Monday, June 12, 2006

You can Bake and Broil veggies too

Well, yes, yes, yes, I agree, It's high time I started blogging again. :) Here we are, in Toronto, slowly settling down. Moving to a new country is almost like starting your life, from scratch, all over again. Toronto is nice, it's much more crowded than what this I-prefer-suburbs-anytime girl is used to, but I guess it's ok in it's own way! :)

So, what's cooking in Kay's kitchen these days? Hmmmm... same old comfort food - idli, dosa, sambar, rice, dal, subzi, sambar, rasam, roasted fish etc etc....I love fresh rotis but I guess I have to do with store bought rotis for the timebeing. Anything new to share here? Yep... On one of those sudden whims to experiment, I came upon this neat way to make subzis.

Just like bake-and-broil works for meat and seafood like fish and shrimp, I tried it with vegetables. That too, frozen ones! and it worked. What I do is thaw a packet of frozen whole lady's fingers/bhindi (Shana brand) for 1/2 hr. I then line a baking tray with foil and grease it very lightly with oil. Spread the bhindi and bake for 5-10 mins. Then I sprinkle some chilli powder and salt and toss the bhindi with one more tbsp of oil and broil for 5-8 mins (Watch like a hawk while in broil mode; It just needs one unmonitored second to get charred!). Tada! you get bhindi which looks and tastes almost like fried bhindi.

I assume this would work for stuffed bhindi as well.

This bake-and-broil method has so far worked on
- frozen whole bhindis (shana brand)
- frozen sliced bhindis (shana brand)
- frozen gherkins/Tindora/Kovakkai
- Raw green plantains/Vazhakai (I half -boiled thickly sliced plaintains with a pinch of turmeric powder and then broiled them with chilli powder, some black pepper powder, salt and oil; no baking here! and it turned out very nicely)
- potatoes (put them in boiling hot water and left them for a min; then dried these in paper towels for 15 mins and then baked for 5-10 mins and broiled with necessary seasonings)
- Cauliflower (I used fresh cauliflower florets and followed the same method as above)
- Tarro root/Cheppankilangu(?) (Similar to raw green plantains)

The seasoning is usually red chilli powder, salt and 1 tbsp of oil. I've also tried garlic salt, pepper powder, lemon juice etc to pep up. These dishes go great with rice and dal as a sidedish or even with rotis. I'll post a picture, the next time I bake and broil some vegetables.

I'm yet to experiment with other vegetables like green beans, cabbage, etc... This bake-and-broil saves so much time and with a oven timer, you can't go wrong. I use the timer to monitor baking time as well broiling time. The first 5 mins broiling time require no monitoring but after that, you might want to hover in your kitchen and watch the stuff like a hawk, till it's done. Trust me! Charred stuff is neither tasty nor healthy!

30 comments:

Ashwini said...

welcome back...looks like your kitchen is going to be busy again

Anonymous said...

Welcome back :D. Hope to see lot of great recipes at your blog once again :).

Mika said...

Welcome back Kay! I love how broiling works with okra. Looking forward to reading more recipes.

Unknown said...

Welcome back!! How have u been doing? Howz the pregancy keeping u? Been missing ur blog & ur comments in my blog.

Anonymous said...

Welcome back Kay!

Baking and broiling vegetables - I bet they'd taste super good.

Luv2cook said...

Kay:

Welcome back. That bake and broil method seems very intriguing. I will definitely give it a try!

Kitchenmate said...

Kay: Glad to see you back!
I was wondering about using oven for veggies too and i am sure a lot of us will try your tips!
Daily used to visit your blog to see you are back! Yummy yummy recipes are on the way:)

KA said...

Hey you are back!! So how did the move go? How is your health now?

Tanuja said...

Hi Kay,

Welcome back we were missing u all these days,How's ur life in toronto another Indian city.waitng to see yummy yummy dishes coming out of kitchen.

RP said...

Glad to have you back Kay! I have been broiling everything lately too. To me, it gives the effect of deep frying with no or little oil. I love it.

Anonymous said...

Happy to see you in action again:) kay ,try broiling potatoes with some tandoori pwd, chilli & garlic pwd, just plain yummy with dal & rice! btw i have also tried out your chicken rasam & varuval, & simply loved it. Have posted the photo on my blog with a link to your blog.
paati

Priya Bhaskaran said...

Kay, It is good to see you back:) Hope your settled in the new place and keeping yourself good:)

BDSN said...

Welcome back Kay!!!Good to see you!!Hope u r in good health!!

Krithika said...

Welcome back. Need to try bake and broil.

Nabeela said...

Welcome back Kay!! I don't think you know me...but I've read through your whole blog while you were settling down.
I tried your baked Tilapia...it's WONDERFUL!!

Kay said...

Thanks Ashwini, Shilpa, Mika, Pushpa, Indira, Luv2cook, Kitchenmate, Krishnarjuna, RP, Tanuja, Paati, Priya, BDSN, Krithika and Nabeela! :)

Toronto is fine. Pregnancy is keeping me tired, now that I entered the third trimester.

I've missed you all during this two month break, too. Looks like many of your blogs have gone through a wonderful change. :)

Sumitha said...

Hi Kay,I am new to your blog and I should say you have a nice blog and I will visit again for more yummy recipes!Take care!

Shammi said...

Welcome back, Kay! :) Nice to see you after such a long break. I've tried broiling okra too - it works pretty well! havent tried the stuffed baked version though...

Anonymous said...

Good to have you back, Kay..:)
Hope you are taking good care of yourself.
Bake and broil - healthy cooking which I must do more often in my kitchen!

Anonymous said...

Hi kay,
Welcome Back!

While you were away, i just 'studied' your blog.. and its all great..

Looking forward for more recipes..
Thanks

KA said...

Kay,
I tried roasting fish following your recipe for roasted tilapia over the weekend and it turned out great! Thanks for the tips.

Annita said...

Welcome back Kay..Looking forward for your recipes..Howz ur little one doing?Too much of kicking,huh?

Anonymous said...

Hi Kay,

I have read many of your recipes & this is the 1st time i am posting a comment.
I tried fresh cauliflower florets and it didnt come out well. At what temperature do you broil? I kept the temperature around 300-350. Is that a problem? I kept it for nearly 30 mins.

Thanks,
Anitha

Kay said...

Thanks guys. :)

Anonymous, I usually use fresh cauliflower too.. The last time I bake'n broiled, I marinated the florets in chilli powder, pepper powder, salt, lemon juice overnight and baked for 10-12 mins and broiled for about 10 mins (5 mins, stir, 5 mins again) and it turned out pretty neat.

RP said...

Kay, hope you are fine. Haven't heard anthing for a long time?

Anonymous said...

wanted to know how u have feeling Kay.

Hope U and the baby are doing great.
Pls do give us someupdates on te baby.:)

Vineela said...

Hi Kay,
I tried your Pavvakkai Chips and i will post it soon.Take rest and be happy .
Best wishes & Regards
Vineela

Anonymous said...

I am new to your blog and I am going to try some recipes, they look great. I stay in Mississauga and can give you names of people who supply fresh rotis (people who I use, mainly Gujrati ladies). I normally freeze 100 or so and take them out as needed and straight into the microwave and they are soft again! Maya

Kay said...

Maya, I have no idea... :)

Anonymous said...

Hey Kay, Thats interesting - that you can bake and broil most vegetables with just 1 teaspoon oil! That's great news for us vegetable lovers as well as for those on a diet. You have mentioned that we could use this method for most vegetables. Gives us great flexibility with vegetables