The green jackfruit

Yoohoo, anyone around?

2010-02-26T13:43:00.000-08:00

Hello! I am working on bringing this blog back onto its feet. Soon...

Diwali wishes!

2007-11-06T11:20:00.000-08:00

Wish you all a great Diwali.

Happy cooking. I am looking forward to reading all those great posts.

Here is a small and lovely e-book on Diwali sweets, I found here: http://sify.com/downloads/diwali_sweets.pdf

JFI for Jackfruit

2007-05-28T16:22:00.001-07:00

This month JFI has Jackfruit as the star and it is hosted by Jai and Bee. I love jackfruit, obvious isn't it... I especially love the green, unripe kind as a vegetable. I usually make it Kerala style with lots of coconut. This time I decided to try a new way as a Biryani. I used frozen green jackfruit. For this recipe, I think the frozen ones are sturdy. The canned kind would turn into a mush.

For this JFI, I made Kathal biryani and Elai adai.

I had never imagined anyone else using green jackfruit except Keralites. But from so many recipes that are available, I know I am wrong on that. The biryani actually tastes so much like a Chicken biryani. Jackfruit is quite meaty in texture when cooked.

Kathal biryani (from Sanjeev Kapoor)

Raw Jackfruit (cut Into 11/2" Cubes) 12 pieces
Rice 11/2 cups
Green Cardamoms 4
Black Cardamoms 2
Cloves 5
Cinnnamon 2 1"sticks
Sea Salt to taste
Oil 2 tbsps+to deep fry
Onions (sliced) 4
Caraway Seeds (shahi Jeera) 1/2 tsp
Ginger Paste 1 tbsp
Garlic Paste 1 tbsp
Turmeric Powder 1 tsp
Cumin Powder 1 tsp
Coriander Powder 2 tsps
Red Chilli Powder 1 tsp
Tomatoes (deseed And Chopped) 1 cup
Yogurt 11/2 cups
Coriander Leaves 1/2 bunch
Saffron a pinch
Milk 2 tbsps
Garam Masala Powder 2 tsps
Mint Leaves 1/2 bunch

Cut the jackfruit into slices. Peel and cut into cubes. Wash and soak rice. Parboil the rice with a little sea-salt and half of the whole garam masala (cardamom, cinnamon, cloves). Drain the parboiled rice and keep aside.

Heat sufficient oil in a kadai and deep-fry the jackfruit cubes. Drain and keep aside. In the same oil deep-fry half the sliced onions till golden brown and crisp. Drain and keep aside.

In another pan heat two tablespoons of oil, add shahi jeera and the remaining crushed whole garam masala. Add the remaining sliced onions and sauté for a while. Add ginger paste, garlic paste and continue to sauté. Add turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder, chopped tomatoes and continue to sauté for two to three minutes. Add the fried jackfruit cubes and stir. Add yogurt, sea salt and chopped coriander leaves. Dissolve the saffron in lukewarm milk and keep aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Take a large casserole, arrange half the jackfruit mixture. Over this spread a layer of rice. Sprinkle saffron milk, garam masala powder, mint leaves (torn),. Then repeat these layers once again. Top it with fried sliced onions and mint leaves. Cover with aluminium foil and cook in the preheated oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. Serve hot with a raita .

I also made Ammupatti's elai adai. Her way of making it is similar to my mom's. I used store-bought rice flour and roasted it without coloring the flour. I also used thawed frozen banana leaves available in Asian grocery stores.

It tastes so good warm with the fragrance of banana leaf. You can also make it with parchment paper but nothing to beat banana leaf.

The filling is some delicious chakkai varatti.

Another dessert I love with jackfruit is chakkapradhaman. You can make chakkapradhaman in two ways- with jackfruit varatti or without. Check out my recipes here and here. Making the jam in microwave is much easier than making it on stove-top!

Chayote squash subzi , the Andhra way

2007-05-17T12:56:00.000-07:00

This is my contribution of to RCI event for this month that focuses on Andhra cuisine and hosted by Latha. I have a great taste for the Andhra foods such as Gutti Vankaya kura, the biryani and the mouth-watering avakkai pickle- possibly everyone has. But from the many blogs which specialize in this cuisine, I have learned so much about the home-style foods that you never see in restaurants. And I make some of these simple recipes regularly at home like Indira's ridge gourd curries, Sailu's Black pepper rice. It is good to see healthy eating habits crossing state borders, isn't it?

For this RCI, I am making a dish that made me respect the tasteless chayote squash a teeny bit more. I consider chow-chow or chayote squash to be quite boring. My MIL and mom makes it as a kootu but somehow this vegetable never seems to absorb any flavors, just my opinion...

In the past year, I have learned two new ways of preparing this vegetable. And this recipe is one of them I found at Pachakam.com and I found it when I was searching for an interesting way to make this squash. The cooked vegetable is coated with a thick and coarse sesame-red chili powder. Adding groundnuts and sesame to curries is quite common in Andhra cuisine, making it very tasty. I like to make this extra-spicy because the sesame in the powder does tame a lot of the heat. We eat this with phulkas.

Chayote squash subzi (with very slight modifications from original)

2 chayote squash, peeled and diced
1 large onion
1 inch ginger, peeled and grated
3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely diced (optional)

Roast and powder coarsely:
1/3 cup white sesame seeds
a pinch of salt
3-4 red chilies

Seasoning:
1/2 tsp urad dal
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
Salt to taste

Heat oil. Add the seasoning ingredients except turmeric and salt. When mustard pops, add garlic, ginger and turmeric. Then add onions, and saute till translucent. Add the cubed squash and salt. Mix and cover and cook on low-medium heat till soft and well-done. Add tomatoes if using. Tomatoes make it a little sticky and watery but nice and tangy. You can leave it out if you want a dry curry.

Lastly, toss in the sesame powder. The quantity of powder may seem a whole lot but you need this to give taste. Adding a tbsp or two, will not help much...

Garnish with cilantro. Done!

Delicious recipes from fellow bloggers

2007-05-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

I usually try out more recipes than I post on this blog. Most of the recipes are from fellow bloggers- I always prefer to hear reviews of my blogger pals than some high-flying chef.

Here are the recipes I tried in the past couple of months:

1. Vaghareli Lilva Kichadi from Trupti.
It is very comforting with kadhi and a dollop of ghee. Yum... Check out Trupti's Gujju recipes. Gujarathi food is something I highly adore and being primarily a vegetarian cook, there are several options with this cuisine. I aim to try out all her recipes from the section.

2. Besan stuffed chilies from Chachi's Kitchen

It is so so tasty and easy to make. Thanks Sajeda, I love this new way of cooking chilies without the usual deep frying. There are some great recipes, many of them gujarathi, in this blog. I love the way her roti's look. Can't wait to try the green chili pickle...

3. Masala Puri from Shilpa's Aayi's recipes

I have tried quite a few recipes from her over a year or so. I am amazed at how regularly Shilpa updates her blog! Masala puri was something I had never heard of but I just wanted to try it after reading her post. Needless to say it came out great. Btw, her date cake is a must-try.

4. Dal rice, the south Indian way from Daily Musings

Quite a healthy meal but with so much great flavor from garlic, sambar powder and onion. It lacks the heat of regular sambar rice and my daughter ate it up gladly.

5. Bread upma from Menu today

This is a tasty departure from my usual bread upma . The addition of fennel gives it the real tamilian kick and the yogurt makes the bread tangy. In my opinion, bread upma has to be the best kind of upma...

6. Gongura pachadi from Sailu

It is so tangy and spicy- it is mouth-wateringly good. This recipe has been my first successful attempt at making gongura pachadi (or thokku). I have had a lot of failures with the taste of other recipes and so this successful recipe will be repeated every time I buy gongura. The only change I did was saute the garlic a little with the rest of spices.

7. A very simple Rajma, indeed from Gopium

I followed Gopinath's advice mostly. But I may have broken his strict (witty) instructions by adding some tomato paste:-) I did not even soak the rajma at all. Such an easy, quick recipe but with all the great taste of authentic rajma. I can't wait to try the Chhole.

Thanks y'all for such great recipes!

Double apple bundt cake

2007-05-02T07:52:00.000-07:00

The search started off as a way to use up a jar of Apple butter. But now I am so glad I had a jar to make this recipe. This author's followers are many and this book has been raved all over the blogosphere and beyond... I have nothing more to say about this book and this cake's taste was enough for me.

I usually like to make snack cakes like this with oil because it is slightly lighter. To say the cake was tasty is an understatement. The spices came together very well and I am glad now for that jar of apple butter...

Double Apple Bundt Cake, from Baking, From My Home to Yours

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup store-bought apple butter, spiced or plain
2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and grated
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup plump, moist raisins

Center a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 350º F. Butter and flour a 9-10 inch bundt pan.

Whisk together the dry ingredients, flour through salt.

Working with stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, or hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed, scraping the bowl as needed, for 3 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth, thick, and pale. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each addition; you’ll have a light, fluffy batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the apple butter. Add the grated apples and mix to completely blend. Add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the batter. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the nuts and raisins. Turn the batter into the bundt pan and smooth the top of the batter with the spatula.

Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a thin knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack to cool for 5 minutes before unmolding. Cool completely before serving. The cake tastes much better after a day or two.

Mili Juli Sabzi (a.k.a Mixed Vegetable Curry)

2007-04-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

Finally I made it to Nupur's A-Z of Indian vegetables. This week comes the letter 'M'. And it is not too easy to pick a vegetable with this letter for me. Mango can't be treated as a vegetable, can it?

Then one fine day I made this mixed vegetable subzi, the way my mom makes it always. Eggplant, okra and green plantains are cooked together and towards the end of cooking a coarsely ground rice-red chili mixture is sprinkled on top. It is simple with no pretentious flavors but so good.

This is my contribution to Nupur's event.

Mili Juli sabzi

10-12 small round eggplants, quartered
10-12 okra, cut into slightly largish pieces
1 large plantain, skin removed and cut into thin slices (here I mean the small plantains and not the big ones used in chips)

1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1/2 tsp turmeric
Salt

Powder:
1 T rice
3-4 red chilies

Dry roast rice and red chilies till rice turns milky white. Grind very coarsely. Heat 1 tsp oil in a skillet. Add mustard and urad dal. When mustard pops, add the cut vegetables , turmeric and salt. Sprinkle little water, cover and cook until all vegetables are done. Having plantain cook as soon as the other veggies is the key here.

Uncover, add ground powder and fold them in. Saute for a couple of minutes on a high flame.

Puli Aval

2007-03-07T11:40:00.000-08:00

I am not a big fan of batata poha. It never tastes good when I make it and I have never had a good version of it. I am prejudiced towards Puli aval, an adaptation of poha made, Kannadiga style. It is just an easier version of tamarind rice and is a great brunch item or light supper dish.

Puli aval

2 cups thick poha
1-2 tsp any spice mix you have (I use sambar powder or rasam powder)
1.5 tsp tamarind paste
handful of peanuts
3-4 red chilis broken
1 tsp chana dal
1 tsp urad dal
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
few curry leaves
1 tsp sugar or powdered jaggery
salt to taste
water as needed
hing, a pinch

Take about 2 cups of water or buttermilk. Add the salt, spice mix , sugar and tamarind paste. Mix well. Add poha and soak for a 2-3 minutes. This depends on quality of poha. Thick poha in India can take soaking for 10 min or more. But in US it gets soft in 2 minutes...
If poha is not submerged fully, add a bit more liquid.

Pour contents into a strainer while you prepare tadka. Heat little oil. Add the peanuts and toast them a little. Next add the dals, chilis and mustard seeds and let mustard splutter. Add curry leaves and hing. Next add all the poha and saute till dry like upma.

Serve hot.

Chocolate Ricotta muffins

2007-02-26T18:35:00.000-08:00

This was our pre-Valentine's day indulgence. The muffins are supremely chocolatey due to the cup of chocolate chips folded in. If you cannot tolerate so much chocolate, you can leave them out for some ordinary and moist cocoa muffins.

The recipe comes from Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe. Unlike many of the baked goods I make, I have made this recipe twice. It is a great use for some leftover ricotta cheese. It can be made with oil or melted butter, some soy-protein mix can be substituted for the flour- all this making it so adaptable and versatile.

Chocolate-Ricotta muffins- I got 16 normal sized muffins

Nonstick spray for the pan
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
6 to 8 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose (can add about 1/2 cup of soy-protein mix for 1/2 cup flour, or you can use 50:50 whole-wheat and AP flour)
1 cup ricotta
2 large eggs
1 1/3 cups milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted or oil

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly spray 12 standard-sized (2 1/2-inch-diameter) muffin cups with nonstick spray. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, cocoa, and sugar in a medium-sized bowl.

Place the ricotta in a second medium-sized bowl, and add the eggs one at a time, beating well with a medium-sized whisk after each addition. Add the milk and vanilla, and whisk until thoroughly blended.

Pour the ricotta mixture, along with the melted butter, into the dry ingredients. Using a spoon or a rubber spatula, stir from the bottom of the bowl until the dry ingredients are all moistened. Don't overmix; a few lumps are okay.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Fill them even with the top of the pan. Bake in the middle of the oven for to 20 to 25 minutes, or until lightly browned on top, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven, then remove the muffins from the pan and place them on a rack to cool. Wait at least 30 minutes before serving.

They are great warm but even better the next day!

Meyer lemon- chocolate tartlets for my Valentine

2007-02-15T19:16:00.000-08:00

I made these decadent tartlets for Valentine's day. This is from Fran Bigelow's book, Pure Chocolate. Unlike usual chocolate-only books, this book has a lot of unique recipes, not just the usual chocolate cake and brownie recipes.

You can find recipe for this tart at http://brandoesq.blogspot.com/2005/09/white-chocolate-creme-citron-tarts.html . The crust is actually a recipe for chocolate wafers. These wafers make great ice cream sandwiches, just like Klondike bars.

Lake Como Biscotti

2007-02-10T17:42:00.000-08:00

This is one plain, biscotti recipe from Maida Heatter's book of Cookies. Plain does not translate into bad, but in a world of cappuchino and Nutella biscotti this is ordinary. Maybe the kind you will eat in Italy, and that is where Maida had it too.

I have made several biscotti recipes but this recipe was quite finicky- grinding up almonds, getting the zest of lemons etc etc...

Lake como biscotti

2 cups whole blanched almonds (I kept the skin on)
2 cups sifted AP flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp b.powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup minus 2 T sugar
2 large eggs
finely garted rind of 1 large lemon
1 T plus 1.5 tsp lemon juice
scant ½ tsp almond extract

Toast the almonds in a shallow pan in a preheated 350- degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly colored, shaking the pan once or twice. You can tell when they are done by the strong smell of toasted almonds when you open the oven door. Set aside to cool.

Oven 375 F. Turn baking sheets upside down and line with parchment or foil.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, b.powder and salt. Add sugar and mix. Add about ½ cup of this flour mixture to the food processor. Add ½ cup of toasted almond and process for about 30 seconds, or until the nuts is fine and powdery.
In a large bowl, mix together the processed ingredients with the remaining sifted dry ingredients. Stir in the almonds.
In a small bowl, beat the eggs with rind, lemon juice and almond extrcat just to mix. With a large rubber or wooden spatula stir the egg mixture into the dry ingredients until well-moistened.

Lightly flour a large board and turn dough onto it. Sprinkle a little flour on top. Shape it into a mound. With a long, sharp knife, cut into equal quarters. Flour surface and hands and roll each piece into long narrow shape, 10 inch long and 1 inch wide. Brush off loose flour. Don’t flatten tops.

Place all four rolls, crosswise on lined sheets, 2 inch apart. Bake loaves in upper rack for 20 min, reversing halfway. Mine was done in 10 min. I overbaked the logs and result was I had great difficulty slicing and things were falling apart. They should be lightly colored and feel almost firm.

Reduce the oven temperature to 275 degrees and remove the sheets from the oven. Immediately, with a wide metal spatula, release a strip from the parchment or foil and place it on a board. Repeat with the second strip. Use a pot holder or a folded towel to hold one of the hot strips in place, and use a serrated French bread knife to cut the strip crosswise into slices 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide. Repeat with the second strip. For me though, the longer I let the logs sit, the better luck I had slicing them. Place the slices, cut side down, on unlined cookie sheets with a little space between them. Return to oven to bake at 275 degrees for 35-40 minutes, turning slices and reversing the sheets top to bottom and front to back once during baking. At the end of baking, they should be a pale honey color on both sides. Let cool and store in an airtight container.

Comments- The addition of ground almonds did not help the flavor in any way. It is just more work. The whole almonds look very pretty in the biscotti but made slicing difficult. For a plain-tasting biscotti, this is too hard a recipe and it yielded only around 30 for me and not 50 as stated in Maida's book. I still hear great things about her Gingerful biscotti and will be trying them soon.

Back again!

2007-01-27T21:48:00.000-08:00

After a bit of juggling with the new blogger (most of it trying to get them send my login information and trying to get it work ), here I am . Happy new year to all of you!

Thanks so much for your wishes and emails checking on me. I feel so appreciated...

The last few months have been like a whirlwind and things are getting back to normal or so they seem. Hopefully I can get back into posting more.

As a bonus, a nice simple recipe Chai Concentrate that I love. It tastes just like the Oregon Chai Latte concentrate but without the tea in it as an ingredient. You will have to add it later!

