Saffron Hut

All is well.....

2007-07-25T06:15:00.000-07:00

I know I have "gone missing" from the blogsphere for the past few months. Thanks a ton to all my friends and fans who have been inquiring about me. I'm doing ok and all is well at this end.

I apologize for not responding individually to all the emails that you have been sending me. I hope to be back online soon and start posting recipes.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Laidback Lunches - Stromboli

2007-01-19T16:45:00.000-08:00

spinach and kale stromboli with marinara sauce

You wake up at the crack of dawn. You wish you could luxuriate under the warm blankets for just a little while longer. You want to finish those dreamy happy thoughts that come to you in that half-asleep, half-awake state in the morning. You wish you could wake up to a sound other than the blaring ear-numbing shriek of the alarm. "Is it a weekend?", you wonder. "Did I forget to switch off the alarm last night? What day was yesterday? Please, let it have been a Friday, Please!!"

But no! It is not the weekend. you cannot lie there in bed! you have to wake up. It is a week day and a million things need to be done. For starters, there is school. You have to get them ready. If it wasn't for them, you could sleep in an extra half an hour. The thought is very tempting, and you slip into a little flashback...of the days before them. Days when you had that extra time in the morning for a leisurely cup of chai and the crossword. Days when you could linger in a hot shower forever...Days when.....You shake your head and try to brush those thoughts away. You shouldn't be thinking about them in such a negative way in the morning. "Shame on you, What kind of a Mom are you?", you chide yourself.

You have to wash them and get them ready for school. Some primping and prepping, a little tugging and tucking, a dab of this and a dab of that and finally they are ready! You pack them off with a flourish and rush to the stop to catch the bus. Of late they have been missing the school bus a little too frequently and you have had to drop them off at school. You fervently wish that today won't be such a day. You have a million errands to run and you don't want to make an extra stop at the school to drop them off. You break into a sprint just as the bus rounds the corner. You see them off on the school bus and heave a sigh of relief that the crazy rush of the morning is behind you.

The rest of the day goes by in a blur and before you know it, it is afternoon. They will be home soon. You anxiously await the return of the school bus. You find yourself wondering how they would have fared in school. Would they have been popular and in demand? or neglected and ignored? did you rise to the challenge as a mother? did you do well? would the others have passed judgement on them? commended you for your efforts?

With great anxiety you pounce on them when they get home and look at them with a critical eye. YES! they are clean as a whistle and licked clean! "'twas good Ma!" says your normally taciturn 11 year old and your heart starts to sing. You go into the kitchen and do a little happy jig.

The lunches you packed for the kids were a success! Your efforts in the morning were worth it. That 1/2 hour of sleep that you gave up was worth it! The kids loved their lunch and ate it all.

Well, what did you think I was going on about? I was talking about "lunch boxes" and life before "them". The kids??? Oh, compared to the trouble of making "kid approved school lunches", raising kids is a piece of cake!!

An extra half-hour of sleep? No problem! you will gladly give that up if the kids will eat their lunch. One whole hour? Ok, don't push it now!!

Here's a recipe for spinach & kale stromboli. Very nutritious with the greens and very yummy with the cheese. The filling is quite easy to prepare and you can make it the night before. In the morning, you just have to assemble and bake the stromboli. You can even bake the whole thing the night before and just pack it for lunch the next day and sleep in that extra half-hour :)

The basic idea was inspired by this recipe from Rachael Ray. I made the filling according to my preference.

Stromboli dough with filling

Ingredients:

1 can Pillsbury® Pizza Crust
3-4 generous handfuls of baby spinach leaves (or thawed frozen spinach)
3-4 medium kale leaves
1 small clove of garlic, chopped
3/4 cup of grated mozzarella cheese
1 heaped tsp pesto sauce (I used store bought)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
2 tsp parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.
Boil water in a large pot.
Add the kale leaves and once they wilt slightly, add the baby spinach leaves. If using frozen spinach, omit this step for the spinach. Thaw and squeeze out the extra water from the spinach and proceed to step 8.
The spinach will wilt immediately.
Remove the spinach and kale to a bowl of cold water with some ice cubes in it.
Let cool slightly.
Gently squeeze handfuls of the spinach and kale to remove all the water.
Chop the greens finely.
Add the finely chopped garlic, the pesto sauce, grated mozzarella cheese, chili flakes, 1 tsp of the parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste.
Open the can and unroll the pre-made pizza dough.
Cut the crust vertically down the center to get 2 long pieces
Spread the filling down the long rectangle, leaving a little bit of a border around the edges
Roll the crust from the long side to get 2 long logs.
Press down lightly along the edge to seal well.
With a sharp knife, make a few slits in the log.
Sprinkle with the remaining parmesan cheese and again press a little bit to make the cheese adhere to the dough.
Bake for 12 minutes or till the stromboli is golden brown.
Cut into pieces of desired size. I did mine about 5 inches long.
Serve with marinara sauce for dipping or pack for a tasty lunch.

Search Tags: recipe,stromboli, spinach, kale, cheese, vegetarian, lunch

I heard, I read, It happened ...

2006-12-18T12:03:00.000-08:00

Mooli Parathas

....to me! Plagiarism is by no means a new phenomenon - it happens all around us all the time. I have heard about it on several other blogs. Manisha of Indian Food Rocks has tons for information on what to do and how to prevent plagiarism. Nevertheless, when it happened to me, I was shocked. Even more shocked because the site in question was India Times!

The above picture from an earlier post was published by India Times/Economic times as part of their article "Food to lift your spirits" on 18th December 2006. They did not contact me for authorization to use my picture or acknowledge the source in their article. In fact unless you read closely there does not appear to be any connection between the picture and their article and I fail to understand why they would need a plagiarized picture when a stock image would have served the purpose.

One of my readers (thanks Maya!) alerted me to this or I would not have been aware that my work was being published elsewhere. I have sent a polite email to several links provided on their website, but haven't received any response yet.

This is the 4th time one of my pictures is being used. It was used as a picture for "Recipe of the week" by SIFY at food.sify.com before this and they did not even bother to respond to my "nice" email informing them that they were using a copyrighted image. The other 2 cases were individual blogs and they removed the picture once they were informed. [No, neither of them apologized]

I know 'tis the season and everything, but really! Whatever happened to common courtesy?

Happy Holidays everyone!

Edit 12/21/06 : And another one! This time it is a picture of a plate of poha that has shown up here!

By The Book - Coconut Burfi Fudge

2006-11-14T12:45:00.000-08:00

Coconut burfi/fudge

Here is a confession....I hardly ever cook anything from cookbooks!

"Gasp!" you might say. "What? Really? How can that be true? You love food and have a food blog and a ton of cookbooks!" Well, it is true. I love cookbooks and have a HUGE collection of cookbooks. I even own a few cookbooks in languages I'm not really fluent in and a couple in languages I can't even read! But as for cooking something from them, I hardly ever do. I may sometimes use a recipe as an inspiration, but usually add/modify ingredients to suit my tastes.

I buy cookbooks to pour over the beautiful pictures. Cookbooks are part of my bedtime reading repertoire. I like the light reading that cookbooks offer - pleasant, relaxing and soporific. I flip the pages, drool over the exotic dishes and reminisce over the familiar ones. I admire the food styling in the pictures and make a mental note about some unusual ingredient or spice that catches my eye. I lay back on the pillow and try to image what it must taste like. I have pleasant, happy images of me churning out one perfect looking dish after another - just as the cookbook promises - and drift off to sleep with lingering thoughts of delightful dishes all lined up on a perfectly set table, with perfectly behaved kids (and husband!) sitting at the table, tucking in heartily and singing praises of me. Sigh! a girl can dream, can't she?

Once in a while though, a certain recipe will catch my eye for its sparsity of ingredients, simplicity of preparation and the promised elegance of taste. Once such recipe I saved from a newspaper is for "Coconut Fudge". I love coconut based sweets, but have never tried to make the traditional coconut burfi. It tends to be a bit sweet for my liking and I've always been afraid to meddle with the proportion of sugar because it seems sacrosanct to the recipe. When I came across this recipe, I filed it away as I do with a lot of recipes.

Years passed before I stumbled across it again. This time, I immediately added the required ingredients to my weekly shopping list. At the next available opportunity, I made the dish and followed the recipe exactly!

I was rewarded with wonderfully moist, chewy, coconut fudge. It was perhaps a little bit too sweet and the next time, I'm going to reduce the sugar a little bit. It was still fantastic and the empty box in the fridge was a mute testimony not only to the deliciousness of the sweet, but also to the fact that my family does not remove empty boxes from the fridge! They happily help themselves to the last of the laddoo or burfi or milk and place the empty carton back in the fridge! Arrrghhh!

tray of coconut burfi

The recipe is from Chicago Tribune a few years ago. Here is the recipe verbatim:

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes
Chilling time: 8 hours (I started sampling right away!)
Yield: 32 pieces (considerably less after 8 hours due to constant sampling)

Ingredients:

1 cup each: sugar, milk, whipping cream, unsweetened grated coconut (I used frozen grated coconut that I thawed in the microwave)
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 tablespoons sliced pistachios or almonds

Method:

Heat sugar, milk, cream and coconut to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat.
Reduce heat to simmer.
Cook until mixture becomes very thick and starts to leave the side of the pan, about 50 minutes.
Transfer mixture to a buttered 8-inch square baking dish/tray. I lined the tray with aluminum foil and ghee'ed (new word alert!) the foil.
Sprinkle with cardamom powder and nuts.
Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 8 hours.
Cut into 1 inch diamonds or squares.

This fudge/burfi has to be refrigerated or else it becomes very soft. The taste is reminiscent of Dulce De Leche and if you like that flavor or that of caramel, then this burfi is for you. I happen to love Häagen-Dazs version of this flavor, so I loved this burfi.

Search Tags: recipe,indian, dessert, coconut, burfi, dairy, vegetarian

Search Labels: Desserts

More is More - 16 Bean Adai

2006-11-10T12:00:00.000-08:00

Bag of 16 kinds of Beans

Do you want to add more protein to your diet?
Do you want to eat more whole grains?
Do you want to increase your fiber intake?
Do you want to feed your family traditional dishes that they love eating?
Do you want a quick lunch/dinner/brunch option that you don't have to slave over?
Do you want to use up that bag of brown rice you bought, but is lying unused in the pantry?

If you answered "Yes" to any of the above questions, read on....

Ever since I saw this post in Linda's blog, I was intrigued. I have always had a love-hate relationship with beans. I love beans of all kinds, but tend to over indulge on them. When I am on a bean-loving phase, I make all kinds of bean dishes without respite for days on end - dals, sprouts, salads, koshambir and so on, till I am so full of beans(excuse the pun!) that I cannot look at another bean in the eye. I veer away from beans and stick to vegetables till the enchanting allure of beans draws me to them again.

When I saw Linda's post for a 16 bean soup, I knew that it was a recipe I had to try. If 1 bean is good, 16 beans has got to be better, right? So, a bag of 16 bean soup mix came home with me on my next trip to the grocery store.

I soaked the beans for the soup and then had a sudden change of plans. I thought of the perennial favorite of my husband - Adai. Typically Adai can be made with 3 beans (actually lentils, but who is checking?) but why not with 16? So I soaked 1 cup of brown rice (yes, that bag of brown rice that's been sitting in the pantry for ages) along with the beans and threw in a handful of udad dal to act as a binding agent. This is in case the beans didn't form a homogenous mass. I wasn't sure if the beans would bind together without some binding agent like udad dal.

I flavored the batter with a good dose of fresh ginger, some red and green chillies, a handful of fresh cilantro and was estatic when this batter turned out crisp, crunchy, absolutely delicious Adai!

Who says you can't have it all? With this 16 (umm..17) bean Adai, you can have both taste and nutrition!

According to the packet, the bean soup mix contains the following:

Northern
Pinto
Large Lima
Blackeye
Garbanzo
Baby Lima
Green Split Pea
Kidney
Cranberry Bean
Small White
Pink Bean
Small Red
Yellow split pea
Lentils
Navy
White Kidney
Pearl Barley
Black Bean

Keen readers will notice that there are more than 16 items listed above. My guess is that some are not beans!!

And to leave you similing, here a little poem my son came home singing when he was in 3rd grade:

Beans, Beans, the musical fruit
The more you eat the more you toot
The more you toot, the better you feel
So eat some beans with every meal

Yes, 3rd graders are very amused by such jokes :-)

16 Bean Adai with tomato pickle and Spinach Chutney

Ingredients:

1 cup of 16 bean soup mix
1 handful of udad dal
1 cup brown rice (I used organic long grain)
6 dried red chillies (caution: reduce if you prefer the Adai less spicy)
1 green chilli
1 inch piece of fresh ginger root
a handful of cilantro leaves
5-6 curry leaves
scant 1/2 tsp asafoetida powder (to reduce the aforementioned "tooting")
salt to taste

Method:

Soak the beans and udad dal in 6 cups of water for 2 hours
After 2 hours add the rice and red chillies and soak for another 2 hours
Drain and grind to a coarse paste in the blender with the ginger, green chillies, cilantro. You can add the soaking water to get a pancake batter like consistency.
Add asafoetida and salt to taste.
Tear the curry leaves into 2-3 pieces and add to the batter.

Notes:

Make adais right away or store the batter in a tightly covered container for upto 1 week
You can add finely chopped onions to the batter before making the adai
Follow the instructions in this post for step-by-step instructions to making the adai

Trick or Treat - Oreo Spiders

2006-10-29T18:21:00.000-08:00

Smile for the Camera!

It is Halloween! That time of the year where our little ghosts and goblins dress up as ghosts and goblins and go around the neighborhood trick-or-treating!

Officially Halloween isn't until October 31st, but our town celebrates Halloween on the last sunday of October. We had our Trick-or-Treat time this weekend in the afternoon and had wonderful sunny weather. This is one time of the year that the kids don't grumble about dressing up, are willing lug their own load (of candy) and uncomplainingly walk several blocks without asking to be picked up and carried home. Try getting them to do this any other time of year!

This weekend we also went to a Halloween party. I took these spider treats for the kids. They are really simple to make. Once I showed her how, my 6 year old made a full tray of these while I took a nice looong hot shower! That was my "Treat" part of the "Trick-or-Treat"!

These disappeared off the tray quite fast, so the kids must have liked them - and judging by the smile on the spider fella's face, he must have loved going to the party too!

The whole family went to the party!

For each "spider" you need 1 Oreo Cookie, 2 M&M candies, 4 pretzel sticks broken in half and a dab of peanut butter to "glue" the eyes to the cookie.

I don't think any more instructions are needed! Enjoy!

Savory Treats - Ribbon Pakoda

2006-10-25T07:02:00.000-07:00

crunchy ribbon pakodas

After all those sweet dishes, it's time to jolt awake the taste buds and enjoy some salty, crispy, spicy tidbits.

