Farmer's Market Fresh Lunch

On Sunday, Shankar and I spent some time at the farmer's market in Oshkosh. Though we have quite a bit of produce from our garden, I couldn't pass up a chance to try other vegetables that are farm fresh. So, here is what we had for lunch - long beans stir fried with coconut, Kohlrabi in a coconut - buttermilk gravy and mint & lentils chutney. Overall, a very green lunch :)

The coconut - buttermilk gravy works with a lot of vegetables and is very simple to make. A handful of shredded coconut, is pureed with some chili peppers (I used jalapenos in the above version), cumin, salt, curry leaves and buttermilk. Sour cream is a good alternative to buttermilk. This mixture is poured over the vegetable boiled with some salt, and cooked for a few minutes. A garnish with tempered mustard seeds, cumin and urad dal round up this few-ingredients dish.

Tamarind @ Chicago

Tamarind - an asian restaurant in the South Loop has become one of our favorite Chicago restaurants. They have a wide array of Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and now Indian cuisines in a beautiful setting. We had been there last November when Shankar attended the AME conference. We went to Chicago in August to show Shankar's parents the big city, and went to Tamarind after a long day downtown.

We stared the dinner with some Avocado rolls and deep-fried Tofu. This is the first time I had Tofu garnished with ginger and toasted Nori. Both of them were excellent.

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Shankar loves his fruit drinks with bobo and Tamarind has a selection of fresh fruits, from which you can choose up to three for a blended drink. We had a Melon trifecta - with water melon, cantaloupe and honey dews.

Shankar's parents had vegetable fried rice and we had a Cashew and Vegetables in a brown sauce with Tofu. This was a perfect meal for us. We noticed that they add a slice of cucumber to their water jars - a refreshing touch!

The staff were very friendly and we also got to talk to the owner. She promised us dessert, but after such a big meal we just couldn't order anything more. Tamarind is very reasonably priced, actually I would venture to say they are in-expensive for the quallity of food and their location. A must-go to restaurant in Chicago!