Indian Inspired Dinner, Part deux

This week has been a busy one, but then again, which one isn't?  Just wrapped up Week 2 of my Fall term and doing quite well so far.  Charlotte has had some creepy crud come back up and I feel like she's never going to be completely well again.  Eli, well, he's Eli.  I love that kid more than I could ever put into words but, to put it nicely, he drives me up a fucking wall.

I made a great, quick, Indian inspired dinner a few nights ago, one of the recipes I already posted.  I did not have time to get the others up that night, so here they are!

"Grilled" Okra

I love okra in some of its forms:  pickled, fried, roasted, or grilled are the only ways that really do it for me.  Every now and then I pick up okra at the store and then come home wondering what in the world I'm going to do with it.  I wanted roasted okra, but my oven was taken up by brownies and curried tofu pockets.  What's a girl to do??

Well, I pulled out the amazing Cuisinart Griddler that my husband purchased for me last Christmas and I did not start using until about 3 months ago.

1 lb. okra
1.5 Tbs. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

I put the okra in a gallon sized ziploc bag and added the remaining ingredients, like this:

Give it a couple of good tosses around to coat all the pieces.  I added about 1/2 a lb. to the griddler at a time.

Cook on high heat for about 10 minutes and they'll come out looking like this:

It's definitely not roasted okra and still retains a little of the inner sliminess, so if you aren't  a fan of okra because of that, you may want to try roasting in the oven instead.  For a quick and easy side dish, however, these were great!

I also cooked an Indian spiced collar green dish, mainly because I like lots of green foods on my plate  but also because I had half of a large bag of collards in my freezer

1 lb. frozen chopped collard greens

2 medium onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1  c. vegetable broth

1 Tbs. coconut oil

1 1/2 tsp. Garam Masala

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

Heat the coconut oil over medium-high heat and add onions; cook about 3 minutes.  Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and garam masala and cook for about a minute more.  It should look like this:

Add  the frozen collards, vegetable broth and salt to taste.  If you're using frozen collards, the addition of the broth after adding the collards will help loosen up the frozen clumps.  I used a wooden spoon to break apart the rest.  Cook on medium-high for about 5 minutes, then reduce to low and simmer for 5 more.

I love that spoon!

Both of these sides can be prepared while the curried tofu pockets are in the oven, making this a super quick weeknight meal to throw together before the inhabitants of the house start to revolt.

Of course, what's a blog post without the gratuitous Tootie shot?  Eating, of course

Curried Tofu Pocket Sandwiches!

I crave Indian food 5 out of 7 days per week.  The closest Indian restaurant (actually, that would be the closest 5 Indian restaurants as most in town are clustered within a 1 mile radius of each other) is about 22 miles away from home, making it unlikely that I can eat there 5 days per week.  I'm happy when I get to go once per week; the reality is I make it once every 2-3 weeks.  So what's a girl to do when she needs some spice in her life and it's so far away?  Make her own.  Duh.

I love to cook.  Anyone who knows me loves that.  I like challenging dishes.  Dishes with a million ingredients.  Dishes that require weird kitchen gadgets to make.  I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I sometimes spend over 2 hours cooking dinner, but that's the price you pay when most of your food is cooked from scratch.  Tonight was NOT one of those nights.

Sometimes, you need a quick meal, reminiscent of flavor cravings, but without all the hassle.  That's where tonight's meal comes in.  I managed to capture the taste of Indian food without spending more than 45 minutes from start to finish AND without doing a single authentic thing to this meal.  Ha!  At least it tasted like something closely resembling Indian food, enough to trick my gut into believing that I had just gorged at my favorite buffet (Hey Flavors!)

Tonight's meal consisted of:

Curried tofu pockets, grilled okra, Indian spiced collard greens

 Since you're so nice, I'll share a recipe along with pictures to help wrap your dome around it all.

Curried Tofu Pockets
1 package extra firm tofu, drained
1 c. frozen mixed vegetables (corn, peas, carrot, and green beans work best)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 c. water
2 gloves garlic, minced
1/2" piece of fresh ginger, minced
1 Tbs. coconut oil
2 tsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 lb. bakery pizza dough (I used Publix bakery pizza dough)
1 egg
1 Tbs. water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and assemble all your goods.

Here's all the goods snuggling in close for a group shot

Heat a cast iron (or other heavy bottomed) skillet over medium high heat.  Add 1 Tbs. coconut oil.  When the oil is heated, add onion, garlic, and ginger.  Cook for about 5 minutes.

It should look like this after 5 minutes

Add 2 tsp. of curry powder, 1/2 tsp. turmeric, 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes and cook, stirring often for one minute.

The colors!

Now it's time to crumble that big blob of soybean goodness.  Just squish it between your fingers and into the pan.  Chop up any big lumps with your spoon.  Cook this mixture for about 5 minutes and then add the 1 cup of mixed vegetables and 1/4 cup water.  Cook for about two minutes.

I always keep frozen vegetables on hand to throw something together

Let that sit and cool for a few while you play with your dough ball.

Sprinkle your work surface generously with flour and sprinkle some on the dough as well.  Use your awesome maple french rolling pin that your husband got you for Christmas...oh wait, just use whatever you have.  Wine bottles are awesome for this purpose.  Preferably empty.

Roll your dough out into a rectangle.  Something shaped like a rectangle will also do.  As you see, my rectangle turned into a circle when I cut it into 8 pieces.  That's OK!  This is a non-authentic quick dinner.  Nobody will care how ugly their pocket sandwich is as long as it tastes good.

 

Now it's time to start assembling.  I used two tablespoons of filling per dough triangle.  The baby walked in.  Here's a gratuitous Tootie shot.

She dropped the mirror five minutes later.

Don't worry about making these look good.  My dough wasn't quite big enough due to the awkward shape I ended up cutting them in.  I  marched on and got something that looked like this:

 

Mix the egg and 1 Tbs. of water and egg wash these babies!

Stop and take a moment to indulge your toddler who brought you a chicken suit and dress her in it for funny pictures.

 

Bake for 25 minutes (The sandwich pockets...don't even think about eating THAT chicken!) and they'll come out looking like this:

We ended up with 5 left over, so into a gallon sized freezer bag they went to be frozen and reheated for quick snacks or lunches later!