Here is another treat I made for Diwali - Ribbon Pakodas. The recipe is very similar to this one in Shammi's Blog. She explains it all in her unique, eloquent and very enjoyable style. My proportions of the ingredients are slightly different from hers.

I made a huge tub of these(6 cups of rice flour!) because they keep for a long time and we love munching on them as a fantastic accompaniment to steaming cups of hot chai!

If you are planning to make a large batch of these, mix the dry ingredients and only mix in the water when you are ready to start frying. The texture and color of the pakodas are best when the dough is mixed just right before the frying step. Mixing the dough too much in advance will discolor the pakodas and also make them somewhat soggy. Yes, I learned this the hard way a few years ago!

This is my entry to gracious VKN of My Dhaba's VCC Q3 Festival Foods event

ribbon pakoda

Ingredients:

1 cup rice flour
1/4 cup besan i.e chickpea flour
1/4 tsp butter (unsalted preferred)
1/2 tsp asafoetida
1-2 tsps chilli powder (or more!)
salt to taste
oil for deep frying

Method:

Heat the oil for deep frying in a hot wok or wide saucepan.
Mix all the flours and the powders.
Cut the butter into small pieces and rub into the mixture with your fingers.
Add water to make a soft dough.
Put into a murukku press and squeeze into hot oil into a big lazy circle - as big as the pan can hold.
Deep fry till golden brown.
Leave to drain and cool on absorbent paper towels. Brown paper grocery bags work very well for this.
Store in air-tight tins when cool and enjoy!

Search Tags: recipe,indian, appetizer, rice flour, gluten free, pakoda, vegan, diwali

Search Labels: Appetizers

Sandy Treats - Rava Laddoo

2006-10-19T12:05:00.000-07:00

Rava/Semolina laddoos

I had a plate of these sitting on the coffee table.

My daughter came back from school, looked at these and said "you went to the park without me??"

The visible distress on her face, the sadness in her eyes, the trembling twitch of the nose, the telltale quiver of the lips, the accusation in her tone - all made me smile!

The temperature has been in the 40s all week and it has been raining most days. No one in their senses would venture out to the playground. But such logic does not mean anything to a 6 year old. She saw what she perceived as evidence on the table. She really thought that I had snuck out to the park and made some sand laddoos without her.

No Siree! these little puppies here are the real McCoys! Not sand, but sand-like rava or semolina laddoos. These happen to be my husband's favorite sweet and this is his request for Diwali. My goodness, I have made my son's favorite, my daughter's favorite and now my husband's favorite.

With each treat that I make for Diwali, my self-conferred halo is growing and glowing :) I don't think I am going to be doing much cooking at all next week!

I have never made rava laddoos before and this is my first attempt at making these. I had to make a quick call to my mom to get these recipes. She is the rava laddoo queen in the family. Her recipe makes plump, fragrant, melt-in-the-mouth laddoos studded with crisp cashews and juicy raisins.

Here is her fail-proof method for making these delicious treats.

From top: Golden roasted semolina, sugar, fried cashews, fried golden raisins

Ingredients:

1 cup rava (semolina)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup ghee (you can use less if you want, it is not critical to the recipe)
3 tbsps cashewnuts
3 tbsps golden raisins
1 tsp powdered cardamom powder

Method:

Melt the ghee in a saucepan or wok.
Fry cashew nuts till golden brown and remove with a slotted spoon.
Fry the raisins in the same ghee and remove with a slotted spoon.
Fry the rava/semolina gently till golden brown and fragrant. There should be very noticable change in color and aroma when compared with the raw semolina. Set aside.
Mix the sugar and water in a pan.
Heat gently to a rolling boil and keep stirring.
Check the sugar syrup for a 1-string consistency. This means that when you lift the spoon from the syrup and feel the syrup coating the back of the spoon, it should be very sticky. Blow on it a bit before you touch it - it will be hot!. Gently pinch and spread apart your forefinger and thumb. The sugar syrup should trail in a single strand between the two fingers. This is known as "one-string" sugar syrup.
Slowly stir in the the semolina to avoid forming lumps.
Stir in the cashews, raisins and cardamom powder.
Remove from heat and let cool.
When warm enough to handle, squeeze a handful of the mixture between your fingers and palm to form small balls.

Tips: My mixture became a bit powdery and I had to use a few drops of milk to form balls. This is A-OK!

I'm sending these over to lovely Vee of Past, Present and Me for her special edition JFI-Diwali Treats.

Search Tags: recipe,indian, dessert, rava, semolina, laddoo, vegetarian, diwali

Search Labels: Desserts

Simple Sweet - Kaju Kathli, Cashew Diamonds

2006-10-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

Kaju Kathli or Cashew Diamonds

There is something to be said about Simplicity. Simple as in "opposite of complex", simple as in "uncluttered", simple as in "minimal". Sometimes, the brain just cannot or does not want to process anything complex. It demands something simple, something uncomplicated, something pure, something free-from-fuss.

Every so often, I go into this phase where I crave to simplify and reduce the clutter in my life - clutter in the fridge, clutter in the cupboards, clutter in the closets, clutter in my mind. I go on this massive rampage to rid myself of anything that is unnecessary. I sort through things and pick out stuff that I can do without and give it away to someone who can make better use of it.

I strive to do something similar with the clutter in my mind as well. Rid myself of unnecessary thoughts, make lists, diligently go through stuff in the list, do errands on time, and struggle to make some sense out of the everyday race to get a million things done before bedtime.

It works for a few days; everything runs smoothly, there is a place for everything and everything is in its place. Stuff gets done on time and gets done right. All is well with the world and life is good. And then things start to slip. Everyone (including me) gets tired of "being good" . Coats start getting dumped on the floor instead of being hung neatly in the closets, left overs start to pile up in the fridge, laundry starts to accumulate in the hampers, dust bunnies start to flourish and live happy lives (simple lives!) under the beds...Sigh!

When I'm in this phase of simplification, I also start to cook simple, uncomplicated meals. Meals with one or two star ingredients that keep the focus on flavor and let the pure, unadultrated essense of the main ingredient come through.

One such dish is "Kaju Kathli" or "Cashew Diamonds". This happens to be my daughter's favorite sweet dish. For some reason, she always calls this "square laddoos". I find it so very cute, that I haven't corrected her and let her call it this. They are going to grow up and loose this "kid talk" one day anyway, so might as well enjoy it while it lasts, right?

There are only 2 ingredients in this dish, cashews and sugar. How much simpler can it get? And yes, there is no Ghee in this dish!

So here it is, diamond-shaped cashew burfi. Pure and redolent with the flavor of cashews. With nothing else to intrude upon the delicate fragrance of the rich nut, these little beauties are to be treasured as much as real diamonds. Enjoy!

This is my second entry to VKN's VCC Q3 Festival Foods event and my first entry for JFI: Diwali Treats hosted by lovely Vee of Past, Present and Me.

Ingredients:

1 cup of cashews
3/4 cup (or slightly less if you prefer) of sugar
1/4 cup of water

Yields about 20 diamonds.

Method:

Finely grind the cashews to a powder. A coffee grinder does a great job of this.
Mix the sugar and water in a wide saucepan.
Heat till small bubbles begin to appear on the surface.
Stir gently and let it come to a rolling boil. No need to check for string consistency etc of the syrup.
Pour in the cashew powder and stir well to avoid lumps.
Keep stirring for a few minutes and you should notice the mixture getting a little thicker.
Put a little drop on a chilled plate and test to see if it hardens slightly. You should be able to roll it into a loose ball.
If it does, switch off the heat and move the pan away from the hot surface.
Let it cool slightly and dump out the contents onto a board or a clean countertop.
Knead well with your hands (much like you would knead bread dough) to make it smooth and glossy.
Roll out with a rolling pin into 1/4 inch thick sheet and cut into diamond shaped pieces.
Gather all the end bits and knead again and repeat the process. No wastage!!
Let cool/dry and pack in tins between sheets of waxed paper.
Store at room temperature for a week or in the fridge for longer.

Tips:

If the mixture remains runny after it has cooled down, you can heat it up a bit more or microwave it to get it to thicken up.
If you have over cooked it and the mixture becomes powdery, add a few drops of milk to knead it. This will reduce the shelf life a bit, but won't make any difference in taste.

Search Tags: recipe,indian, dessert, cashew, nuts, kaju, vegan, diwali

Search Labels: Desserts

A Good Nut - Almond/Badam Halva

2006-10-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

Badam/Almond Halva

I don't have to extol the virtues of Almond. Everyone knows that almonds are a virtual powerhouse of nutrients. They are high in mono-unsaturated fats which are associated with reduced risk of heart disease. They are believed to lower LDL cholesterol levels and promote cardiovascular health. Almonds are loaded with protein, fiber, calcium, magnesium, and potassium. They are also rich in antioxidants and high in Vitamin E, both of which may help slow down the harmful effects of aging.

In fact, when you eat a few almonds everyday, you are actually popping a couple of vitamin pills. Well, not quite, but you know what I mean!

Here is an old family favorite recipe for Badam Halva. Halva is a rich comforting dessert, popular in a lot of cultures around the globe. It can be made with a variety of ingredients: carrots, semolina/suji, nuts etc and sometimes contains milk or condensed milk and more often than not - Ghee.

Indian halvas are characteristically loaded with ghee, and when gently warmed before eating, simply glisten with the sheen of the ghee. That warm, caramel'ey, rich melt-in-the-mouth ,feeling makes halva a comfort food like no other, making this an appropriate, albeit somewhat late, entry to Cooking Medley's JFI : Ghee and also to VKN's VCC Q3 Festival Foods.

This recipe is from my grandmother. I have made it many many times with a lot of success. You simply cannot go wrong with this recipe. If you happen to undercook it and the mixture seems a bit runny and unwilling to "set", microwave or heat it up a bit more. That will do the job. If the mixture is overcooked and becomes crumbly, add a couple of drops of milk and mix together to get a lovely, grainy halwa. Like I said, you simply cannot mess this up. It is that easy!

So here it is, badam halwa - packed with the goodness of Almonds, milk, sugar and ghee. If you have to eat sugar, why not do it in a dessert that is actually not bad for you?

Note: Even though halvas as usually served in a bowl and have to be eaten with a spoon, I like to make little bite sized balls and mound them on a platter. Whenever I pass by this tray laden with deliciousness, I virtuously break a ball in half and pop it in my mouth. A few minutes later, I come by again and finish the other half. Some time later again, another half finds its way into my mouth! Somehow I feel less guilty about my indulgence if I eat half a sweet at a time!! Does anyone else do this?

Badam/Almond Halva

Ingredients:

1 cup whole almonds
1.5 cups of sugar (approx. See Method below)
2 tbsp of milk
3 tbsp of ghee (or more if you want a richer halva)
2 cups + 1/2 cup of water
a few drops of orange food coloring (optional)
cardamom powder (optional)

Method:

Boil 2 cups of water and soak the almonds for 1 hour. Alternatively, you can heat the almonds and water till the water comes to a boil and then let it cool.
Peel the skin off the almonds. They should just slip right out the skins when you press on them with your thumb and forefinger. This is a great job for the kids but can also lead to an impromptu game of "who can pop the almonds the farthest?", so be warned!.
Finely grind the almonds added very little milk (about 2 tbsp). You can add a little bit more, if the blender blades absolutely refuse to move.
Measure this almond paste. For 1 cup of paste, add 1.5 cups of sugar (you can reduce the amount of sugar if you'd like a less sweeter dish)
Melt the sugar with the 1/2 cup of water in a saucepan.
Let this sugar syrup come to a rolling boil.
Add the ground almond paste and stir well to avoid any lumps.
Keep stirring this mixture so that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan.
Add a few tsps of the ghee at regular intervals. The ghee will immediately get incorporated in the mixture.
Keep stirring and cooking till the mixture gets slightly thick.
Add the food coloring (if using)
The mixture will become slightly translucent and shiny. You are looking for a jam like consistency here. The consistency is somewhat like thick idli/pancake batter.
Add the cardamom powder if you wish. My family prefers the taste of the halva without it, so I leave it out.
Switch of the heat and let the halva cool. The halva will solidify a lot after cooling. If you live in a really warm place, the mixture may not solidify enough. In that case, simply pop it in the fridge for a few minutes to set.
Roll into small balls (the heat from your hands as you roll it, will give a glossy look to the halva) or serve in a cup.

Search Tags: recipe,indian, dessert, almond, nuts, ghee, vegetarian

Search Labels: Desserts

New babies!

2006-09-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

These are a recent addition to the family. They came home with us on a recent trip to India.

They are a joy to behold, but need a lot of TLC. They have to be handled gently and you have be careful not to break their hearts or use any harshness with them. They are like little sponges and will soak everything in. Work with them and treat them well and gradually their rough edges will smoothen out and they will acquire a smooth polished sheen.

They are very old-fashioned and charming and people are very enamoured when they see them. Lavish love and care on them and you will be gratified by their performance.

Pay attention to them, take pride in them, coax the best out of them - and they will be with you forever.

These little beauties are the latest addition to our cookware family! Yes, I love them almost as much as my other babies!

stone cooking pots: Kalchatti

This is my collection of "Kalchatti"s or soapstone pots. The darker colored ones are inherited and the gray ones are new that I bought from a street-side vendor in Chennai.

I believe they are made out of soapstone, which is very soft stone. The art of making Kalchattis is a dying artform and these chattis are not available in stores that I checked out in Chennai. Perhaps they are available in other parts of Tamilnadu/Kerala.

When they are new, they are a pale gray in color and are very porous. They have to be seasoned with salt or repeatedly rinsed in starchy water - such as the water from washing rice - to close the pores. When they are seasoned, they turn dark in color and also become denser. The pores get sealed and they become less absorbent.

The flavor of cooking in these stone vessels in unbelievable. Vathral Kolumbu, Avial, Molagootal, Mor Kozhambu - all traditional south indian staples, are all elevated to a sublime experience when they are cooked in this vessel.

Kalchattis - another view

Search Tags: stoneware,soapstone, kalchatti, cooking, vessel, antique

Fond Memories - Masaal

2006-09-21T21:39:00.000-07:00

Poori with Masaal

Have you ever tried to recreate a dish based on memory? Perhaps a dish that you ate when you were a child; when the foodie in you was still nascent and you liked a dish simply because it tasted good and and didn't care about how it was made; a dim memory from the past where you remember only vaguely what the dish tasted like but do remember vividly that you absolutely loved the dish.

Perhaps it was the way the dish was presented, perhaps it was the taste or the texture, maybe it was the ambiance of the place where you ate. Maybe it was the love with which the food was prepared or a combination of all of the above.

Whatever the reason, some dishes etch a permanent place in our memory and time and again we reminisce about these dishes with a nostalgic sigh. We fondly try to recollect the tastes of these dishes, the textures on our palate, try to guess the ingredients, try to figure out the recipe and make futile attempts to reproduce them in our kitchen.

