Tofu Burji

So the Valentines Day is over and here I have something for all your hearts which went through a lot on this day. So here’s to a healthier, better HEART --- Tofu.
Tofu Burji is something I learned recently from my wonderful friend S. The first time I had it , it tasted so good, I didn’t believe it was tofu, I was sure it was eggs. It is sooooooo tasty that you have to eat it to believe it and even if you are not a big time Tofu fan, I insist, yes insist that you try it at least once before giving a verdict.
Of course the fact that S is a great cook made the whole thing easier. She told me exactly what to do to make it simple yet very tasty. Thanks to S who is not only a great cook but also a entrepreneur, check out her business portal BombayAvenue

Tofu Burji, a very simple and easy recipe, healthy and yet delicious. This tastes exactly like egg burji or scrambled eggs. Only thing is it takes more time than to make egg burji, don’t try to rush it, doesn’t help. Since we are great “egg in all form” lovers ( Sunday ho ya Monday, roj khao Andey) but can’t have too much because of the cholesterol factor, this recipe was a delight. Now I make it enough and pack it for lunch often. You can have it with Roti or just by itself, what we end up doing most of the time. My daughter who is an egg fan too, eats this happily thinking its scrambled eggs and that is a big achievement I tell you


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Tofu Burji

What you Need

Tofu ~ 1 packet NaSoya soft tofu
Onion ~ 1 and ½ chopped fine
Tomato ~ 1 chopped in small pieces
Garlic ~ ½ clove chopped fine (not shown in pic)
Green Chilli ~ 4/ 5 finely chopped (not shown in pic)
Corriander leaves ~ quarter of a bunch chopped (not shown in pic)

Olive Oil
Salt

How I Do It

Drain water from the soft tofu packet and crumble it with your hands. It’s very soft and will crumble easily
Chop onions real fine, chop the tomatoes in small pieces. Same as you would for egg burji
Heat Olive Oil in a Frying pan
Add the chopped garlic
As soon as you get the flavor of garlic, add the chopped onion. Fry till they turn a nice pink
Add the chopped tomatoes and sauté till the tomatoes are well cooked and mixed well
Add the green chillies if you want them.
Add the crumbled tofu.
Sauté till all the water evaporates. Since soft tofu retains a lot of moisture a lot of water may come out and so this step will take some time. You need to dry up all the water and by the end of this the tofu should be dry
At this point you may need to add a little oil, add a lttle to add a little more flavor
Add half of the chopped coriander, salt and mix well and sauté for some more time
Taste to see if it tastes like scrambled eggs, if not yet, you need to sauté a little more.
The end result would look like the pic below
Garnish with rest of the coriander and serve with Roti or enjoy by itself

Note: More Tofu Burji Recipes
Tofu Podimas from PremaSundar

Update on May 2007: Did this with Firm Tofu and that turned out good as well

Trivia:The English word "tofu" comes from the Japanese tōfu which itself derives from the Chinese dòufǔ. Though Tofu is of Chinese origin in both languages it means "bean curd"

Gooseberry and Not Happy about Valentines Day

Gooseberry ? That’s what the package said. The fruit that you see in the above pic was known as “Tya(n)pari” in Bihar, it was sold by the cartful on the roadside and we used to love it. It was not much seen in Kolkata, the strange thing being D had never even heard of it. He would laugh at me whenever I said this name and was I elated to see this small pack in my local Shop Rite fruit aisle a month ago. Though the package said Gooseberry I think this the “Cape Gooseberry” according to Wiki. It is sweet and juicy and I love eating it raw. If you know more about this fruit please input your info.
Can you discern the heart in the picture? I didn’t plan it but when I saw it on my computer I was sure it was all because of Valentine Day and I had to write something I had wanted to keep to myself.

Ok, so let me come clean, I have stopped being a Valentines Day Fan. I feel it's overly hyped and there is too much brouhaha with it and the commercialization -- the less said the better.

Maybe I don't feel any attachment to this tradition because I have not grown up with it, Valentines Day was unheard of when I was in school, at least there was not much hullabaloo over it in our small township. At the close of the teens there was this hush in the air about this day and it was solely marketed for "romantic couples", we felt it was supposed to be for errrrrr stupid females with bfs, we ( the more stupid ones) had none so that was it.

By the time I was in college and we had moved to the city with an "Archies" store at every corner, the cute pink bears holding red hearts and the mushy-mushy card made my heart flip and if you would sniff hard, rising above the diesel and the fumes you could smell the red roses and "Love". That was the age to go rubbery in the knees on seeing such things and if someone so much as dropped the "L" word you would go red -pink & purple, ok not purple. "Archies" did a very good job of putting pressure on the millions of Indian youth and I bet even that gangly youth with oiled hair from Jhumritaliya shyly scribbled on an “Archies” card for the love of his life.

No such luck for me though and even later when I was friends with D we never succumbed to Valentines Day, the V day was still very much targeted for the mushy-mushy lovey-dovey couple of "Maine Pyar Kiya" and no way I was going to be labeled in such a category.

This changed however after marriage, the first Valentines day I totally flipped and sent a card worth 50 bucks to D who was far from India at work on an project. I was sane enough not to spend more of my hard earned bucks on postage and sent it with another good friend who was traveling to the same place around this time. Fortunately this was a guy and "happy & gay culture" was not in so there was no confusion as to "who gave the card to whom".

