Rice and lentils cooked in a pressure cooker-Ultimate comfort food

Firstly, well made fluffed up rice with a bowl of cooked lentils with just a lil bit of salt ..That is all it takes to feel that comfort..It is soul food.
Never overspice your lentils.Ofcourse, if you are in a mood to spice up things, go ahead and do so , but if you are looking for soothing food on a rainy day, just good bowl of rice with a good smaller cup of semi thick semi mashed boiled lentils with just enough salt in it is the best.
The trick is to cook the lentils in pressure cookers.I know, I know, the concept of pressure inside a cooking pot scares the bonkers out of people who have never attempted cooking things in a pressure cooker.Pressure cookers are available for sale on Amazon and other places.Never open the pressure cooker till the steam settles down. Follow safety precautions and you have a very reliable gadget that not only cooks lentils and beans in a jiffy and here i mean, just ten min or fifteen tops...and it saves energy too.
When you choose lentils to go with rice, choose, red lentils or the yellow ones..These lentils are available dry at an African or Indian or Middle easter grocery store.It is dry packaged..All you need to do is rinse and pressure cook.No soaking required.there ya go.I actually gave you a whole recipe on my blog.I am deliberately trying not to post any of my own recipes on net coz every other stay at home person goes around fishing for recipes on the net and before you know..she is making adaptations of your recipes and then put it up on her foodblog and then the blog has ads on them too..Come on,,these people want to make money of someone else's recipes..Sharing recipes even if they are not your own is still acceptable , but making money off someone else's recipes is a bit too much.Anyways...there are always going to be mediocre followers who still want all the accolades an original would deserve..People are desperately greedy like that.

Musing over rhubarb

I have been having post dinner sugar cravings for almost a week now...far too lazy to make some dessert,,,primarily coz the kitchen is a mess.and i would have to clean the kitchen before i can get some counter space to creat a dessert...I could create some chocolate mouse( the very tasty vegan non gelatin mouusse which tastes better that the gelatin cow's milk variety) ...but very very lazy..someone clean the kitchen..some please clean the kitchen..
I suddenly was thinking of rhubarb for some reason....the fact that some stalks can be thick , juicy, sweet and succulent..so perfect..!
I need to clean the kitchen.

Alec Baldwin and Ian wright-Irish vegetarian pride.

I like each of them for a different reason
Firstly,I think Alec Baldwin is a very handsome guy. He is what, 40 plus now?He is chubby too and yet is very handsome.Trust me , I have no fancy for people much older than me,nor do I have fancy for chubby people .So, ofcourse, i don't lust for this old man.But ofcourse, i think he is really handsome.
Infact the whole of the Baldwin family has managed to look good somehow.This could have happenned only if there was some kind of severe inbreeding between similarly looking and similarly ridiculously goodlooking people..NM. that...
I like Alec Baldwin now even more coz i got to know he is a vegetarian...Very very very nice.I saw him on the meat.org video..Meet your meat...hmmmmm
Either ways I recently warmed up to him because of him getting  bashed  because he left a stressed out message for his daugther coz she missed out on his call .hmmmmmmm.(2012 update:There is a whole underlying psychiatric and sociological issue that I would discuss when it comes to divorced couples and child custody.this blog I WILL POST on my ANTIDOTE TO ANGER BLOG as a separate blog entry soon)
Anyways, Now coming to Ian wright..of the Lonely planet, Globe trekker fame...I love love love him...Ofcourse, i never knew that the lines these tv travellers belt out are all scripted and is not part of what they speak out spontaneously...Anways,,I find that he really has the sould of a true traveller, no preformed ideas about people or places, NO prejuidices, will almost try anything with a real open mind (not pretending to having one, but actually having a real open mind)..I was most surprised to learn very recently that he actually is a vegetarian too..Yay..I was jumping up and down...I mean..He just tries eating anything and everything and travels to all those 'difficult to manage' places(places which those rosy hotel travelling travel hosts would flatly refuse to go to ) and eats goat eyes and testicles of all sorts and places..and he does it just for the show inspite of him being a vegetarian..wow..that sorta defeats the purpose in a way..but hey, i was pleasantly surprised to learn that he is a vegetarian..Made me warm up to him a lil more , if hadn't warmed up enough already...
Yours truly is a vegetarian,,Yours truly is unbashedly self confessingly goodlooking too and yours truly is a true traveller too..so..yours truly now extends her hugs to both alec baldwin and Ian wright..YOu guys rock...Incidentally both alec and Ian are Irish..aren't they?Alec is...I think Ian is too.Ya for Irish vegetarian pride.