We remember, we toil, we taste, add some spices, taste some more, stir, fry, mix and finally pronounce it done. But no, the elusive taste eludes us. The dish looks and smells just like it did in our memory, but the taste is just not the same.

Now, imagine this situation when the memory you are dealing with is not even your own!! Sounds like a plot from Arnold Schwarzenegger sci fi movie? Well, a few years into our marriage that is exactly the position I found myself in. My husband had this memory of eating what he claimed to be "the best" Poori-Masaal at a restaurant in Coimbatore when he was growing up. Since then, he had been longing to eat this dish and recreate those fond memories.

He described to me this "Masaal" that is served with pooris. It is not Masala...that is the stuff they serve with dosas. This is Masaal, and as any staunch coffee-drinking, idli-loving south-indian will tell you- Masaal is the accompaniment to pooris.

I tried to make this dish as described by him. It was not a success. I persisted. With every attempt it got a bit closer, but it was always a step short - missing something, too sour, not tangy enough, wrong flavor, etc...until one day, he finally pronounced it "Just perfect...just the way I remember it! "

For many years since then, I have made this recipe to the utter satisfaction and joy of my hubby. I too love the combination of flavors in this dish and like it better than the usual poori-masala...er masaal that I used to make.

Several years later, we found ourselves sitting at a table at that famous restaurant in Coimbatore awaiting our order of Poori Masaal. The suspense was killing me. I would finally get to taste this "Masaal" that I had labored so many years to mimic.

When the dish finally came, it looked nothing like my version does. We took a bite....it tasted nothing like my version either. My husband could not hide the look of disappointment on his face. The memory he had of the dish did not stand up to the real version. All those years of anticipation, all those memories of that wonderful taste, and the final product was nothing like it.

Maybe what he had reminisced about was his carefree youth - content with today, expectant of tomorrow. Memorable meals are often those where the food is savored more because of that particular moment in time, the emotion of the hour and the company at hand.

This story has a happy ending however... hubby pronounced that he liked my version more than the version in the restaurant and I have since stuck to my recipe! So, here it is:

Ingredients:

4 medium-sized potatoes
3 small red onions
3 ripe tomatoes
1 inch pieces of ginger
2 green chilli (or 1)
1 sprig of curry leaves
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin/jeera seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp sambhar powder
1 tsp chilli powder (optional)
salt to taste

Method:

Boil the potatoes. Peel and chop into small cubes.
Slice the onions lengthwise into thin slivers.
Chop the tomatoes and green chillies. Grate the ginger or chop very finely.
Heat the oil in a saucepan
When it gets hot, add the mustard and cumin seeds.
When the seeds begin to pop, add the curry leaves and the green chillies and ginger.
Add the onions and saute well.
Add the turmeric powder, the sambhar powder and salt. Add the chilli powder if using.
Add the tomatoes and fry well. Cover the pan and let the tomatoes stew.
Add 1/2 cup of water and when the water comes to a boil, add the potato pieces.
Simmer till the potatoes are heated through and incorporated.
Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve with piping hot pooris, a wedge of lime and some slices of raw onions.

Search Tags: recipe,
indian, curry, potato, tomato, lowfat, vegan, vegetarian

Apostrophe catastrophe - Signs of our Times!

2006-08-14T08:23:00.000-07:00

It is hard to argue with the crystal clear logic of a child.

"ma, can you higher the volume?"

"sweetie, it is make it louder...not higher"

"but higher is the opposite of lower, and you say lower the volume".

"Well, yes, that is correct, but we don't say higher the volume, the correct way is to say make it louder"

"Why?"

"Err...that's because...ummm...that's just how it is !!"

Yup.... really hard to argue with a little one that wants answers.

But, then again English is a tricky language. Full of idiosyncrasies. Perhaps that is why there is a proliferation of institutes claiming to teach English and other "Soft Skills" in India. Now, what on earth is a "soft skill"??? is there a "hard skill"??

On a recent visit to India, we were amazed at the number of signs, posters and billboards advertising agencies and institutes proclaiming their English teaching skills. What boggled the mind, was the grammatical errors and spelling mistakes in the signs themselves. Who would want to learn English from an institute that didn't know how to spell "Academy". But then again, if you knew it all, perhaps you wouldn't need to go to those classes, eh?

On the first day of our vacation in India, we hired a car and were on our way to Taj Mahal. After oohing and ahhing over the monument, we came out into the busy Agra township and spotted a sign proclaiming in big, bold letters:

Anus English Academy

We all looked at it for a moment, and then at each other. All of us burst out laughing simultaneously. We were puzzled as to why someone would call their institute by such a weird name and then, it dawned upon us ....it was missing an apostrophe. It should have read

Anu's English Academy

Poor Anu, I wonder if she had a lot of students show up at the academy!!

It didn't help that the academy was right next to a "Barfwala" who proudly proclaimed that he had Fresh and Cold Barf and his Barf was made fresh every day!!

[for my non-hindi speaking readers, Barf or baraf is ice]

Between the Academy and the Barfwala, these guys sure had both ends covered !!!

Unfortunately, I was not able to capture these 2 signs on film, but here are few funny signs that I did manage to take a picture of.

Please note: it is certainly not my intent to deride anyone associated with these establishments for their signs. I just think that these colorful signs are so quintessentially Indian and very charming. There is a certain charm and innocence associated with these signs and everytime I feel homesick, I just have to look at these pictures and they immediately bring a smile to my day.

err, which way?

I'm back !

2006-08-11T10:57:00.000-07:00

Hi all!

We are back after a fantastic vacation in India. Despite the soaring temperatures of the summer season in India, we had a fabulous time and a very relaxing vacation.

We visited venerable Delhi, vibrant Chennai and verdant Cochin. Visited a lot of friends and relatives, shopped, ate, relaxed and just chilled out (figuratively speaking !!)

I spent a total of 8 weeks in India and it just flew by so fast! So many things to do and so little time to do them :(

Thanks to all of you who wrote to me while I was away from blogger. It is nice to be missed!!

I am amazed to see so many new blogs come up in the time that I was away. It seems like new ones are being launched everyday. And the blog events ??? oh my, it seems like there is one everyday!!

I'm going to have a hard time just catching up with all the blogs and the updates. My own blogroll needs serious updating!!

I missed blogging and even though I didn't want to come back from my vacation, coming back to blogging makes it a bit bearable!

cheers!

Melting Pot - Rasam

2006-06-02T11:10:00.000-07:00

Tomato Rasam

No.... it's not what you think. The words "Melting Pot" do evoke notions of spices mingling, flavors blending and tastes mixing, but in this post, it literally means "the melting pot" as in a pot...melting...slowly...on the fire.

Picture this - shy, blushing, newly-married bride arrives at the in-laws home. After a couple of days of getting to know everyone, MIL kindly suggests that the bride makes "rasam" as her son has raved about the rasam-making prowess of his bride. Bride meekly nods head thinking "ok, rasam...not a big deal...I can do this"

MIL points to all the ingredients in the pantry and takes out a shiny pot. Unbeknownst to the bride, this no ordinary pot. It is called "Eeya Chombu" and is an amalgam of various metals that when ingested in the recommended quantities are supposed to provide health benefits to the body. Bride dutifully puts the vessel on the flame and starts sauteing the tomatoes. It is a new trick she has devised you see - to saute the tomatoes in 1/2 tsp of ghee to coax out extra flavor from them.

As she is doing this, she notices a few drops on the stove. Not wanting to dirty the shiny surface of the stove, she wipes off the drops with a wet rag. A few minutes later, she notices a few more drops. Again, the wet rag comes out...dab..dab. A few more minutes and there is now a steady trickle on the stove. Bride is confused and is staring at this with mouth agape thinking "What is going on? Where are all these drops coming from"?

MIL walks in at this moment to check on the progress. She notices the drops and says "Oh, oh...the pot it melting. You always have to add water to this pot before you put in on a naked flame". She quickly grabs the hot, melting pot and drops it in the sink. The cold water sizzles on the hot pot and halts any further melting.

Bride is by now mortified by her first attempt to cook and impress the inlaws. Forget about the intended aroma and the heavenly taste of the rasam, she has effectively destroyed a valuable family heirloom.

Fortunately, MIL is very understanding and laughs the whole thing off. FIL comes in and is very amused. He says that MIL, in her days has "melted" quite a few pots like this. Perhaps it is true, perhaps they are in their nice way, just trying to make the new bride feel better.

Out comes another pot, more tomatoes and the rasam is bubbling and boiling its way to deliciousness. Lunch is served shortly after and everyone nods approvingly over the rasam.

Bride resolves to never use the "saute" method for rasam again just in case the pot is ...yup...you guessed it..."A Melting Pot".

Flash forward a few years - Bride is a proud owner of her own "Eeya Chombu" and has used it for a few years with no major mishaps. A few dents and nicks but it is still in one piece. She still pulls it out regularly to make an aromatic pot of rasam.

You may have guessed by now that the bride is none other than yours truly! Fortunately I haven't had any major mishaps with the Eeya chombu after that incident. I still use it regularly and love the charateristic flavor it imparts to the rasam.

There is some misunderstanding with the name "Eeya" with regards to this vessel. Eeyam means lead, but there is no lead involved in the making of this vessel. It is primarily an alloy of tin and other metals. And of course, rasam can be made in other vessels also, if you don't have a Eeeya chombu or are not comfortable using one.

Southindians will attest there are hundreds of varieties of rasam - tomato rasam, ginger-garlic rasam, pineapple rasam, curry leaves rasam etc. I've even heard about an apple rasam!! The most popular one still remains tomato rasam.

This particular recipe is a sort of instant rasam. There is no dal in the rasam so it can be made in a jiffy. The recipe is from a good friend of mine, S.

So, here it is - a bowl of amber goodness- Tomato Rasam.

Ingredients:

For Rasam powder:

1 measure jeera seeds
1/2 - 3/4 measure black peppercorns
1 measure tur dal
1 measure udal dal

[Note: measure can be a 1 cup measure or any other measure that you choose. Just stick to the proportions and make as much powder as you wish. I usually use 1 cup measure and get about 3 cups of the powder. It keeps very well in an airtight container]

For Rasam:
2 ripe tomatoes or 1/2 can of tomato sauce (Hunts)

2 tsp rasam powder (see recipe)
1 tsp ghee
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp jeera seeds
1/2 tsp asafoetida powder
4-5 curry leaves
1 dried red chilli
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small piece of jaggery to taste
salt to taste
cilantro leaves for garnish

Method for Rasam Powder:

Dry roast all the ingredients and powder to a fine powder in a coffee grinder
Sieve to remove all the coarse grains
Store the finely ground powder in an airtight container

Method for Rasam:

Boil the tomatoes and tamarind if using and squeeze to extract all the juice. This step can be done in the microwave. I often omit the tamarind and just use tomatoes.
You can also use 1/2 a can of tomato sauce (Hunts works very well)
Add salt and jaggery to taste.
Boil the tomato mixture till it is hot and bubbly and smells good.
Dissolve the rasam powder in a little bit of water. This is to avoid it forming lumps when dropped in the hot liquid.
Stir the rasam powder in the tomato mixture and let boil for 3-4 minutes. It does not need much cooking or boiling after this.
Heat the ghee in a small saucepan.
Add mustard seeds, jeera seeds and asafoetida.
When the seeds splutter, add the red chilli, crushed garlic and curry leaves.
Pour the seasoning over the rasam.
Sprinkle with chopped corriander leaves and serve.

I will be on vacation in India for a few weeks. So my posts will be sporadic from now on. Thanks so much for all the enquiries about our little one. I could not respond to each of you individually, but I truly feel humbled that so many of you reached out to me and for the words of encouragement. She is doing better, and we are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that she will be ok on the trip. I'll try to post food pictures from our trip. Have a great summer everyone!!!

Superlative Subji - Ridgegourd Curry

2006-05-10T09:56:00.000-07:00

ridge gourd curry with spinach and cottage cheese chappatis

Why is it that everything with little kids is in the superlative? Everything they say/do is a matter of extreme emergency.

Take this scenario - they are laying in the sun, enjoying the unusual warm weather. "I'm burning hot! My legs are on fire.."

or in the evening, when it turns a bit chilly and the windows are still open "Mom, its freezing cold!! I feel like I am turning into ice!!!"

As they burst in the through the door, back from school - "It is like 500 degrees outside... we have to play outside, it is the best day of the summer!!"

They never get just plain hungry. They go from "I'm so stuffed" to "I'm really starving...when's dinner?"

Are all kids like this? or have I been blessed with a couple of really super, really cute, really adorable, but really dramatic little rascals?

Well, I'm sure any mom in the world with agree with me that their kids are just the cutest, bestest, goodest (oh yes, those are real words, ask any 5 year old!!) kids in the whole entire world.

On that note, here is a superlative curry recipe. I have been on a quest lately to make super nutritious meal for my family. I'm trying to pack as much nutritive value into each meal because I'm convinced that in this season of colds/flus, every body needs to build up their immunity the natural way.

This curry is full of vitamin rich vegetables, cooked with very little oil and robustly flavored with sambhar powder. The sambhar powder is a key ingredient in this curry and imparts a really wonderful spicy smoky flavor to the dish. The jaggery adds a mellow sweetness and packs a lot of iron. This curry goes well with chappatis, rotis or plain steamed rice. I served it with spinach-cottage cheese chappatis to add some iron, protein and calcium into the meal.

So here it is... a super good, super easy, super nutritious, super yummy - ridgegourd curry.

clockwise from right: ridgegourd, baby new potatoes, carrots, onions, tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 medium ridgegourd or 2 small ones

2 small baby potatoes

1 small carrot

2 ripe tomatoes

1 small onion

1 tsp oil

1/2 tsp cumin/jeera seeds

3 tsp sambhar powder or curry powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1 small lump of jaggery (or substitute 1 tsp brown sugar)

salt to taste

Method:

Chop all the vegetables into medium cubes
Heat 1 tsp oil in a wide pan
When it gets hot, add the cumin seeds
When the cumin seeds are roasted, add the chopped onions
Saute the onions well. Add the sambhar powder and turmeric powder.
Add the jaggery and salt and fry well. The sambhar powder should smell roasted and wonderful at this point. Be careful not to burn it.
Add the chopped tomatoes and fry till the tomatoes turn pulpy.
Add the carrots, potatoes, ridgegourd pieces and stir well.
Cover and let simmer in its own juices till all the vegerables are done.
Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve with chappatis, rotis, parathas or naan.

Here are some more superlative ridge gourd curry recipes from fellow bloggers: Nupur, Indira, Laxmi, Santhi. I'm sure there are a lot more out there!!