I spent quite a few $$$ on chai concentrates (esp. Oregon Chai) but no more. I always have condensed milk around and this makes great use of it. I like to use pre-ground spices. I never seem to get them fine enough in my grinder. I add a tbsp of it to brewed cup of hot or cold tea. Yum!

Off to India- Your opinions needed!

2006-11-20T14:09:00.000-08:00

I am leaving for a month-long trip to India in a week. I am looking forward to good times with family and good food, of course. Being a foodie, I usually get a few cookbooks without knowing about the success rate of its recipes.

But this year, I have you all to help me find good books. Any suggestions for Indian cookbooks focusing on some regional cooking? Absolutely any style is welcome but in specific I would appreciate help with good books on Andhra, Maharashtra, Kerala, Bengali, Gujarathi and/or Karnataka cooking (all written in english or tamil or may be in Hindi).

Also, if you have had some nifty kitchen tools/gadgets that is available in India, you can add that to your comment too. If you have a blog, a post would enable us all to view the tool and its value.

Your comments and emails are greatly appreciated.

Small batch chocolate chip cookies

2006-11-16T12:29:00.000-08:00

chocolate chip cookie

Don't you just love chocolate chip cookies? My family loves it but most recipes make 30 or more large cookies. We get addicted to chocolate chippers when they are there... So this is from the same book (Small batch baking) as the White chocolate blondies, I made sometime back. This recipe just makes around 8-10 smallish cookies or 6 large cookies.

Now you want to know the texture- it is perfect, according to me. Crispy on the outside, soft-chewy on the inside.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Adapted from Small Batch Baking.

2 T plus 2 t butter (room temp)
2 T brown sugar
2 T granulated sugar
2 T egg, well beaten
1/4 t vanilla
1/4 cup plus 2 T flour
scant 1/4 t baking soda
1/8 t salt
1/3 cup chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugars, mix in the eggs and vanilla, stir in the dry ingredients, then the chips. Bake at 375 for 8-11 minutes.

Ragi Puttu

2006-10-24T21:15:00.000-07:00

Ragi puttu

We make rice puttu for navaratri. Raagi puttu is vey famous too. I had purchased some raagi flour for making Ragi dosa. So I decided to try this also. One thing about ragi flour is it turns stale quickly. Since I got the flour in USA, it probably is already stale and not as tasty as the ones ground in India. Surprisingly, it tastes very close to the rice puttu I am used to and it is so much better for you.

I followed this recipe but like some other recipes, I slightly roasted the flour until aromatic. It drives away any stale odor your flour might have.

It stays for upto a week in the refrigerator. It tastes great with a little ghee on top.

Mysore rasam

2006-09-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

A slightly complicated rasam, with all the goodness of arachuvitta sambar but as comforting as a nice, tangy rasam- that is what Mysore rasam is. Like I always wonder with Mysore bonda, I don't know if this is made in Mysore or what. But it totally suits tamilian taste-buds and everyone else's too...

Mysore rasam

2 Tbsp tur dal, cooked

1 lemon-sized tamarind
1/2 tsp Turmeric
salt
1 tomato, finely chopped

For powder:

1 tbsp tur dal
2 red chilies
5-6 peppercorns
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp chana dal
1 .5 tsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp coconut
a pinch of Hing

Fry all this in a little ghee until reddish. Grind to a coarse powder (some people do make a coarse paste of it, that is fine).

Boil diluted tamarind water with tomatoes, turmeric and salt. Add the powder or paste and then the cooked tur dal. Bring to a boil. When a nice aroma emanates, it is done. Season with mustard, curry leaves and cumin using ghee.

A nice rasam for those days when you don't want to make sambar but paruppu rasam is far too simple (read boring) for you.

A corny breakfast soup

2006-08-17T17:21:00.000-07:00

You may wonder how soup figures in breakfast. I still do...

But my MIL being here, and she being used to eating this as part of a hearty breakfast, I don't argue. Would ya??

This is a light but hearty soup. It can be made in 15 min and you can make this a light, fall supper too. I liked this soup a whole lot and with so much corn, in season, I make it in summer.

Corn soup Indian style

2-3 ears fresh corn, kernels removed from cob
1 large onion, chopped
1 inch piece ginger, finely chopped
1 large tomato, kept whole
1 green chili, optional (depending on sweetness of corn)
Salt

Place all in a pressure pan with 1 cup water. Cook for 2 whistles. Open and remove skin from the whole tomato. Strain all the solids from the stock with slotted spoon (you don't have to be a perfectionist here). Grind all the solids including ginger, tomato etc. Grind solids into a smooth paste. Add the paste to the stock and add 2 cups of water. Adjust salt if needed and bring to a boil. It should be thinner than chowder. Serve with some black pepper and a sprinkling of kasoori methi on top.

Methi gives a very special taste to this soup. Do try to use it. Ginger is also a great flavor with the corn. The fresher your corn, the less sweet it will be. If you do not care for sweet corn type of soup like me, get fresh corn on the cobs for this. If you have some old corn in the fridge, then the starch would have turned into sugars and so it will be on the sweet side. So do use a chili or two.

Mixed vegetable chutney

2006-08-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

My posts have been so sporadic recently mainly because of my new job. A lot of cooking has been going on since my MIL is here. Everyday dishes and special occasion dishes are being prepared but I have had very little time to photograph or write about it.

Mixed vegetable chutney is MIL's recipe. It is an excellent way to clean-up the refrigerator's contents. Although I am a big fan of coconut chutney, it tends to be heavy and we hardly get any coconuts here that can taste as great as the ones in South India. A little bit of this and that and there, you have made this tasty chutney.

Mixed vegetable chutney or thogaiyal

1/2 cup grated carrots
1 medium onion, diced
1 tomato or green tomato, chopped
2 red chilies
2 green chilies
4-5 chunks of green pepper, diced fine
1 small zucchini, peeled and diced
1 inch ginger, peeled and chopped
1 T Urad dal
2 T grated coconut or powdered coconut
1/2 tsp mustard seeds

Heat a tsp of oil. Add red chilies, urad dal and mustard seeds and let mustard pop. Now add the onions, ginger and all the vegetables except tomato and saute until carrot, zucchini and peppers soften. Now add the tomato and saute 1 min more. Lastly add coconut and turn off heat.

Grind with little tamarind paste (1/8 tsp) and salt into a thick paste. Season with urad dal and mustard.

This also goes great mixed with rice. Of course, it is a great combo with dosa and chappatis.

Biriyani vs Biryani

2006-07-24T11:55:00.000-07:00

The tamilian Biriyani has a huge fan following. There is no spelling mistake here- it is biriyani for tamilians, quite different in taste from the North Indian Biryani. Biryani usually has several layers and then baked in an oven for 30 min or more. It is a very festive, expensive and of course, time consuming dish.

For tamilians, especially, those non-vegetarians who relish eating at Chettinad style joints (Ponnusamy hotel, Aachi's and the like), you know this style of biriyani. There is usually a vegetarian version available without the chicken but with a whole, boiled egg perched on top. This biriyani is very easy to make and it makes a delicious meal with onion raita. You could also go the entire mile by serving it with some South Indian kurma.

I got this recipe from my friend several years ago and this recipe has been a hit every time. Two ingredients are essential to this dish- Fennel seeds (or saunf) and a few mint leaves. They give the characteristic flavor of the dish.

Vegetable Bir(i)yani

1 cup long-grain rice (basmati is not required)
1 cup finely chopped carrots, beans, cauliflower and a handful of peas

Paste:
1/2 a medium onion
3-4 garlic cloves
1 inch piece ginger
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp clove powder
4-5 green chilies

Seasoning:
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 bay leaf
3-4 crushed cardamom
10-15 mint leaves, roughly chopped
2-3 slit green chilies

1. Heat oil or ghee in a pan. Add the whole spices in the seasonings, then add mint and green chilies. Now add the paste and saute for 2-3 min.
2. Add vegetables and saute for a minute. Now add rice, salt and stir well to mix. Add appropriate quantity water, cover tightly and cook until done.
3. Serve hot with onion raita and an optional boiled egg.

Jaggery dosa

2006-07-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

This is one of my childhood favorite tiffins. My husband is not a big fan of it and so I really don't bother making it much. I like this dosa on the sweet side although the amount of jaggery in this recipe is for the lightly sweetened version. This tastes like appam made into a dosa. It contains a whole lotta wheat flour in proportion to rice flour.

batter

1 cup wheat flour
1/8 th cup rice flour
1/2-2/3 cup Jaggery
1/2 cup coconut grated
1/2 tsp Powdered cardamom
1/2-1 ripe banana
Ghee

Take jaggery with a cup of water in a saucepan in stove and keep stirring till completely dissolved. Keep it down and when little warm add wheat flour, rice flour, mashed banana, coconut and elaichi powder. Mix everything very well. Let rest for 10 min until luke warm or even room temperature. Keep the tawa on medium heat and pour the batter like normal dosa and pour a little ghee on sides.Turn both sides till light red. Be slow when you turn.

Best served when hot or warm.

I like this with just ghee but I know people have this with milagai podi or chutney too (those are weird combos, IMHO).

Pickled vegetables

2006-06-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

I love North Indian style pickles served in Punjabi food joints. The pickle is not spicy but it goes so well with curries, probably because of all the North Indian spices used. I found this recipe on a website and although, I do not like carrots, pickled carrots are so very tasty. Carrots form a large portion of this pickle but other vegetables like cauliflower, beans and beetroot can also be used.

I halved the original recipe and the halved recipe makes about 3 cups of pickle. It keeps in the refrigerator for upto a month.

Dhaba style pickled vegetables

2 large Carrots, cut into big dices
2 limes
6 green chillies
1/4 cup or less sliced ginger

dry spices:

1/8 cup coriander seeds (coarsely broken)
1 T saunf
1 -2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp hing
8-10 peppercorns

1/2 cup lemon juice (or as needed based on sourness)
1 T salt or as needed
1/4 cup oil

Mix the cut vegetables with salt and tumeric and keep aside. Heat the oil till it starts to smoke. turn off the flame and allow it to cool for 2mins. Mix all the spices and mix it with the vegetables. Add the hot oil and lemon juice and mix well.

Yosemite trip highlights

2006-06-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

Bridal veil falls

Amazing is too weak a word for how this park is. We have visited most of the important national parks in the US and some of the parks left us asking ourselves- "what is the big deal?". A friend warned us that since we had already seen Alaska's wilderness, this would be a let down. But it was almost as amazing with stark granite cliffs and waterfalls flowing down the rocky edges.

Water gushing down from the bridal veil falls

If you are in California, this should be the time for you to visit. Falls are in full force and mosquito season is just starting. But the only trouble is finding accomodations since everything is booked months ahead. We got to stay in the Housekeeping camp, and it is not so bad. It would be downright relaxing if you cooked there in the fire pit (that is if you are not freaked out by bear stories floating around the net).

View from glacier point

If you are just visiting the park as a day trip, consider carrying enough food for the day (and remember to use bear boxes while you look at the sights). Curry village (wonder who named it so) was way too crowded and food concessions close by 8 PM.

Lower Yosemite falls

Meme-10 things I miss most about Mom's cooking

2006-06-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

Garam Masala came up with a great meme to honor our mothers. We keep blogging about so many of mom's recipes yet when we are down we remember certain dishes that have not only touched our palates but also our hearts. When I miss my mom, I try to make dishes that she would make for me. I know I am trying to get closer to her through her recipes(which is not always possible being in USA). However much I write these recipes down and follow them to the T, how come they don't taste like hers?

Here are some of my favorite dishes and combos. They taste good only when she makes it but when another experienced cook makes it, it is never as good. Is it the love that goes into it...

10. Keerai masiyal, vatral kuzhambu and paruppu thogaiyal combo.
9. All her homemade juices- she has a huge food-mill and used to make juices from everything from orange to tomato. I sure did not appreciate them earlier but now when she has stopped making them (my parents have type 2 diabetes), I think of all the effort that went into making those juices and how much I chose to drink the craze of that time, Coke in PET bottles (**sigh**).
8. Ennai kathrikkai curry
7. Drumstick milagootal and milagai pachadi (yum)
6. Radish sambar
5. Mysore pak (so soft and delicious)
4. Sambar saadam- this is a sort of south Indian version of Bisi bela bath. It tastes great with her next speciality...
3. Urulai roast curry- she uses a lot of oil for this but even when I do the same thing, against all my better judgement, I never get the same yummy crust.
2. Green jackfruit curry- I love it so much that I have named my blog after it. I have never succeeded in making it properly, so I have never posted about it in this blog. When my mom makes it, I will sure write about it.
1. Chinna vengaya araichu-vitta sambar- This is her speciality. She makes the masala with ground coriander seeds, fenugreek, gram dal and coconut. It tastes especially yummy with any spicy curry.

Above all, I salute her for being so unrelenting in her efforts at cooking, never saying once that she was not well enough to cook for us and making tiffin everyday of the week at 3PM for us as growing kids. Even now, when we have the means to have a cook come in everyday, she chooses to do all this and more. Thanks amma for being an example of how a mother should be! Now following in your footsteps is the hard part.

Thanks Garam masala for coming up with this meme. It feels great to put down emotions on paper. If any of you want to write-up about your mom and her cooking, consider yourself tagged.

A traditional pair for adventurous taste-buds

2006-06-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

Makai di roti & Sarson ka saag

Some combinations are well-known and popular in India- Idli-sambar, butter chicken-naan, carrot halwa-vanilla ice cream and of course, Makki di roti & sarson ka saag. This is probably the most famous food-pair in India (a Shahrukh- Kajol kind, if you will) and is sometimes a stereotype when we talk about authentic punjabi dishes.
Ironically, the saag that you get in restaurants as side for makai di roti is a dish wholly made with spinach. You can hardly appreciate the flavor of the roti with the bland palak saag. Saag made with mustard greens is slightly bitter and has much more flavor. This is a classic winter combo but this is the season of fresh sarson, here in California. The frozen mustard greens lack the pungency of fresh greens. So I prepared the traditional combination last week to experience the riches of Punjab's fields. I may not have achieved the taste of the fields (one reason being my use of cornmeal available here) but this was a tasty dinner, nevertheless.

Makki di roti

This is made with corn flour. You can get the flour in Indian stores in US but the age of the flour is suspect. I used cornmeal. You can also use masa from mexican markets. I followed this recipe but used atta instead of plain flour. Making rotis of this stick dough is the hard part. I seem to have got it righ this time (my previous trial was a dismal failure).

Sarson ka saag

Made with three different greens, this dish is very tasty. I have made some versions of this before and this was the most tasty and more similar to what I have had in India.

1 large bunch sarson or mustard leaves (should have 4 cups of leaves)
2 cups palak (spinach)
1/2 cup methi (fenugreek)
4 T makki ka atta (corn pounded into flour)
2 big onions finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 large tomatoes, finely chopped
1 inch ginger
4 green chilies, finely chopped

Pluck mustard leaves, palak and methi leaves from off the stalks. Wash them well in running water. Chop finely. Add finely chopped ginger, chilies and pressure cook it for 2 whistles.

Remove from the fire and pound the saag in the pressure cooker pan till it is well mixed. Put it back on a low flame and gradually add makki ka atta stirring constantly untill all flour is mixed in the saag. Before serving, heat ghee, and brown the garlic, then add onions, fry till they are golden brown. Add tomatoes and cook till a thick puree is formed. Add the saag to it and serve hot with dollops of butter.

This is an early post for Anthony's curry mela- a great round-up of tasty dishes of the week.

Maa ladoo

2006-06-09T13:20:00.000-07:00

There is a link between tamil families and sweets. For every family, there is a traditional sweet that is made for every special occasion and is the gold standard for that family. When a guy in that family gets engaged, the bride's family has to prepare the sweet (or procure it from a good source) for the betrothal ceremony. The preparation will be subject to extensive critique at the end of the day (not usually in front of the bride's family, thankfully). The complicated part of this protocol is that the traditional sweet is never asked for openly in Indian 'arranged marriages'. One has to make assumptions based on whether the family is from Tanjore, Thirunelveli etc. For people, unfamiliar with tamil brahmin groups, most people originate from Tanjore, Thirunelveli and Palghat.

My marriage had this usual dilemma on what the guy's family sweet would be. S, being from Thirunelveli, it was decided that it should be Maa ladoo . It turned out to be a right guess, that my dad later confirmed with someone in S's family. My family is a rava ladoo family but our family sweet was boondi ladoos. Notice how complicated things are and how sweets are in-grained into life of Indians. My mom was not sure whether the ladoos were to be made with green gram, or dalia or yellow moong dal. We safely bought it from Krishna Sweets, who have the reputation for tasty sweets. Whether they lived upto S's family standards, is not known. Mainly because S feigns selective amnesia as to what happened when the sweet was tasted later on.

Anyway, this recipe comes from my MIL herself. I like rava ladoo but I have acquired a taste for Maa ladoo as well. And oh, the maa stands for 'maavu' made with powdered dalia.

Maa ladoo

1 cup puffed chana dal or dalia
1 cup sugar
4-5 T broken cashewnuts
5-6 elaichi

1/2 cup to 1 cup melted ghee , as needed

Dry roast dal until fragrant and warmed through. It should not change color. Add the dal, sugar and elaichi to a food processor and process until powdered fine. It would do good to pass it through a sieve once or twice. Heat 2 T of ghee and roast cashew until golden brown. Add to the powder. Add melted ghee as needed to make rounds from the powder but not so much to make it oily or soggy.