SEP 2012 UPDATE

The above original blog entry was written sometime in 2009.It is 2012 now.3 years down the line.I am equipped with more information on this topic and on these people.I am updating this blog entry just to correct some POSSIBLE INACCURACIES that might have creeped into the older entry.
First off, From what I gather, Ian wright of the lonely planet/globe trekker IS NOT a vegetarian..He also is a smoker(much to my disapproval).The smoking explains his really bad teeth , maybe?
Ian wright also went ahead and started his own production company called ROAST BEEF PRODUCTIONS in the recent past,which produced this TVseries called INVITE MR.WRIGHT.Did I like it? well, they were okay, but not so "spectacularly-capturing my imagination" like those LONELY PLANET programs  did .
Anyways, returning to ALEC BALDWIN..Again,not really sure if he is a vegetarian...I have seen him on the KNOW YOUR MEAT series.But see, these days,even meat eaters get contacted by peta to promote vegetarianism,which is ironic and stupid and overall a joke.so yeah.whateva!
I recently saw alec baldwin on the emmy's of 2012...and well, he HAS GOTTEN THINNER and in the process LESS CUTER
Funny that!
Funny how some people look really raw in their young years and in their middle age with the added chubbiness to their face, they start looking cuter and cuddlier.I mean.one would assume that alec would start looking handsomer once he managed to get thinner  after how fat he was in 30ROCK(which btw is another series that saw its last season-that is what I gathered from what tina fey said at the emmy red carpet, anyways)..but he got thinner and I saw him on the emmy 2012 telecast and NOT SO HANDSOME as his chubby self..why?oh , why!
So yeah..there goes my update.btw..Not really sure if Ian is irish or british..alec is probably of irish descent but american.duh!

Addressing Vit B 12 deficiency concerns in veganism

Please note that i initially posted this entry on my 43things under the goal of BECOME VEGAN , just for the benefit of fellow vegetarians aspiring to be vegans.
I just decided to repost that entry here for the benefit of the readers here on blogger too .
Here goes the entry:
Firstly, no matter what source, the actual source of the vit B12 are the bacteria.Since farm animals tend to eat foods already rich in Vit B 12 ,primarily because they eat feed contaminated with bacteria that have already produced Vit B12 while in the feed, this vit B12 then gets concentrated in the body parts.Meat is essentially body parts of other animals .Also, it takes an average of 20 years for any type of Vit B 12 deficiency symptoms to manifest since most Vit B12 already present in our body is constantly reabsorbed.So ,technically, if i become vegan now, i might get megaloblastic anemia due to vit B 12 deficiency in 20years.Also, bacteria in our own intestines are perfectly capable of synthesizing Vit B12.Though most of it might not get absorbed,a little of it does get absorbed.This miniscule absorption might on a long consistent basis prevent development of any deficiency per say.Some soy fermented products are claimed to have Vit B12 analogues , which some say might help with preventing deficiency while some others claim might actually hasten development of a deficiency scenario since these analogues compete with the actualy vit B12 which essentially is cyanomcobalamine and thus lead to development of anemia.I am not buying this story of how veganism must cause deficiency syndrome since, I AM VERY VERY SURE THAT NATURE DIDNT INTEND US TO DEPEND ON SOME OTHER ANIMAL'S MILK OR EGGS AT ALL.I did a two years of college in food and nutrition before i started my med school.So, trust me, these entries are being made after being well informed.More info coming up on Vit B12 deficiency soon, as and when I get time and manage to gather up more concrete info on this.Ideally, we should not be needing to grind Vit B12 tablets in our vegan soymilk to make sure we dont end up with deficiencies.I am pretty sure there are plant or bacterial sources.

Overhandling of Food makes it less nutritious and unhygenic !