Search Tags: recipe,
indian, curry, ridgegourd, squash, lowfat, vegan, vegetarian

Camouflaged Curry - Vegetarian Mutton Kurma

2006-05-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

Vegetarian Mutton Kurma

My very first meal in the United States was an unforgettable experience. The office building in which I worked, had a cafeteria, a deli and a pizzeria. For lunch, my colleagues took me to the pizzeria where the individual pizzas were made to order. The aromas wafting throughout the room were incredible and I was salivating at the thought of biting into one of those luscious looking pizzas.

I ordered a pizza with pepper and onions and when I got it, I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into it. I couldn't see any peppers in the pizza and the onions seemed very crispy. I didn't really like the onions too much and picked them out of the pizza. Conversation around the lunch table turned to eating habits and I mentioned that I was vegetarian. A sudden hush fell around the table. Then someone piped up - "if you are vegetarian, why are you eating a Pepperoni Pizza?? "

Yikes!!! what I thought were strange looking, crispy onions were pepperoni slices.

I could not take a single bite of the pizza after that and I can tell you that to this day, many many years later, I am always very careful to order my pizza with "Onions" and "Pepper" - in that order - lest it be confused with "Pepper'n'onion" or Pepperoni!!!

Now, whenever I mention that I am vegetarian, my kids always yell "No, you aren't..remember the time when you ate pepperoni??" and then I always have to launch into my little story.

Have you had any such embarrassing food incidents? I'd love to hear them!!

Here's a recipe for a "vegetarian" mutton kurma that I got from a little recipe booklet that came with my pressure cooker. Not having had real mutton, I cannot vouch for the muttonness of the dish, but I can tell you that the gravy is lip-smackingly good. The fake mutton pieces are delicious and a perfect foil for the spicy gravy.

Don't be daunted by the long list of ingredients. You just have to throw most of it in the blender and grind 'em up. The results are well worth it :)

Ingredients
2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of green peas (fresh or frozen)
2-3 big ripe tomatoes
3 tsps chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
a pinch of baking soda
2 big red onions
4 green chillies
4 cloves of garlic
1 cm piece of ginger
1 tsp poppy seeds (khuskhus)
1 tsp anise seeds (ajwain)
2 tsps coriander seeds (dhania)
2 tbsp grated coconut (fresh or frozen)
1 stick cinnamon
3 cardamom pods
1 spring curry leaves
a handful of cilantro leaves for garnish
1 tsp ghee
oil for frying
salt to taste

Method:

Add 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp ghee and a big pinch of soda to the flour
Knead into a chappati-like dough with water.
Cover and let it rest for 3-4 hours (I only let it rest for 1/2 hour and it turns out fine)
Make 1/2 inch thick rolls and steam the rolls for 15 minutes. I steamed it in a pressure cooker without the "weight" on top.
When the rolls are cool enough to handle, cut them into 1/2 inch slices
Deep fry the pieces till they are a lovely golden color.
Half the rolls are eaten at this stage in our house!!!
Grind the coconut, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, anise seeds, onions, garlic, ginger, green chillies, chilli powder and turmeric to a smooth paste with very little water.
Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a heavy bottom saucepan.
Add the cinammon stick, cardamom pods(whole) and curry leaves
Add the ground paste and fry till this a wonderful aroma emanates from it and you start getting really impatient
Add the tomato pieces and fry till the tomatoes get cooked well.
Add salt, peas and the fried mutton pieces and 1/2 a cup of water.
Let simmer slowly till the dough pieces are as tender as you would like them.
Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve hot with chappatis, rotis or rice.

Search Tags: recipe, curry, indian, vegetarian, entree,

Quick Dessert - Mini Mango Cheesecake

2006-04-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

Mini Mango Cheesecakes

We, in the SaffronHut household have been feeling a bit under the weather recently. I have received a lot of comments and emails from my blogger buddies inquiring about us. I am really touched and feel very lucky to have made so many friends in cyberspace in such a short while. THANK YOU all very much, for the well wishes!!

We are all bouncing back to normal health - that makes us sound a bit like rabbits doesn't it? Whoever "bounces back" to normal health? Ok, let's just say that we are feeling pretty much back to our normal selves. Ok, I have a few friends that might snicker at that idea too - us? normal? he he!!

well, anyways, illness or no illness, I didn't want to miss contributing to lovely Indira's “Jihvā For Mangoes event.

As I lay in bed, several ideas raced through my mind. What could I make with mangoes?

How about the ever popular "Poori and Aamras"? Nah, didn't feel up to frying pooris!
How about "Amarkand?" that delectable union of srikand and mangoes? Nope, didn't have time to make srikhand.
How about "Mango Moorkootan?" a typical palakaad delicacy - a sweet, sour and spicy combination of tangy yogurt, ripe mangoes, sweet coconut and fiery green chillies? No, didn't have any shredded coconut in the freezer.
Ok, how about "Mango with yogurt rice?"a combination that may sound weird to some, but is a well loved dish in some households.
How about a "Mango Pie?". Hmmm, I would have to go shopping for ingredients.
Ok, let's see what's in the pantry...

I rummaged around and found a box of Jello No-bake Cheesecake - a relic from the days when I was trying out different boxed mixes from the store. I like cheesecakes in general and was curious to see if the boxed mix comes close to the real thing. Take my word for it - it does not!! and contrary to what the name might suggest, it does not have any Jello in it!

So, armed with the boxed mix for cheesecake, some nuts, a lemon and a mango, I came up with "Mini Mango Cheesecake". From my previous experience with the mix, I knew that the basic mix needs a little something to hold it's own against the lusicousness of the mango. I pepped it up with a little lemon and orange zest. Perfect! just the right amount of tartness to offset the creamy sweetness of the filling. The citrusy undertones go well with the sweet/sour taste of the mango. Btw, if the filling for a cheesecake is tart, is it still a cheesecake????

The assembly of the cheesecake is very simple. I just followed the instructions on the box with a few simple additions.

mini mango cheesecake

Ingredients:
1 box of Jello No Bake Cheesecake mix (I just used half of the box contents)
2 tbsp butter or margarine
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 cup milk (2% milkfat)
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp orange zest
8-10 walnuts
1 ripe mango
a few strawberries for garnish

Method:

Spread the walnuts in a single layer in a microwave safe plate and nuke for 1-1.5 minutes. Alternatively, you can roast them in the oven or in a heavy bottomed pan on the stove.
Cool and roughly chop/powder them in tiny pieces.
To prepare the crust, mix 1/2 the crust mix packet, 1 tablespoon sugar, 2 tbsp melted butter (or margarine) and the walnut powder.
Line a mini-muffin pan with paper cups.
Spoon 1 tbsp of crust mix into each paper cup. Press well with fingers or with a small rounded spoon. The mix will cover the entire bottom and a little bit of the sides.
Refrigerate the crusts while you prepare the filling.
For the filling, mix 3/4 cup of cold milk with 1/2 the contents of the filling mix from the box.
Beat with a wooden spoon till the filling thickens and gets fluffy. The directions on the box advise beating with a electric mixture, but I like the old fashioned way of mixing with a spoon. This so, because it gives the arms quite a workout and also because I don't own an electric mixer!
Add the lemon and orange zest to the filling.
Refigerate the filling mixture for 1 hour
Spoon the filling onto the chilled crusts.
Top with diced mango and garnish with chopped strawberries

Makes for nice bite sized dessert nibbles. Because these were made in a mini muffin tin, they were just the right size to pop whole into the mouth. You can use this same recipe to make a regular sized cheesecake and top with sliced mango.

This is my contribution to the event “Jihvā For Mangoes” .

Search Tags: recipe, mango, cheesecake, mango cheesecake, jello, dessert, no bake, vegetarian

Smelly Cat, Smelly Cat - Mooli Paratha

2006-04-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

Mooli Parathas

Smelly Cat, Smelly Cat,
What are they feeding you?
Smelly cat, smelly cat
It's not your fault....

Does anyone remember this song from the TV sitcom "Friends"? The antics of these 20 somethings (later 30 somethings) would be something we would look forward to. Of course this was before our 2nd child and before our first one was old enough to understand what was going on. When he was around 6, we had to stop watching a lot of TV shows! My goodness, the stuff they get away with on prime time TV!

These days however it is a different set of challenges. A lot of times, we are not even awake for prime time TV. It is not unusual in our house to find the TV set blaring, hubby and yours truly sprawled on the sofa and loveseat (yes, I'm short!), pretending that we are watching, but actually in la-la-land - fast asleep, and kids staring at the TV!! The kids are probably watching all sorts of stuff we would never let them watch if we were awake!!

Must make for interesting conversation at the school bus stop:

"Hey did you watch the 9:00 show last night?"
"I can't, I'm not allowed to!"
"well, me neither, but mom and dad were asleep and I didn't want to turn off the TV in case they woke up!"

Anyways, back to Friends. I used to crack up when I heard Phoebe sing this song. I thought of this song this morning as I was grating daikon radish.

The first time I made this, I had the grated radish sitting in a bowl on the counter.

Hubby was the first one to wake up: "Sniff, sniff?? Did something go bad? I think we need to clean out the fridge and throw some old stuff away! or maybe it is the garbage can"

Next was our son: "Eww...What is that smell? I think something crawled into our house and died"

Our second one was very little at that time so - "Ga ga..goo goo". Translation: "Phew, even my diaper doesn't smell like this on my worst days!!"

I'm exaggerating of course! The radish does smell a bit funky, but it is not that bad! These days, I make sure to keep the radish covered in a container with a tight fitting lid. No more funky smells :)

The radish does emit a very sulfurous odor when it is marinating, but after it cooks, mooli or radish parathas taste heavenly and what's more, they smell heavenly too!

Do give it a try, you will be hooked forever. This packs very well for school lunches, picnics, travel. All it needs is some spicy pickles and soothing yogurt to make a complete meal.

I also make a large batch of these and freeze them. Simply layer with sheets of wax paper and wrap in a double layer of aluminum foil. When you want to eat it, just pull out however many you need and warm either in the microwave or on a hot griddle. I prefer the second method because it also crisps up the parathas nicely.

round of dough with radish filling

dough ball with filling inside

rolling out the paratha

Ingredients:

1 cup of daikon or white radish, peeled and grated
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
2 green chillies, finely chopped
1 tbsp coriander/cilantro leaves, finely chopped
2 cups chappati flour (I use Golden Temple atta)
salt to taste
Oil to fry

Method:

Mix the grated radish, grated ginger, chopped green chillies, chopped cilantro and salt.
Leave to marinate for 30 mins to 1 hour. Keep the container tightly closed :)
Take handfuls of this mixture and sqeeze well to remove the juice
Add this juice as required to the chappati flour. Add 1 tbsp oil and mix to make a soft dough.
Knead well and let it rest for 30 mins to 1 hour.
Roll out small balls of the dough.
Fill with 1 tsp of the filling. Start out with a small amount and once you are comfortable with the process, you can gradually increase the amount of filling.
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Dust liberally with more flour as you are rolling.
Gently pat off the excess flour and roast on a hot griddle.
Fry one side for 1 minute and then turn over and brush with a little oil.
When the second side is done and golden brown, flip and brush with a little oil on that side too.
Serve hot with pickles or cool and freeze.

preparing to freeze

ready for the freezer

Instructions for freezing:

Let the parathas cool completely.
Cut squares of wax paper a little larger than the parathas.
Spread out a square of aluminum foil
Alternate the parathas with squares of wax paper
I usually make stacks of 10 parathas in one bundle
Tightly wrap the aluminum foil
Label with date and contents and put this stack in a freezer bag
This lasts for several months in the freezer

Search Tags: recipe, radish, flour, daikon, bread, breakfast, indian dishes, vegetarian, vegan

Repentant Breakfast - Paneer Bhurji

2006-04-17T12:06:00.000-07:00

Paneer Bhurji with toast

"I knew it! You were blogging, weren't you?"

I turn to see my son standing in the doorway of the office room. He has this accusing look on his face (or so it seems to me)

"You are always on the computer, mom!, I can't even use it anymore"!!

I can remember the days when the shoe was on the other foot, so as to speak. I would be the one catching him hogging the computer all the time.

My family thinks that I am addicted to blogging. I have to guiltily admit that I too think that I am. I am always running upstairs to check my blog for comments or respond to comments. I cannot pass by the office room without checking the computer.

Picture this: Family Movie Night - we are sprawled on the floor watching a movie with the kids. We take a break to make some popcorn. As the kernels pop in the microwave, I quickly slip upstairs to check my blog. I come back thinking no one would have noticed, but the smell of burnt popcorn in the microwave tells my sorry story. How was I to know that the popcorn setting on the microwave does not work for these new mini-bags that we picked up?

"You went upstairs to check your blog didn't you"? is the unspoken question hanging heavily in the air. I furtively throw the burnt bag away and put a fresh one in, thinking that no one will notice and sit back down to watch the rest of the movie.

It used to be, that my first activity on waking up would be to go downstairs and make a good cup of chai. Darn it, I had even blogged about this! These days, my first activity is to go to the computer and check my blog - sometimes even before I brush my teeth!!

There was one day when I was so busy blogging, I didn't realize how much time had passed and I *ahem* forgot to make dinner!!

I can almost see the headlines in the newspaper:

"Suburban mom forgets to feed kids as she shoots pictures of food"

"Starving kids wonder if aliens abducted their mom and substituted a photo fiend from planet Blogcury in her place"

Dear fellow bloggers, am I alone in my near fanatic desire to blog all the time? How much time do you spend blogging?

Is there help for people like me? Is there a "Bloggers Anonymous" ?

Anyways, back to the story. After the Family Movie Night fiasco, I made them a good breakfast the next day. My version of "Paneer Bhurji". This is quick dish despite the fact that it is made from scratch.

I think they forgave me after eating this :-)

Paneer Bhurji

Ingredients:

4 cups of 2% or whole milk (1 cup per person)
1 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice
1/2 small white onion, chopped very fine
1 tbsp oil
2 green chillies, chopped
1/2 tsp jeera seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp asafoetida powder
cilantro leaves for garnish
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Add the turmeric powder and salt to the milk. Mix well.
Heat the milk in a microwave safe bowl till it starts to bubble and almost boil over. For 4 cups of milk, for me, it takes 7-8 minutes in a 1000 watt m/w oven.
Slowly add the vinegar. Be very careful as sometimes the pent up steam can cause the milk to bubble over.
The milk should start to curdle and break into small chunks of cheese.
Step 2 can also be done over a gas/electric stove if preferred. I just like the convenience of the microwave and ease of cleanup.
Line a tea strainer or small colander with a coffee filter and strain the milk cheese through it. Let this drain while you get the other ingredients ready. You can also press with the back of a spoon to squeeze more of the whey out.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a saucepan.
When the oil is hot, add the jeera and then the asafoetida.
When the jeera seeds sizzle, add the chopped onions and green chillies.
Fry the onions till they are translucent.
Add the milk cheese mixture and fry for a few minutes to incorporate well.
Add salt and pepper to taste
Sprinkle with chopped cilantro leaves and serve.