This sweet is especially nutritious for children since dalia is considered easy to digest and helps to increase bone density and promote weight gain.

Mor kaalan

2006-06-06T15:11:00.000-07:00

mor kaalan with two types of sevai

This is a recipe from Kerala that is very similar to mor kuzhambu but very, very thick. It involves boiling the buttermilk for about 45 minutes and reducing it. Then you add a paste made of lots of coconut and green chilies and that is how you end up with this tasty dish. You have to use fresh coconut only. When my grandmom used to make butter at home, churning cream, she used the buttermilk by-product for this. The churned buttermilk is very pungent and smells too strong for drinking as such. Since she is from Kerala, she used it so.

This is a concentrated form of mor kuzhambu and so it is made quite spicy. According to my mother-in-law, this dish can be stored and used for upto a week. Of course, because of the coconut, that is a questionable point. Anyways, here is the recipe:

Mor kaalan

1 green plantain, white pumpkin or zucchini (cooked separately in water with some turmeric and salt)

1 cup Buttermilk
1 tsp or more ground pepper
3/4 cup grated coconut
4-5 green chilies

Heat buttermilk in a kadai on a high flame. It will split and boil. Don't worry. Continue to reduce till it reaches 1/4 th the original quantity. Add turmeric and pepper. Gring coconut with chilies into a thick paste. Add cooked vegetable and paste to reduced buttermilk. Add salt and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.

Season with mustard seeds, red chili and curry leaves preferably using coconut oil.

It is a spicy dish but you can reduce green chilies if you like. Normally, you should be able to taste the pepper.

Delicious Piadine

2006-06-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

piadine

We had Piadine in Sunseri's tiny cafe in Pittsburgh's strip district. Piadine is an underbaked pizza like bread. It is usually filled with a hearty salad. All you have to do it is fold it over, Newyork Pizza style and eat it. It is a messy affair but it makes a hearty meal out of salad.

I loved the piadine we had and so tried Michael Chiarello's recipe. I love the kind of food he cooks, the ease with which he seems to entertain and also his gorgeous house (as shown on TV, of course). It is necessary to bake the dough until it just colors so that the bread will be soft and pliable to fold. You can also freeze a portion of this dough and make a pizza out of it.

Micheal smears a delicious red chili paste on the piadine before baking. I tried this in the piadine I made and it was totally delish. The bread was good enough to eat without any salad. If you decide to make this, consider making the chili paste too.

Calabrian chili paste

6 T evoo
1 clove garlic finely minced
1 T red chili flakes
1/2 tsp salt

Heat 2 T oil. Add the chili and garlic, and saute 30 sec until fragrant. Remove from heat. Add the remaining oil and the salt.

This can be stored in the fridge for upto a week. Before the bread is baked, a generous coating of this paste is smeared on top.

I like to make the piadine to hold a delicious mesclun salad with pears, gorgonzola and walnuts.

Jihva for Strawberries-Strawberry Buttermilk ice

2006-06-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

strawberry buttermilk ice in a snow cone

I like to cook, bake or do pretty much everything with strawberries. Except eat them as such...

Strawberries are usually overrated in the flavor department, especially the super-market kind. There is a lot of sub-standard ones around that we forget how delicious, they will be when they are fresh-picked. I fell in love with cherries and peaches after eating them off the tree. I am yet to taste fresh-picked strawberries. Once I do, I am sure there will be a new respect for this ubiquitous fruit. But that will have to wait since the nearest patch from here is 30 miles north of LA.

My favorite way to use strawberries is in a sorbet with little sugar and lemon juice. Then it is churned in the ice cream maker.

This time I found this recipe and the use of buttermilk sounded very interesting and creamy. Besides, no ice cream maker required for this one. I increased the sugar a bit (always tasting it) and also added a drop of vanilla for flavor. The flavor of buttermilk subsides after a day and it tastes like an ice cream with more strawberry puree than milk. May be a cross of sorbet and ice cream. A great palate cleanser and not to mention it makes a great strawberry slush.

This is my contribution to Baking Fairy's JFI:Strawberries.

Paruppu podi

2006-05-31T12:07:00.000-07:00

I am a big paruppu podi lover. To my mom's irritation, I would eat paruppu podi mixed with rice, even when she had made sambar, rasam and all the accompaniments. I still do it even when I am the cook. My most loved powder is from Ambika appalam, the store owned by Keralites. There are several branches all over Tamil Nadu and their appalams sell even in the Indian stores in US. I love their pappadam, jackfruit chips, sweet plantain chips and kai murukku. Above everything else, comes the humble paruppu podi. I get 2 Kg worth of it everytime I return from India.

What is so great about it? I don't know- may be it is the color, may be because they use dalia or puffed chana as the base or could be the the fact that they add a tadka of mustard seeds and curry leaves to the powder. I have tried making my own batch of it several times. I never reached that perfection.

But this time I got it! The secret was the addition of a little toasted coconut. Kerala and coconut are not hard to associate, right?

Paruppu podi

1 cup Dalia
6-8 red chilies (for the color I like to use Karnataka's Bedegi chiles)

3 T to 1/4 cup of coconut powder

Toast red chilies and dalia on a dry skillet until chilies crisp up and dalia gets aromatic. Add the coconut and fry until toasted slightly. If you use normal chilies, you will not get an orangey hue but more of a normal, buff color.

Powder very fine. Heat a little canola oil (a drop or so). Drop in 1 tsp mustard and then a couple of sprigs of curry leaves. When they splutter, mix with the powder. Believe me, they make a world of difference and give a great texture and bite when mixed with rice. The coconut adds complexity but you cannot taste it.

Bedegi chilies are the wrinkled, long chilies that you might find in Indian grocery stores in US. I like to use them in dishes where a great color is needed. Besides, they are not as spicy (but more fruity) as the normal ones.

Pita Sandwich with falafel

2006-05-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

I felt like making something elaborate last week and it turned out to be some delicious falafel, crispy on the outside, moist & tasty inside. It was great, not at all dry like the bad restaurant ones. I also made the taratoor sauce in the recipe. It was a nice tangy addition.

falafel

The pitas did balloon up, yay! I made the whole-wheat version from 'The Bread bible' by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Of course, the product was chewier and not as billowy like those store-bought ones with refined flour. I have to try the same recipe with AP flour now. I loved this book with such extensive details, not to mention Rose's explanations about the chemistry between the ingredients. Go, get yourself the book (and her Cake bible too).

homemade pita

White chocolate blondies

2006-05-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

I have never had blondies and so I got my first taste with this recipe from 'Small-batch baking'. This book is an excellent resource if you like desserts. I have stopped making sweet things because they lie around tempting us to eat more. This books solves the problem. All recipes in the book make enough for 4 servings or less. Some serving sizes are big, though. Plus, it felt good when I used just a tablespoon of butter for this recipe.

The taste was very good, that is if you like butterscotchy things. Actually, despite the minimal amount of butter, the Ghiradelli white chocolate made it rich and sweet. That is something I have against white chocolate. I feel it makes the sweet a little greasy.

White Chocolate blondies (makes 4 large or 8 small pieces)

1/2 cup AP flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
3 T beaten egg
1 T butter, melted
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/3 cup coarsely chopped, toasted almonds (walnuts should be better to balance the sweetness)

1. Line the bottom of a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan with foil with some overhang. Grease. Mix first three ingredients.

2. Whisk brown sugar, egg, butter and vanilla. Add this to the flour mixture and whisk until blended. Stir in chocolate and almonds. Pour into pan and bake at 350 F until top is dry and golden, 22 minutes or so.

3. Remove foil from pan and cool completely on wire rack before slicing.

Now that I have tasted these, I know I prefer the dark brownies much better than blondies. Nothing against the recipe, but fudgy brownies are the best IMO. Now I will have to consider making small-batch brownies...

Some great recipes from fellow bloggers

2006-05-08T17:31:00.001-07:00

This post is long due. I have not posted anything for long and I am still waiting for dear hubby to fix the memory card issue. This one is a perfect unphotogenic post anyway.

I have been trying a whole lotta recipes from some great Indian cooks (who happen to blog). I have neglected even posting a message to them (sorry for that!). So here are some recipes I highly recommend:

1. Mahanandi- Full marks to Indira for her authentic Andhra cooking. I have hardly eaten in any Andhra person's house and to think that I am actually cooking their food, I am amazed. Hurray for blogs! I tried her Ponganalu with peanut chutney, buggani, Ridge gourd dal and ridge gourd in tomato sauce. Ponganalu is similar in many ways to the vellai appam we make. But yet, the amount of oil is used is amazingly miniscule. Even if it takes a little longer to cook than your normal appam (fried in oil), it is worth the time it takes. Among the ridge gourd recipes I have tasted, I think the ridge gourd tomato gravy is my favorite now.

2. Sailu's food- I tried the pepper rice recipe last week and we are hooked. My husband does not like the heat from pepper (sort of hits your throat rather than your tongue)but he loved Sailu's recipe. The sesame tones down the heat of pepper without overpowering the delicious pepper flavor. The same evening I made Sailu's corn bhel - fresh, delicious and different.

3. Saffron hut- This is about the recipe so many people want to try and I did too- the Spinach cottage cheese Aloo paratha. The photo is so amazing and comforting, that you want to grab it from the plate. I felt the spinach-ricotta dough was hearty enough and omitted the stuffing. I added some kasoori methi to the dough, instead. It is indeed a nutritious meal for my toddler and a delicious one for the rest of us.

4. Shammi's Food, in the main- Shammi's cooking is mostly like what I make. Many of her dishes are tamilian. But as with different families, many of Shammi's recipes are different from what I make. I made the pulikaachal recipe 'coz it sounded close to what my mom makes. Mom does not use pepper and coconut, though. My mom, never gives me exact measures and I end up with something that is not quite there. Shammi's recipe was perfect in terms of heat and tanginess. It tasted very much like Iyengar puliodarai served in temples. Btw, iyengar puliodarai uses black pepper and sesame which makes it unique. I added a tbsp of sugar at the end to give a complex all-in-one flavor. It makes about 2 cups but the taste of it is so yum, it will last me a couple of days.

5. Salt and pepper- With that delicious pepper rasam photo, I did not wait for long to try. The fresh toasted, hand ground spices give it a unique and delicate flavor. I tried it as a soup the first day and with ghee and rice the next day. The flavors are stronger when the rasam sits for longer. Lovely and comforting.

6. Nupur, of course- My house is becoming a part Marathi and part Telugu household 'coz of Nupur and Indira. I hardly try anything from books when such great recipes are available online. I recently tried Cabbage zunka, Koshimbir and egg rassa. Nupur's measurements are spot-on and they come out perfect with no modifications. When I tried to get y'all links to the above recipes, I noticed that I have tried a whole lotta of recipes from her A-Z series. In no particular order, I have tried Amti, egg rassa, usal/missal, Zunka, Bhendi fry (made several times), bharli vaangi, Daalimbay bhaat, fanas bhaji, bhadang and koshimbir. Whew, so many Marati recipes and now do you agree with our household becoming partly Marathi? Here is the link to the series.

Thanks for posting such great recipes. Keep them coming!

Mango gazpacho for JFI

2006-05-01T13:00:00.000-07:00

This entry for the new, exciting event kickstarted by Indira of Mahanandi. Jihva for Ingredients will focus on an interesting ingredient each month. This month it is my favorite, Mangoes. I am surprised that I could not come up with sweet recipes besides the usual mango lassi, shrikand and milkshake. That is 'coz I don't cook with ripe mangoes. I find them too perfect to need messing around with. In fact, I even like the stringy, ripe mangoes available here.

But, in all my desperation to eat mangoes, I may be softening them by pressing them everywhere. So I have to find uses for all the under-ripe mangoes, that I soften. I am sure some of you are over-enthusiastic like me. So here is how I use them up usually:

Mango Gazpacho (this is a classic fire and ice combo)- serves 2

1 medium under-ripe mango, peeled and diced (if you have good, ripe ones you can use it too)
2/3 cup orange juice
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 th of the long seedless Kirby cucumber, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1/3 small red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1/2 small onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 medium garlic clove, minced
1 green chili or small jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons parsley or cilantro
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Process mangoes, orange juice, green chili and oil in a blender or food processor until pureed. Transfer to a medium bowl, along with remaining ingredients. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

(Some photos will be uploaded soon as soon as I can fix by memory card reader.)

'Way too healthy' cookies

2006-04-25T16:03:00.000-07:00

I am on the lookout for recipes that would be a healthy snack to eat for my toddler and even for us. I came across this recipe in the April issue of Cooking Light. I made a whole lot of changes but the result was very delicious and satisfactory. I have to let you know that this is a soft, cakey cookie. I find a lot of people's taste are for the other kind. But if you have a toddler, you won't go wrong with this soft cookie.

Banana-coconut cookies- 24 cookies

2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
(the cookie is on the sweet side. The sugar can be reduced by 2T)

1/2 cup ripe mashed banana (I used 1 normal sized banana)
1/2 cup applesauce
1 T mayonnaise
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup AP flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 c sweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon (can use a mix of other spices too)

1. Beat sugar, mashed banana, applesauce, vanilla and mayo in a large bowl and beat until blended.
2. Combine all the rest of the ingredients in another bowl. Stir flour mixture into banana mixture until well-combined.
3. Use 2 T dough for each cookie. Drop dough into parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350 F for 20 min or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. This has to be eaten within a couple of days since they soften too much after that.

I made so many changes to this recipe (I never modify recipes that are to be baked). I really thought I would screw-up. But they turned out very well.

Here are the changes I made:
1. I added 1/4 cup whole wheat flour while it was all refined flour in original recipe.
2. The original used 1/2 cup mayo and no applesauce.
3. The original was baked until very lightly colored but then they have the texture and color of muffins. I did not find that too appealing in a cookie.

For a not so healthy version, you can try this way too. If you find that they come out crisp, please let me know. There will definitely be repeat acts of this cookie.

10 minute sambar, really!

2006-04-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

This is a very easy sambar for dosa and idli. It is very flavorful but there is no hassle of cooking dal separately. The sambar is thickened with dalia powder. The taste is at its best with pearl onions but any sweetish onion can be used.

Ten minute sambar

1/2 cup sliced onion or about 15-20 pearl onions, peeled and halved
3 large tomatoes, finely chopped
1 T coriander powder mixed with 1/2 tsp usual sambar powder
2 tsp red chili powder
salt
1/2 tsp sugar or jaggery (optional)

Powder fine: 1 1/2 T dalia (pottukadalai)

Heat 1/2 tsp oil. Add 1 tsp mustard seeds and curry leaves and let splutter. Add the onions and saute until softened on medium-low heat (not browned). If the onions are not very soft, it will have an unpleasant texture since we don't simmer this as much as normal sambar. Add tomatoes, chili powder, sambar powder, coriander powder and saute till soft and saucy. Now add about 3-4 cups water, turmeric, salt and sugar and let it simmer on high for 5 min. Lastly, mix in dalia powder and let it go for a minute more. Turn off stove and serve garnished with cilantro.

Chakka pradhaman a.k.a Jackfruit payasam

2006-04-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

This is a dish we make for naivedhyam for Vishu. Since my grandparents are from Palghat, my family has had a long-standing tradition of making a lot of keralite brahmin dishes.

I searched high and low for a good, ripe jackfruit in San Jose. I did not succeed. For the payasam, the jackfruit should be at the peak of ripeness. I was forced to use canned slices. The recipe is slightly more work because the chakka varatti or jam has to be made at least one day before. But this microwave version is a lot easier than sauteeing it on stove-top. If you choose to make it in the MW, that means I have saved you from lot of splattering on your hands and stove.

Part 1: Make varatti or jackfruit jam

2 cans jackfruit or 10 slices (pressure cook until very soft)
Powdered jaggery
1 -2 T fresh grated coconut
1 tsp cardamom
2 tsp ghee

Grind the jackfruit with no water into a very smooth paste. Measure the paste. Take equal quantity of powdered jaggery in a saucepan. Add 2-3 T water and let jaggery melt. Filter scum in jaggery. Mix paste with jaggery. Now transfer to a ceramic mw-safe container that has been greased with ghee. Microwave for about 8-10 min on high, stirring every 2 min. You should get the consistency of wheat halwa. When it is just shy of reaching that stage, add coconut and ghee. Mix and let it cook until done. Lastly, mix in ground cardamom. You can cool this paste and store it in refrigerator for 2 weeks. If you do not add coconut, it can be frozen and stored longer. You can also make this into a drier paste. Then it can be used only for payasam. This makes about 2 cups varatti.

Uses of varatti: We eat it like jam with adai and bread. Besides payasam, we use it to make elai adai. We also eat it like a halwa (you have to reduce jaggery if you want to eat as is).

Chakka payasam

1/2 cup chakka varatti
2 T jaggery
1/4 cup water
2 cups thick coconut milk
1 tsp ground cardamom
2 T coconut bits, fried in ghee (can also add cashew)

Melt jaggery in water and remove scum. Add varatti and let it soften into a sauce. When this mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat to low and add coconut milk. Let it come to a simmer. This requires constant stirring to prevent coconut milk from curdling. Turn off heat, add cardamom and coconut bits.

This is a decadent dish for jackfruit lovers. For an easier jackfruit payasam, try this other recipe posted last year.

