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Culinary Experiments
Please submit your vegetarian culinary experiments to: mail@simpleistasty.com.  
Please be assured that your e-mail address will not be published.
This is the online version of chapter 8 from the book. This stems from my belief that the collective
cooking skills and insights of the readers of my book will be much greater than mine, whether they
are from an Indian culinary tradition or not.  Therefore, the purpose of this forum is to provide you
a venue to report the results of your vegetarian culinary experiments.  Periodically, check this page
to see if someone else has given a tweak to your favorite recipe; perhaps, in an unanticipated and
interesting way.  Obviously, this forum will become more useful as more people contribute towards
this.  That means you – yep, YOU – have to go to the kitchen and test those novel cooking ideas that
might be swirling in your head.  On completion, taste the preparation and report the result(s) here
and make note of it chapter 8.  All done!  Let good ideas come from all directions.
Book
Ref.
 Ref.
No.
Experimenter
Results/Observations
Chapter 3
ST2.7.
Page 39
ST2.7-1
Scott Burks
Baltimore, MD.
Never having cooked Indian foods before, I thought that I will start with the
simplest recipes first.  Yogurt rice (preparation ST2.7) looked appealing as the
ingredients needed were only a few. I made this preparation couple of times
according the procedure described in the book.  This was quite tasty.  Then the
idea occurred to me to introduce an element of sweetness to the yogurt rice –
but not too sweet like the one you get by adding sugar. I added about 25 raisins
to plain rice, about a minute prior to the termination of cooking (the amount of
rice was 1 cup with 3 cups of water).  This allowed the raisins to swell a little.
The rest of the procedure was unaltered.
The taste of this yogurt rice was very interesting.  I have never tasted
something like this, before.  The creamy taste of yogurt with mild undertones of
sweetness from raisins complemented the spices quite nicely.
Chapter 3
ST2.7.
ST2.7-1
 A note from Murali: This is not something that I would have tried as the notion of adding a
sweetener to yogurt rice would not occur to me.  However, if this idea is appealing to you, there
might be two alternatives to raisins. 1) You could add similar amount of pitted prunes, cut into small
pieces. This would offer an even milder sweetening alternative to raisins. 2) You could add pitted
dates in a similar fashion, where the sweetening effect will be more than that from raisins.
Culinary Experiments with Cranberry
Cranberry has been routinely used as a home-remedy for urinary tract infection (UTI).  However, the medical literature to
support cranberry as treatment for UTI is far from conclusive.  It has been shown that consumption cranberry reduces
the ability of the bacteria that causes UTI to bind to the cell wall, there by reducing the chance to trigger an infection.  
This mechanistic finding is important in that the use of cranberry as a prophylaxis for UTI has scientific validity, even
though its effectiveness might not be high once infection sets in.   Now, cranberry is being investigated as prophylaxes for
other bacterial infections such as stomach ulcers and gum diseases.
Since pure cranberry or cranberry juice is very sour, considerable amount of sweeteners are added to make it palatable.  
Here, my attempt is to see if cranberry can be made palatable with out the addition of any sugars.  It is also useful to
remember that cranberry has high amount of antioxidant compounds and its consumption has other merits, apart from the
medicinal value. (References - 1).
Chapter 5
U7.1.
Page 136
U7.1-1
S. Muralidharan
Baltimore, MD.
 Cranberries can be added to sambar, the all encompassing vegetable soup, in
modest amounts without the taste of cranberries overwhelming the taste from
other vegetables. Thus, for example, if you have about 4 cups of other
vegetables (all cut in small pieces), you can add about 15 cranberries and you
might not pick out the taste of cranberries in the final sambar.  If you add
above that amount (say about 30 cranberries), cranberry taste will become
noticeable, but the sambar will still be palatable.  It might not be wise to go
beyond this proportion, unless you have a special affection for cranberries.  If
you are adding cranberries to the sambar vegetable mix, do so after the other
vegetables are well cooked.  Otherwise, the acidic nature of cranberries will
impair the cooking of other vegetables.
Chapter 6
CP2.
Page 145
CP2-1
S. Muralidharan
Baltimore, MD.
Part – I
For the cilantro-tomato chutney, about 10 cranberries can be added in step 2,
without the cranberry taste becoming noticeable (here cilantro will be about ½
lb and 3 – 4 medium sized tomatoes).  If you skip the addition of lime or lemon
juice to cilantro-tomato chutney, you can increase the amount of cranberries to
about 20. A further increase in the proportion of cranberries might affect the
overall taste of the cilantro-tomato chutney.
Part – II
This will be suitable only for the true cranberry lover. Here, you will not add any
tomato and just go with cilantro and cranberries.  It might be a good idea
increase the proportion of green chilies and to add some tamarind paste at the
end.  So, the proportions of ingredients are as follows: cilantro – about ½ lb,
cranberries – ½ lb, green chilies – 10, tamarind paste – ½ teaspoon.  If using chili
powder, use about 1.5 teaspoons of chili powder in place of green chilies.  Add
tamarind paste after the addition of cilantro in step 2.  Be forewarned that this
chutney will have an intense flavor and thus, consumption of this will be possible
only in limited amounts.
Chapter 4
B9
Method-1
Page 67
B9-1
S. Muralidharan
Baltimore, MD.