Variations: You can add more veggies if you wish. I avoid tomatoes as that will make the bhurji soggy, but capsicum, peas, carrots would be good choices. You can also add garam masala to spike it up a bit. My family likes this fairly plain, so that's how I make it.

Search Tags: recipe, paneer, milk, breakfast, quick indian dishes, vegetarian

Tiffin Time - Coconut Sevai

2006-04-12T07:51:00.000-07:00

Coconut Sevai

Does anyone do Tiffin anymore? err...what is Tiffin you ask? Tiffin is an old-fashioned word for a light lunch or dinner. The word and concept are quite commonly used in the southern parts of India and usually in homes where breakfast is not the norm.

When I was growing up, we usually did not eat breakfast in the mornings. A big glass of milk usually fortified with a malted "powder du jour" - Bournvita, Ovaltine, Horlicks or Complan depending on whose advertising seemed most attractive at that time and also on what the majority of the kids in the neighborhood were drinking. I used to detest, simply detest those horrible mixes and still shudder at the sight of Complan bottles lined up in the stores. I think my mother must have tried every powdered mix available in the hope that I might take a liking to at least one! No such luck! I hated them then and I hate them now!! Mornings were blissful only after I got old enough to graduate to drinking tea in the mornings! Ahh chai !

So, anyway, breakfast being such a simple or non-existent affair, the highlight of the day was "Tiffin". We would usually eat tiffin around 3 or 4 in the afternoon and because there was plenty of time to cook tiffin, all sorts of exotic creations would make an appearance every now and then in the midst of the humdrum grub like idlis and upmas. Cutlets, vadas, pakoras, kachoris would be the stars of the show in these afternoon tiffins.

Today, I often put together a similar show for Tiffin, usually as a stand-in for dinner or lunch. However, the star of a show often needs a supporting cast. That's where the "Coconut Sevai" comes in. It provides a pleasing counterpart to the fried, spicy stuff and can still shine in its own right. It is really easy to make with convenient packets of dried rice noodles from the asian stores and takes 10 mins from start to finish.

I make several varieties of sevai - coconut, lime, tamarind, sweet with jaggery. My favorite however, is coconut.

Flavored with fresh shredded coconut, studded with crispy fried cashew nut pieces, spiked with tangy salt-cured chillies and fragrant with corriander and curry leaves - can you resist the allure of coconut sevai?

Ingredients:

1/2 packet dried rice noodles
1/2 cup fresh/frozen grated coconut
handful of cashew nuts
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp udad dal seeds
1/2 tsp asafoetida
4-5 salt cured chillies
2-3 green chillies
a sprig of curry leaves
cilantro leaves for garnish
salt to taste

Method:

The rice noodles are cooked very similar to pasta - in lots of generously salted boiling water.

Boil plenty of water in a large pot
When the water comes to a rolling boil, salt generously
Add the rice noodles. They cook very quickly, so watch carefully and take off the flame when they are almost cooked. They will continue to cook as they drain.
Drain well and let cool a little.
When the noodles are slightly cooled, I like to make criss-cross cuts in the mass of noodles with a sharp knife so as to break them up a little bit.
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a saucepan.
Add the mustard seeds and when it barely start to pop, add the asafoetida, cashewnuts and the salt-cured chillies.
When the cashewnuts are fried to a golden brown color, add the shredded coconut and the curry leaves and green chillies.
Fry for a few seconds.
Add the rice noodles and mix well.
Add salt to taste.
Sprinkle with cilantro leaves and serve.

This is wonderful with coconut chutney or tomato-onion chutney, sambhar or mor kozhambu.

Search Tags: recipe, tiffin, coconut, rice, noodles, rice noodles, breakfast, quick indian dishes

Humble Offering - Poha

2006-04-10T07:26:00.000-07:00

Plate of Onion Poha

In Hindu mythology, there is a story of Lord Krishna and his childhood friend Sudama. They studied together as children and then went their separate ways - Lord Krishna became the Supreme One and Sudama went on to lead the life of a poor householder.

When Sudama fell into hard times and was in need of money, his wife suggested that he ask his friend Krishna for help. So Sudama set off, with a small bundle of "Poha" or flattened, dried rice that he borrowed from a neighbor.

When he saw the opulence of Krishna's palace, he was ashamed of his humble gift, and tried to hide it. Krishna was overjoyed to see his old friend and hugged him. He felt the small bundle and snatched it from Sudama saying "What is this? why are you hiding my favorite food?" and immediately put a handful in his mouth. He was about to take a second handful, when his wife stopped him. She said that one handful was sufficient for both this life and the next.

Sudama was puzzled by this, but didn't say anything. After a joyous reunion, he returned home without telling Krishna about the reason for his visit.

When he came home, he was astonished to see a huge mansion where his small hut used to be. His family came running to him and told him of the miracle that had happened in his absence. He immediately understood that even though he had not told the Lord, the reason for his visit, he had received His blessing and he realized what Krishna's wife had meant.

Humble offerings, when given with devotion, are elevated to the grandest of gifts!!

The "Poha" in this story is very simple, flattened and dried rice. It is a staple in the pantry of most indian kitchens and although it is typical peasant food, it is found in all indian households, rich or poor.

When seasoned with spices and gently steamed, it has a "melt-in-the-mouth" texture and fantastic aroma.

It is typically served for breakfast and is quite light and nutritious. My mom used to make this for a snack when I came back from school and I would pounce on it much like Krishna did in the story!

Despite its humble background, Poha makes a wonderful supper or a potluck dish. When garnished with coconut, fresh tomatoes and cilantro, the vibrant red, green and white against the brilliant yellow of the turmeric infused poha never fails to elicit some "oohs" and "aahhs" !!

So, here it is - Onion Poha - humble, earthy, delicious.

uncooked poha

Ingredients:

2 cups of poha (thick variety)
1 medium onion
1-2 green chilies
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp mustard seeds
juice of 1 small lime/lemon
a few curry leaves (5-6)
salt to taste
a pinch of sugar (optional)
1 tbsp fresh/frozen shredded coconut
1 small tomato
a handful of cilantro leaves

Method:

Wash the poha well in several changes of water.
Set aside for 30 mins to 1 hour
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan
Add the mustard seeds and when they pop add the curry leaves, chopped onions and chopped green chillies.
Saute the onions till translucent
Add the soaked poha
Add the salt, sugar and turmeric powder and stir well.
Cover the pan with a lid and let poha steam for 8-10 minutes. Sprinkle with a little water if it seems to burn at the bottom.
When the poha is well cooked, turn off the flame.
Add the lemon juice and mix well.
To serve, garnish with fresh chopped tomatoes, grated coconut and cilantro leaves.

The crunchy, sweet juiciness of the tomato provides a wonderful contrast to the soft lemony bite of the poha.

Search Tags: recipe, tiffin, poha, rice, flattened rice, breakfast, quick indian dishes

A Foodbloggers Meme Around the World

2006-04-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

Anthony of Anthony's Bachelor Cooking tagged me for this meme. My first one - Yay! I'm honored to be tagged for a meme. It makes me feel like I've finally "arrived" !! Thanks Tony!

So here goes....

1. Please list three recipes you have recently bookmarked from foodblogs to try:

a) Green Jackfruit's - Sandwich with Delicious Yogurt Spread: Yummy! I can imagine the tangy, warm, gooey taste with each crunchy bite!

b) My Treasure...My Pleasure's - Kerala Porotta. I've had this in restaurants and thought that this is one dish that is impossible to make at home! I was so happy to be wrong :)

c) Mahanandi's - Sorghum Roti (Jowar Roti): This sounds so nutritious and delicious! Simple, hearty and rustic - cooking at it's best.

2. A foodblog in your vicinity:

Oh, the Internet makes the world so small!! everyone is just a click away ...

Ashwini from Food For Thought is/was the closest one in the midwest, but she's moving to greener pastures!!

3. A foodblog (or more) located far from you:

a) Samyal in Chennai
b) Anthony's Kitchen in Mumbai
c) Pushpa's Culinary Studio in Switzerland

4. A foodblog (or several) you have discovered recently (where did you find it?):

I'm happy to see so many new blogs come up! I'm having a hard time finding the time to read them all everyday :). So many new things to learn and try. Here are 3 that I found recently:

a) Happy Burp. New blogger from Germany - She introduced herself on my blog.
b) Vineela's Cuisine . Lot's of new recipes. I think she found me and I followed her trail!!
c) What's For Lunch Honey. Happy Burp's neighbor in Germany eh?

5. Any people or bloggers you want to tag with this meme?

Hmmm ... Cooking Medley You're IT!

Fabulous Fakes - Samosas

2006-04-05T06:57:00.000-07:00

Shamosas - Fabulous Fake Samosas

"You know what I want for my next birthday?" says my daughter.
"what?", I say, only half listening.

"I want a Diamond necklace" she says
"uh huh", I say, engrossed in surfing the 'net.

"You know that Diamonds are my favorite gems, right?"
"ummm", I say, still googling.

"and because I love Pearls , I think I want a Pearl necklace too. Can I get both? or maybe one necklace with both Diamonds and Pearls?"
"huh? what? did you say diamonds and pearls"?, I say, finally snapping to attention.

Whatever happened to "I want cake and balloons" or "I want a Barbie doll for my birthday" ? Never mind the fact that she had her 6th birthday about 3 weeks ago, and never mind that she already has a jewelry box full of jewelery (all fake of course!), she is already planning her 7th birthday! Looks like she is becoming quite the little woman.

There used to be a store in the Mall that was called "Fabulous Fakes". They sold all kinds of pretty trinkets and jewelery - good eye candy. I didn't buy anything there, but used to go there to browse for good jewelery patterns. Unfortunately they went out of business. Looks like there wasn't a huge market for fake jewelry!! Surprising huh?

What's the point of this story you say? Well, the point is that "Fabulous Fake" is an excellent description for this appetizer I came up with yesterday :)

It is a take on the Indian "Samosa" - a turnover filled with a spicy mixture of potatoes and peas. Read Wikipedia's description here. Instead of the traditional filled triangle, I opted for a puff pastry "cup" filled with a mixture of potato and spices. Since my daughter hates, yes, hates peas, I omitted it.

Unlike the samosa, where the filling in completely ensconced in the pastry shell, this version has the filling sitting in a little pastry cup, so the yummy filling is visible and tempting.

I came up with "Shamosa" as the name for this treat - "sham" as in fake - get it? I thought it was rather clever and was giggling all day over it!!

This is my second entry to VKN's MyDhaba blog event - VCC # 4.

Made in little mini-muffin pans, these Shamosas, are just perfect as finger food and can be elegantly and delicately popped into your mouth. Perfect for an afternoon tea - "Pinkies Up!"

Ingredients:
1 sheet of frozen puff pastry (Pepperidge Farms)
2 small potatoes
2 red chillies
2 tsp corriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder
1 small pod of garlic
1/2 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp oil
1 tsp cilantro leaves
salt to taste

spices - coriander, cumin and red chillies

potato filling

Shamosas in mini muffin pans, ready to bake

Method:

Thaw the puff pastry sheets for 40 mins. The instructions may differ for other brands.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Boil the potatoes and dice into small cubes. (I just microwaved them in a bowl of water)
Coarsely crush the spices in a mortar and pestle. I happen to love the taste and texture of freshly ground spices. You can use garam masala or finely powder the spices.
Heat 1 tsp oil in a frying pan.
Add the asafoetida powder
Add the spices and fry till fragrant.
Add crushed ginger and garlic.
Add the potatoes, turmeric and salt.
When they are well mixed, add the cilantro leaves and allow to cool in a bowl.
Roll out the pastry sheet till it gets slightly flattened.
Cut into 3 inch squares.
Put each square into an ungreased muffin pan.
Add 1 or 1.5 tsp of filling in each cup
Bake at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.
Serve wth condiments of your choice (tomato sauce, chilli sauce, coriander chutney, or tamarind chutney)
One sheet of pastry dough makes about 25 shamosas.

ps. When I was taking the picture of the stacked samosas, there were 4 kids playing hide and go seek in the room. One was hiding behind the plant that you see in the background and one was under the table where the samosas are. I had strict instructions to not reveal their hiding place, but now that the game is over ....:) :)

Search Tags: recipe, samosa, flour, potatoes, peas, snack, party food, puff pastry

Spring into Green - Cream of Broccoli Soup

2006-04-03T08:08:00.000-07:00

Cream of Broccoli Soup

It is supposed to be "Spring", but out here in the midwest, there is no sign of it yet!! The weekend was cloudy, windy, rainy and bleh! We wanted to enjoy this weekend of spring break and decided to just stay in at home and get cozy - switch on the fireplace, cuddle under blankets, watch movies and eat comfort food - so that's what we did.

Cream of Broccoli soup ranks high in my son's list of comfort food. From the time he could eat solids, he has loved spinach, broccoli and all things green. This weekend I decided to surprise him with his favorite soup. He was upstairs playing with a friend but his nose lured him downstairs. "I thought I smelled c-o-b soup!!!" He was delighted and waited impatiently while I took a few pictures of the soup.

I had a couple of hungry kids waiting to devour the end result, so I couldn't take a picture to my satisfaction, but the soup went down very well!!

I make it very simple, without a lot of added ingredients so the flavor is very simple and mild.

Creamy, Velvety, Smooth, Comforting, "Bowl of Green Goodness" - Cream of Broccoli Soup

Ingredients:

1 cup of chopped broccoli
2 cups of milk
1 tbsp flour (All Purpose/maida)
1 tbsp butter
1/2 of a small piece of garlic (optional)
1 tbsp chopped white onion
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Finely chop the broccoli, garlic (if using) and onion. Chop really fine so that you can avoid having to puree or blend the soup later.
Heat the butter in a saucepan.
Add the onion and garlic and saute till translucent.
Add the flour and saute till the flour turns a light brown and has a slight nutty aroma.
Add the broccoli and saute a little.
Add the milk and stir with a whisk to avoid lumping.
Heat/boil till desired consistency.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Garnish with a small microwaved floret of broccoli.
Serve with garlic bread.

Search Tags: recipe, broccoli, soup, flour, cream of broccoli

Spring Break Snack - Banana Nut Muffins

2006-03-30T06:17:00.000-08:00

Banana Nut Muffins

I am not much of a baker. My repertoire of baking is limited to the cake mixes. I can make a decent cake with the boxed mixes, but since my kids don't eat cake (!), I have no incentive to expand my culinary skills in that direction.

We are in the midst of spring break and having both the kids home all day can be quite fun and quite challenging!!! You can only hear "I'm bored" so many times before it starts to get to you :)

One activity that they are always up for, is to help me in the kitchen. I too see it as an opportunity to teach them some "life lessons" like team work, sharing duties, taking responsibility for your messes, cleaning up after yourself etc.