Coriander powder or thokku

2006-04-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

This is a family recipe, invented/learned by my mom and perfected under my dad's guidance (he is an arm-chair cook). We use the name 'sambaara puli' but it is actually a version of coriander powder/thokku. I have been eating this for years and it is a part of the care package when someone comes here from India. According to mom, this is a kerala dish. However, I am not sure about its origins. Anyway, the recipe yields 2 cups of dried powder-like chutney/thokku. It is ideal with yogurt rice, dosas or for making coriander rice.

I am so happy that cilantro is selling for $0.29 here. I can make this as often as I want. Unlike coriander thokku, this can stay for upto a month in the refrigerator. This is because all the water has been removed. You can also make it paste-like for a more moist texture.

Coriander thokku

2 bunches fresh cilantro, cleaned and dried completely
1 small piece tamarind, soaked in a tsp of water to soften a little
15 red chillies
2 T gram dal
2 T urad dal
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
pinch of hing

Seasoning:

2 T oil
1 ts mustard seeds

1. The cilantro has to be cleaned and dried very well. For this, I leave the cleaned leaves outside overnight, exposed to air. That does it. Heat a skillet and dry roast red chilies, dals, hing and mustard seeds until mustard pops and dals are reddish. Powder coarsely.
2. Grind cilantro with tamarind until smooth.
3. Heat 2 T oil in a skillet, add mustard seeds and let them pop. Add the cilantro paste and saute until it turns a dark green. Now add the powder and saute, saute and saute some more until most of the water is eliminated. The mixture will now be on the way to becoming a brownish-green.
4. I recommend adding salt at this stage, since we can get a better idea of how much salt is required. Keep sauteeing on low heat, until oil sizzles around edges and mixture is dry paste/powder-like. You can decide at this stage when to remove from heat based on what consistency you want.

Happy Tamil New Year and Vishu!

2006-04-13T23:24:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is a busy day for me 'coz there is a lot of cooking to be done. Besides, we will be leaving Lake Tahoe in the afternoon.

For our new year lunch, this is the usual menu- we make chakka payasam, dal vadai, usual sambar, rasam, vegetable and a neem pachadi and/or neem rasam. So my advance tamil new year and vishu wishes to you all.

See you soon with a related recipe.

Mango rice

2006-04-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

This one is for you Shammi! When I made this I remembered that you had asked for the recipe, which I truly forgot about. This recipe is a slight departure from what my mom makes. This is more in the style of kannada mango rice.

Mango rice

Cook 1 cup rice so that it is well-cooked but not mushy.

Grind the following into a paste:

1 large green mango, grated
4 green chilies
1 red chili (optional)
1 -2 tsp mustard seeds (I like more mustard flavor)
about 3/4 c grated coconut

Heat a pan with 1-2 T oil. Add cashewnuts or peanuts and toast slightly. Remove. Now add 1 tsp jeera, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp chana dal, a good dash of asafoetida and some curry leaves. After mustard splutters, add the paste, 1/2 tsp turmeric and salt as required. Fry for a couple of minutes. You don't want the paste to lose its potency (mango must taste fresh and you should get a little raw mustard taste).

Lastly add rice, mix and turn off stove. Mix in the roasted nuts.

So that's it. The only difference here compared to my mom's recipe is that she does not add mustard seeds to the paste. That gives quite a different taste. If you don't use the mustard, then the ground paste can be sauteed as mentioned above till oil floats on top. This can be served as mango thogaiyal with dosa.

Avakkai- The king of all pickles

2006-04-10T13:59:00.000-07:00

In my opinion, there is no better pickle than avakkai. True to the name pickle or urugai, it is very spicy, oily and potent. But I have never been able to recreate it on my own. My mom and grand mom are great pickle makers. They follow all the rules of pickle-making and their creations will last at room temperature for at least a year. But I am too bored of sticking to rules. Besides, I am the only one in our small family here who eats pickles. So I make avakkai with just two green mangoes. You should have about 3 cups of chopped mango bits with 2 large mangoes.

Avakkai is a tasty mix of sour mango pieces, mustard powder, salt, chili powder and sesame oil. This recipe is small enough for you to test your pickling skills but large enough to last at least a month. There is no cooking involved but just a marination time of at least 15 days. The longer the pickle sits the better the flavor.

2 large green, sour Mangoes
1 cup or more Sesame oil
1/2 cup coarse Mustard powder
1/2 cup to 2/3 cup Chili powder
Salt, as required (you will have to add at least 1/2 cup)
2 tsp fenugreek powder
Asafoetida, a good couple of pinches

One good quality plastic or glass container.

Wash and cut mangoes into small bits with the kernel inside. Wipe and dry under the fan for some time until all the moisture is completely evaporated. Mix spices with half the amount of oil. Add mango bits and mix well. Store in a jar or container.Add remaining oil and mix well. Give it a taste. The pickle should be on the salty, hot side.

Tips:
Oil should be enough to immerse pickle completely.Close the lid properly. Give the container a shake or two everyday. Start using after 15 days. You can choose to add some sauteed garlic pods also though this is not traditional in tamil avakkai.

There should be a layer of oil floating on top if the pickle should last long.

Store this pickle in refrigerator if pickling and sterilization rules are not followed.

Deconstructed Gutti Vankaaya kura

2006-03-20T16:25:00.000-08:00

This is a Rachel Ray-like take on my favorite, Andhra classic Gutti Vankayaa kura, a delicious stuffed eggplant curry. It not only takes a lot of time but it relies on the availability of tiny, round brinjals at the local market. Good, small, round fresh eggplants that look like these are hard to come by. So this recipe recreates all the flavors and is also very quick-cooking dish.

Adding channa to eggplant dishes is my mom's tradition. I like the protein component. You can always leave it out.

Ingredients:

Tender, medium sized Indian eggplants or the Japanese ones- you should get about 4 cups, when they are quartered

1/4 cup finely chopped onions
1/4 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 tsp turmeric
3/4 tsp tamarind paste
1 tsp red chili powder
2 tsp grated jaggery
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
salt
1 cup cooked channa

Dry roast and powder the following:

1 T sesame seeds
2 T roasted peanuts
1 T coriander seeds

Heat 1 T oil and saute the onions and ginger garlic paste until onions turn golden. Add tomatoes and turmeric and fry till pulpy and mashed. Add eggplant slices and salt. Sprinkle some water and cover and cook on medium-low heat till eggplant is 3/4 th cooked. Add tamarind paste, sesame powder, red chili powder and saute for another minute. Now add 1.5 cups of water, channa and the tamarind paste and let it come to a boil. The sauce will thicken quite a bit. If you want a watery gravy, you can add about 2 cups water. Garnish with cilantro.

Serve with rice or chapathis.

Sandwich with delicious yogurt spread

2006-03-15T11:00:00.000-08:00

You are going whaat, aren't you? But this yogurt cheese spread is delicious. It is even better when made like a toasted cheese sandwich. I had eaten something of this type several years back. I recreated this using a few versions found here and there. The yogurt does not disintegrate, if you are worried. It is almost like cream cheese and of course, so good for you.

Sandwiches with yogurt spread-6 sandwiches

1 cup low-fat yogurt, strained well for several hours
1/2 a medium onion, finely chopped
1-2 T cilantro or herbs of your choice
2-3 green chilies, finely chopped
salt, pepper
1-2 tsp mint chutney(optional)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp paprika

Mix all the above. Prepare a tadka of 1 tsp cumin seeds and 1/2 tsp mustard seeds in 1/4 tsp oil. Add to the yogurt mixture.

12 slices of bread (normal sliced bread is fine)
Butter, for toasting (optional)

Spread the yogurt mixture on six slices and cover with the remaining slices. Butter the sandwiches on the outside, if needed. Toast in a skillet or in a sandwich maker.

The spread is full of Indian flavors. But you can almost add any flavors to it. It is a light, delicious snack.

Happy Birthday, Green Jackfruit!

2006-03-13T06:41:00.000-08:00

Today is my blog's first birthday. I **gulp** remembered about my first post only when Nupur wrote about her blog's birthday about two months back. My first post seems ages away and I could have almost forgot... Work and the move has kept me from concentrating too much on this blog and even from reading some of my other favorite blogs. For the occasion, I baked a Devil's food cake with Chocolate butter frosting (recipe from Lisa Yockelson's new book 'Chocolate chocolate'). Layer cakes are quite challenging for me but it came out wonderful. More on that later...

My fascination with blogs started with the blog legends-101 cookbooks, Orangette, Chocolate and Zucchini, The Amateur Gourmet and other great forerunners in food blogging. I never thought for a moment that I could do it myself. But I was motivated and encouraged by bloggers from Mahanandi, From the Pantry, The Cooks cottage and One hot stove. For me, they were the predecessors for Indian food blogs. That is how 'The Green Jackfruit' evolved. By the way the name came from my love for green jackfruit or kathal subzi made Kerala style.

Thank you readers for all your support, opinion and suggestions. Looking forward to more years of fun-filled, informative blogging about cooking and eating.

A delicious mesclun salad with goat cheese medallions

2006-03-10T09:25:00.000-08:00

I am a goat cheese addict- mainly the soft, creamy Chevre. I know there are some stinky varieties of goat cheese too. But, I think I will pass those...

I have been waiting to make a salad with goat cheese medallions on top. But either there are no greens in the house, no vinegar or no goat cheese. This time everything came together and I am so happy that the results were delicious! I have several recipes 'coz this salad is quite common in most cookbooks but this recipe seemed very promising and simple too. We have never had a salad as an entree and this was our first. This salad is a meal by itself. The goat cheese is warm and melty-soft. Every bite is different and interesting. This is not your common 'house salad'.

Mesclun salad with goat cheese medallions

4 cups mixed greens
1/2 large ripe pear, diced into 1 inch cubes
a handful of walnuts, toasted

1 cup breadcrumbs, panko is great
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper

1 egg, beaten with 1 T water

Soft goat cheese, cut into 4 1-inch thick rounds
Oil, to shallow fry

Dressing:
2 tablespoons plus 3/4 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons olive oil
salt, pepper

I made a dressing with the above, as mentioned in the link. This makes more than what is needed for the salad.

Goat cheese medallions: Dip the goat cheese rounds in egg. Mix bread crumbs with oregano, salt and pepper. Dip the eggy goat cheese rounds into bread crumbs and coat very well. Chill the coated goat cheese at least for 1 hr.

Toss the greens with walnuts, pears and the dressing. I used only around 1/4-1/2 of the dressing.

Heat 2-3T oil in a saute pan. Add the goat cheese rounds and shallow fry until both sides are golden brown (You will not have a gooey blob, as I doubted). Keep the medallions on top of the salad and savor immediately.

Vegetable kurma-1

2006-03-07T16:04:00.000-08:00

Veggie Kurma

Vegetable kurma is a beloved dish among South Indians. It is similar to the mughal influenced korma. South Indian hole-in-the wall restaurants serve kurma as an accompaniment for chappathis. There is no cream in the dish but it is enriched with ground coconut and coconut milk. It is also spicier and in my opinion, more flavorful. To make coconut milk at home, check out Mahanandi .

There are quite a few versions I know. But this version is ideal for people who don't eat garlic. I made it for a dinner party this weekend. When I am not sure if everyone eats garlic, I make this version. There is no compromise here, taste-wise.

Vegetable kurma- Variation 1

2 large onions, finely chopped
3-4 tomatoes, finely chopped
3 cups frozen mixed vegetables (you can use a mixture of diced carrots, potatoes, cauliflower florets, peas and green beans)
1/2 cup thick coconut milk
1 tsp garam masala
salt

For seasoning:
Ghee or oil
2-3 cardamom, crushed
1 bay leaf
1 inch cinnamon
2-3 cloves

Cilantro, for garnish

Make a smooth paste of the following:
1/2 cup grated coconut (fresh preferably)
1 T poppy seeds
10 cashewnuts
1 1/2 T roasted gram (pottu kadalai)
3 green chilies
2-3 red chilies
1 T ground coriander seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric

If you are using fresh cut vegetables, pressure cook them with salt and turmeric . Heat 1 T oil or ghee in a saute pan. Add the seasoning spices and let them color slightly. Add onions and fry till golden. Add chopped tomatoes and stir until it turns pulpy. Add the paste and stir for a few minutes, till it no longer smells raw. Add enough salt.

Strain and any water in the cooked vegetables. Reserve for another use. Now add the vegetables (fresh cooked or frozen) to the saute pan and stir for a few minutes. Dilute the mixture with little stock.

If you are using frozen vegetables, cover and cook for 2-3 min. Add the garam masala and coconut milk and simmer on medium-low heat for another 2-3 min. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

Paneer marinated in lemon pickle (Paneer achari)

2006-03-03T15:49:00.000-08:00

The thought of using a pickle as a marinade is new to me. I came across a recipe similar to this one in Neelam Batra's '1000 Indian recipes'. I have got hooked onto this book. Ms.Batra has a lot of homestyle recipes and since she lives in USA, she uses readily available ingredients too. Her collection of chickpea recipes in itself is worth getting the book for.

I make a lot of 'achari' this and that. But I usually use pickle spices like kalonji, fennel, ajwain etc. but not pickle itself. I tried this last night and it was fantastic. The paneer is marinated in lime pickle so that it has a light coating. Just let it marinate for an hour but if you let it sit for longer, it will be better.

Paneer achaari- serves 4

8 oz block of paneer- cut into small cubes
1-2 tsp lemon pickle (or rather any kind)

1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 large green pepper
2-3 green chilies, slit
1 inch ginger, cut into thin match sticks
salt
1/4 tsp amchur or a dash of lemon juice (optional)

for tadka:

a pinch of ajwain
1/2 tsp kalonji (nigella seeds)

Marinate the paneer cubes. You need to really use your hands to coat the paneer. Heat 1 tsp oil, add ajwain and kalonji. When they sizzle, add onion, ginger and green chilies. When onion turns golden brown, add pepper and let it cook till it becomes slightly soft. Add salt and paneer. Thoroughly mix. Cover and cook for 2 min or so. The dish is quite dry. Taste and add amchur or lemon juice if needed (I did not need more sourness).

Today, I served the left-overs on a bed of baby greens for an Indian style salad. Yum!

Welcoming Spring with Raw Zucchini Salad

2006-03-02T09:13:00.000-08:00

Spring is almost here. Now what better way to know that than by visiting farmers' markets. The delicious veggies artichokes, asparagus, spring peas are already showing up. Not to mention baby vegetables...

The tiny potatoes, baby artichokes and tender zucchini are things I look forward to buying. They are available now in farmers' markets in the west coast. It is better not to mess around with these guys. I like to leave them alone and steam or braise them. They should be even better raw. With this thought I made this zucchini carpaccio salad. The basic recipe is from Tyler Florence's 'Eat This'.

Raw Zucchini salad- serves 2

2 small and tender zucchini, cut into paper-thin rounds
1/2 lemon
EVOO for drizzling on top
2-3 T finely chopped dill, chives or any herb of your choice
1 T finely chopped red or green onion (Tyler suggested using leek)
salt and pepper
2 T crumbled ricotta or goat cheese
a few sprigs of mint

Arrange zucchini on a plate. Add salt and pepper. Squeeze lemon juice over slices and also drizzle with EVOO. Scatter onion and chopped herbs on top.

Refrigerate at least 15 min. Before serving, crumble cheese on top and also tear up the mint and add to the salad.

Moong dal in a Maharashtrian way-Moong usal

2006-02-28T17:02:00.000-08:00

We prepare dal in a million ways (almost-) but this idea came to my notice when I was searching for Marathi recipes to make use of Nupur's tasty Kolhapuri chutney. I had made usal a couple of weeks back. I have almost 1.5 cups of the potent chutney leftover. This dal is an easier version of usal since it requires no sprouting. I substituted 1T of the kolhapuri chutney for the Maharashtrian masala. Moong dal is fried a little in this recipe before it is cooked. This is done to keep the dal intact and not turn mushy. As you can see, although I pressure-cooked the dal, it is still whole and not a pasty mixture. It turned out very flavorful and tasted quite Maharashtrian (the masala powders give each region's dals and subzis a unique identity).

Do you know any other Maharashtrian recipes that use the chutney?

Mashed potatoes- Bihari style

2006-02-21T10:19:00.000-08:00

I love egullet's cooking classes. They have a few threads on Indian cooking with excellent photos. I found the photos of Bihari aloo ka bharta very tempting and had to try it. I am a sucker for mashed potatoes and everytime I go to some breakfast place (for dinner, usually!) like Eat 'n' Park or Denny's, I have to get some mashed potatoes on the side.

I would have to say that this version is tastier than the common mashed potatoes and goes great with chappathi or puri. Mustard oil adds a lot of flavor but you can add pickle oil as I had mentioned in my earlier post. Hand crushing the chilies will give a few uneven pieces but the surprise of biting into a large piece is what you desire in an otherwise bland dish such as this one.

Bihari Aloo ka bharta (Courtesy: Monica Bhide)

3 medium potatoes, boiled and peeled
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 inch ginger root, peeled and chopped
1-2 teaspoon uncooked mustard oil or pickle oil
2-3 whole dried red chili
Salt to taste

In a bowl mash the potatoes and set aside. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a saucepan.
Add the cumin seeds and let it sputter. Add onion, ginger and garlic and saute till onion is slightly browned. Transfer the contents to the mashed potatoes.

Roast the dried red chilly on a dry pan until blackened. Crush the roasted dry chilly onto the mashed potato. Add salt and taste- the lack of salt can totally ruin this dish. Add uncooked mustard oil to the potato mix. Mix well. Garnish with cilantro leaves before serving.

