Category Archives: dahl

Vegetarian/Vegan Bánh Bèo – Savory steamed rice cakes

17 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in dahl, gluten free, party bites, rice noodles, Sauces, snacks, vegan, Vegetarian, Vietnamese

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banh beo

I thought I’d try my hand at some Bánh Bèo since I picked up a bag of the flour mix recently. By accident–I thought I had grabbed banh xeo flour. These are a mini steamed rice cake. They are soft and light, made of rice and tapioca flour, and a bit of potato starch.

I love Vietnamese food, but I’m a self-taught (youtube-taught) American vegetarian who is probably brutalizing these wonderful traditional Vietnamese dishes in my quest for maximum flavor vegetarian food. But I’m learning a lot, and this is what I want to eat.

Bánh Bèo are traditionally filled with mung bean paste and dried shrimp, and of course served with fish sauce. Here’s youtube video of a more traditional method. And this blog here: Runaway Rice. Mung daal/dried mung beans are great to have knocking about your pantry. They are an important ingredient in Indian food (yummy daal, sambar, and idli), as well as Vietnamese food. I used mung bean, chopped egg, and fried garlic as our toppings this morning, whipped up an easy vegan ‘fish sauce’. By all means, if you are vegan, leave out the egg and replace with crumbled tempeh, mushroom (or whatever you fancy).

As you can see, I now have another use for my idli steamer!

Recipe below:

Ingredients
For approximately 36 steamed mini rice cakes
1 bag Bánh Bèo flour
4 cups warm water
1/2 tsp salt
Steamer (mini muffin tins or small little bowls placed in a stove-top steamer will work)

For fillings/toppings
1 cup dried mung beans/mung daal/dried split yellow lentils
2 cups water
salt and white pepper
olive oil
6 green onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
Other toppings such as chopped tempeh, mushrooms, or egg, pickled carrot or daikon

Quick sauce
1/2 cup light soy sauce (light in color, not light in sodium!)
1/4 cup water (or 1/8 water, 1/8 pineapple juice)
1 tsp agave syrup
1/2 tsp sliced chili and green onion

1) Mix the bag of Bánh Bèo flour with water and salt and place in fridge to rest for a bit. (some recipes say let the batter rest for two hours, but I let mine rest for about ten minutes and was fine.)
2) Cook the mung daal with water till it is a mushy paste. Not soupy. If you have an instantpot, this takes about ten minutes. On the stove, about 20. Add in a bit of salt and white pepper.
3) Make the sauce by mixing those ingredients together. Adjust proportions to your own taste. Should be a nice mix of salty sweet. I like chili but it’s not necessary if you don’t want the heat.
4) Heat up 3 tbs olive oil and gently fry garlic on LOW heat till just golden brown. Turn off heat and toss in the green onion while the oil is still warm. Set aside.
5) Fry mushrooms, egg, or other toppings in oil w salt and pepper. Set aside.
6) Now that your toppings are all ready, time to steam the rice cakes! Bring steamer to boil, then turn down to medium.
6) Brush idli trays, muffin tin, or little bowls with oil. The batter would have separated so whisk it back together. Do this every time you use it. Put 1 tbs of the batter in each holder, then place trays in the steamer and cover with lid.
7) Cook 4 minutes for 1 tbs-sized portion of batter.
8) After 4 minutes, remove trays. Wait a minute for them to cool down, and with oiled spoon or spatula, gently remove and place on tray or plate.
9) You can now steam more, assembly-line style. The batter will make dozens, and one serving size is about 6 per plate. Or fill a large platter and serve party style.
10) Place a bit of the mung bean paste in the center of each cake. Then sprinkle the rest of the toppings over all the cakes. The garlic/green onion oil will help these stay moist if you are not eating right away. The dipping sauce can be served on the side as well, or poured over the top.

Quick warming red lentil dahl – Instantpot

05 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by in bread, dahl, flatbread, indian, naan, quick and awesome, the basics, vegan, Vegetarian

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red lentil dahl

There are many different dahls, with many different lentils—toor dahl, chana dahl, moong dahl, tomato dahl, spinach dahl, tarka dahl, dahl talak, etc, etc. This recipe is an easy one (it uses red lentils which cook quickly even without the Instapot) but it packs a lot of flavor.