So this week found us in the kitchen making "Banana nut muffins". This is an old recipe that I pulled off the internet a few years ago and it has always produced good muffins.

This time I wanted to try it without the eggs that are called for in the recipe. The reason for this is two-fold. I just don't like the "eggy" smell, and try to avoid it whenever I can. The other more unpleasant reason is this - whenever we are cooking together and eggs are in the list of ingredients, there is always a squabble over who gets to crack the eggs. Cleaning up after 2 kids that have cracked eggs into a bowl and over a large part of the kitchen counter is not pleasant !!! Worries about salmonella weigh heavy on my mind and I end up scrubbing the counters several times.

So, it was to be muffins without eggs!!

I'm happy to report that the muffins came out perfect! No one would have guessed that there were no eggs in it. It was just as moist and fluffy as the original version.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

4 ripe bananas (The original recipe was 3. I increased by 1 to compensate for the egg)
1 egg (I omitted this)
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup melted butter (unsalted)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups of flour (all purpose)
Small handful of walnuts, chopped.

Muffins, ready to bake

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Line muffin pan with muffin paper cups
Mash bananas well
Chop the walnuts and reserve 1 tbsp for sprinking on top.
Add sugar and melted butter
Mix the dry ingredients really well or sift and then add to banana mixture [ Mixing dry ingredients is important. Otherwise you will be biting into lumps of uncooked baking powder - not a pleasant taste!]
Add the chopped nuts.
Mix just enough to bring everything together
Fill muffin cups about 3/4 to the top
Sprinkle with chopped walnuts.
Bake for 20 minutes or till the muffins are golden brown.

This makes 12 large muffins.

Eggless Banana Walnut Muffin

Fusion Confusion - Chip'n Chaat

2006-03-27T11:51:00.000-08:00

Mexican Indian Chaat

Ok, I did it again. I went shopping when I was hungry!! You would think that by now, I would know that it is a very bad idea to go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. Luscious looking baked goods, chips, honey roasted peanuts- all beckon to me from the grocer's shelves. I go into a sort of trance, my cart has a will of it's own, and when I find myself at the checkout line, I have a cartful of the dreaded "Junk Food".

I had a shopping spree like this last week and I brought home a bag of Tostitos scoops chips. Not as bad as some of my other purchases, which "ahem" shall go unnamed for the purposes of this post.

Anyways, I was about to make my usual dip of flaming hot salsa for me and hubby and cheesy dip for the kids, when I remembered the FMR #4- Fusion Event being hosted by the lovely Meenakshi of Hooked on Heat. I had also wanted to participate in the VCC held by VKN of MyDhaba fame. Hmmmm, I wonder if can get a two-fer with this appetizer by submitting it to both events!!

Nostalgic memories of Bombay street food combined with a desire to create something healthy led to this delicious snack. I tried a batch and it was proclaimed a hit by both my kids. Tried it on hubby when he came home and he too loved it.

Thus was born - "Chip'n Chaat" - my MexIndian remix of "Dahi Batata Poori"

It has less carbs than the potato version. The corn chip holds up beautifully to the filling and doesn't go soggy up to an hour, making it very ideal for party food. It requires very minimal prep work. To give it a Mexican touch, I substituted the potatoes with black beans for additional protein and fiber. I replaced the yogurt with sour cream, because I am in a sour cream phase of late and have been putting it on everything !!

My 6 year old says "this is so good, you should be one of those men in India who have a cart of food on the beach and sell food to people" !! Well, I suppose it is nice to know that I will make a good "Bhelpuri-wala" - not that there is anything wrong with that - Seinfeld anyone?

So, here it is - my entry to the FMR #4 Fusion event : Chip'n Chaat

Ingredients:

Tostitos "Scoops" chips, as many as you feel like eating!
1 small can of black beans, rinsed and drained (I use Progresso)
1 cup green coriander/cilantro chutney
1 cup tamarind chutney
1 small tomato, chopped
1 small carton of sour cream
1 packet of sev
couple of tablespoons of chat masala I use MDH's chunky chat masala
chopped cilantro for garnish

Method:

Arrange the Tostitos on a plate
Drop in a couple of black beans in each chip
Spoon in the chutneys as per your taste
Drizzle on the sour cream
Sprinkle the chat masala
Garnish with cilantro,tomato and sev
Munch with gusto

That's all there is to it. What could be simpler?

Mexican-Indian Chaat

Go ahead, pop one in your mouth, you know you want to !!!!

A Palette of Flavors - Chutneys

2006-03-23T16:05:00.000-08:00

Chutneys: clockwise from bottom - tamarind , coconut , coriander, capsicum

Chutney - colorful, tangy, tasty, spicy, zesty, lip-smackingly delicious, yummmmm !!!

So many words to describe the ubiquitous, humble, earthy chutney!

The word "Chutney" has become synonymous with the Indian subcontinent and immediately conjures up images of scorching heat, dusty roads, noisy markets, fresh produce, spicy foods, savory smells, .. Oh, I could go on!!!

Chutneys have earned their place of honor in the English lexicon and it is not uncommon to find the word associated with any spicy/sweet condiment. Chutney is simply ingredients that are crushed and blended together into a thick sauce. Check out a description of chutney in wikipedia here.

Chutneys play a very important role in the Indian cuisine. They are the tried and trusted side dishes for various main courses. Some pairings of chutneys are legendary - idli-chutney, dosa-chutney - while others are not so common. But there is no dish that cannot be pepped up with the addition of a chutney or two.

Chutneys vary widely depending on the region in India. Chutneys in the south are often made with fresh coconut and green chillies where as chutneys from the north region are often made with coriander, onions and green chillies.

I love chutneys of all kinds and eat them with chappatis, puris (my favorite!), toast, buttered bread, crackers etc.

I often make a batch of chutneys to have on hand. My favorite, top-ranking chutneys are

Tamarind or Imli chutney
Red capsicum chutney
coriander chutney
Coconut chutney

The order is not how much I like them, but how long they keep.

Most of the ingredients needed for these 4 chutneys will be readily available in any well stocked pantry and kitchen:

Ingredients:

chutney ingredients for all 4 types:
Clockwise from top left: brown sugar, curry leaves, red chillies, tamarind, fresh coriander, peanuts, grated fresh coconut, red capsicum, cumin/jeera, roasted chana dal(dalia), green chillies, black pepper, red chilli powder, lemon

Tamarind Chutney

Tart and sweet, this chutney can be used for bhels and other chats. It goes very well with green coriander chutney and can be served with all kinds of fried snacks like bajjis, pakodas even french fries :) . It keeps forever in the freezer. It gets a consistency like soft icecream and I just scoop it out and thaw it whenever I need some.

Tamarind, brown sugar, chilli powder, black pepper

Method:

Soak the tamarind in hot water and extract the pulp.
Take equal amounts of tamarind and sugar and heat in a non-reactive saucepan
Simmer till quite thick. The consistency should be just a little runnier than that of ketchup
Add salt, black pepper and chilli powder according to taste
Cool and store in container
This will stay for months in the freezer. Thaw as required.

Red Capsicum Chutney

With a brilliant orange hue, this chutney is lip smacking good. It is creamy like a mayonaise, but has almost no fat. Goes well with dosas. Spread it on dosas to make Mysore Masala Dosa. mmmmm...

If you take care to grind it without any water, it will stay fresh in the fridge for 1-2 weeks. If the blender absolutely will not grind it, add a tsp of oil to help loosen it up. We've packed this chutney in a bottle for a road trip and it kept beautifully.

red capsicum, cumin seeds, dried red chillies

Method:

Seed and finely slice the red capsicums
Heat one 1 tsp of oil in a frying pan
Add the jeera and fry till it gets a golden brown and aromatic
Add the dried red chillies and the sliced capsicum
Fry well till the capsicums are cooked and all the water from them has evaporated. This is very important. If there is still a lot of water left, the chutney will not keep well.
Cool and then grind to a velvety smooth paste without adding any water. Trust me, this will grind in a regular blender.
Add salt to taste.

Coriander Chutney

The good old standby coriander chutney! Lots of uses for this chutney. Use it for bhels and chats and also for making wonderful sandwiches. Spread on bread with butter and then layer with cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, and other veggies of choice for yummy bombay-style sandwiches.

peanuts, coriander, cumin seeds, green chillies

Method:

Grind all of the above and adjust salt to taste
Squeeze a bit of lemon juice to retain color and give it a tang.
This will stay fresh in the fridge for 2-3 days

Coconut Chutney

The "King of the South" - this chutney reigns supreme in all south indian kitchens. A perfect accompaniment to idlis, dosas, oothapams, upma, kozhakattai and other south indian breakfast dishes. This can be made with fresh or frozen grated coconut - dessicated coconut is not a good substitute!! . Sadly this chutney will spoil quickly and turn rancid the next day, if it lasts that long!!

grated coconut, green chillies, roasted chana dal(dalia)

Method:

Grind coconut, green chillies and roasted chana dal to a smooth paste.
Add salt to taste.
Heat 1 tsp oil in a small pan
Add 1/4 tsp asafoetida, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds and a few curry leaves.
When the mustard seeds pop, pour this mixture on top of the chutney.

This is the basic version of the chutney. There are umpteen variations. Some people add a bit of tamarind for a slight tang, others add a spoonful of yogurt. I've had this with red chillies instead of the green. Some add one or more of - ginger, garlic, coriander leaves, curry leaves while grinding.

There are no set rules for chutneys. You can let your creativity flow and come up with new combinations to make chutneys and new ways to use them.

That's the universal appeal of "Chutney"!!

Breakfast of the Gods - Upma Kozhakattai

2006-03-20T10:57:00.000-08:00

Upma Kozhakattai - Steamed rice dumplings

The first dish I missed when I left home, were these tasty morsels - "upma kozhakattai". My mom makes the most awesome kozhakattai and I used to gobble these up, with a dollop of ghee melting on top and some chutney podi to dip 'em into.

I feel like I am continuing the tradition when I make these at home now, and watch my kids relish them. That's what it is about, isn't it? Passing on these traditions to the next generation? I feel that I make only about half the dishes my mother used to make, on a regular basis. Our palate has expanded to include so many other dishes of other ethnicities. I like to try out exotic dishes from other cultures and traditional indian dishes often have to wait for their turn in the monthly menu! I wonder how many of these traditional dishes our kids will make?

Anyways, on to the "Upma Kozhakattais" !! This is a twice steamed dish, so it is very healthy. There is not much oil involved in the making, and the addition of fresh coconut is entirely up to you. You can omit if you wish. I make a big batch of these once in a while and then have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner!!

"Upma Kozhakattai" does require a fair amount of prep work. The rice has to be processed i.e. "broken" to make a coarse rava. I have never really tried to make it with the readymade rava available in the indian stores, but that might be a good option.

Ingredients:

2 cups long grain rice
1/4 cup shredded coconut (fresh or frozen)
4-5 salt cured, dried chillies (with yogurt)
1 green chilli
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp asafoetida
1 tsp oil
a few curry leaves

Washed rice, spread on a towel to dry

cup of washed, dried rice blended to make a coarse "rava"

You can also make a double batch of the rice rava and store for future use. Be careful however, to make sure the rice is absolutely dry before storing it. I have found out the hard way that little lifeforms will happily romp in the rice and make the most interesting colored mold colonies!! Needless to say, the kids were thrilled with this "science project", but I had to quickly make some backup plans for breakfast :)

Method:

Wash the rice well in several changes of water until the water runs clear.
Spread it out to dry on a clean towel or dish cloth for a few hours or even overnight.
Coarsely powder the rice in a blender or food processor. Work in batches till the rice resembles bread crumbs.
Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan. When it is hot, add the asafoetida and mustard seeds.
When the mustard seeds pop, add the dried salt-cured chillies.
When they turn a dark golden brown, add the green chillies and curry leaves.
Add 5 cups of water (ratio of rice to water is 2:2.5)
When the water comes to a boil, add the salt and shredded coconut.
Add the rice rava and stir well to mix.
Cover and steam like for "upma" till the rice is cooked.
It may still taste a bit raw at this point, but will be fine when it is steamed again.
When the mixture is cool, form into small balls.
Put the balls in a greased idli plate or in a chinese style steamer or even the steamer of a rice cooker and steam for 10 minutes.
The balls will subtly change in color and texture and get a glossy shine. That indicates that they are well cooked.
Serve hot with a dab of ghee on top. Serve with chutney, dosa chutney podi, or sambhar.

rice upma, before forming the dumplings

kozhakattai, ready for steaming

Here's another picture of these yummy dumplings. My favorite way to serve them is with "Mor Kozhambu" or buttermilk sambhar. Yummm....

Upma Kozhakattai

Sneaky Nutrition - Spinach Cheese Parathas

2006-03-16T14:17:00.000-08:00

Potato, Spinach & Cottage Cheese Parathas

What do you do when you have to feed picky eaters? You get sneaky - is what you do!!!

I am always trying to sneak in various "healthy" things into foods for my kids. Some of my "experiments" get good reviews and encores. Other times it is "Mom, what were you thinking??"

I had read about adding cottage cheese to chappati dough in a cookbook a few months ago. I have forgotten the name of the cookbook, but the idea stayed with me. If anyone knows of this book, please drop me a line. I'd like to give the author credit for such an innovative idea.

Recently I decided to try this out and to my surprise the chappatis came out pretty good. Not content with this, I decided to "kick it up a notch" and made "aloo-palak-cheese-parathas". This is definitely a keeper recipe and I will be making this for years to come.

The parathas are yummy, they are very very soft and the spinach and potatoes add a lot of iron and potassium and the cottage cheese provides a healthy helping of calcium that is so essential for the kids' growing bones and our creaking ones :-)

The parathas look delectable as well, a pale jade color, flecked with the dark green from the spinach, with a brilliant yellow stuffing of mashed, seasoned potatoes.

You can use the basic dough to make any parathas of your choice, stuffed or plain. The parathas need very little oil, because of the creaminess of the cheese and stay very soft for quite a while. I used low fat cottage cheese, so you can indulge without guilt!!

"Aloo-Palak-Cottage-Cheese-Parathas" - Quite a mouthful to say, but utterly delicious to eat.

Spinach, Cottage Cheese, Wheat flour

Ingredients For Dough:

1 cup of wheat flour (I use Golden Temple Chappati atta)
3/4 cup of cottage cheese
1/2 cup of spinach
1 tsp oil
salt to taste

Note:

For this recipe, there are really no exact measurements. You can add as much or as little spinach as you wish. Also there is NO WATER, yes, NO WATER to bind the dough. It is all just the cottage cheese and the moisture from it!! Can you feel your bones growing stronger already??

Method:

This process can only be done in a food processor. I don't think anyone can knead the dough so well as to incorporate all the cottage cheese!!