Blog party #7- Red & Hot

2006-02-16T06:14:00.000-08:00

It is Stephanie's blog party. She has come up with a naughty theme when everyone is thinking Chocolate. It is time to make something - hot, spicy and oh, maybe red. Stephanie, I never say no to spicy things. This is a hot tapas recipe from Mark Bittman's 'Best recipes in the World'. I never knew anyone who ate fried, green chilis without any breading. As our farewell dinner, we had been to Tasca Navarre (Pittsburgh), a new Spanish restaurant in Strip district. They served fried jalapenos with some delicious garlic aioli. It was awesome!

The chilis have no bread coating or anything. If you are frying up whole chilis, slit them a little and remove the seeds. They are great for a tapas party because nobody can eat more than 2-3 of these fiesty bites.

Fried Jalapenos with Roasted red pepper aioli- serves 4

10 Jalapenos, slit and seeds removed
Coarse salt
Oil

Deep fry the chilies in very hot oil until their skin crisps up and they turn brown in places. They don't brown very evenly. Drain and sprinkle coarse salt as needed. Serve with aioli.

To keep up with the party's theme, I made some roasted red pepper aioli based on Giada De Laurentiis' recipe:

1 garlic clove
1 roasted red bell pepper,peeled
1/3 cup mayonnaise
a pinch of paprika
salt
olive oil to thin out, if required

To make the aioli: Finely chop the garlic in the food processor. Add the peppers, paprika and blend until almost smooth. Mix this paste into the mayonnaise. Season the aioli, to taste, with salt and pepper. Transfer the aioli to a small bowl.

Tagged: blog party, tapas

Rose milk for my Valentine

2006-02-14T13:04:00.000-08:00

Lindor truffles and Rose milk-our sweet indulgences

Love is in the air and roses symbolize it perfectly. Any culinary creation with roses is romantic. We are celebrating this year with some rose milk.

Rose milk is a famous drink in South India. Most south Indian restaurants or hotels in the pre-cola era (which is less than a decade ago) served this and some still do. In the summer months (which is always!), it is a cool treat. The dark pink hued drink is almost as popular as 'filter coffee'. Alas, today in India, these good, cold drinks and juices have all been replaced with Fanta, Coke, Pepsi and even Mountain Dew.

I like to make the rose syrup at home or better yet, get my mom to make it whenever she visits us. There are commercial rose sherbet such as Roohafza and the like readily available at all Indian grocery stores. But these products have an aftertaste of chemicals and I believe they also contain 'kewra extract' that overpowers the rose flavor.

Rose syrup

2 cups sugar
1.5 cups water
1 T lemon juice
1/4 cup rose water or 2 tsp rose extract
(Rose extract may contain artifical flavors. So use natural rose water, as far as possible).
4-6 drops of red food coloring or pomegranate juice

Stir together the sugar, water and lemon juice in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 10-12 minutes, until the syrup coats a cold spoon. You should be able to draw a line on the coated spoon. Add the pomegranate juice or food coloring and stir well. You should have a dark red color. Remove from the heat and stir in the rosewater or extract. Let the syrup cool completely and store in a clean Mason jar. This makes 2-3 cups of syrup.

To 8 oz milk, start with addition of 2 T of syrup and add more, for a stronger flavor or sweetness. Serve cold with lots of ice.

The food color may make you flinch. But the drink has to be literally rose-colored. Otherwise, it is not much fun, is it? I added only 2 drops of FDA approved red color since I wanted to introduce my daughter with this new flavor. So my version is quite light-colored. You can forego the color altogether, it is up to you or use Pom as a coloring agent.

Happy Valentines day, everyone!

My must-try list- An ongoing project in cooking

2006-02-09T17:44:00.000-08:00

I have been following many of your blogs and sure enough I am learning a lot from you. But strangely, until now, I copy them to my 'must-try document' and forget about the great recipes. But no more of that- I have decided to add a must-try list here. It is my weekly list, of lovely things to eat. My must-try list is longer than the few recipes here, but this is what I can get done in a week. I am doing a sort of cooking project scheduling since I have been sticking to very routine, repetitive meals after my move to CA. To break from my lethargy, I hope my must-try list will be a constant encouragement and reminder.

So as for this list that has been hanging out in my blog- I am very happy to be eating delicious things this week. I did stumble with the recipe for jowar roti. As Deccanheffalump had warned, my store-bought jowar flour was not fresh enough and it started cracking. This is one project that would require an expert's presence, I guess.

I made Indira's brinjal-ginger curry this sunday. This way of combining brinjal and ginger was very new to me and again, I am very much interested in cooking from other Indian states. It was delightfully gingery and the sweetness of the cooked eggplant was perfect. I used the small, Indian round eggplants. Thanks Indira for a great, unique recipe.

Last night, our dinner consisted of Nupur's usal/misal. I made half the quantity of kolhapuri chutney and substituted moong sprouts for moth bean sprouts. Boy, the spiciness of the juicy usal, went very well with toasted bread. I also added some sweet chutney and boondi on top. There were some leftovers that was enjoyed by us today. We have had this dish at Chaat Paradise, MV but we were disappointed because I think they had added pav bhaji masala for the kolhapuri chutney. Nupur, you are doing a great job spreading your region's cooking and hope you will start another series to showcase Marathi recipes.

Today our dinner would be, idli and Shilpa's Konkani sambar. I usually use some tamarind in my sambar and so added extracted tamarind juice to the vegetables and cooked them all together. The sambar tastes so much like the Pittsburgh SV temple's sambar (mixed with rice). This is really a wonderful treat for us since we have been missing Pitt for the last two weeks. For fans of SV temple's food, this is a must-try.

Thanks all for your recipes and great pics. So this list did give me a boost and my sleeping palate has awakened to new flavors.

ARF/5-a day #6- Beet halwa

2006-02-07T10:20:00.000-08:00

Sweetnicks has a good thing going here. Nutritionally unaware people like me get a chance to review their diet (for the past, two weeks, I have been searching for antioxidants in my food) thinking about antioxidant-rich foods. Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness will be the guest host for ARF #6.

Beets are a great source of antioxidants, although they do not figure in the top 10 popular ones. To me, beets are so underused. It is a pity that most people only use the canned version of them in salads. Their staining can be a problem but that is easily solved by rubbing your hands with lemon juice and salt mixture.

I love the Indian way of making beets- a spicy curry with beets plays well with its sweet and spicy combination. Sweet veggies are also used in India in desserts, be it green peas kheer, bottlegourd halwa, carrot halwa or this beet halwa. The sweetness in beets allows you to get away with adding about 4T extra sugar or so. Believe me, other Indian sweets take as much as a cup.

I like to pressure cook the beets till they are not too soft. This is quicker than cooking them raw in milk.

Beet halwa (4-5 servings)

2 large beets, cooked partially
4 T to 1/4 cup sugar
Milk to cover beets
1 -2 tsp ghee
3/4 tsp ground cardamom
6-7 cashewnuts, chopped and roasted in ghee

1. Peel and grate the beets. Heat ghee in a saute pan and add the beets. Saute for 2 minutes.
2. Add milk to completely cover the beets. Cook on medium-low heat, until beets are mushy and milk is almost absorbed. Add the sugar and mix well. Cook till dry.
3. Mix in cardamon. You can also toast some cashewnuts in ghee and add them at the end.

Moroccan Roasted Vegetable Stew

2006-02-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

I roast veggies in the oven frequently to just munch on. Oddly, vegetables like asparagus, peppers, broccoli and brussel sprouts are the first ones to disappear in the roasted vegetable platter. Carrots are not a favorite in my house and they just remain unwanted along with the onions. This stew from Mollie Katzen's 'Vegetable Heaven' made me overcome my dislike towards certain vegetables. The veggies cook together and flavors come through as one in this stew. You can roast more veggies than required for this stew and have the extra ones as a snack.

The recipe calls for adding cumin and mustard seeds to the vegetables before roasting them. Although I was concerned about burnt cumin seeds and mustard seeds, that did not occur. Try not to omit these; they do add a lot of flavor.

Moroccan Roasted Vegetable stew- 4 servings

1-2 T olive oil
10-15 pearl onions, with skin or 1 medium onion, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 large carrot, diced into large cubes or a handful baby carrots
1 medium zucchini, diced into large cubes
a handful of button mushrooms, roughly chopped
Salt to taste

1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
8 cloves of garlic, skins left on
4 -6 ripe tomatoes, halved and cored
2 large red peppers
1 cinnamon stick
1 can 15 oz fava beans or chick peas, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375º Line two large baking trays with foil, brush with olive oil.
Scatter onions, garlic, zucchini, mushrooms and carrots onto one tray, drizzle with oil and sprinkle cumin, mustard seeds and pinch of salt. Place on bottom rack of oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until tender. Let cool.

I prefer to broil the peppers to get their smoky flavor. I baked tomatoes along with other veggies in a separate baking sheet for 15 min until slightly blistered and skin comes off easily. I did not want to dry out tomatoes too much. The tomatoes will give the liquid component in this stew. If you prefer a lot of liquid, you can add a small can of diced tomatoes instead. Peel peppers, roughly chop and add them to a bowl along with tomatoes. Place cinnamon stick in bowl. Remove skins from onion and garlic. Squeeze out roasted garlic & add to bowl. Add remaining veggies to the bowl, beans and add to taste salt and black pepper.

Let the veggies mingle for a couple of hours. Just before serving, remove cinnamon, cover bowl and heat stew in microwave for 5-10 min. Add the lemon juice liberally.

I served this on some couscous flavored with orange juice and pistachios.

Dining around the Silicon Valley- Thirupathi Bhimas

2006-01-31T07:10:00.000-08:00

We were loitering in the Milpitas area and we saw Thirupathi Bhimas, a restaurant in a non-descript mall. It was closed that day but we were attracted by the name 'Sri Krishna Sweets' that was before its name (Every Chennaite must know that Krishna Sweets mysore pa are delectable treats oozing with ghee). Now I also know that, it is a branch of Bhimas hotel in Thirupathi, AP. This is a place where we dine every time we visit the Lord Balaji temple.

So expecting to find them selling mysore pa, we walked in one Saturday afternoon. There were around 20 people waiting to be seated and that is always a good sign, isn't it? It was like a mini-Tamil Nadu in there. It felt good being there and hearing our language being spoken all around. Even the restaurant manager spoke in tamil.

We were disappointed that they just used the Krishna sweets name and they did not sell mysore pa. But, nevertheless we decided to have our meals there. And we did a good thing. They have a spicy Andhra thali (a four course meal served in a plate) that comes with Kara kuzhambu, a kurma and a kara curry. So being the spice lover, I chose it. My husband had their non-spicy thali (check out their site). All the dishes were of tamilian origin, it seemed. Even their Andhra thali... But for an array of condiments like paruppu podi, gongura pickle and avakkai pickle, you could not say there was anything related to AP. I was sort of disappointed by this because I was expecting some authentic Andhra food.

Andhra or tamil, the food was great. If you are used to a medium level of spiciness, you can order any of these two versions of thali. If you are looking for good tamil or rather south Indian food experience, you have to try this place out. In the evenings, they also serve dosa, vada and other south Indian tiffin items.

Weekend Cookbook challenge- Dal paratha

2006-01-30T14:32:00.000-08:00

I have been waiting to participate in the Weekend cookbook challenge hosted by Sara and Alicat because the project involves something that is close to my heart-cookbooks and this month's theme is winter comfort foods. I am an arm-chair cook and I read more recipes than I ever cook. I own almost thirty cookbooks but my most used book is the 'Net' itself. I am glad to be taking part this month.

I grew up in the southern India where there is no winter. Winter brings with it some rare, foggy mornings but thats about it. But a bigger indication that winter is around is the availability of cauliflower, red carrots (also called Delhi carrots) and English peas. Pittsburgh winter was a big surprise (should I say shock?) to me when I came to the US.

Somehow, I always have a craving for parathas in winter. This recipe is from an Indian cookbook 'Roz ka khana' (translates to Everyday Food) by Tarla Dalal I have had for a couple of years.

Dal Paratha (makes 6)

For dough:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp salt
enough water

Knead the above well into a smooth, soft dough. Let rest for 30 min. Divide into six portions.

Filling:
1/2 cup moong dal, soaked for 20 min
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp chili powder
a pinch of asafoetida (optional)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
salt, to taste
1 T finely chopped cilantro

Cook moongdal in 1 cup water and turmeric until very tender and most of the water has been absorbed. Strain the dal and save the water for making the dough. Heat a saute pan. Add 1 tsp oil. Add cumin seeds and asafoetida. When cumin changes to a golden brown, add dal, chili powder, salt and garam masala. Saute till mixture dries up completely. Mix in cilantro. Divide into six portions.

To make parathas- Roll out one portion of dough into a small 4-inch disc. Place one portion of filling in center and bring in the corners of the disc and seal tightly. Dust lightly with flour and roll into a circle of 6 inches or so. The rolled paratha will be thicker than the usual chappathi. Cook on a medium-hot tava with some ghee or butter until both sides are golden brown.

I like to make a big batch of parathas and store it for a couple of days. It does not dry out like chappathis and it becomes soft and tasty when nuked.

Along with some yogurt and achaar, it is a great, balanced meal.

Tagged:Weekend cookbook challenge

Jhaal moori- Kolkata Street Food

2006-01-20T14:01:00.000-08:00

My husband was in Kolkata for a few years and he loved being there. The one thing he misses and often raves about is the street food. Street food in Kolkata can be anything from dosa, to Chinese food to the usual chaat. We keep trying to make the famous Jhaal moori, a dry version of bhelpuri. Recently, a Bengali friend mentioned her way of making it. The key is to use mustard oil. But before you run to get a bottle, I warn you- mustard oil is an extreme food. It has a wasabi like kick when you use it raw like in this recipe. If you are not a Bangla, chances are you will not like it. But I am an exception and I like it. My husband, having lived on foods cooked with mustard oil for two years, hates it. So if you buy, get the smallest bottle you can find.

My friend has a solution too-if you don't want to buy mustard oil, use the oil that collects on top of Indian achaar. Simple enough...

Jhaal moori- for one

1 cup bhel
2 T sev
a sprinkling of finely chopped onion
1 green chili, finely chopped
1 T roasted peanuts
a sprinkling of chopped cilantro
a pinch of red chili powder
salt, as required
1 tsp of mustard oil or more to coat
a good squeeze of lemon juice

Mix and serve at once. It is easier to make individual portions and serve. In my experience, larger portions become too oily or get soggy before you eat it.

I used Nupur's Quick Bhadang and left out the sev. Bhadang is great on its own and this way it was even better. It is really worth making a lot of the bhadang and storing it up for eating as a snack, bhel puri or jhaal moori.

Latest Kitchenware acquisition-Madeleine pan

2006-01-18T16:39:00.000-08:00

I have been looking for a silicone madeleine pan for a while. But I was not desperate enough to order online because my past forays into online shopping have increased my credit card bills significantly. I always buy more than required and at least for now, space is a premium in our apartment. When I visited the Great mall at Milpitas today, I saw a Farberware store and went in search of a madeleine pan. That was the first thing I saw inside the store. I bought it (for $12.99, dunno if it a good bargain or not) and I came rushing home to try Malgieri's recipe for chocolate-orange madeleines from his 'Chocolate' book (the recipe is almost similar to this).

The baked madeleines are delightfully tender and cake-like. The aroma from the beurre noisette is amazing. Some recipes call for just melting the butter but this will not give it flavor as much as the browned butter. The orange zest is a great addition, according to my husband who does not like much of chocolate desserts, can you believe it? I also came across Julie's scented madeleines that had been submitted for Paper chef. It sounds delicious with the almond paste and all. So that will be the star of my next madeleine making event.

Potato and red pumpkin curry- A Rajasthani delight

2006-01-17T10:07:00.000-08:00

I have posted a recipe for something Indian after a while. The subzi is something I tasted when I ordered a Rajasthani thali (meal) a year back in New Jersey. This was the curry of the day and seriously, I thought it was a bad combination of vegetables. I was even contemplating that it was just leftover vegetables but that was before I tasted it. It tasted good and very flavorful. I found the same recipe in Tarla Dalal's Rajasthani cookbook. I did more than recreate restaurant flavors. It was delicious even though there is no garlic or onion in this dish and the spice-combination is very unique.

Red pumpkin is a bright-orange squash that is sold in Indian and Asian markets. If you don't find it, acorn squash will work well.

Aloo-Pethe ka saag (translates to the above)

4 medium red potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 cups of red pumpkin cubes (just peel and cut them into chunks)
2-3 T yogurt (since it involves a lot of cooking of the yogurt, it is better to use full-fat one)

spice bouquet:
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp nigella or onion seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 bay leaf
1 inch cinnamon bark
2 cardamom pods
2 cloves

1/4 tsp asafoetida
1 tomato, finely chopped
2 tsp coriander-cumin powder
1 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp amchur powder (dried mango powder)
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
salt to taste

1. Heat a tbsp of oil or ghee and fry the spice bouquet until the seeds crackle. Add asafoetida, yogurt, chili powder, coriander-cumin powder and turmeric and fry for 2-3 min.
2. Add potato and pumpkin and 1/2 cup water, cover and cook on medium-low flame until vegetables are almost but not fully done. Add the tomato and salt and cover and cook until tender.
3. Lastly add amchur and sugar.

