Indian Food at Home

For dinner, I had awadhi aloo mutter with basmati rice and tofu. I also had some kale on the side and a walnut, chocolate, and butterscotch chip cookie for dessert.

Aloo mutter is potatoes and peas seasoned with turmeric, coriander, and chili powder. This particular one was vacuum-packed from Kohinoor. We've had them sitting around for years, and are trying desperately to eat them all before they expire. Unfortunately, the one I ate tonight expired in April. It was so spicy, I couldn't tell. The basmati (thank you, rice cooker) and soft tofu made it more interesting, and blunted the heat a little.

The kale was prepared using this recipe I couldn't wait to try. Baking the kale at such intense heat has the effect of oven-frying the leaves into delicious garlicky bar snacks. It's simple and awesome, but beware: it makes eating a pound of kale in one sitting very, very easy.

Finally, the cookies. After much internet soul-searching and cookbook-scouring, I decided to go retro and use the famous Toll House recipe printed on the bag of chocolate chips, which I hadn't made in perhaps fifteen years. I balked at the cup of butter and teaspoon of salt it contained, and compromised by baking only half a batch. A moment of weakness befell me at the grocery store, so I had a bag of butterscotch chips to contend with as well. Butterscotch chips are synthetic little blobs of vegetable fat (in this case, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil), but I have sick nostalgia for them. I ended up using this butter/oil blend instead of all butter, white whole wheat flour (my new favorite thing) instead of ordinary flour, and a blend of chocolate and butterscotch chips, along with walnut pieces. The cookies turned out perfectly, but I never realized quite how bad Toll House's recipe is for you.

Pursuant to my grocery store critiques: today I went to Schnucks (yes, Schnucks), the local grocery store. Their veggie selection was as good as, or better than, both Whole Foods AND Trader Joe's. Also cheaper. Also approximately the same amount of organics. I'd love to know why WF here can't seem to find decent produce in this town. From now on, I'll be making the trek to Schnucks for produce, at least until I find a good Mexican grocery store a la Avanza.

The bonus? When I was accosted by a woman in the checkout line about the squash I was buying- how much she loves it, asking me for cooking tips. She came across as sweet, if overly friendly and a little eccentric, until I looked into her shopping cart. 2pm, and her only purchase was a very large bottle of vodka. Interesting.