[Addendum: if you don't have a food processor, I suppose you could give the spinach and cottage cheese a whirl in the blender and then incorporate the flour by hand. I haven't tried it, but it might work!]

Chop the spinach in the food processor.
Add the cottage cheese, oil and salt and blend well
Add the flour and pulse a few times
Don't worry if it seems to stick. Add more cheese if it seems dry and more flour if it seems too runny!!
Take the dough out and let it rest in a covered bowl for 20-30 minutes. This is extremely important! The dough may seem really rough textured and coarse at this point. Something happens to it when it rests. It seems to get this inner peace and relaxes into a smooth pliable dough, soft as silk!!
Roll into chappatis or stuff with filling to make parathas
Cook both sides on a hot griddle, brushing with a little oil if required.

Balls of paratha dough

round of dough with potato filling

cup of dough encasing the filling

closed cup of dough with filling

rolling out the paratha

Potato Stuffing Ingredients:

2-3 large potatoes
1 small green chilli or 1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala (optional, I omit if making for the kids)
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste

Method:

1. Boil the potatoes and mash them well
2. Add turmeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala (if using), salt and mix well
3. Heat oil in a frying pan
4. When the oil is heated, add the mustard seeds
5. When the mustard seeds start popping, add the green chilli (optional) and then the potato mixture.
6. Fry for a few minutes till the raw smell disappears.
7. Cool and use for stuffing.

Blood is thicker than? - Molagootal?

2006-03-15T05:46:00.000-08:00

Molagootal with Rice, Thogayal and Potato Curry

My husband and his brother were practically raised on this dish - "Keerai Molagootal". This is a dish from the Palakaad region and is typically eaten with rice. The traditional accompaniment is "Thogayal" (a type of chutney) or Pulikaachal (tamarind chutney). Keerai Molagootal is similar to a spinach dal, but has a few additional ingredients that add a layer of complexity to the taste.

For my husband and brother-in-law, this is the ultimate comfort food. My SIL often jokes that they have "molagootal" running in their veins rather than blood!! that is the power of this dish :-)

Contrary to what the name might suggest, there is no "molaghu" or black pepper in this dish!! But, with spinach and tur dal, it is a very nutritious dish, full of vitamins and antioxidants.

Ingredients:

For the dal:
4 cups spinach leaves, chopped
3/4 cup tur dal, boiled
1/4 cup grated coconut

For masala paste:
2 tbsp udad dal
4-5 dried red chillies
1 tsp jeera

For seasoning:

1 tsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

2-3 dried red chillies

Method:

1. Boil the spinach leaves in water, till tender and grind coarsely in the blender
2. Fry the masala ingredients in 1/2 tsp oil till the udad dal turns a deep golden brown and is aromatic.

3. Grind to a fine paste with the coconut.

4. Mix the ground paste, the ground spinach and tur dal and boil for 2 minutes

5. Add salt to taste

6. Heat the oil for seasoning

7. Add mustard seeds and when they pop, add the curry leaves and red chillies.

8 Add to the molagootal when the red chillies are fried.

Thogayal

Thogayal or chutney is a tangy accompaniment to the molagootal. There are no set rules about the ingredients for the thogayal and can be varied according to what's on hand.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp udad dal
4-5 dried red chillies
1/4 cup grated coconut
2 green chillies
a small handful curry leaves
a small handful cilantro leaves
a small handful mint leaves (optional)
a lime sized ball of tamarind
1 tsp jaggery or brown sugar
1/2 tsp asafoetida
salt to taste

Method:

1. Mix the tamarind in a little bit of water and extract a thick juice.
2. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan
3. Add the asafoetida and the udad dal
4. Fry the udad dal over slow heat, till it is a deep golden brown
5. Add the dried red chillies and roast
6. Switch off the heat and add all the other ingredients
7. Grind to a coarse paste using very little water

Serve with molagootal. I love it it hot rice and ghee. This also goes well with chappatis, toast etc. The other day I noticed my little one with a bowl of thogayal and tortilla chips!!!

Enjoy!

Cook With Your Kids - Sand Laddoo/Sand Balls

2006-03-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

Sand Laddoo
Caution: Not Edible!

The little one came up with this title! She says "Hey! how about you write a blog about our trip to the park?, Tell everyone that you don't need to waste your time near the stove...you can also cook with sand!"

She has been watching me create this blog, take pictures and talk about it ALL the time (or what seems like ALL the time to her). She is amused that I have got something else to do than nag her to stop watching TV, clean up, practice her music...yadda yadda...

We had an unusually warm and sunny day today. We went to the park for a little while and made "Sand Laddoos or Sand Balls". After a while, the laddoos became our ammunition and we threw them at imaginary enemy soldiers that were advancing to attack our fort. The other parents and kids at the park observing us, looked a bit amused. It's not often they see a parent making a fool of themselves and getting their hands in the sand and throwing sand balls around !

Well, anyway, a few more rounds on the swings and slides and then it was time to come home. An afternoon well spent. We brought a laddoo home as a keepsake.

It is so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind of life, that we often don't think about taking a break and having some real honest-to-goodness FUN! Sometimes it takes a child to remind us to do that.

So..... here's reminding everyone to take a breather and find your bit of sunshine - outside, in your loved ones, or in your inner child.

Have a Great Weekend!!

Mystery Dish - Guess this Dish!

2006-03-10T06:14:00.000-08:00

Guess what?

This is my 3rd week of blogging, and I'm thrilled that my site has had over 1000 visitors!! Yay!! A big "THANK YOU" to my fellow bloggers and visitors for the support, encouragement and friendship.

Here's a little something to brighten up your march towards the weekend....TGIF!!!

This dish is an old time favorite in our house. Can you guess what it is?

I'll post the recipe later :-)

Warning! Spoiler Follows

Thanks for playing the guessing game with me!! We had a lot of correct guesses - it is indeed "Bread Upma" .

Typically made with stale bread, it is an ingenious way to use up old bread and the few odds and ends in the refrigerator. It also packs very well for lunches and picnics.

I like to make bread upma rather plain, with very few spices, so that the flavor of the bread comes through. The key to making a good bread upma is of course the bread!. Crusty breads work the best. Don't even attempt this with sliced bread! Today I used old "Pan Turano" bread, the same that I used in the "PottleBell Sandwiches".

Here's how I make my version:

Ingredients:

1 6 inch loaf of Pan Turano or similar crusty bread
3 tbsp of yogurt (preferably homemade)
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 green chilli, chopped
1 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp jeera seeds
1/2 tsp chilli powder
a few curry leaves and cilantro leaves
salt to taste

Method:

Cut the loaf of bread into 1/2 inch chunks.
Whisk the yogurt to make it smooth. Add some salt to taste. Marinate the bread pieces in it, till you get the other ingredients ready or for 10 mins. This step is what gives the bread upma a very tangy, yummy flavor.
Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard and jeera seeds. When they pop, add the green chillies, and curry leaves.
Add the onions and saute lightly.
Add the turmeric powder
Add the bread pieces and turn gently to mix well
Add salt and chilli powder to taste
Sprinkle with chopped cilantro leaves

Notes:

If you use french bread or other similar crusty bread, it stands up very well to the marinade and retains it shape and texture.
The yogurt gets absorbed into the bread, gives it a lot of flavor and also a nice crispy crust if you fry the pieces well
If you don't like yogurt, you can add a little bit of lime/lemon juice

Oldies Goldies - Pottlebell Sandwich

2006-03-09T07:21:00.000-08:00

PottleBell Sandwich

A new sandwich place has opened up in our town - "Potbelly". We went to eat there last week. The place is nice and laid back with a very vintage decor. They serve soup, sandwiches, smoothies, ice cream, and cookies. The service is very fast, the soup is piping hot and the sandwiches are good. Nice place for a quick lunch or dinner.

Their signature sandwich is piled with cheese and toasted in a hot oven, till the cheese melts. Then you can fill it with fillings of your choice (we of course like it with everything, including the hot peppers).

There was "live" music - a middle-aged guy playing a few "oldie goldies" on the guitar and singing along. DH and I seemed to be the only ones in the restaurant who could relate to and reminisce about the songs ...sigh!! We clapped enthusiastically after each song (again, we were the only ones who did so) and so the chap went on playing more Rod Stewart, Eagles, Eric Clapton numbers. Kids were a bit embarrassed at our behavior, and kept nudging us to stop. That only made us clap and whistle some more!! We told them that they could feel embarrassed by our behaviour for a change. Oh, it was fun !!

When we were craving their sandwiches again, we thought we would try to make it at home. The sandwiches are really easy to make and turned out very yummy. The trick is the bread - "Pan Turano French Bread" is just perfect and toasts up beautifully. I'm sure some other crusty french bread will work just as well.

We had no live music at home and had to make do with CDs !! :-)

For some reason, my daughter has a hard time with the name and calls it "PottleBell" - hence our name for these sandwiches "PottleBell Sandwiches"

Every bite delivers a satifying crunch from the toasted bread, gooey melty cheese, creaminess from the mayo and the flavor of the vegetables.

bread basket

lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles

swiss, provolone and american cheeses

Ingredients:

1 6 inch loaf of bread
1/4 slice of deli-sliced provolone cheese
1/4 slice of swiss cheese
1 slice of american cheese
1 tsp mayonnaise
veggies of your choice (lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, red onions, hot peppers)

Method:

Layer the cheese on one side of the bread.

Pop under the broiler to melt the cheese and toast the bread.

Slather with mayo on both sides (yes!)

Pile high with veggies

Serve with hot giardinaria and jalapeno flavored chips on the side ! Yumm!

Protein Packed Power - Paruppu Usili

2006-03-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

Broccoli Usili with Chappati

I am a self proclaimed "Freezer Queen". I LOVE freezing food! I experiment all the time with freezing cooked food, semi-cooked food, raw food - well, you get the idea.

I especially like freezing semi-prepared food. Keep it handy in the freezer, pop it out, finish cooking it and voila! dinner-in-a-jiffy. Also very handy when unexpected guests drop in.

One semi-prepared food that freezes very well is "Paruppu Usili Mix". "Paruppu" is lentils in Tamil and I think "Usili" is mix, so there's a little redundancy in my terminology there!

I make the basic mix and freeze in small single-serve containers. When I want to make any kind of paruppu usili (beans, cabbage, broccoli, spring onions, leeks etc), I pop out a container, thaw in the microwave and add to the sauted vegetables. No one can tell it's been frozen!

I also make and freeze batches of chappatis and parathas and they really come in handy on "crazy" days.

Getting the RDA of protein can be really challenging for vegetarians. Protein packed Paruppu Usili is one yummy way of getting a mega dose of protein. It also gives the much-maligned Broccoli a chance to shine :-) :-)

Enjoy!

Usili mix, ready for the freezer

stack of chappatis

Ingredients:

For the Usili Mix:
1 cup of tur dal
1 cup of chana dal
handful of dried red chillies
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp jeera seeds
2 tsp udal dal
1 tsp asafoetida
salt to taste

For the Subji:
1 small onion
2 green chillies
1 cup broccoli (or vegetable of your choice)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp jeera seeds
1/4 tsp asafoetida
a few curry leaves
salt to taste

Method:

For the Usili Mix:
Soak the dals and chillies for 2 hours. Grind to a smooth paste. Add turmeric powder and salt to taste. I use a microwave egg poacher to steam 2 "idlis" of this dough at a time. Prepare all the "idlis" this way. Crumble with your fingers and keep aside.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a non-stick frying pan. Add the asafoetida, mustard and jeera. When they sizzle and pop, add the udad dal. When the udal dal gets golden and roasted, add the crumbled dal mixture. Fry well till the mixture gets roasted and become a lovely orange/golden brown color.

Cool completely. Pack into freezer containers and store away :-)

For Making Usili Subji:
Chop the onions and vegetables. Heat 1 tsp oil in a frying pan. Add the asafoetida, mustard seeds, jeera and udad dal. When that is roasted, add the onions, green chillies and curry leaves. Saute lightly. Add the broccoli and fry till it is cooked. I like it quite crunchy. Then add the thawed Usili Mix . Adjust the salt to taste and serve garnished with chopped cilantro.

Yummy with rice and sambhar or rasam. Less carbs with chappatis :-)

Birthday special - Dahiwale Baingan

2006-03-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

Dahiwale Baingan with chappatis

Yesterday was our little princess' "star" birthday i.e birthday according to the Indian lunar calendar. She had started a countdown to this day, about a week ago.

She woke up suitably excited, demanding that everybody be nice to her and treat her special. She is treated like this everyday, but that's another discussion!.

She did not let us forget for a minute that it was her birthday and that it was a special day for her. Her brother was strictly instructed to be nice to her and not bother her, which of course meant that he was going to push her buttons and see how far he could go before I had to be called in to negotiate!

I wanted to make her favorite things for her birthday and upon asking, she said that she wanted "payasam" and "eggplant subji" - Who knew!! I would have never guessed that eggplant was her favorite vegetable. That's the thing with kids - their tastes change and a new favorite comes up every now and then.

Anyways, I was not going to question it, or let this opportunity pass me by. Eggplant subji it was!! - served with chappati, fried cauliflower florets(another one of her favorites) and of course payasam.

Here's my recipe for the "Dahiwale Baingan" - adapted from a Sanjeev Kapoor TV program, with my modifications:

Japanese eggplant, onions, green chillis, garlic, curry leaves, ginger and cilantro

Ingredients:

4 Japanese eggplant
1 medium onion
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
4-5 green chillis
2 tbsp sour cream (or use yogurt mixed with 1 tbsp all purpose flour)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp jeera
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
curry leaves
cilantro for garnish

sliced eggplant

pan fried eggplant

Method:

Cut the eggplant lengthwise and then slice into half moons. Sprinkle eggplant with salt and mix the ginger-garlic paste. Put in a colander and leave to marinate for 1-2 hours. It helps to keep a bowl filled with water on top to weigh it down. The bitter juices will come out of the eggplant and the eggplant will fry up nicely.

Heat a little oil in a wok and pan fry the till brown and crispy. Fry in small batches to get them nice and crispy. Next time, I am going to try to bake 'em in a sheet pan.

Chop the onions and green chillis. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds and jeera seeds. When they pop, add the curry leaves, green chillis and chopped onion. Fry lightly. When the onions turn translucent, add turmeric powder and salt.

Gently mix in the sour cream and heat slowly. The mixture will slowly boil. Set aside.

Mix the eggplant and gravy just before serving and garnish with chopped cilantro. The combination of turmeric and the sour cream gives it a very flourescent yellow color - quite unusual!

Dahiwale Baingan or rather Sour Creamwale Baingan!!

Ode to Chai - umm Joy!

2006-03-03T07:32:00.000-08:00

Cup of Chai

I belong to the small percentage of people in the world that are "musically challenged" . I have absolutely no ear for music and can neither sing nor hum a tune. But if I had any musical talent at all, and if I could somehow magically compose music, my magnum opus would be "Ode to Chai". It would be a musical masterpiece extolling the virtues of my favorite drink - chai!