Dining around the Silicon Valley

2006-01-16T09:33:00.000-08:00

We have been having a ball eating out in good Indian resturants. The quality of Indian food here is much better than what we have had in Pittsburgh. The huge Indian community here has to be given credit for this. Only the good places seem to survive here. Some of our friends have given restaurant reviews and we have gone to a few good places accordingly. Chaat Paradise, Mountain View is a well-liked place. We are chaat lovers and we were determined to visit this place.

We decided that our dinner will be all-chaat. I ordered their snack combo that comes with two chaat items, a papad and tea/coffee. I had the dahi batata sev puri and hara bhara bhel. You can even substitute the beverage with chasni or thinned down buttermilk spiced with cumin seeds. My husband ordered the bhelpuri and spicy misal (as an experiment). There is no difference between the two bhels except for the addition of cucumber in mine. The spicy misal is a pav bhaji type of dish served with toasted pav. The misal is a bhaji made of bean sprouts. I was not too impressed with it though. The dishes are quite spicy just as chaat should be.

When 20 month old Aditi refused to eat even a spoon of these dishes, we had to order some bread. I am not a fan of chapathis served at restaurants. So we ordered the makai di roti. It is a speciality of Punjab. It is an unleavened bread made with cornmeal and served with a lot of ghee. Aditi liked it with some raita. Overall nice chaats and fast service. Quite inexpensive, really.

Veggie chowmein-Indian style

2006-01-06T13:19:00.000-08:00

I am looking out for a nice restaurant in San Jose that serves Indo-Chinese food. But till I find one, I have to make it at home even if stir-frying is a painful process when done in an apartment and with an electric stove.

Most Indians will attest to their love for Chinese food. But the dishes we so love belong to the hakka style, developed by Chinese immigrants to the easterm part of India. It is very much spicy and tongue-tingling, not even remotely similar to real Chinese food. Chowmein is only slightly spicy from green chili sauce and of course, there is a chicken version of this that I have seen in restaurants. Here is the recipe with no visual details.

1 package hakka noodles, cooked well in advance according to package directions
1 onion, diced into large chunks
1 cup roughly chopped cabbage
1/2 a large carrot, peeled and shredded into thin strips
a tbsp of finely diced celery
1 bell pepper, cut into strips
handful of bean sprouts

2 garlic cloves pounded coarsely with or without 2 dried red chilis
salt(optional- add if the salt from soy sauce is not enough for your taste)

sauce mixture:
2 T light soy sauce
1 T green chili sauce
1 T rice vinegar

1. Toss the drained, cooked noodles with little oil. Let it cool down completely.
2. Heat a tsp of oil in a wok and add the onion and let it cook for 30 sec or so. Next add the garlic paste and saute until it smells like nicely toasted garlic. Add oil periodically in 1/2 tsp additions, if needed. Otherwise, the fumes will have you coughing for a couple of hours (as I learned the hard way).
3. Add celery, bell pepper and carrot strips. Celery is used in most indo-chinese dishes but it is optional. Stir-fry until veggies are still crunchy and add salt if required . Lastly add the cabbage.
4. Add the noodles and let it heat up. Add bean sprouts. Lastly add the sauce mixture and toss well for a minute or two.

This is traditionally served with green chili rings soaked in vinegar and also some red and green chili sauce.

Welcome 2006!

2006-01-03T15:55:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to y'all! Hope this year enriches all our lives with health and happiness.

This is a fresh beginning for my family and a maiden post for this blog from the not-so-warm San Jose. See you all soon with a REAL post...

A Blogging hiatus

2005-12-06T07:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Reader, this will be my last post from Pittsburgh. My fridge-cleanup effort has been successfully completed.

My blog is alive but there will be no updates until after we complete our move to the Silicon Valley and settle down in our home with Internet access, of course (which can take at least a month, gulp). To all my blog friends- I will miss reading your posts very much. I will read your posts soon in sunny California!

Vegetarian Paella

2005-12-03T10:42:00.000-08:00

I love the taste of restaurant paella, even though vegetarian versions are not authentic. But at home, it always falls short of my expectations until today. This recipe does not leave you with enough leftovers for a week. I usually use just normal long grain rice for paella but using short grain style rice, arborio like I did today gives a nice chewy texture to the dish. I usually crank up the heat to saute up the sofrito. But long, slow sauteeing for 15-20 min improved the flavor remarkably this time. Overall, it was very satisfying to eat a home cooked paella. Now that I have made a nice, tasty paella, maybe I will buy the neat paella pans next...

1 cup arborio rice or spanish short-grain rice
1 large onion, finely chopped
5-6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp sazon blend (optional) or dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1 green pepper, finely diced
2-3 medium tomatoes, finely chopped
1 zucchini, diced
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup peas
1 tsp smoked paprika (I used ancho chile powder)
1 tsp saffron
2-2.5 cups vegetable broth, warmed
6 artichoke hearts, sliced into halves
1 red pepper, roasted, peeled and cut into strips
salt
lemon wedges

1. Heat 2-3 tsp olive oil in a large skillet, add onion, garlic and green pepper and saute until softened, 2-3 min. Turn down heat to medium-low, add herbs and tomatoes and saute for as long as 15-20 min till very soft and slightly caramelized.
2. Soak saffron in warm broth.
3. When the sofrito is done, add zucchini and rice. Saute for 1 min. Add wine and let it evaporate. Pour in the broth, add salt, paprika. Some recipes don't suggest covering and let the paella cook in the oven. I cover the pan and cook on stovetop.
4. Add peas half-way through. After the rice cooks completely, remove cover. Place artichokes and roasted pepper strips decoratively on top. Let the bottom of rice caramelize a little.
5. Serve warm with lemon wedges.

Fridge clean-up: Chocolate mayonnaise cake

2005-12-01T19:56:00.000-08:00

I am working against time to use up the odds and ends in my refrigerator before we move next week. This nice, everyday cake used up the mayo in the fridge. It is even better the next day, quite chocolaty for a cocoa powder based cake. I split the cake horizontally and sandwiched it with raspberry jam (lots of it). The jam did improve the taste phenomenally.

Chocolate mayonnaise cake

1 cup sugar
1 cup full-fat mayonnaise
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk

Oven 350 degrees. Beat the sugar and mayonnaise until blended. Add the vanilla and blend. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt and add it to the mayonnaise mixture in 3 batches alternating with the buttermilk. Pour into a greased and floured 9 by 9 by 2-inch baking pan. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Microwave Plantain chips

2005-12-01T14:03:00.000-08:00

Microwave potato chips are catching on in the Blogging world, thanks to Uncle Bill and Nic. It seems to be already getting ahead of self-frosting cupcakes. I tried it with idaho potatoes and in my first attempt I did burn most of the slices. I guess the trick, if any, is in the even slicing. I love plantain chips and tried making it in the microwave. It worked! I thinly sliced the plantains by hand, tossed them with some salt, chili powder and 1 tsp oil. Then they took around 3 min in the microwave. The extra oil is optional but since plantains are very dry inside, I liked the addition of oil.

Vermicilli idli

2005-11-29T13:03:00.000-08:00

This is India's favorite pasta, just like the Italian vermicelli but in small bits. It is called semiya in Tamil and we use it mostly for kheer or payasam, like Nupur's delicious one here. Some less known uses for it is in upma and also in making spiced idlis. Think vermicilli bound by rava idli batter and flavored with nuts and curry leaves and green chilies. That is semiya or vermicelli idli. No fermentation is required because of the addition of yogurt and baking powder. If the yogurt is sour, I like to eliminate baking powder also.

Vermicilli idlis

Vermicilli – 1 ½ cups
Semolina- ¾ cup
Ghee- 2 tsp
Oil-3tbsp
Fresh yogurt- 2 cups
Water-approx 1/2 cup or less
Chopped green chillies- 1 tsp
Cumin seeds-1tsp
Asafoetida powder- 1 tsp (optional)
chana dal- 1 tsp
Curry leaves- a handful
Chopped cilantro-2tbsp
broken cashew- 3 tbsp
Baking powder- ½ tsp
salt as required

Fry the vermicilli and the semolina separately in the ghee to a light golden colour. Take away and let them to cool in a bowl. Heat oil. Add the cashew, cumin seeds, chana dal and asafoetida and fry for a few seconds until cashew is golden brown. Add the green chilli and curry leaves and fry for a few minutes. Add this to the vermicilli mixture. Add the beaten yogurt, cilantro and the baking powder with the water and enough salt. Mix well. You should have a batter with a rice idli consisitency. Keep this mixture covered for 15-20 minutes, then mix well and pour the batter into greased idli moulds. Steam them for about 12 min until tester comes clean.

Fridge clean-up: Maple blueberry whole-wheat braid

2005-11-28T07:20:00.000-08:00

We will be relocating soon to California and moving out of this apartment that has been our home for six years. When you have lived for too long in a place, things pile up. My freezer has a huge stash of stuff that has to be used before we leave in a week or two. One such gem I found hidden in our freezer was some organic blueberries. I had to use them for this bread from the Bread Bible. This way I also used up the maple syrup can that was lying around in the fridge.

I was apprehensive about making bread from the book because of some bad reviews. But Nic, of Baking Sheet tested out a Cinnamon swirl bread from this book and it looked great on her blog. I am, by no means, as good as her in terms of baking. But my confidence in the book was renewed and I made two huge braids last weekend. It is a half-day affair. But the taste of the end product was great.

The recipe I made was the one in the book and since the link has the bread machine version, the proportions for the dough are different.

Whole wheat sweet yeast dough for mixing by hand

1 cup warm milk
1/4 cup warm water
pinch sugar
pinch of ground ginger
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 large eggs
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 cups whole-wheat flour
2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 Tbsp instant yeast

Mix and knead as for a normal bread dough.

Make sure to have friends around for sharing because the bottom gets soggy if it lies around for more than two days. The bread is almost like a blueberry cobbler but with a lot of bread around. It is not too sweet even with so much maple syrup in it. It is great for breakfast.

SHF/IMBB- Holiday cookie swap

2005-11-26T11:48:00.000-08:00

Making cookies is a lovely tradition and I do it every year with my friends. Exchanging family cookie recipes along with some great pictures is exciting and this is what this SHF/IMBB is about. It is hosted by none other than the Domestic goddess, Jennifer and Alberto of Il Forno. From these creators of SHF and IMBB, this is a super-duper bloggers event.

My family does not share the cookie-making tradition since most families in India do not own an oven. I grew up on bakery cookies and packaged biscuits, most of them are eggless, catering to the predominantly vegetarian population. For this SHF, I recreated some of my childhood favorites.

cardamom sandwich cookies

Cardamom cream sandwich cookies- I love True Elaichi biscuits. This homemade version is based on Gale Gand's recipe. It has ground cardamom and some crushed saffron in the dough. The cream filling made with butter, powdered sugar and milk has ground cardamom and I also added a drop or two of cardamom extract from India. Truly exotic and I will have to make more for swapping.

macaroons

Coconut macaroons- A common macaroon recipe that I baked to a perfect golden brown as those I get from Indian bakeries (not just pale on the edges). It is crispy on the outside and chewy inside.

'Nice' biscuits

Faux Nice biscuits- Nice biscuits are perfect for eating on their own or dunking in coffee. They have a lot of coconut and a crisp sugar sprinkle on top. This recipe tastes exactly the same though in a different shape.

80 gm Flour
40 gm Butter
1/4 tsp Baking powder
50 gm Powder sugar
40 gm unsweetend Desiccated coconut
about 4 T Water/Milk (this recipe has only approximate measurements to form a soft dough)
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/4 tsp coconut extract (optional)
Coarse sugar for sprinkling

Sieve/sift flour and baking powder. Cream butter and sugar. Add flour and desiccated coconut, extracts and make a soft dough with milk/water. Roll into a cylinder and further roll the dough into a square butter paper. Chill it for 4-5 hours or till hard (Do not freeze). Bake at 350 F for 15 mins or till dark golden.

Pumpkin roll

2005-11-22T13:39:00.000-08:00

This is a delicious and relatively low-fat pumpkin roll baked for a friend. The recipe is from cooking light and can also be found here. There is no need to beat egg whites separately, a big plus IMO. The cream cheese filling and spices in the cake remind me of carrot cake. The pecans on top give a great crunch.

Roasted soy beans

2005-11-21T09:06:00.000-08:00

I recently purchased a huge frozen pack of soybeans for a bargain at Lotus, in the strip district. I wanted to experiment with the bean and try making roasted salted soybeans. The Trader Joe's version of it is really delicious but we do not have it in Pittsburgh yet. So the experiment was very successful and I made an onion flavored version too. They make one tasty snack and salad topper too.

Blanch 2 cups or so of frozen beans in salted boiling water and let them cook till they are soft enough to eat but quite firm (no splitting skins). Spread them on paper towels and dry them completely. Mix the beans in a bowl with 1 tsp oil, sprinkling of salt, some paprika and any other flavoring (like dried herbs, onion powder, garlic powder etc). Spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake at 450 F (stirring every 5 min) until they are dry, crisp and browned slightly. It took me 20 min or so to crisp them. They will crisp a little more on cooling.

Tongs from an Indian Kitchen

2005-11-21T08:09:00.000-08:00

Idukki

Indira has come up with a wonderful idea to showcase utensils and ingredients from Indian Kitchens. This is my must-have tool in the kitchen- 'idukki' or tongs. I have a lot of pots and pans purchased in India that are stainless steel and most of them do not have heat-proof handles. This pair of worn-out tongs are of great help moving hot pans, especially in and out of the pressure cooker. They are very sturdy too. Many of my Indian friends have tried and tested ones that are handed down by their mothers or mothers-in-law.

Blog party-Holiday edition

2005-11-17T06:48:00.000-08:00

It is Stephanie's party and I am bringing some mushroom gratinate. It is one of those recipes that remind you of something else but yet you keep making it for its amazing taste. Could it be because it is Lidia Bastianich's recipe? It seems like a crostini with mushroom topping. But the longer baking time and lots of pressing makes it more like a mushroom pizza. I just used some button mushrooms. The best part is our 18 month old loved the topping (she does not like anything usually). Here are the mushroom fingers (as I like to call them) and my gal hanging around for the party to begin-).

Mushroom Gratinate
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. butter
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 1/2 lbs. mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 tsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano

FOR THE BASE AND GRATIN
12 thick slices hearty wheat bread, lightly toasted
3 tbsp. soft butter
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano

Preheat the oven to 375°.

Heat the olive oil in the skillet over medium heat and sauté the garlic, stirring, until it just begins to color. Add the butter and, when it melts, toss in the mushrooms, sprinkle on the thyme, sage, and salt, and cook, stirring now and then, until the water evaporates and the mushrooms start to caramelize. Remove from the heat, then stir in the grated cheese.

Lay the bread slices in one layer in the baking pan to cover the bottom completely. Spread the soft butter all over the bread and spoon the mushrooms evenly on top, pressing them down into the bread. Sprinkle the parsley on and top with grated cheese. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until the cheese has browned and the edges of the bread are crisp. Let rest a few minutes, then cut into serving pieces. Makes 12 pieces.

I can never get myself interested in cocktails or mocktails. I leave it to friends to supply them. So this recipe for pomegranate martini comes from my friend S who loves making cocktails. I think the color of it would be beautiful and festive. Shake together 3 oz citrus-infused vodka and 3 oz of POM juice with some ice. Shake,shake, shake and pour into chilled glasses. Serves two.

Cauliflower biryani with soy beans

2005-11-16T04:31:00.000-08:00

A whole lot of cauliflower has landed here in the market in the strip district. I had bought a huge head of it a week back and forgotten about it until Indira made her delicious aloo gobi. I am just as reluctant as her to buy cauliflower but S is fond of it. I like to literally drown cauliflower in spices to cancel out the off-flavor. This is one of the ways I make gobi, besides my usual cauliflower korma (very similar to Indira's recipe). I added some frozen soy beans instead of peas. I never liked the salted edamame that is sold soaked in brine or something. But I loved this frozen version of the bean. A great way to add some protein (and quite a bit of good fat too) to our not too balanced vegetarian diet.

Cauliflower biryani with soybeans

1 cup Basmati or long-grain rice, washed and soaked for 15 min
2 cups medium size cauliflower florets
1 large onion, sliced thin
1/2 cup - 3/4 cup fresh or frozen soy beans or peas
1/4 cup yogurt
1 tsp coriander-cumin powder
1 tsp red chili powder
1-2tsp garam masala or pulao masala powder
salt, to taste
a few mint leaves, finely chopped
cilantro, chopped
2 tsp oil or ghee

Spice mix:
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 bay leaf
1 inch cinnamon bark
4 green cardamom pods, crushed
2-3 cloves

Drain rice.
Heat oil/ghee. Add spice mix and saute till cumin seeds turn slightly golden. Add the onion and saute until wilted. Add cauliflower and saute until slightly softened. Add rice and saute for a minute. Add soybeans and 2.25 cups water. Once it comes to a boil, add yogurt, salt, chili powder, coriander-cumin powder, garam masala and mint. Cover pan tightly and cook till rice and vegetables are done. Fluff up rice and garnish with cilantro.

It goes well with boondi raita.

Mint chutney- South-Indian style

2005-11-11T08:35:00.000-08:00

Most South-indian hotels serve a green mint chutney with dosas. It is nothing but a thinned down version of Mint thogaiyal. Making large batches of chutney requires enormous quantities of the main ingredient. Thogaiyal is a type of chutney. The addition of lentils and coconut gives a lot of volume, an excellent way for restaurants to save on expensive herbs.

