During our last trip to the Serramonte Farmers' Market, Hungry Bear and I picked up the freshest produce we could find for a light and simple sauté. The corn looked fantastic and the cherry tomatoes were super sweet. Hungry Bear told me that she had never cooked with okra, which surprised me, so that was a must get. The end result of our market bounty was this veggie sauté.

Which brings me to my childhood okra story... one summer while I was in elementary school my dad decided to do some gardening. At that point, my family had been in the States for only 5-6 years and we were still living in an apartment complex in Allentown, PA. So, my dad rented a tiny plot at a community garden. The only things I clearly remember him planting were okra and tomatoes, but I'm sure there were Vietnamese vegetables that we couldn't get at the local Acme supermarket.

These days, I would love to have a garden with fresh vegetables, but back then my brother and I hated going to the garden with Dad to pull weeds and water the plants. At that age, given the choice between gardening or riding our BMX bikes, there was only one good option. But we had to help Dad out and he grew a ton of okra and tomatoes. At first the okra was great, but by the end of summer, I was sick and tired of it. I didn't want to eat okra ever again.

To add insult to injury, some kids in the apt complex made fun of my parents for growing their own vegetables, saying we had to because we couldn't afford to buy vegetables at the store... whatever. It annoyed me because I was trying to fit in with the American kids in the neighborhood. I was thankful the next summer when Dad decided to not garden again because it was too much work at the time. It meant no more okra and no teasing from the kids in the complex.

Flash forward 25+ years, I love okra and the idea of a garden with fresh vegetables sounds fantastic! To the kids who made fun of my family, all I have to say to you is... how do ya like my okra now?!?!

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One day last week, our fridge was practically empty. The only things we had were eggs and leftover rice. Hungry Bear wanted to use the rice and whipped together a vegetarian fried rice using canned wheat gluten and snow cabbage & bamboo shoots.

We had no intention of posting about this fried rice because it was just dumping two cans of stuff onto rice. But it was so good, I asked Hungry Bear to make it again the next day so we could document it for SND and enjoy it again. You could say this is the fried rice equivalent of dump cake.

The key to this fried rice was the Companion brand canned goods. Companion is a Taiwanese company that provides Chinese-styled vegetarian products with no preservatives or artificial coloring. I love the braised wheat gluten and could eat it every day, if it weren't so high in fat.

Anyway, the fried rice was super easy to make. The canned goods had enough flavor that no soy sauce was required. And there was only a little salt to season the eggs. There's not much else to say about this vegetarian fried rice, except it's deliciously simple!

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We recently went to Ubuntu in downtown Napa, which is one of the hot new dining spots in wine country. Ubuntu is a vegetable restaurant and yoga studio. What can I say, we're in California. The yoga classes are held upstairs, but you have to walk through the restaurant to get to the studio. Imagine clearing your mind and body with some yoga, and then walking downstairs to dine on daily-harvested organic food, with a focus on farm-fresh produce. Brilliant!

We really like the fact Ubuntu labels itself as a vegetable restaurant and not a vegetarian place. Unlike many vegetarian places that try to make vegetables into meat substitutes, Ubuntu simple celebrates the beauty of the vegetable itself. We've dined at Greens and Millennium, two vegetarian restaurants in San Francisco, and walked away unimpressed. Ubuntu on other hand left us wanting to come back for more. Two of the highlights of our meal were...

• Cauliflower in a cast iron pot
  roast-puree-“couscous”, vadouvan spice, toast
  
• Chickpeas with burrata
  olive vinaigrette, pepper quenelles with mint and bread crumbs

Both dishes were delicious and I was taking notes with each bite, knowing that I wanted to try to recreate them at home. We were impressed by the presentation of the chickpea salad, especially the beautiful red quenelles of pepper puree. The crunchiness of the breadcrumbs in the puree was a surprise. We were expecting them to be a little soggy since they were mixed in with the puree, but somehow they remained crispy.

So earlier this week, we recreated the chickpeas with burrata at home. There were two main components to the chickpea salad — a lemon-mint vinaigrette and a roasted red bell pepper puree. Both the vinaigrette and puree were easy to make. Roasting the bell peppers was a little time consuming, but the process was still simple. The hard part was figuring out how to make the crunchy breadcrumbs. To keep the prep time down in the recipe, we substituted crushed baked pita chips for the homemade breadcrumbs, a quick and easy solution that provided the desired texture.