Since D did not send a card or claimed that his card was lost in transit I threw a hue and cry…all those years of not celebrating V day and "Archies" & now "Hallmark" was showing signs. So by the next V day when we were here in the "Valentines Day Mecca" D promptly bought me a bunch of roses, roses on V Day are you crazy ?? I was apalled by the price and again threw a hue & cry.

By now the poor guy would have been confused but he knew me well enough not to get ruffled. So the next year I asked him to get me a single stem of rose, that's it.

By now I was getting sick of Valentines Day anyway, and then it seems V day is no longer for "romantic couples" it is for everyone are you kidding me? Why the hell would I buy a dozen Roses worth $50 and present it to close, not so close, barely know them friends.And then they have Valentines Day parties at pre school and toddler classes too. This is getting on my nerves and so I put my foot down, "No Valentines Day For Me" this year

And so while I will hop around and check out all these wonderful blog events for Valentines Day, and die of guilt for not making a contribution, I will stay put and let Hallmark lose one buyer

Check out Valentines Day in other cultures in Wiki, fun info

Trivia: March 14 is celebrated as White Day in Japan & Korea by a concentrated marketing effort, when men are expected to return the favour to those who gave them chocolates on Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day has emerged in Japan and Korea as a day on which women, and less commonly men, give candy, chocolate or flowers to people they like.

Olkopir Dalna

I always thought Olkopi or KohlRabi is a veggie popular only in Eastern India, because we had it in Bihar and Bengal but somehow never noticed it in Bangalore. So I thought it was going to be a surprise veggie for most of you and I could blog about it and yell SURPRISEEEE !!! But that was not to be, you foodies surprise me all the time. Laksmik already introduced it and there is even a South Indian Name for it, Noolkol (see the "ol" in every language ?)

This is known as Kohlrabi here in the US and as Lakshmi pointed out till date I have seen it only at the Asian Stores, the Indian stores don’t carry it.

Interesting facts about KohlRabi from Wiki
Kohlrabi (Brassica oleracea Gongylodes Group) is a low, stout cultivar of the cabbage which has been selected for its swollen, nearly spherical, Sputnik-like shape. The name comes from the German kohl (cabbage) plus rabi (turnip), because the swollen stem resembles the latter. Kohlrabi has been created by artificial selection for lateral meristem growth; its origin in nature is the wild mustard plant
They are a good source of Potassium and Vitamin C

In Bengal we have different kinds of gravies and classifying all of them as curry would be shameful so though this is a curry based dish I am not calling it so. "Dalna" in Bengali means a thick gravy based dish as opposite to a “Jhol” which is a very light gravy more on the liquid side. Olkopir Dalna or “KohlRabi in a Gravy” is a spicy gravy of cubed kohlrabi, potatoes and peas thrown in. The gravy is tempered with methi(fenugreek) seeds and whole garam masala and spiced up with ginger, tomatoes and cumin and corriander powder. Though Kohlrabi resembles the turnip , when cooked this way it tastes more like a squash.

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OlKopir Dalna

What You Need

Olkopi/Kohlrabi ~ 1 peeled and cut into small cubes. Be careful not to buy the older ones as they get a little tough.
Potato ~ 1 cut into small cubes. You can forego this if you want
Green peas ~ 1/2 cup frsh or frozen
Tomato ~ I used 2/3 tomatoes from a can of peeled whole tomatoes with 2tbsp of the tomato juice
If using fresh tomatoes blanch them for better results
Ginger paste ~ 1 and 1/2 tsp

For Masala

Jeera or Cumin Powder ~ 1 tsp
Dhone or Corriander Powder ~ 1 tsp
Red Chili Powder ~ to taste
Kichen king masala ~ 2 tsp . This is a masala I thing adds that zing, if you don't have it use something else like garam masala powder
Yogurt ~ 1 tbsp
Maggi Hot & Sweet Tomato ketchup ~ 2 tsp . Use any other suitable alternative or skip

For Phoron or Tempering

TejPata or Bay leaves ~ 3
Elaichi or Cardamom ~ 2 pods
Laung or Clove ~ 2
Darchini or Cinnamon sticks ~ a small 1/2" stick
Methi or fenugreek seeds ~ 1/2 tsp
Salt
Oil

How I Did It

Chop the Kolrabi and the potatoes. Peel the outer skin of kohlrabi and then chop
Steam the KolRabi and the potatoes. I have a Futura pressure cooker where I cook it for 3 minutes. You need to steam them a little more than potatoes
Heat oil in kadai/Fryimng pan
Add the methis seeds, bay leaves, cardamom, clove and cinnamon
Add the tomatoes when the fragrance of the methi engulfs you
Cook the tomatoes well till you see the oil separating.
Add the ginger paste and saute
Add the steamed kolrabi and the potatoes
Saute or as in bengali we say "koshano" till the veggies take on a little colour
Mix the dry masala(cumin, corriander & red chili powder) with 2 tsp of yogurt and add
Saute till the masala coats the veggies well. Fry for a couple of minutes.
Add 2 tsp of tomato ketchup and salt to taste
Add about 2 cups of water and cover and cook till veggies are done. The dish usually has a little gravy so adjust the thickness according to your taste level. The kohlrabi has a slight crunch and I like it that way.

Enjoy with Rice or Roti

I am sending this dish to talented Kalyn the WHB creator from Kalyn's Kitchen for this weeks WHB



Trivia: Hamburg, Michigan has titled itself the "Kohlrabi Capital of the World" and at one time had a kohlrabi festival which drew 600 people at its peak in 1985