While chutney is made with mostly fresh ingredients and is paste-like, thogaiyal involves some sauteeing of the ingredients and grinding them into a thick and coarse mass. The sauteeing step gives a richer flavor and also increases the life of the thogaiyal to about 5-7 days. Fresh chutneys can keep for a maximum of 2 days only.

Thogaiyal can be made with any sauteed vegetable. Most tamilians, make versions of this with coconut, lentils, broiled eggplant, cilantro, curry leaves or mint as the predominant flavoring.

Base for thogaiyal

4-5 red chilis
1 tsp mustard seeds
3 tsp urad dal (or 2 tsp urad dal + 1 tsp chana dal)
1/4 tsp whole peppercorns(optional)
1/4 tsp tamarind paste or 1 inch piece tamarind
2 T or more grated fresh or dessicated coconut (this is a good place to use dessicated coconut)
1 inch ginger, peeled and finely chopped(optional)
1-2 green chilis(optional)

Saute red chilis, mustard, pepper, tamarind pod (if using) and dal until golden brown. Add coconut and saute until coconut turns golden brown. Remove to a bowl. Add ginger and green chilis and saute until slightly toasted. Add this to the bowl.

One of the following main ingredient is to be added:
1 small bunch mint (or a mix of cilantro and mint), sauteed until wilted and dry.
1 small bunch cilantro, sauteed until wilted and dry.
1/2 cup curry leaves, sauteed until wilted and dry.
1 cup grated coconut (Coconut thogaiyal), saute along with base ingredients until golden.
1/2 cup tur dal (paruppu thogaiyal), saute along with base ingredients until golden.
1 large eggplant, broiled until soft and skins removed

Grind the base mixture with the main ingredient, tamarind paste(if using) and salt into a coarse, thick mass. Season with mustard seeds and urad dal.

This is a great way to get a larger quantity of chutney when herbs or coconut is limited. It is excellent with dosa, yogurt rice or with the humble kanji (porridge).

Thogaiyal with rice-green gram kanji

Stuffed red chili pickles

2005-11-10T10:46:00.000-08:00

I saw small red cherry peppers in the farmers' market that screamed to be stuffed. This is my way of stuffing them- with lots of spices and pickling them in oil. This is a traditional pickle from Northern India made with long red chilis. I usually buy 'Mother's recipe' brand of this pickle from India. I am out of it and so this will be my substitute till my next trip to India (if it lasts so long). The Indian red chili is more fiery. Cherry peppers are very mild and so if you want it very spicy, you need to increase the red chili powder to suit your taste.

Stuffed red chili pickles

20 cherry peppers
1 cup oil
2 tbsps mustard seeds
3 tbsps cumin seeds
2 tbsps aniseed/fennelseeds
3-4 tbsp red chili powder or more to taste
1/4 cup coarse mustard powder (available in Indian store)
4 tbsps amchoor powder
about 8 tbsp salt, or more to taste
Juice of 3-5 limes
1 tsp asafoetida

Wash and thoroughly dry the chillies. Trim the stems. Remove the stem of chili and remove most of the seeds and membranes without breaking apart the chilies.

Roast cumin seeds, mustard seeds and aniseed/fennel seeds on a slow fire till mustard pops. Cool and grind very coarsely.

Mix this with the mustard powder, chili powder, raw mango powder and salt. Add just enough lime juice to this mix to make a thick paste. Taste the mixture before stuffing. It should be very salty, spicy and sour. Stuff each chilli well with the paste. Put the chillies in a dry, wide-mouthed glass pickling jar (the glass should be able to withstand hot tempratures).

Heat the oil (if you like the taste, mustard oil will be more authentic) in a pan and when very hot add the asafoetida and immediately turn off the fire. Pour the hot oil over the chillies in the jar. Keep jar open till oil cools. Seal the jar and keep it out in the sun for a week to ten days. In this wet and cold weather, this is not possible. So keep them in a cool place in your pantry. This just means that the chilis will take longer to marinate and soften. Shake gently each day to make sure the oil coats the chillies well.

It goes great with chappatis and parathas.

Eggplant subzi with dried wadi

2005-11-09T08:02:00.000-08:00

Indian stores sell sun-dried lentil nuggets called wadi. They are delicious and they can turn even the most mundane vegetable into a spicier and special-tasting dish. There are two types of wadis that our local Indian grocer sells- one made with urad dal called punjabi wadi and the other is moong dal wadis that are smaller and less spicy. These wadis remind me of 'kuzhambu vadam' that my mom used to add to vathal kuzhambu as a flavoring agent and thickener.

wadi

I like to use the larger urad wadis and usually one or two large ones are enough for making a dish. Urad dal wadis contain coarsely broken dried chilis and peppercorns. Each bite sends a spice burst in your mouth. But when broken pieces are added to a subzi, they completely melt into it improving the overall flavor of the dish. All that needs to be done is to break the wadi coarsely and saute them in a tbsp of oil until golden brown. Then add the sauteed wadis along with the vegetable and cook till vegetable is done.

1 large eggplant
1-2 large Urad Dal Wadi, broken into medium to small pieces
oil
a pinch of Asafoetida
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 inch piece Ginger (finely chopped)
4-5 Green chillies (finely chopped)
1 tsp Turmeric powder
2 large Tomatoes (finely chopped)
Salt to taste
1 tbsp Garam masala powder

Finely chop eggplant. Keep in sufficient water to prevent discolouration.
Heat oil in pan. Add urad dal wadi broken in small pieces. Cook till golden brown. Drain and keep aside. In the same oil, add mustard seeds, asafoetida, ginger, green chillies and turmeric powder. Stir well briefly and add tomatoes. Cook till oil separates. Add drained brinjal pieces, fried wadi, salt to taste and garam masala powder. Cover and cook on low heat for about ten minutes till meltingly tender. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Gingerbread with blueberries

2005-11-08T14:20:00.000-08:00

It is gingerbread season already. This is a light recipe from Cooking light. I love using blueberries in gingerbread; they are even better here than in muffins. The blueberries are a nice contrast to the sweet bread. So if you have a frozen stash of blueberries, this is a seasonally attractive option.

Gingerbread

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger (this really makes it special)
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (or you can use 1 tsp ground allspice)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup apple cider or 1% low-fat milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups frozen or fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350°.

Toss berries with 2 tsp flour.
Combine remaining flour with all other ingredients through cloves in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk; make a well in center of mixture.

Combine buttermilk through eggs; stir well with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Fold in blueberries. Spoon batter into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish or 9-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. The cake is very moist 'coz of the berries. So it can stick to the pan.

It is better served from the pan with a dusting of powdered sugar.

A shallow souffle with a height complex

2005-11-06T14:25:00.000-08:00

This one was almost an entry for IMBB event that was hosted by Kitchen Chick last month. But these did not look like souffles that have huffed and puffed. So I had written up a post and ignored it. But when I was going through my posts today, I came across it. The idea of making a jalapeno souffle based on a bechamel sauce seemed a delicious idea. The dismal look of this souffle happened 'coz I tried to convert the recipe for 12 mini- muffin sized hors'doeuvres into two normal souffles in 4 oz ramekins. But this recipe just made enough for one generous souffle. Since I needed two individual servings, I decided to tempt fate and get on with it. The unbaked souffle batter came to about 1/3 rd of the ramekins, not a good sign at all. Anyway, they did rise to almost the top of the ramekins. I decided to post this anyway because the taste of these souffles are amazing and I think they would make great little bites too.

Quinoa with roasted root vegetables

2005-11-04T10:35:00.000-08:00

I came across Quinoa in Jennifer's previous blog. After some research, I found that this was one protein-rich grain and has several health benefits. Quinoa has a resinous, soapy coating that is bitter. So it needs to be washed thoroughly. But the quinoa available in US, does not have the coating and so it takes much less rinsing. I like to rinse it once and roast till the grain makes popping noise (although this is not neccessary). The taste of toasted quinoa is much better and I love the chewiness of its white tail. We had it with roasted root vegetables that were drizzled with a touch of balsamic vinegar. Truly, a delicious and feel-good meal.

Sugar cookies

2005-11-03T07:31:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of Halloween, I made some sugar cookies. I wanted to try my hand at icing them in beautiful colors and decorate them to my heart's content. I have never had much success with cut-out cookies since many recipes I have tried in the past did not roll out well. The scraps were impossible to roll out even if they were chilled. I guess now I have found the right recipe. This recipe comes from Alton Brown and if you have seen his show Good Eats, you will know why his recipes can be trusted a great deal. It was with this faith that I used his recipe.

Needless to say, this is a beautiful dough. It rolls out well, without becoming sticky and soft. You can use the dough till the last ounce without any change in the cookies' texture. These cookies are buttery, slightly crisp and not too sweet (even when I increased the sugar by 1/4 cup). They tasted so great plain that we felt that icing it spoiled the flavor.

Alton's sugar cookies (adapted slightly)

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1- 1.25 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Cinnamon sugar or colored sugar for sprinkling on top, optional

Sift together flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg, vanilla and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Cut into desired shape, place on baking sheet lined with parchment, or silicone baking mat. Sprinkle cinnamon or colored sugar on top or leave it plain. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack.

Happy Diwali!

2005-11-01T19:14:00.000-08:00

courtesy: 123greetings.com

This is the first Diwali that this blog is celebrating. Diwali, especially the first (thalai) Diwali is a very special occasion. A baby's first diwali, a newly wed couple's first Diwali, first Diwali in a newly bought house and even this blog's first has a special significance.

Dear readers, Happy Diwali to you. My best wishes to those bloggers, who are celebrating their 'thalai' diwali in blogging.

Paal Khoa- The microwave way

2005-10-31T10:28:00.000-08:00

Diwali is tomorrow. So I kicked off the cooking routine for the festival today without the use of the stove. Paal khoa is milk that has been thickened with sugar and cardamom to a paste-like consistency. I still cannot forget the taste of delicious Aavin paal khoa. Making it requires patience and time. You boil the milk and simmer, it stirring all the time until it is thickened. One of our friends has arranged for a party to exchange sweets and snacks. When it comes to large-scale khoa-making, IT IS a lot of effort. So I thought I had nothing to lose when it came to try it the microwave way. Instead of condensing the milk, on the stove, a can of condensed milk goes into this. In just 6 minutes, you have a delicious paal khoa. The only work that is needed is stirring the mass every 2 minutes or so.

Although this is eaten with a spoon, I made it into small pedas for the guests to eat as a finger food. This makes about 20-25 small pieces.

Microwave paal khoa or peda

3 Cups Milk powder (non-fat is ok)
1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 Stick unsalted butter
pinch saffron (optional)
1/2 tsp Cardamom powder
Chopped pistachios

Melt the butter in the microwave in a microwable casserole with a lid. Add milk powder, condensed milk, and saffron. Mix well. Close the lid, microwave for 2 minutes. Remove, and stir. Add ground cardamom and mix.

Keep repeating for every 2 minutes (total around 6 minutes), until the color changes from yellow to light brown. Let them cool to luke warm. Make them into balls, and shape them to pedas. Or you can serve it like a halwa. Decorate with chopped pistachios.

A new set of books

2005-10-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

I happened to find some great used books at Powells.com. I received my order of seven great books last week. Total cost, only $53.00. Check them out for some great deals.

Cooking with soy meats- Portugese Kale soup

2005-10-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

I am an occasional chickenitarian in an otherwise vegetarian family. My husband got converted into a lacto-ovo vegetarianism more than ten years ago. But the soy meats that have flooded the market are a boon for families that have members who are mainly vegetarian. Also, eating lentils and beans as a source of protein can sometimes be boring. I like to use soy chicken, pepperoni and bacon and love their texture and smoky flavor they give to dishes. Even though I have not tasted real pepperoni, I love the soy pepperoni on pizzas. The soy chicken has a sort of meaty flavor and texture. I use it Indian chicken curries.

Recently, I saw a soy chorizo at Super Walmart and instantly, remembered about Rachel Ray's kale-chorizo soup that has been much raved about at the forums. Kale is a green that has so much nutrition but it is very underused in our household since it is rather tough and bitter.

The soup was delicious with a smoky flavor. I used white beans and vegetable broth instead of garbanzo beans and chicken broth. Kale does not become too soft like other greens and it has a bite to it without any bitterness. It is a filling and comforting meal by itself.

Banana pepper sabzi

2005-10-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

Every cook has his/her cooking style. I prefer to follow recipes closely but my mom is totally different. She always adds some of her favorite ingredients to all the recipes giving them her unique touch. Some of her favorite ingredients are puffed channa dal, besan and garlic. She made up this recipe several years ago and this has become a family favorite. In India, we use long, mild peppers that are fried in bajjis. The spice mix is a traditional tamilian powder that is used to stuff baby eggplants and peppers. Since banana peppers are used, they are quite spicy. I have also used Anaheim peppers for a milder dish.

Banana pepper sabzi

6 banana peppers, stems removed, seeds and membrane removed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 tsp urad dal
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
salt to taste
1/2 tsp oil

Spice mix

3 tsp coriander seeds
1.5 tsp urad dal
1.5 tsp chana dal
1 tsp puffed chana
3 dry red chilies (you can reduce this if you want a mild version)
1 T dessicated coconut
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp oil

For spice mix: Heat 1/4 tsp oil and add all the ingredients except salt and coconut. Saute until dark golden brown. Add coconut and turn off heat. Grind into a coarse powder along with salt. This can be used as a stuffing or as a seasoning.

Sabzi: Heat oil and add urad dal, cumin and mustard seeds. After seeds splutter, add the chopped peppers and some salt. Sprinkle some water, cover tightly and cook until almost done. Remove cover and add 1-2 Tbsp of the spice mix and saute until completely dry and spice mix is slightly toasted.

This goes great with soft homestyle dosas and chapatis. Don't forget to have a bowl of yogurt on the side in case you get a fiery pepper.

Almond, hazelnut bark

2005-10-25T11:48:00.000-07:00

I have been having a big time chocolate tooth since last week (partly, thanks to SHF). When I saw a recipe in Leite's Culinaria for a Pistachio, hazelnut chocolate bark, I decided to try it. I always need a reason to make a particular recipe, it seems. I have never worked with tempered chocolate and this was the reason for choosing to make this one (besides an unused chocolate thermometer). What I was expecting to do was a homemade version of Cadbury's Fruit and nut bar.

The recipe called for 1.5 cups of tempered chocolate and seriously, I do not know how much of chocolate I would need for that. So I used a recipe for Almond bark from Nick Malgieri's Chocolate book.

The result was perfect and would be even better with my favorite milk chocolate.

Almond, hazelnut, pumpkin seed bark

8 oz 60 % bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghiradelli), tempered
8 oz mixed nuts (I used almonds, hazelnuts, pepitas)
Handful of black raisins
A pinch of fleur de sel, for sprinkling on top

Toast nuts separately. Remove skin off the hazelnuts. Chop all the nuts coarsely.

Tempering based on Malgieri's instructions:

1. Melt chocolate over a double boiler or microwave till the temp. rises to between 115 and 200 F.
2. Cool chocolate at room temp, stirring occasionally, until temperature falls to low eighties. When the chocolate satrts to set up around the top edge of the bowl, you can say that the temp is right. I did not use the seeding method here.

3. Keep the chocolate again on top of a double boiler and let temperature rise to between 88-91 F for dark chocolate (or 86-88 F for milk or white chocolate). If the temperature rises to above the given range, you have to start all over again.

Mix some of the nuts and all the raisins into the tempered chocolate. Spread onto a foil-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle remaining nuts and fleur de sel on top. Let set at rom temperature for about 30 min. Break up the set chocolate into large pieces. This keeps well at room temperature in an air-tight container.

SHF #13- Re-engineered Chocolate Decadence

2005-10-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

I have been eyeing recipes from Alice Medrich's low-fat bible 'Chocolate and the art of low-fat desserts' and Lovescool has given me a great excuse to make a recipe from it giving us a dark and desirable theme. This is my first experience with Ms. Medrich's recipe and whoo hoo, it uses up a lot of bowls and loads of chocolate too. This is the reincarnation of a sinful dessert that used heavy cream, butter, eggs and chocolate as the main ingredients. Sweet!

However this recipe for chocolate decadence is rather toned down with most of the fat coming from the chocolate. I used Scharffen Berger's 70 % bittersweet chocolate. After refrigerating for 24 hours, a piece of the cake was heavenly but it was not overwhelmingly rich as some chocolate desserts are. The cake is supposed to serve 12 (but an 8 inch cake has to be sliced into thin strips, I think, if it has to serve 12). The cake, or dessert is dense, fudgy and moist. There was a mint undertone, that was pleasant. Does Scharffen Berger's chocolate have a minty taste that anyone has noticed? It tasted like an overbaked cheesecake but in a good sense.

The cake is pleasantly bitter but to appease our sweet tooth I served it with caramel sauce and a little whipped cream. Thanks Lovescool for this dark, sinful theme.

Quest's quest for great food

2005-10-21T10:51:00.000-07:00

Richard Quest, the business news anchor for CNN Europe, also has his monthly interview show, Quest. In September's Quest, this guy met with great chefs across three continents to find the secret ingredient that keeps them going. The list of great chefs and their success formula can be found here. One of my favorite Indian chefs, Sanjeev Kapoor is also featured in the show.

