Indian Winter

It has officially gotten very cold here in Oklahoma! And by cold I mean 45 degrees, but I'm freezing! I keep drinking tea by the gallons just to keep warm...

But enough about me. On to what is really important... food!

Friday we concluded our study of ethnic recipes with Indian food. We discussed composing an ayurvedic Indian meal which traditionally includes six different tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. It is believed that these tastes help to restore balance to the body, mind, spirit, senses and emotions.

We made another delicious 105 Degrees recipe: Green Curry Vegetable Dosa with Yellow Tomato Chutney and Cucumber Raita.

The dosa was made from flax meal, squash, coconut meat, and spices. It is spread thin and then dehydrated... This actually tasted almost exactly like a whole wheat wrap! We got to lunch on it with curried, dehydrated zucchini, carrots, red pepper, cauliflower, and snow peas. The whole thing was topped with a sweet and spicy tomato chutney and yogurt cucumber raita... Perfection!

Afterward we got to experiment with making our own raw ICE CREAM! I attempted a chai tea twist to compliment our Indian theme. The base of our ice cream included cashews, young coconut meat, coconut water, agave, vanilla, and salt. I subbed some water for brewed chai tea and then added a tsp of freshly ground spices (i.e. clove, cinnamon, cardamon, vanilla bean, black pepper, star anise). I also decreased the cashews and increased the coconut for a bit of a "lighter" ice cream. It turned our okay, but (obviously) it was not quite as creamy as the original.

We then had an ice cream partay and tested each of our recipes... This class has been really hard work so far :)

Some how I managed to roll home after class... Tomorrow we are finalizing our own 3 course menus for our final project! I'll be revealing mine soon. I'm so excited!