In Auyervedic medicine, bitter gourd (bitter melon) is highly valued for its
medicinal properties.  However, due to its intense bitter taste, most people will
find this vegetable unpalatable. In the cooking methods described, suggestions
were made to mitigate the bitter taste of bitter gourd by the addition of
vegetables like tomato or onion.  Cranberry has a similar dilemma – it is highly
valued for its medicinal properties, but is very sour.  Now, what would happen if
we were to combine bitter melon with cranberry?  The intuitive guess will be
that the combination will produce an even less appealing vegetable curry than
either one of them separately.  However, surprisingly, the combination of these
two vegetables produced a very palatable vegetable preparation.  The suggested
ratios are as follows: bitter gourd – 1 lb, cranberry – ½ lb.  The spices required
can be increased slightly as follows: chili powder – 2 teaspoons, turmeric – ½
teaspoon, salt – ½ teaspoon.  The sequence of preparation could be same as
described in Method-1.
Chapter 4
L3
Page 96
L3-1
S. Muralidharan
Baltimore, MD.
Addition of cranberries to the yellow lentils (dal) preparation will be a
successful culinary experiment.  Here, success is measured by the degree to
which the taste of pure cranberry is made anonymous.  For 1 cup of yellow
lentils, you can add about 30 cranberries and you might pick up only a slight sour
tinge of cranberry in the dal preparation.  However, this tinge is very pleasant
and desirable.  You should add the cranberries only when the dal is cooked fully
(or almost fully) – lest the acidity of cranberry interfere with the cooking of
lentils.  No other alteration is required for the cooking procedure.
Chapter 4
M4
Page 102
M4-1
S. Muralidharan
Baltimore, MD.
If you add some cranberries to the combination of mushroom and tomato, the
resulting curry has a very interesting and unique taste.  This taste,
interestingly, is devoid of the sourness from cranberry.  The suggested ratios
of vegetables are as follows: mushroom – 1 lb, tomato – ½ lb, cranberries – ¼ lb.  
If you wish, garam masala powder can be left out with no detrimental effect to
the taste.  No change needs to be made in the cooking procedure and
cranberries can be added along with the tomato.  The version with the addition
of garam masala powder will have additional enticing aromas (about ¼ teaspoon of
garam masala), especially if you add a few sprigs of cilantro leaves.  Obviously,
true cranberry enthusiasts will want to try this preparation, sans tomato.
Chapter 6
CP5.
Page 148
CP5-1
S. Muralidharan
Baltimore, MD.
If you goal is to consume cranberries in significant quantities, sans the sour
taste of cranberries, this chutney is likely to be the better methods.  This
preparation is even better than the method L3-1, described above, for masking
the sourness from cranberries.
In the book, one of the suggested experiments for the procedure CP5 is to add
one tomato, during the blending of peanuts and coconut.  In the current
experiment, instead of the tomato, you can add the cranberries.  Thus, for 1 cup
of peanuts, you can add 30 – 35 cranberries and you might barely notice the
taste of the cranberries in the final chutney.  Those who have a liking for
cranberry taste may add additional amount of cranberries.  
For the next of experiment, you might want to add the tomato and cranberries
in combination – 1 medium size tomato & about 30 cranberries.  I hope that you
will take the trouble to make all the three versions separately (i.e., with the
addition of tomato; with the addition of cranberries; and combination of tomato
& cranberries) as each version has a distinct taste.  For my palate, the bias is
towards the tomato/cranberry combination.  Amounts of other ingredients and
method of preparation need not be altered from that described in CP5.
Chapter 6
CP4.
Page 147
CP4-1
S. Muralidharan
Baltimore, MD.
So far, the attempts in the culinary experiments have been to mask the taste
of cranberries with the flavor/taste from other ingredients.  Let us take a U-
turn and ask, can the taste of cranberries be celebrated in any way?  If you
uttered something like...... duuh what? – I won’t be surprised.  This experiment
has two versions and I hope that you will attempt both of them.  First, we will
try the tastier version.

Here, in the preparation of cranberry-coconut paste, cranberry is taken in equal
proportion to the coconut kernel.  Cranberry is used in place of the tamarind
paste (as described in the book).  The coconut paste produced with this
combination is delicious.  Suggested ratios of ingredients are as follows: fresh
coconut kernel – 4 oz, cranberries – 4 oz, whole red chilies – 8, garlic – 3 cloves
and ½ teaspoon of salt.  Steps 1 & 2 are identical to that described earlier.  In
step 3, add the cranberries to the blender instead of the tamarind paste.  (The
cranberries should be washed well prior to the addition to the blender.)  Proceed
to blend it well, adding minimum amount of water.  Now, you have a very pinkish
coconut-cranberry paste and it should be very tasty.

In the second experiment, you should reduce the proportion of cranberries (e.g.,
2 oz cranberries for 4 oz coconut kernel).  Other procedures can remain the
same.  Once your have the coconut-cranberry paste, you might agree with me
that this version is less tasty than the first experiment.  Thinking further and
extending this logic, are you tempted to increase the proportion of cranberries
even higher than the first experiment?  Go ahead – these experiments are also
likely to yield tasty coconut-cranberry pastes.  However, I anticipate that there
will be an upper limit to the amount of cranberries that can be added, beyond
which this preparation will become non-palatable.  Anyone interested in checking
where this upper limit might be?  (A mild reminder that the cranberries are not
cooked in this preparation!)