Green Beans with Lemon and Garlic

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds green beans, ends trimmed
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Insructions:

Blanch green beans in a large stock pot of well salted boiling water until bright green in color and tender crisp, roughly 2 minutes. Drain and shock in a bowl of ice water to stop from cooking.

Heat a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the oil and the butter. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the beans and continue to saute until coated in the butter and heated through, about 5 minutes. Add lemon zest and season with salt and pepper.

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Pickled Beets

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch (4 or 5) beets
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• Salt and pepper

Instructions:

1 Remove greens from beets, save for future use (see beet greens recipe). Scrub the beets free of any dirt.

2a Boiling method. Place the beets in a medium saucepan and cover with water by about an inch. Bring to a boil on high heat then lower the heat and maintain a simmer for 35 to 45 minutes, depending on the size of the beets, until they are easily pierced with the tines of a fork.

2b Roasting method. Rub the beets with olive oil and wrap them in foil (you can wrap them all together, no need to wrap them individually). Roast in a 400°F oven for an hour or until they are easily pierced with a fork. Let them cool to the touch.

3 If you have boiled the beets, drain them and rinse them cold water. Use your fingers to slip the peels off of the beets. The peels should come off easily. Discard the peels. Quarter or slice the beets.

4 Make the vinaigrette by combining the cider vinegar, sugar, olive oil, and dry mustard. Whisk ingredients together with a fork. The dry mustard will help to emulsify the vinaigrette. Adjust to taste. Add salt and pepper to taste. Combine beets and vinaigrette in a bowl and allow to marinate for a half hour at room temperature.

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Eggplant Chaat

Ingredients: Pakora Batter 100 gm         besan 100 gm         rice flour 50                   corn starch pinch             turmeric pinch             cumin powder                        water 300 gm         Eggplant long 500 ml           Oil for frying Raita 50 g               yogurt 10 g               sugar pinch             roasted cumin Tamarind Chutney 100 g             tamarind 250 ml           water 30g                jaggery 25  gm           sugar 4 gm          deghi mirch 1 g                  cumin 1 stick            cinnamon 1 pcs                 bay leaf 1 pcs             star anise 6 gm          fennel 4 gm          ginger powder 1 pinch          black salt Chaat Masala 13 g               cumin seed 13 g               black peppercorns 12 g               black salt 6 g                  mint .2 g                 ajwain .1 g                 citric acid 30 g               amchur powder 12 g               sea salt 4 g                  yellow chili 6 g                  dried mint 4 g                  ginger powder Instructions:  Roast all spices under Chaat masala, fine grind together. 2.     Boil together all ingredients of Tamarind Chutney till raw flavor is cooked out and chutney is thick.  Strain, cool and keep aside. 3.     Mix all ingredients of Raita and keep aside. 4.     Mix pakoda batter ingredients to get soft flowing consistency, dip thinly sliced eggplant in it and shake off excess batter, fry in oil at medium to high temperature (140-165 C) till all eggplant chips are crisp and deep golden in color, drain on kitchen paper to absorb excess oil. 5.     Arrange the eggplant chips on plate, sprinkle chat masala, tamarind chutney and raita and serve hot. translating for indian ingredients: besan is chickpea flour (we carry that at WW mount airy for sure, not sure about chestnut hill) the roasted cumin is cumin seed toasted in a dry pan and for the tamarind chutney we used what is left when we order from tiffin jaggery is sugar but not refined the way we do here in the states, you could substitute demerara sugar deggi mirch is an indian spice containing chili you could substitute chili powder ajwain is a seed and the internet is full of very different substitutes (you could possibly leave it out also) amchur powder is mango powder which adds a slightly sour tangy flavor. you could substitute lime or lemon juice. the eggplant part is quite delicious so even if people didn't want to do the raita, tamarind and the spices they will be fine. Click here for the online recipe.