Bhelpuri

2005-10-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

The colorful bhelpuri has a fan following like no other street food in India. It is found as gilla (wet and saucy) and sookha (dry) bhel. Even our part of South India has a drier version. The original Bombay Bhel uses three different chutnies to spice up the otherwise dull puffed rice- sweet date chutney, mint chutney and some garlic chutney. Deccanheffalump has neat recipes for the garlic and date chutnies. The mint chutney is made by grinding equal quantities of mint and cilantro with a small piece of fresh ginger and a few serrano chilies. Squeeze some lemon juice and add salt as needed. Unless you are entertaining a lot of people at home, it is quite uneccessary, not to mention, time-consuming to prepare the three chutneys. Besides, homemade ones do not keep well. If you are interested in trying this spicy snack, a visit to the Indian grocery store should provide you with all the ingredients.

Normally I mix varying amounts of the three chutneys together according to my taste. But it is quite difficult to get the spiciness of the chutneys that a bhel-waalas makes. Besides, the 'ready-made' taste is overwhelming.

During the course of my constant experimentation, I found that this not-so-authentic mix of bhel, chutneys and sauces seem to work well. The taste of my homemade bhelpuri has gone up to a new level.

Bhelpuri (a not-so authentic version)

2 cups of Store-bought bhel mix (consists of toasted puffed rice, sev and potato chips)
1/4 cup of roasted, salted peanuts (optional, but adds a great crunch)
2 medium potatoes, boiled, peeled and cut into large pieces
1 large tomato, finely chopped
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped (I like to leave it out sometimes)
1 small slice of green mango, finely chopped with skin (optional, a nice addition by Chennai bhel-waalas)
2 T finely chopped cilantro
1 slice of lemon

Chutneys:
Mix together 2 T
sweet chutney, 1 tsp
mint chutney, 1/4 tsp garlic chutney, 1 T maggi Hot and sweet sauce and 1 tsp of red chili sauce (I used Thai sauce but this is optional), 1/2 tsp chat masala. The sauce should not be very thick but more like a bechamel. I use some water to dilute it. Some lemon juice can be used instead.

Keep the bhel mix in a large mixing bowl. Add potatoes, onion, tomatoes, peanuts, mango and cilantro. Now add just enough chutney to coat the mixture without making it too soggy. Serve immediately with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Almond Kheer for the Gods

2005-10-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

As a part of Navratri celebration, we make a sweet pudding and a savory snack mix everyday to serve our guests. One important part of all our celebrations is sweet milk puddings called payasam or kheer. Although there are more than a dozen varieties of payasam, almond kheer is very special. Making it is simple but it remains a delicacy in India due to the very high price of almonds. Besides, a generous pinch of the most expensive spice, saffron is also added, giving it is beautiful pale yellow color. Whenever we go to India, one usual request from relatives is to get them a huge packet of almonds (the one sold at Wholesale warehouses). This is an expensive dish to make but it is the best way to savor the delicate taste of almonds and saffron.

Almond Kheer

1 litre or a very generous 4 cups of milk (low-fat also works)
3-4 T milk for grinding almonds
3/4 cup whole almonds, blanched and skins removed
1.5 cups sugar
A very generous pinch of saffron, crushed in a mortar
Sliced almonds and pistachios for garnish

1. Powder almonds coarsely. Add 3-4 T milk and grind to a smooth paste.
2. Bring milk to a boil in a heavy saucepan on medium heat. Add crushed saffron, turn down heat and simmer milk till it is reduced to 3/4 th of the original quantity.
3. Heat a skillet on medium heat. Add almond paste and saute until paste is thickened and you smell a delicious aroma of almonds. Do not let it change color at all. Add sugar and mix until sugar dissolves and the paste become thin. (Some people also skip the sauteeing step and add paste directly to the hot milk. But then you need to boil the milk longer like for 25 min, to cook the almonds. I always had the problem of burnt payasam when I simmer it for such a long duration.)

4. Add the paste to the simmering milk and simmer for 10 min more. Garnish with sliced nuts.

This kheer is best served cold. It is not very sweet like other payasams.

The Holy Nine Days

2005-10-04T08:33:00.000-07:00

Today is the start of Navaratri- nine days and nights of festivities for us. Prayers are offered to three main Goddesses- Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi. It signifies the victory of good over evil. This festival is celebrated throughout India but the form of celebration (and food too) varies. In Tamil Nadu and some southern states, a few odd number of steps are set up and dolls that represent important religious deities are placed on these steps. This is called a "Golu".

This is a festival for the ladies and a celebration of womanhood. We invite people we know to see the arrangement and send them home with special food preparations made for the occasion along with a small bag of gifts.

In most Southern states, Sundal, a snack mix made of lentils or beans is a daily preparation. It is served to the guests and each guest is sent home with sundal packed in pages from the previous day's newspaper. In our family, we do not use onions and garlic on holy days and so most of our sundals have grated coconut to boost flavor. For Day 1, I made a sundal made of channa dal. Nupur has a great chart of the different lentils and beans for reference.

Channa dal sundal

Channa Dhal - 1 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp (I love the taste coconut oil gives)
Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad Dhal - 1/2 tsp
Dry Red Chilly - 2, broken
Green chilies- 2, finely chopped (optional)
1 sprig of curry leaves

Clean the channa dal and soak in warm water for 10-15 min. Cook with enough water (with a pinch of turmeric added) to submerge lentils. When the dal is almost cooked add about 3/4 tsp salt. Continue to cook until completely tender but not mushy. Try not to over cook. Decant the excess water completely and set aside for a couple of minutes. Heat up the oil and fry the mustard seeds, urad dhal and chilly. When the mustard splutters, add the green chilies and curry leaves. Add the cooked dhal and 1/2 tsp salt (the salt added earlier would have been decanted off with the water) and stir for a few minutes. If interested, you may add a handful of grated coconut (I always do it).

This is a protein-rich snack especially for vegetarians and is very portable.

23/5 meme and a recipe

2005-09-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Tanvi of From the Pantry has tagged me for this funny meme that tests your counting skills.

Here is how you do it:
1. Delve into your blog archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. Ponder it for meaning, subtext or hidden agendas...
5. Tag five people to do the same.

My 23rd post was about a healthy Banana bread that I saw on Debbie's blog, a truly popular recipe from Epicurious.

The fifth sentence was: My only substitution was almonds for the pecans and also adding a little cinnamon as I always do in banana breads.

The fifth sentence is rather out of context. But do I still have the same opinion- YES! Cinnamon in any baked sweet treat is one of my famous additions. My hubby holds the opinion that if any goodie I make tastes off, I must have overdone the cinnamon.

I have been reading this meme on so many blogs now. I don't know if some have already been tagged and yet to post. So anyone who wants to write about their 23rd post is welcome to do so. Consider yourself tagged!

Speaking of banana bread, I had too many over-ripe bananas (as always) and some chocolate sauce (or rather cold hot chocolate, from previous post). So I made some light banana upside down cake combining two recipes. The basic cake recipe is from Cooking Light.

Banana upside down cake

Topping:
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2-3 large bananas, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1/2 cup toasted, chopped walnuts
1/2- 1 cup flaked sweetened coconut

Cake:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 banana)
1/2 cup any fruit juice or water (I used Pineapple)
1 tsp vanilla
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large egg (or egg substitute)

Preheat oven to 350°.
Melt butter in a 9-inch cast-iron skillet; sprinkle evenly with brown sugar and mix until smooth. Place banana slices on top. Sprinkle the walnuts evenly. Next, sprinkle evenly with coconut. Set aside.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup, and level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Combine reserved juice, banana, oil, vanilla and egg, stirring with a whisk. Add banana-juice mixture to flour mixture, stirring until just combined. Pour flour mixture over banana slices in skillet. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 10 min. Invert onto a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature with or without chocolate sauce.

The butterscotchy flavor of the topping makes this cake taste quite rich. Try it and you won't be sorry.

Chocolate on the brain

2005-09-29T12:47:00.000-07:00

I have been reading Chocolate desserts by Pierre Herme. Most of the recipes are above my baking skills. But the book has at least five different hot chocolate recipes. I won't give excuses for making this one- no cold weather, feeling blue etc. I was enamored by the photograph of the classic hot chocolate. It just involves heating 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar until sugar melts, adding 1/4 cup Dutch cocoa and 4.5 oz melted bittersweet chocolate and heating the mixture till a single bubble pops. I used 60 % bittersweet ghiradelli chocolate chips. After everything was done as stated and whipped for 1 min, I had beautiful chocolate lava that could easily pass as a sauce. This recipe makes two servings.

Since I am still a milk chocolate person, I topped it with some whipped cream. Pity that this recipe requires 3-4 bowls, a whisk and a blender. Despite the addition of whipped cream, this was too choclatey for me. By a couple of sips, I was done. If you are one of those, who love dark chocolate and freak out at the thought of drinking molten chocolate, please try this recipe. Otherwise, stay away.

Greens gone sour

2005-09-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

I bought too many vegetables at the Indian grocers' last weekend. One of the lot was Gongura or sour greens. These greens with their hard, red stalks are a speciality from the South-eastern state of India- Andhra Pradesh. True to their name, they have a sourness that do not go away when cooked. My mom introduced gongura to me- she makes the traditional gongura chutney that is intensely hot and it goes well when mixed with rice and ghee. I wanted to make this chutney but due to my cramped vegetable drawer, the greens had lost their sheen and their leaves had gone brown. I salvaged about a cup of the leaves. What to do with so little? So I searched some of the Andhra blogs like Mahanandi, My cuisine and Passages for a new gongura recipe. But I found one for gongura dal elsewhere and here is how it goes:

Dal with sour greens

3/4 cup pigeon peas, cooked
2 handfuls Gongura leaves, coarsely chopped
4 Green chillies, chopped
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, sliced
pinch of Turmeric
1 small tomato, chopped
1 tsp cayenne
Salt to taste

Tempering:-

1/2 tsp each Mustard seeds,cummin, urad dal, 2 red chillies(broken),Asafoetida,curryleaves

Make tempering with the given ingredients using 1 tsp oil/ghee,add green chillies, onion,garlic and fry till they get pinkish brown. Add gongura leaves(chopped) and cook, covered for 2 minutes. Now add tomatoes, cayenne, turmeric and salt. Saute for another minute. Add the cooked dal and enough water to make the dal as thin as you like. Simmer for 3 min or so. Serve with rice or roti. This dal is hot and spicy. But you can always reduce the cayenne.

'Gimme some sugar' cream Pie

2005-09-23T06:25:00.000-07:00

Don't be put-off by the unphotogenic pie. It is nothing short of delectable but yet has a comforting, home-made quality. I was not a fan of custard-like cream pies until I ate a piece of this. Apparently, this is a must-eat in Indiana state. I saw this on Paula Deen's show. She is so adorable that she sold me into making this one. I have never seen a sugar cream pie but I had a small container of heavy cream on hand and a pie shell in the pantry. With their expiry date approaching, I made an off-hand attempt at this pie, preparing myself for an inedible, watery pudding on a soggy crust. I don't know if the apple-pie kinda crust comes in a shell form. The recipes also were not clear enough about the crust. So I used the graham-cracker pie crust but this was the first time ever I have baked that kind. I always thought you can only chill it with the filling. Any sugar cream pie experts who can comment on this?

Hoosier Sugar Cream Pie (adapted a little from Paula's)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, unsifted
1/2 pint (1 cup) whipping cream
3/4 cup milk
1 (9-inch) unbaked pie shell (I used Graham cracker crust!!!)
1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Combine sugar, flour, cream, salt, vanilla, nutmeg and milk in a mixing bowl. You can also sprinkle the nutmeg on top. But I was afraid of it burning, so I mixed it in. Pour into pie shell that has been placed on a baking sheet. Dot butter bits all around top of pie.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes, and then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F and cook for approximately 30 more minutes. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until chilled. Serve chilled.

Anyway, I should have known that one cannot go wrong with milk, cream, sugar with a dash of vanilla and nutmeg. The pie is milky goodness and the top smells and tastes like a sugar cookie. I am not imagining things 'coz of the name, am I?

Toasted almond granola bar

2005-09-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

I am not a person to eat breakfast religiously each day. It seems like a waste of time to me. I would prefer to eat pancakes, french toast, cereal and all those good things for dinner. The only thing I eat is the grab and go cereal or granola bars. They are small enough to disappear in a few big bites. Or they can be large enough to nibble away slowly while you read the morning newspaper. Best of all, they are healthful snacks too. My favorite is Nature Valley Granola bars but they may be a little too sweet for some people.

With some time to kill and a half empty jar of Trader Joe's Almond butter, I decided to make some granola bar and this recipe from the Almonds are in website helped.

TOASTED ALMOND GRANOLA BARS
1 egg
1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup applesauce
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 1/3 cups quick oats
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 cup coarsely chopped almonds, roasted
1/2 cup diced dates
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preparation:

I did not have applesauce. So I pressure-cooked diced apples with a little sugar, small amount of water and a stick of cinnamon. I pureed it up with an immersion blender and I had applesauce in 15 min. So that is another pressure-cooker trick for you all, if you are considering investing in one. My daughter enjoyed it as well.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Stir together egg, honey, cooled applesauce, almond butter, brown sugar, and extract in a large mixing bowl. The original recipe called for flax seeds but I used some wheat germ instead. I am sure you can just use oats instead.

Stir in remaining ingredients. Press firmly into a greased 13- by 9- by 2-inch pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool and cut into bars.

The recipe does not state anything about baking any further. But the bars were still quite soft and little wet. So after cutting them as desired, I gave them the biscotti treatment. I turned them over and baked them for 15 min or so until slightly colored and dry to touch. This recipe makes about 36 squares.

Potato, eggplant and okra sabzi

2005-09-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

This is my mom's recipe and it is sort of an Indian ratatouille. This is a dish that I never liked as a kid. My mom made this dish with a few leftover potatoes, round Indian eggplant and okra for an end-of-week meal. This left-over connotation put me off. But as an adult, this dish is something that I have started to love because of the different textures and interesting flavors that come together so well. If you do not have the small Indian eggplant, zucchini is a great substitute since it offers the same melting softness. Potatoes are the foundation of this dish and the okra gives a crunchy bite to it while onions and eggplant create a sweet accent.

Potato, eggplant and okra sabzi

2 small potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 onion, minced
4-6 small round Indian eggplant, sliced lengthwise (you should get 8 slices from each)
10 whole okra, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
salt

1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp oil

Heat oil and add cumin and mustard seeds and let splutter. Add onion and saute until soft and starting to brown. Add the potatoes, salt and turmeric along with a sprinkling of water. Saute potatoes alone for 1 min. Now add the eggplant and okra. Also add the cayenne and a generous sprinkle of water. Cover tightly and let the vegetables cook until all the three types of veggies are tender. Now mix in the garam masala and cook uncovered until all the remaining water evaporates. Serve with rotis or rice.

SHF #12- Skillet Apple custard crumble

2005-09-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

This month's SHF is hosted by the charming Elise of Simply Recipes. I love to read about the recipes her family loves so much. This month's theme, Custard, is something that I associate with apples and bananas.

Considering how much I love cooked fruit and warm desserts, this recipe caught my fancy. It has a lot of healthful ingredients and I would not complain eating it for breakfast either! I used a basic custard recipe from BBC Food. The crumble topping reminds me of a tasty granola that I bought from a local bread bakery called Loafers. This recipe is a synergistic combination of its parts. Remember people, if you have extra custard left-over after this event, you can easily make this recipe.

Radish parathas

2005-09-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

When we visit Indian restaurants, I always eat parathas. I love this filled flatbread to the extent that I go the extra mile to make them at home. It takes a little more time and planning but it always turns out less greasy and more delicious than what I can get at a restaurant. One advantage of making parathas instead of rotis is that no side-dish is needed. With just a cup of yogurt, the meal is complete. Try it at home and you will like it much more than naan.

Radish or Mooli paratha

Dough:
Whole wheat atta 2 cups
All purpose flour 1/4 cup
oil 1 tsp
lukewarm water as required
salt.
Mix all the ingredients together and knead a smooth dough. rest the dough in a cool place for 30mins min.

Filling:
Making radish parathas is slightly tricky compared to making aloo parathas. Radish has a lot of liquid and if the filling is wet, making these stuffed breads is almost impossible.
You will need,
White radish/mooli 2 peeled and grated
green chillies 3-4 finely chopped.
cumin seeds 1tsp
oil 1tsp
salt
garam masala 1tsp
grated ginger 1tsp
cayenne 1/2 tsp
turmeric 1/2 tsp
cilantro 2 tsp, finely chopped

Put salt in the grated radish and leave it on a strainer for about an hr. The radish will leave lots of water, now place the radish in your hand and try to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Now take the oil in a saute pan,add jeera seeds. Add grated ginger and green chilies. Next add the radish and saute on medium flame till completely dry. Add cayenne, salt, turmeric and garam masala. Add the chopped cilantro and mix. Let the filling cool completely.

Making parathas: Divide the dough into lemon-sized balls and roll each ball into a round shape. You can proceed in two ways. You can spread a tbsp of filling on the roti and then bring all the corners together and seal them and make a ball again. Roll this ball carefully without putting too much pressure and flatten it into a thick paratha. With radish, this method is tricky and filling comes out a little. Or roll each ball into a circle, spread radish filling and then cover with another rolled out dough and seal the edges nicely and sprinkle a little flour and roll the paratha as thin and round as possible.

Cook on both sides on a medium hot griddle until golden brown. Spread a little ghee or butter on top. Serve piping hot with a bowl of yogurt.