Hungry Bear and I were extremely happy with our chickpea salad recreation. The quenelles of roasted red pepper puree were fantastic on their own. Add them to a minty chickpea salad with mozzarella cheese and you have a great starter course or even a complete meal. We were hesitant to splurge on burrata cheese the first time we attempted to make this dish, but next time we will definitely use it for the extra creaminess and flavor.

We don't know if we were able to exactly duplicate Ubuntu's chickpeas with burrata dish. But we do know that our version of the chickpea salad was pretty damn good!

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Last month, we had a dosa making party at Jane and Mark's place. Chetana, Jane's friend/co-worker, and her husband, Mahesh, were our dosa gurus. Their mission was to teach us how to make a proper South Indian dosa. We had great teachers and the dosas were the best we ever had.

In case you are new to dosas, they are South Indian crêpes and are considered a breakfast dish, but can be eaten at any meal. The batter is made from rice and dal, blended with water and fermented overnight. To make a dosa, the batter is ladled over a greased griddle and spread into a circle, similar to a French crêpe. Dosas can be served plain, with chutneys or filled with vegetables, eggs and even cheese.

When Hungry Bear and I arrived for lunch, all the prep work was complete and the dosa instruction and eating festivities began. In addition to the dosas, Chetana and Mahesh made...

• Lilva Kachori Chaat - topped with yogurt, powdered-roasted cumin, tamarind chutney and sev (fried noodle)
• Sambhar - lentil curry soup
• Coconut Cilantro Chutney - grated coconut, cilantro, asafoetida, dahlia (lentil), curry leaves, mustard seeds, salt and chili peppers
• Mulgapoodi - a.k.a. gun powder, a blend of powdered spices and gingelly oil
• Aamras - mango puree with milk

We started lunch with kachori chaat, which is a small snack consisting of a flour dough ball filled with spiced pigeon peas and topped with yogurt, powdered-roasted cumin, tamarind chutney and fried noodles. The chaat was tasty with great textures from the soft filling, crispy dough, creamy yogurt and crunchy noodles. It also had a nice interplay of flavors from the tangy tamarind, cooling yogurt and spiced filling.

The star of lunch was the dosas. Mahesh was the master dosa maker. He told us about the various types of dosa pans and how he stockpiled one particular model on a trip back to India. I brought over my electric crepe maker and Mahesh liked the non-stick surface and temperature control. He then showed us how to make the dosas using oil, butter or ghee. Mahesh made four dosa variations and an uttapam...

• Sada - plain dosa
• Paper Roast Dosa - very thin, crisp dosa
• Masala Dosa - filled with potato mixture (aloo masala)
• Mysore Masala Dosa - pyramid shaped with chutney smeared inside
• Uttapam - open faced with green peppers and onions cooked into dosa batter

The dosas were absolutely delicious. We ate them with our hands, the traditional Indian way. The dosas could be topped with the coconut chutney, malgapoodi and/or dipped in the lentil curry soup. Both the coconut chutney and the sambhar had amazing flavors. I would have been happy with just the chutney, but dipping the dosa in the sambhar was spectacular. Our favorite dosa was the masala dosa. We loved the potato filling which had great flavors from the dal, onions, chilies and curry leaves.

Mahesh was a dosa making machine. Every time we finished one he would have another one ready for us. We had to beg him to stop making them and sit down and eat himself. In addition to the dosas, we also had aamras, a mango puree with milk. It was a sweet, refreshing contrast to the spicy chutney.

Lunch was fantastic and it was a special treat to have homemade dosas. We learned a lot about the art of dosa making and I think we can make them on our own. The hard part will be making the dosa batter. Below, I included a few recipes recommend by Chetana. They aren't the exact recipes she used, but are a close representation of them.

Mahesh declared that he had fun showing us how to make dosas and he would like to do it every few months. We all immediately agreed that it was a great idea. Who is going to turn down homemade dosas from dosa gurus?

Recipes

• Dosa Batter - first variation recommended
• Aloo Masala - potato filling
• Coconut Chutney
• Sambhar - lentil curry soup

SNDsters: Chetana, Mahesh, Adriana, Pete, Stacy, Mark, Jane, Hungry Bear, Chuck

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