Soyabean Kowsha with Meat Masala

This is something that I have cooked over and over for quite a while I was studying in Pune. However, I like that fact that now-a-days the soya chunks are coming in inventive forms like various sizes of nuggets and even granules.

I wanted to make something that visually resembled कीमा/কিমা (keema) but used the soya granules instead of mince meat that keema is.

I have always wanted to neutralize the typical taste and smell of the soya granules since that helps absorb the flavours better to do do this, I roughly soaked a cup and a half of granules in some warm water and then squeezed out the excess water. I repeated the process with some salt water since that would help the tongue identify the tastes better.

Soaking the soya granules 

The hydrated granules

কষানো (Kowshano) is the Bengali way of expressing the process of slow cooking a mix of wet and dry spices (usually in a fair bit of oil). In devanagari the process would be called भुन्नोing (bhunno). The process itself if quite integral in almost all schools of Indian cooking traditions.  

To prepare for this I got the standard garlic, onions, and tomato combination ready.

A couple of tomatoes, a medium onion, and three clove of garlic

I roughly chopped the onions...

Chopped onion

And the tomatoes...

Chopped tomatoes

The garlic I first gently squished with the flat of a knife blade to release the aromatic oils and then chopped...

Squished and chopped garlic

All this went into my trusty mortar and pestle for a quick grind...

A quick grind

To this I added the meat masala, a little হিং/हिंग/hing (asafoetida), a little হলুদ/हल्दी/turmeric powder and a content from a sachet of ketchup...

Adding the masala...

Once this was neatly mixed, I splashed in some oil in the pan and slow কব্ষা/कस्सा/भुन्नो (kowshaoed/bhunnoed) the mix till it looked like this and the oil separated...

Slow fry...

Then I added some milk and water to the the mixture to get a basic gravy in place...

Increase the liquidity...

And added the soya...

Add the soya granules...

And voila! My lunch was ready :)

:)

Quick Tomato Carrot Stir Fry with Soya Sauce

This is one for the morning when I am loathe to cook and yet I want something that helps the taste-buds as the lunchtime beckons.


I started with a medium sized onion (about and inch and a half in diameter). This quickly got chopped into four and then another slice through the middle. A quick slap with the palm gave me little pieces that would add texture to the dish. A few cloves of Chinese garlic (easy to peel) got gently smashed by the blade and then roughly chopped next.

A couple of smallish tomatoes got chopped next

The carrot take a while to dice but once done I popped it into the microwave for a couple of minutes to soften them while everything else got started.

The garlic went into the hot oil and quickly started getting caramelized...

The onions went in next and got tossed around briefly to coat them with the oil to get the garlicky flavour on them but not too cooked since I wanted them to retain the crunch.

And then the tomatoes joined in while the microwave started beeping to remind me that the carrots were ready...

After adding the carrot I put in a wee bit of dark soy sauce to add some salt and the overpowering taste of soy...

A little shake and a minute later my lunch was all ready to be packed into my trusty Tupperware lunchbox.

Carrot Sesame Basil Salad

It was one of those days when I just could not bring myself to cook anything in the morning. Also I did not have much in the fridge.
So I pulled out a few carrots and three sachets of the of ketchup.

The sliced the carrots...

...and then got out some iceberg lettuce and basil leaves that I had in the fridge...

I quickly chopped the basil...

...and then mixed half of the basil with the shredded lettuce...

I did not want the carrots to be too much of a 'chew' in the carrot, so I microwaved the carrots for a minute and then mixed the rest of the shredded basil with this.

I'd mixed them separately as this way the basil would mix better I thought. 

After this I started making the dressing. I cut and poured all the ketchup into a small bowl...

... then I put in a teaspoon of dark soya sauce...

... and added a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar...

I tossed everything together, added the dressing, and then topped everything with sesame seeds and some kalonji.

It was time to pack the salad and then quickly rush off to office after this.

Stir Fry with Sprouts and Corn

I'd left three varieties of sprouts in my fridge when I'd defrosted it last week. I realized that the sprouts had frozen in the renewed vigour of my freshly defrosted fridge.


I realized that I'd have to cook them quickly once thawed or eat them at a single go in a salad. I'd feel like a goat on overdrive if I'd to munch through that much sprouts at one go, so I opted for cooking them for lunch.

I wanted to wander around and enjoy the last fading nip in the morning of Mumbai's fast retreating winter. So, I just gathered whatever I had within an arm's reach to start and quickly end cooking.

I'd a few sachets of ketchup saved from my office canteen orders and my last trip to Nirula's (many months ago). I also got out a few cloves of garlic and a little stub of ginger to add some flavour.

I put in some oil in the non-stick pan and threw in the sliced and quashed garlic and ginger and let it fry on low heat while I woke up the cat and look around from the balcony.

Once I got a whiff of the garlic caramelizing and threw in the sprout and stirred them around a bit.

I would have preferred to use the wok and retain the crunchyness of the sprouts, but opted for the pan since I'd use less oil and in any case a trip in the tiffin box would make the sprouts soggy by lunch.

I mixed a little dark soya sauce with the ketchup and kept it ready.

As an afterthought, I thawed some corn.

With the sprouts ready, I put in the corn and then added  the soya-ketchup mix and then packed things up and got ready for office.