I love chai and drink a minimum of 2 cups a day. I could drink several more cups, but usually limit myself, unless it is a special occasion or a special day like a weekend or a weekday!

I follow the same routine every morning. I wake up, brush my teeth still half asleep, go downstairs and put on a pot of water for tea. I stand by the stove, savoring the morning calm and the radiant heat from the stove. There is something calming about this ritual of making a morning cup of chai. The canisters for tea leaves and sugar are at hand and I can measure and pour with my eyes closed. As the aroma of the tea wafts from the boiling pot, I add a pinch of cardamom. The satisfying wooshing sound of the tea boiling and rising up to touch the lip of the pot wakes me from my reverie and I pour out the 2 cups of steaming hot tea. As I sip the chai, I really start to wake up and start my day.

In the Indian culture, chai is much more than just a drink. Stories are shared, gossip is passed around, sorrows are drowned, advice is handed out and friendships are bonded - all over steaming hot cups of chai.

I like my chai strong, with a pinch of cardamom powder. How do you spice your chai?

- With apologies to Beethoven, whose "Ode to Joy" has been adopted as the European Union's nation anthem. Check out the full article here.

Too Many Tomatoes!! - Tomato Pickle

2006-03-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

Tomato pickles

We have a small vegetable patch in our backyard and every year we plant 4-6 tomato plants. This summer, we had very good growing conditions and got a bumper crop of tomatoes. We had fresh tomatoes all summer long - salads, rasams, pasta sauces, curries, sandwiches, simply sprinkled with salt and pepper - you name it and we tried it! The flavor of garden fresh tomatoes is just unbeatable.

In the summer, the kids go out on tomato gathering expeditions and can often be found sitting in the backyard, sinking their teeth into those juicy tomatoes, seeds and pulp staining their flushed faces until some wandering bees chase them indoors :-)

We are also lucky enough to have an ethnic produce store close by that has vine ripened tomatoes at reasonable prices throughout the year. When you can't get home grown tomatoes, vine ripened tomatoes are perfect.

In an attempt to preserve that fresh, intense, sun-kissed tomato flavor and to tide us over the dreary midwest winter until summer rolls around again, I make batches of tomato pickle; spicy and fiery hot for us and without any chillies for the kids.

My son (check out his blog athttp://planesplanesplanes.blogspot.com, he will be thrilled if you drop him a comment) loves aloo or spinach parathas smeared with zero-chilli tomato pickles packed for his school lunch. It is one lunch that he gobbles up without any leftovers.

As for me, hot freshly steamed rice, a dab of ghee and tomato pickles...yumm....winter doesn't seem so unbearable after all!

Ingredients:

Roughly 2 lbs of fresh tomatoes
1/4 to 1/2 cup of oil
4-5 pods of garlic (optional)
8-10 green chilles (or adjust to taste)
a few curry leaves
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp asafoetida powder, hing
1 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste

From the spicebox: turmeric, chilli powder, salt, mustard seeds, asafoetida

Tomatoes, green chilli, garlic, curry leaves

Method

Wash the tomatoes and deseed. Pulverize tomatoes in the blender along with green chillies and garlic (if using any).

You can also go the additional step of skining the tomatoes by plunging them in hot water to loosen the skin. I believe that a little skin doesn't hurt anyone and leave it be. It gets quite minced in the blender anyway.

Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add asafoetida and mustard seeds. When the seeds crackle, add the tomato mixture. Add the salt and turmeric powder. Cook on a slow flame, stirring every so often, till the mixture thickens. The oil will start to seperate out from the tomato paste and the mixture will begin to resemble a pickle/jam consistency. Take off the stove at this point.

Add the chilli powder to taste and leave to cool. I find that adding the chilli powder early in the process causes an acrid, burnt smell.

Bottle into sterile jars. Top off with some heated oil if storing for a long time and refrigerate.

There you have it - summer sunshine in a bottle!

Notes:

Tomato pickles goes well with rice, chappatis, parathas and bread.
If made with generous quantities of oil(!), the pickles can last for more than a year in the fridge.
If you don't want to bother with fresh tomatoes, the pickles can be made with canned crushed tomatoes.

Search Tags: recipe,indian, pickle, tomatoes, relish, spicy, vegetarian

Search Labels: Pickles

Cardamom - The Queen of spices

2006-02-28T10:22:00.000-08:00

Green cardamom pods

Cardamom, Elaichi, Elakkai...

Ah, cardamom! This is probably my favorite spice. With its unique fragrance and flavor, it lends itself to both savory and sweet dishes. I have cardamom/elaichi every day in the morning in my morning cuppa tea/chai. My senses truly wake up in the morning, when I get a whiff of the cardamom powder that I add to the boiling chai. I grind the pods to a fine powder(pods with the skins) about once a month. A pinch goes into my tea every morning. Cardamom has excellent digestive properties and is also believed to help fight infection, congestion, colic, asthma and prevent kidney stones.

One sweet dish which showcases cardamom very effectively is Besan Burfi (at least that is my name for it! It may have a different name.) This recipe is from my mom and is one of the easiest sweets to make. The flavor is not unlike that of mysore pak, (another traditional sweet) but far simpler to make.

Besan Burfi: melt-in-the-mouth goodness

Ingredients

1 cup besan (Chickpea flour)
1 cup sugar (more if you have a real sweet tooth)
1/4 cup ghee
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
pinch saffron
4-5 almonds, cut into slivers
4-5 pistachios, cut into slivers

Sugar, ghee, besan, pistachios, saffron, almonds, cardamom

Method

Melt the ghee in a heavy bottom wide vessel. Add the besan and roast it quite well. Roast over a very low flame and stir constantly. The color of the besan should darken to a deep golden brown. The mixture should be a little fluid as well i.e not too dry. If it is very dry, add a little more ghee. The besan (and in fact your whole kitchen) should really smell very fragrant at this point. Add the sugar and stir. Take the pan off the heat. Add 1/2 of the cardamom powder. Spread the mixture on a tray to 1/2 inch thickness. Sprinkle with the remaining cardamom powder, the chopped nuts and saffron strands. Let cool completely and cut into squares, diamonds or rectangles.

burfi cooling on the tray, waiting to be cut

Here's another picture of the burfi:

Besan Burfi

Search Tags: recipe,indian, dessert, cardamom, nuts, ghee, burfi, vegetarian

Search Labels: Desserts

My New Home!

2006-02-28T08:35:00.000-08:00

I came across the fascinating world of food blogs a few weeks ago. Agog with excitement, I trawled the web for more such sites and soon decided to create my own. Thus was born holyjalapeno.blogspot.com !

I spent hours with the camera trying to get the perfect picture of a lone jalapeno for my profile picture.

In my enthusiasm, I negelected to check if the name holyjalapeno had been taken. Much to my disapointment, there is a company that makes sauces and condiments by the same name :-(

Anyway, after some more brainstorming I came up with saffronhut. Back to the camera again and those pesky strands of saffron :-)

Welcome to my new home!

I am trying to figure out how to move blogs from my old home to another. Meanwhile there is a new recipe for besan burfi. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Saffronhut (the blogger formerly known as HolyJalapeno)

Simple Supper - Tomato Rice

2006-02-27T13:16:00.000-08:00

Tomato rice with boondi raita and green tomato pickle

It was a hectic start to the week and when evening rolled around, I was too tired to cook anything elaborate. Some basmati rice, some frozen veggies from the freezer, a few stock ingredients from the pantry and piping hot tomato rice was ready in 20 minutes. Paired with soothing boondi raita and homemade green tomato avakkai pickle, it was a simple, satisfying weekday supper.

Ingredients:

2 cups basmati rice
2 generous tbsp canned tomato paste
1 small red onion chopped
1 cup frozen mixed veggies

1 small potato
2 tbsp dessicated coconut

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp jeera
2 cardamom pods
2 cloves
1 small piece of cinnamon

a few curry leaves
salt to taste

All the ingredients ready to cook

Tomato rice cooked to perfection!

Method:

Heat the oil in a wide saucepan. Add jeera and then cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and the curry leaves. When the spices sizzle, add the chopped onion and saute lightly.

Add the ginger garlic paste. Add the frozen veggies, potatoes and tomato paste. Fry for a few seconds and then add the basmati rice. Fry the rice lightly as well.

Then add the coconut, turmeric, chilli powder, garam masala and salt. Add the water and let it come to a gentle boil. Lower the heat to the lowest setting and cover the lid. Let it cook undisturbed for 15-20 minutes.

Fluff up the rice and savour with some tasty pickles, raita and papad.

You can also fry all the ingredients and for the last step, just transfer everything to the rice cooker and let cook for a fuss-free dinner. I've done this when I need to step out of the house for 1/2 an hour, but want the rice to continue cooking when I'm away.

Tomato Rice - Super simple weekday supper.

Search Tags: recipe,indian, rice, tomatoes, tomato rice, basmati, vegetarian

Search Labels: Main Course

Perennial Favorite - Malabar Adai

2006-02-26T22:34:00.000-08:00

Malabar Adai with tomato pickle, green chillies dressed with yoghurt and jaggery

me: It's your birthday today...what special dish would you like for your birthday?
him: How about Adai?

me: What should I make for breakfast for Diwali day?
him: How about Adai?

me: They are coming over Saturday night for dinner and will leave sunday afternoon. Any ideas for sunday brunch?
him: How about Adai?

me: I was so tired running around with errands today, I haven't make dinner yet. Can you think of something that we can whip up quickly?
him: How about Adai?

me: I'm bored of the usual breakfast dishes, what should we make today?
him: We haven't had Adai in a while, how about Adai?

him: Sweetie, you looked so tired, I decided to make a special breakfast for you today.
You guessed it... "Adai" !!!

We all have our favorite dishes and his happens to be "Malabar Adai". Being from Palakkad district of Kerala, nothing brings back memories of childhood as the aroma of fresh adais sizzling on the griddle. It is the ultimate comfort food for him. I didn't have it much growing up as it was considered as a "heavy" i.e. hard-to-digest food. I have taken a liking to it now however!

The version we make now, is chock full of protein from the various dals (lentils) that are much needed in a vegetarian diet. We also omit the coconut from the traditional recipe as a compromise to the dreaded LDL/HDL ratio that rears its head every year at our annual checkup. No compromises are made with the taste though and this version is every bit as tasty as the original recipe.

Here's the recipe :

Ingredients:

2 cups rice
3/4 cup tur dal
3/4 cup channa dal
1/4 udad dal
1/2 tsp asafoetida
a handful of dried red chillies
a few curry leaves
salt to taste

Method:

Soak the rice, dals and red chillies in slightly warm tap water for a minimum of 1/2 hour and upto 4 hours. Grind to a very coarse paste. You can add a handful of chopped cilantro leaves, ginger, green chillies for more flavour. Add salt, curry leaves, asafoetida and mix well.

Heat a well seasoned griddle until smoking hot. Pour a laddle of batter onto the griddle and swirl in a concentric circular motion starting from the inside to the outside. Make a small hole in the center of the adai. This is so that you can pour a little bit of oil in and crisp up the center too. Sprinkle a little oil around the edges and roast till golden brown. Flip and roast the other side till done. Serve with accompaniments of choice.

Adai cooking on a hot griddle

Adai flipped over to cook the other side

Accompaniments:

Green Chillies dressed with yoghurt: Finely chop or crush green chillies. Add coarse kosher salt to taste. Add fresh plain yoghurt and mix.
Tomato Pickle
A lump of jaggery
Sometimes a pat of fresh homemade butter is also served

Malabar Adai: Pallakad on a platter !

Search Tags: recipe,indian, breakfast, dosa, lentils, adai, vegetarian

Search Labels: Breakfast

Request a Recipe

2006-02-25T11:20:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for a recipe for a favorite dish, mail me a request, or respond as a comment to this post. If I can, I will try to post the recipe for you. Please be warned though that I may not be able to respond to your request right away :)

cheers!

Technorati Tags: Recipes

Melting Snowman & Minestrone Soup

2006-02-24T15:16:00.000-08:00

Minestrone Soup

Have you seen the commercial where the snowman comes in from the cold and starts to eat a bowl of soup? As he eats, the snow on him melts aways and in his place is this cute little boy with freckles on his face. I was reminded of this commercial today when my little one came back from school. I always feel so sorry for him when I see him with his backpack heavy with textbooks, a layered jacket, boots, hat and mittens. My memories of school are those of carefree days playing in the sun for hours on end till mom called me home for dinner. sigh...

Anyways, my little one has always loved soup, and cream of broccoli is his favorite. He wanted some soup today and since I had made c-o-b just yesterday, I decided to make some minestrone soup for him. It took 8-10 mins to make and he slurped it up without looking up from the bowl. What can be more satisfying for him and for me - the mom?

Here's how I make it:

Vegetables: tomatoes, carrots, pepper, onions, spinach

Pantry Ingredients: pasta, chickpeas, garlic, herbs, crushed red pepper, black pepper

Ingredients:

1/2 of a small white onion, chopped
1 cup chopped tomatoes
2 tsp tomato paste, or 1/2 small can of tomato sauce
1 garlic minced
2 tablespoons each of chopped carrots, green pepper (any veggies really)
a handful of spinach leaves (I used baby spinach from the salad section)
a fistful of pasta
a fistful of chickpeas (either soaked overnight or from a can)
1 tsp of italian seasoning
1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes
salt, sugar and pepper to taste

Method:

Heat the olive oil in a pan. Add the italian seasonings, pepper and crushed garlic. Immediately add the chopped onions. Saute for a few seconds. Add the tomatoes. Saute till the tomatoes turn soft. Add all the remaining ingredients except the spinach and add 2 cups of water. Let boil for about 8-10 minutes till the pasta is cooked. Add the spinach at the end and boil till the leaves wilt. Sprinkle with parmesean cheese if desired ( not for the little one, but I love it)

Enjoy!

This soup can be varied in so many ways. Sometimes I add cubed potatoes, zucchini, corn. Sometimes I use rajma beans or black beans instead of the chickpeas. I add a spoonful of pesto if I have some, to kick it up a notch. All versions are equally delicious.

Minestrone Soup - simple, delicious heartwarming food for the body and soul.

Search Tags: recipe,soup, minestrone, italian, tomatoes, pasta, vegetarian

Search Labels: Soups

Holy Jalapeño - Here we go!

2006-02-24T11:03:00.000-08:00

Birthday "cake" made by little 'uns for Dad

The inspiration for starting a food blog :)

It was hubby dearest's birthday and the little ones wanted to bake a cake. Out came the EasyBake oven and after much measuring, mixing, stirring, splattering, crying, fussing, this scrumptious looking 2 inch "cake" was presented with pride.

The candle was no match for the beaming faces all around!