As an aside, I cooked this last night in my new christmas present: an instapot. (You can make the dahl on the stove top too. I’ll leave notes for that).

First off, I cannot believe they sell these dangerous weapons to people without a license. I burnt my palms (because I didn’t the read the Do Not Touch sticker on the lid). And I got quite a shock when I flipped the ventilation open and a volcanic face-melting burst of steam shot up through my kitchen into the stratosphere (because I did not read the long instruction/cautionary manual). By this point, I was officially frightened of my Instapot. In fact I was damn scared. Think that’s silly? Think when you get your Instapot you won’t be scared? You will be.

You will be.

But who am I? Am I wuss or woman? Do I stand around looking cute and/or do I cook? The kitchen is not, has never been, a place of safety. I know that. You know that. It is no oasis for the meek and mild. The kitchen is war. It is Mordor and if you make it out alive, you too will be glassy-eyed, weary, and want to sleep for weeks in a feather bed in Rivendell while Aragorn brings you hot chocolate and Legolas gives you back rubs. You will be cut, sliced, burned, scalded and scarred. The kitchen is the danger zone. It’s the weapon room and it’s the battlefield. Instapots belong here just the same as the deep-fat fryers, red-hot cast iron skillets, graters, grinders, carvers and bone-chopping cleavers. Prometheus gave the humans fire and now Target has given us the Instapot. Master this new machine of power the same as you have mastered all the others and behold as it shaves a good twenty minutes off the cooking time of this red lentil dahl.

And isn’t that what it’s all about?

Ingredients
1 cup red lentils
2 cups water, 1 cup tamarind water*
1 onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, sliced (reserve one tsp for tarkka)
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
1 green chili, chopped (seeds left in for spiciness, leave them out for mild)
1 large handful fresh cilantro/coriander, chopped (reserve a little bit for tarkka)
3 tbs olive oil
2 tbs butter or ghee
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp hing (asafoetida) powder
1 tsp cumin (jeera) seeds
1 tsp salt
1 tomato, chopped

* tamarind water is made by soaking dried tamarind in warm water and then straining out the tamarind. If you can’t find this, just substitute 1 cup water. The tamarind adds a bit of sourness to the dahl. You can squeeze a little lemon juice into the dahl at the end for a little sourness if you like.

1) Put instapot on sautee, low temp
2) Add oil. When warm, add mustard seeds. Wait until they pop and sizzle, then add the remaining spices and stir.
3) Add in garlic and ginger. Stir. Let cook for a moment, then add onion and chili. Cook for one minute, then add in tomato and cilantro.
4) Add in lentils and water.
5) Put lid on the instapot, turn it to porridge, turn the top knob to sealing and set the timer for 8 minutes.
6) When it has finished cooking after 8 minutes, either release the steam with the quick release (watch your hands and face!) or let slowly cool on its own while you make some rice or flatbread to go with the dahl.
7) After it has cooked and cooled and you have safely removed lid, give it a stir. Some people cook their lentils till super soft or even blitz them to a smooth consistency, but I like a little texture. Still, the dahl should be soft and gloopy like a porridge. Transfer to a serving dish.
8) Now for the tarkka, which is a flavored oil or ghee that you pour over at the end. This is also a great way to add extra flavor if you feel the dahl needs something more. You can add extra salt or spices to the ghee/butter/oil. But this dahl recipe should already be flavorful, so in this case: heat up butter or ghee in a small frying pan. Add the reserved garlic and remaining cilantro. Let cook gently till garlic softened then transfer to dahl. Mix in.
9) Serve with naan, chapatis, or rice.

For cooking on stovetop

1) Follow the same steps as above except sautee all the chopped veg and spices on low heat until quite soft (about five minutes).
2) Add in water and lentils and bring to a boil. Then cover with a lid, turn heat down to low, and cook for about 30 minutes. Check every so often and stir to make sure the lentils don’t stick to the bottom and burn. Add more water if needed.
3) When dahl is soft and ready, continue with step 8 above.

Enjoy!