Day 21 - Expanding My Taste Horizons

I've always been fairly open-minded when it comes to trying new foods -- or maybe I should say, new cuisines.  There are some foods I refuse to eat.  Sardines.  Pickled pig's feet.  Pork rinds.  And anything that once was a bug or might become a bug someday.  Since I can retch just thinking about eating a bug, I'm pretty sure that actually trying to eat one wouldn't be pretty.  This is one of the reason why I will never apply to be on "Survivor."

I was glad for my love of new cuisines when I happened upon a recipe for an Indian--inspired dish that used a Bengalese spice mix called panch phoran.  Blending a bunch of spices together intrigued me.  Like mixing perfume, there were so many different combinations possible.  I found the recipe on the FatFree Vegan Kitchen blog.  I seem to go there a lot for inspiration and Susan Voisin, the blog owner, is an amazing vegan cook.  I started with her Family Favorites recipe section since the Susan's daughter was probably harder to please than most new vegans.  Susan's recipe is called Cauliflower Dal with Panch Phoran.  A "dal" is an Indian dish that contains simmered and spiced legumes, usually cooked into a puree.  This dish uses red lentils, cauliflower, tomatoes, onion and garlic.
  

I wrote about searching for the spices in an earlier blog post (Day 14) and had finally gotten around to cooking it.  The result was the most flavorful dish I've ever made for myself.  The combination of fenugreek, cumin, fennel, black mustard seed and nigela satvia was something I'd never come close to tasting before.  These five seeds, tossed into a pan and roasted for a few seconds made some very ordinary foods taste extraordinary.  And with every bite, I got a little bit different taste!

Bengal a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh (previously East Bengal / East Pakistan) and the Indian state of West Bengal.  It's kind of fun researching the origins of some of these dishes.  I get a geography lesson at the same time.  (The above is from Wikipedia, BTW)