustard seed, and curry leaves, until golden.
3. Add eggplant, sugar, and curry powder, and sauté for another ten minutes or so, until eggplant is nicely fried. (Add more oil or ghee if needed.)
4. Add coconut milk and simmer for a few minutes until well blended. Serve hot with rice or naan—particularly nice for a vegetarian dinner with lentils as the main protein.
Variation: Eggplant and bell pepper work well together in this dish; just add chopped bell pepper about five minutes into frying the eggplant for a nice sweet element to the dish. Sometimes I make a nightshade curry, adding potatoes and tomatoes as well — small cubed potatoes would go into the onions first, then eggplant and spices, then bell pepper, then tomato, with a few minutes between each addition.