'Overhandling of food' ,what does that exactly mean?
Cooking it too long, peeling, poaching , then frying, then baking and then cutting it in pieces and then placing it on plates in neat little tiny pieces aka food art and then touching it constantly to rearrange it on a plate, Cooking food at high temperatures, oven cooking, processing too much , all of these amount to OVERHANDLING OF FOOD.
I see a lot of online food bloggers who proudly quote how much of vit c and vit B the ingredients in the recipes have and then proceed to describe a cooking procedure which involves deep frying, oven baking , etc etc which essentially would definitely make sure that all water soluble vitamins are completely lost at the end of the cooking process.
Water soluble vitamins or any other kind of vitamins for that matter have a certain molecular structure , which makes them biologically useful.If too much of cooking is done and excessive heat is applied, these molecules either evaporate out of the foods that you are cooking or undergo molecular structural changes which make them less biologically absorbable or completely useless even.
There ya go, overhandling of food is a very bad habit that many food stylists indulge in too .It may make the plate look very very pretty , but it is not an ideal way to preserve the nutrients if you ask me.
What is the solution ?
cook as little as possible
Cook for as little time as possible
Keep the food for as little time as possible on a plate standing there between cooking time and eating time.
Speaking of which, already cut vegetables stored in the refrigerator , lose all their water soluble vitamins.It would be a better idea to not cut vegetables till shorty prior to consumption.
Either ways.Don't bake foods too much esp fruits or veggies and still expect them to have all their vitamin goodness still in them.K?

An orange is better than orange juice

An orange is better than orange juice.
Eating an orange is a far healthier option than drinking orange juice from a carton at breakfast time or even otherwise at other times.
Why?
Firstly, an orange is far more mass for far lesser calories (not that calories are bad ),An orange has a lot of fiber in addition to that valuable vit c and carotene and all the other water soluble vitamins too.
Orange juice perhaps might be a great option for people with no teeth(babies or edentate oldies) or for people who are at the hospital post operatively and can't eat solid food .Orange juice might also be a great option if one is looking for a very very instant pep in one's potassium and sodium and sugar levels in blood and this situation arises when one is involved in sports involving a lot of sweating.
When i say orange juice that has all the aforementioned benefits, i mean freshly squeezed orange juice, not that orange juice from a carton that has a lot of added preservatives, a lot of added citric acid and added color and that juice that is reconstituted from concentrate and such.
There ya go , My piece of food gyan for today.

Please don't peel and core those tomatoes !

I see that most people resort to peeling their tomatoes and even coring them while using them in cooking and all this only to make sure that what one eats is super smooth sans the fibrous bits.Super smooth baby food? Is that what we want to eat? We could do with a little bit of a rustic, chunky pasta sauce .Come on , be brave !Why do i insist that we use uncored and unpeeled tomatoes in cooking?Coz most of the vitamins and a whole lot of fiber is located in these parts of the tomatoes.Naturally occuring vitamins are better absorbed than synthetic vitamins from a bottle.Natural fiber is indigestible and thus forms a large part of our ummmmmm stools(for lack of a less offensive and 'in the face' term !) .It is only when the stools are bulky that the bowels find it easy to send them out .Fibrous stools also prevent colon cancer.Fibrous stools also prevent Constipation too.There has been a rise in colon cancer in recent times and this could be attributed to the altered food habits of people where they have taken to binge drinking and eating highly processed foods with very less natural fiber.What i am trying to get at with all this banter is:HMMMM....People essentially are trying to get rid of the natural foods off of their natural fiber and natural vitamins too all in an attempt to attain a smooth sauce.Come on.The naturally occuring fiber in our diet is actually meant to be eaten.We need bulk so that the undigested wastes move through our long intestines quite easily.. Morever, Blanching and peeling and coring the tomatoes also makes us lose a lot of valuable vitamins which lie right underneath the skin of the tomatoes.Now that we have blenders and puree makers, making those seeds into mush is no big deal.So, why give up on the fiber and the vitamins ? We can still have a very smooth sauce even while using the peel and the seeds.Don't blanch the tomatoes , just puree the whole lot without blanching and voila---smooth sauce.

About this blog

originally posted on 10:58 AM 5/4/08
This blog is all about food, vegetarian cooking, and an occasional recipe.
I am quite reluctant to post my own recipes on here , coz the recipes pretty much get stolen and reposted in no time.Pisses me off bigtime.
There is going to be a lot of talk about the best food practices, about treating one's body with dignity .
I have quite often seen that many non vegetarians do contemplate switching to vegetarianism but are at a loss as to what to cook.I am here to help.They don't know of any tasty recipes.
Trust me.Vegetarian cooking is the tastiest and healthiest only if you know how to make tasty meals with a lot of variety included.
This blog is not going to be about soy or imitation meats.
Vegetarian cooking is not about using processed foodS aka the imitation meats or the imitation cheese.
It is about pure wholesome cooking using natural products.
I am not a great fan of all the ever so prevelant food fads namely the high protein diets, the low carb diets, the slow food movement, yada yada..I believe that a balanced diet is the healthiest option.
Eating in moderation and eating as less of processed foods as possible is the key to a good diet