Summer Biryani Challenge

It's summer now, which means hot eats and DELICIOUS cooking!  Sure, I cook during the rest of the year like most normal people, but to really take the time to learn and experience the joys of cooking can be a great challenge with work stresses...  This summer vacation, my goal is to perfect a popular Indian/Pakistani food called "biryani," a challenging basmati rice dish.  While many times the recipe calls for meat, I will be attempting to make a great vegetable biryani instead to fit the current Chi-lifestyle.

Each time I make biryani, I will review the success here on this blog, while also reviewing the biryani brand of spices or recipe in the process.  So far I have made biryani the following three times:

Biryani #1:  The first time, I decided to start simple.  Found at Whole Foods, Mr. Kook's Biryani Sauce seemed too good to be true.  Cook your rice, boil your vegetables, and serve with rice.  Chi said, "this could be the ultimate biryani hack!"  Riiight...  A great vegetable meal, no doubt, with plenty of Indian spices... but biryani?  No.  I suppose any biryani recipe that says "just pour, cook, and enjoy," is headed for trouble.  Biryani isn't easy and there isn't an easy way to make it instantly.  Sorry, no picture.  I forgot to take one!

Biryani #2:  I recently downloaded the Whole Foods application on my iPad and was pleasantly surprised to see a recipe for "Vegetable Biryani w/Cashews."  The recipe included a ton of great vegetables such as red onion, ginger, cauliflower, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, peas, as well as other great ingredients like garlic, yogurt, curry powder, and cashews.  It fit right in with my summer challenge, so I decided to give it a try.  I'd read that biryani could be baked, so this was a good first attempt at baking it.  However... it should have been somewhat of a red flag that I was getting this recipe from Whole Foods... a not-Pakistani-or-Indian grocery mart.  Like Biryani #1, it tasted fresh and delicious, but it wasn't real biryani.  *Cry*

Biryani #3:  After much discouragement with instant biryani "miracle" sauce and western-twist biryani, I decided to quit easy instructions and make biryani the way that I've learned to make biryani.  Rasoi Magic provided the spices and I decided the ingredients.  I don't recommend following the instructions provided by Rasoi Magic...  If I had cooked my vegetables for 7 minutes, we'd have been eating rocks!  Unfortunately, I was running out of vegetables, so I made due with potatoes, onions, tomatoes, carrots, and green beans.  Rather than cook the vegetables for 7 minutes, I upped that to about 30 minutes.  I also took the advice of my new friend, Vah Reh Vah, and watched the rice carefully cooking in my pot.  I'd never made rice without my precious rice cooker...  It was quite a challenge to keep the rice from becoming mushy and not cooking it through.  That is the ultimate challenge of biryani -- making perfect rice.  In my opinion, it wasn't perfect, but Chi thought it passed the biryani taste test as good rice.  It definitely tasted like biryani this time.  The spice pack from Rasoi Magic was good and we added more salt in the end.  I also need to work on dying my rice less evenly...

Organic Options

"I live in Naperville, what are my options if I want to support the organic food industry?"

So here's the reality.  Being a vegetarian is admirable and awesome, but just how practical is it?  Have we reached the level of consciousness as a society that allows for that lifestyle?  Eating meat seems to be an interwoven practice with our culture of food.  In many ways, it can be viewed as insulting to reject food that has been prepared for you, even if you disagree with it.  Therefore, perhaps there can and should be exceptions to this practice.  Perhaps the step before vegetarianism is simply conscious eating.  What that means is that we are conscious about where our food comes from and that we would rather eat vegetarian than simply not know.  Meat is an option if it was happy meat prior to the slaughter.

Grocery Stores:
Whole Foods:  It is the all-inclusive organic grocery store.  Everything from the produce to the snacks.  There is little question about where the food is coming from and therefore little thought that needs to go into it.  Prices are higher than your average grocery store, but the reality is that you get what you pay for.  Additionally, the expiration dates on dairy products seem to be less than would be expected (1 week for a gallon of milk?).  They also sell happy meats.

Trader Joe's:  Not impressed with the produce section of the store.  There are a variety of healthy food options.

Food Chains/Restaurants with Organic Options:
Chipotle
Noodles and Company
Jason's Deli
Harvest Cafe

(Still on my search...feel free to comment ideas.)

Heaven On Seven

You can find this restaurant in downtown Naperville, on Wabash, or Rush street.  We went to the one in Naperville.  It specializes in Louisiana style cooking and it's the only place I've found that seems to capture the culture/flavor of New Orleans.  While you might expect it to be filled with loud and happening music, it instead provides a pleasant atmosphere with soft jazzy tunes.  There are colorful paintings of jazz musicians and instruments and a huge wall of unique hot sauces that decorate the restaurant.  The southern, Cajun style food fit right in with the decor.  The fish had subtle Cajun seasonings (no afterburn spice), served with fresh veggies and blueberry corn muffins that melted in your mouth.  It truly feels as though you've entered into another state without needing to catch a plane.  For this type of experience, the prices are certainly reasonable at $10-$15 a plate.  This restaurant receives a ChiChow thumbs up.

Calbee - Jagarico Salad

These are awsm!  I think you can get them in the states...possibly at Mitsuwa, but I haven't checked.  They are similar to shoe-string potato chips, but are crunchier on the outside and soft on the inside.  They come in a few flavors and the above one advertises vegetables on the front.  "Vegetable" make you think you're eating something healthy.  Unfortunately, these probably are not healthy for you.  Despite that, you can pretend you're somehow meeting your vegetable intake requirement while enjoying a delicious snack.

Rilakkuma - Strawberry Milk

I've had strawberry milk before and I've always found it disgusting.  Mostly because, as Jamie Oliver so eloquently states, "it has more sugar than a can of pop."  And I've had my share of cavities... but I do not like American strawberry milk.  Rilakkuma's strawberry milk on the other hand... is very, very good.  It feels like you are drinking strawberry flavored milk as opposed to strawberry sugar milk.  That's not to say that it isn't a little sweet, but it is proportioned just right.  It's also adorable...is it not?  I have yet to find this particular milk in the US...  But a girl can hope! ;)