Go 'western' without baking!

If we are to believe haute cuisine chefs, a formal Western meal requires much fine-tuning and finesse to strike the right chord. But here we present four pure vegetarian palate-pleasers — a soup, a starter, a main course and a dessert — that are not only easy to conjure up by naughtily tweaking the original recipes but are a delight to behold and lip-smacking as well. The following menu will serve four to six persons, depending on how hungry you are, and is certain to win you admirers for innovation, boldness and creativity.

LEEK & POTATO SOUP
INGREDIENTS

• 2, medium-sized potatoes, scrubbed, washed, dried and cut into thin slices along with the skin
• 2 leeks, leaves discarded, stem peeled and chopped (or 2 bunches spring onions, chopped along with the greens)
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 3 tbsp butter or olive oil
• 2 vegetarian soup cubes, crumbled
• 1 heaped tsp oregano
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 tsp pepper powder
• Chopped parsley for garnishing
• Salt to taste

Method
Heat oil or butter in a pressure cooker. Add chopped potatoes, leeks, onion, oregano, chilli flakes, pepper and salt and sauté on high heat for five minutes. Add four to five cups water and the soup cubes. Cover with lid and pressure cook for five whistles. Let the steam subside. Open and cool in a basin under the fan. Grind in a blender till smooth. Do it in two batches. Before serving, heat again and check for salt and seasonings. Add more water if desired. Garnish with chopped parsley.

MUSHROOM RISOTTO

(A professional chef might commit suicide on reading this recipe. But believe me, I’ve fooled the best of them with my version!)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup rice
• 2 packets vegetarian cream of mushroom soup
• 1 celery
• 2 packets fresh mushrooms
• 1 bunch spring onion
• 1 bunch parsley
• 125 gm processed cheddar cheese, grated or 1 small tub cheese spread with flavouring of your choice
• 1 heaped tsp chilli flakes
• 1 level tsp pepper powder
• ½ tsp mustard powder
• A pinch of salt
• 3 cups milk
• 100 gm pine nuts, shelled

Method
The following should be done the previous night:
Wash and boil the rice till cooked but firm, drain, cool and keep in the fridge to harden.
Wash and cut each mushroom into four. Discard celery leaves and chop the stem. Chop spring onions and keep as much of the green part as possible. Heat a knob of butter and sauté mushrooms, parsley and celery on high heat for five to 10 minutes. Season lightly with
salt and pepper. If it leaves water, don’t worry. Cool and keep in the fridge.

Next day: Combine rice, mushrooms, mushroom water, mushroom soup, grated cheese, chilli flakes, pepper powder, salt (if used), mustard powder and milk in a large thick-bottomed vessel or pressure cooker and cook on a medium fire, stirring off and on, till thick and creamy. Add more milk if necessary. Taste for seasonings. Stir in half the pine nuts.
Arrange risotto on a large shallow dish. Scatter remaining pine nuts on top and garnish with halved cherry tomatoes for colour.

MEDITERRANEAN FRITTERS

(Be bold and experimental. Use roughly shredded cabbage, capsicum, pak choy or baby corn instead of spring onions)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 heaped cup maida
• Salt to taste
• 3 tomatoes, red and firm, chopped
• Green chillies according to taste, chopped roughly
• Fresh mint a large fistful, chopped roughly
• w 1 small bunch parsley, roughly chopped
• 3-4 spring onions, chopped along with the lusher greens
• ½ sachet fruit salt
• A few flakes of tamarind
• Oil for deep frying

Method
Mix all the ingredients, except the oil and the fruit salt, using very little water to bind them together. (You may not need any water at all.) Add a little more maida if necessary. Just before frying, stir in fruit salt and mix well.
Heat oil with a few flakes of tamarind (this is to prevent the oil from going rancid). Fry small spoonfuls, a few at a time. When batter begins to look firm, turn over and fry on all sides till a light ivory colour. Drain on paper towels and serve hot with two dips.

Dip 1: Mix loosely hung curds, cracked pepper, a large pinch salt, a large pinch chilli flakes, any remaining spring onion greens and chopped coriander leaves.
Dip 2: Toast and coarsely pound three tbsp white sesame seeds. Roast three red capsicums on an open fire till blackened. Remove skin, pith and seeds and chop. Grind to a coarse paste with pounded sesame, a little salt, a little chilli powder and a little pepper powder.

WATALAPPAN

(The original is a very eggy dessert from Sri Lanka of Dutch/Malay roots)

INGREDIENTS

• 100 gm coconut milk powder
• 1 sachet vanilla flavoured custard powder
• ¼ kg palm or ordinary jaggery
• 1 tsp cardamom powder
• ½ tsp nutmeg powder
• 3 tbsp grated fresh coconut
• 50 gm cashewnuts
• A pinch of salt
• Milk as required

Method
Dissolve the grated jaggery in very little hot water and keep aside. Fry the cashewnuts in very little butter, drain and powder coarsely. In the remaining butter, fry the grated coconut till golden and keep aside.

Mix the custard powder in very little milk till dissolved and keep aside. See the instructions in the packet for pouring custard. Take half the amount of water indicated and dissolve the coconut powder in it. Heat it in a strong-bottomed vessel to simmering on a medium to slow fire and mix in dissolved custard powder, stirring frequently. When it begins to thicken remove from heat and immediately stir in the jaggery water, salt and half the nutmeg and cardamom powders, grated fried coconut and fried cashews.

Pour into a decorative glass dish and scatter remaining, cashew, coconut, cardamom and nutmeg on top. When it cools a little, cover with clingfilm and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours.