Everyday cooking!!

Navrathri Special - Gulab Jamun

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:34:00 +0000

Navrathri is all done and now I cant wait for Diwali. Back home in India, Navrathri is one of the biggest festivals in our family. We still have elaborate pooja both in the morning and evening which the elders take care of while the "kolu" is taken care by us the younger ones in the house. Its been almost 8 years since I went home during navrathri and oh I so miss it - all the fun, festivities and the house-visits that we used to make as young kids, scouting for sundal :-) Anyway, now that we are far away from home, with a busy schedule over the weekdays our navrathri celebrations have been condensed to weekends and am just glad that we had 2 weekends to celebrate this time around. On Saraswathi pooja I made these yummy Gulab Jamun. I was debating whether I should wait until Diwali but my sweet tooth got ahead of me and I decided to make it for Navrathri.

Ingredients:
Jamun -
2 cup mawa/khoya (reduced solidifed milk, available in Indian stores)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp sugar
2 - tbsp milk
Sugar syrup -
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp powdered cardamom
few strands of saffron (optional)

Method:
Mix all the ingredients for the jamun. Use as much milk as necessary to make a soft dough (consistency should be softer than chapathi dough). Set aside and let it rest for 15 min or so.
Meanwhile, mix sugar and water in a large pan and set it on a medium flame.
Allow the mixture to boil for 5 min or until the syrup turns viscous.
Now add cardamom and saffron to the sugar syrup.
Keep the sugar syrup warm by adjusting the flame to lowest possible setting.
Now pinch a part of the dough and roll it into little balls.
Heat oil in a frying pan. When it is hot enough, drop a few balls and let it fry slowly. It may take 3-5 min depending on how hot the oil is.
Once the jamun becomes golden brown, take it out and drain it on a paper towel.
Even as they are warm, transfer them onto the sugar syrup.
Serve the jamuns warm or cold; they taste yum with ice cream.

Note: Be patient while frying the jamun. Use a low flame and fry until it turns golden brown. This will ensure a fully cooked and juicy jamun to enjoy.

This will be my entry to "Sweet series" event hosted by Sireesha of Mom's Recipes.

Enjoy !!

Leftover Rotis - No Problem !!

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 12:09:00 +0000

I love one pot meals anytime - be it a busy workday or just a lazy weekend when I just dont feel like getting out of my cozy couch !! Dinner gets done quickly with less pots and pans to clean afterwards. Hence I try my best to blend my veggies, protein and carbs in one mighty dish :-) On weekdays we get our carb from rotis and our weekends are mostly reserved for rice. So it was Friday night, I was too tired with all the running around during the week that I didnt have the energy to cook much of a dinner. It clearly was one-pot-dinner time! - as I was racking my brains thinking about what to make for dinner, I noticed I had a few extra rotis left over from the whole week's supply. Call it serendipity but at the same time I remembered my mom making upma out of leftover idlis or even stale bread back home in India when she was in a similar situation. So I figured if idlis can transform into upma why cant rotis. And thats how this roti upma came into existence. Since this was all we are going to have for dinner, I added some veggies along so it would make a filling meal and that it did. We were pretty happy the way it turned out and I plan to add it to my cooking routine...

Ingredients:
8 rotis, cut into medium sized pieces
1 small onion
2 tomatoes
2 green chillies
Few curry leaves
3 tsp oil
1 tsp split urad dal
1 tsp jeera (cumin)
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chillies (adjust as per taste)
salt to taste
cilantro to garnish

Method:
Heat oil in a saute pan.
Add urad dal, jeera, mustard and curry leaves. Let it splutter and urad dal turn golden brown.
Now add green chillies and onion. Saute until the onions are well cooked.
Add tomatoes and cook until the raw smell of tomatoes disappear.
Add turmeric, salt and red chilli powder. Saute for 2 min.
Now add the roti pieces and stir until all the ingredients are well mixed.
Garnish with cilantro.
Serve warm with yogurt.

If you would like, you can break some eggs on the rotis at the final step and mix until the eggs are cooked. If you are from South India, you may recognize the similarity with Kothu Parota except that Kothu Parota is made with Parota instead of rotis.

Enjoy!

Baingan (eggplant) Masala

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:10:00 +0000

Summer this year has, like every summer before it, gone by too fast and fall is knocking at the door. As much as I love fall and the festive season it brings, I cant help but be sad when summer comes to an end. To add to my end-of-summer blues, this season I couldn't even do as much farmer's-market-shopping as I would've liked to. Makes me envious of the blessed few in CA who enjoy farmer's markets all through the year. Sighs apart, I feel thankful for friends that do manage to go vegetable-picking and share their little bounties from such trips. One such friend went vegetable-picking on one of those rare sunny weekends (this summer was such a washout for us in the East Coast) and she shared the veggies that she'd picked - delightful eggplant, robust-looking potatoes and ...
Here is the recipe for Eggplant masala I made with those yummy freshly picked eggplants. I love eggplant but bitter ones are a major turnoff for me (so are the ones filled with seeds). As all eggplant aficianados know, one bitter eggplant is sufficient to spoil the entire dish - so, I am extra careful in choosing them. For the small Indian variety, I prefer the lovely tender ones without spots - but these tend to be seasonal (even in our trusty local Indian grocery shops). However, I have almost always had good luck with the more readily available Italian or Japanese variety as well. The following recipe works well for the Indian, Japanese and Italian varieties quite well.

Note: Cut eggplant into 1" cubes and drop them into salted warm water. This helps reduce the bitterness if any in the eggplant.

Ingredients:
6 medium sized eggplant (baingan)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 tsp jeera (cumin)
1 tsp mustard
2 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp red chilli powder
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp amchoor powder (dry mango powder)
2 tsp dhaniya-jeera (cumin-coriander) powder
Cilantro, finely chopped for garnish (optional)
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Method:

Heat oil in a pan, when it gets hot add jeera, mustard, minced ginger and garlic.
Once garlic gets golden brown, add onions. Saute it for a few minutes until onions brown.
Now add tomatoes, turmeric and salt. Cook until the raw smell of tomatoes disappears.
Now add the cut pieces of eggplant and cook for about 5 min until the pieces are tender and well-cooked.
Now add amchoor powder, red chilli powder, garam masala and dhaniya-jeera powder.
Saute for a few more minutes until the spices get incorporated well.
Garnish with cilantro.
Serve hot with rotis/rice.

This will be my entry to "IAVW: Indian" hosted by Erbe in cucina. This event is a part of the series "It's a Vegan World: A food event" started by Vaishali of Holy Cow - Recipes from a vegan Kitchen.
Enjoy !

Simple Tomato Chutney

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:22:00 +0000

Everytime I make tomato chutney, it brings back memories of grad school. A small university town, harsh winters, chugging along trying to finish grad school would make even the bravest of souls depressed. The best anti-depressants we had to tide over those blues were food and friends. Put the two together and you have potluck parties - our secret to tasty yet inexpensive entertainment. Each one of our friends had different specialities; even the ones that paid only ceremonial visits to the kitchen had some yummy little recipe up their sleeve. And tomato chutney was one such specialty of one of my friends. He made it almost always unless he decided that we needed a change and switched over to rasam. And needless to say we always licked the bowl clean !! :-)
Here is my recipe for making tomato chutney really quick. I use it with everything from rice to rotis/parathas to dosa/idlies. This is the chutney I had mentioned in my previous blog to go with the buckwheat crepes.
I have used methi powder to give this chutney a pickle like taste. But if you dont have it, no worries. The chutney tastes perfectly good even without it.

To make the methi powder: Dry roast the methi seeds and grind it into a powder. Store the powder in an air-tight container. Stays well in the fridge for months.

Ingredients:
4-5 medium sized tomatoes or 1 14oz can diced tomatoes
1 small onion
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp chana dal or yellow split peas
1 tbsp split urad dal
1 tsp jeera (cumin)
1 tsp mustard seeds
4-5 red chillies
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp methi powder (fenugreek powder) - optional
salt to taste

Method:

Heat oil in a saute pan.
When it is hot add chana dal and urad dal. Then add jeera and mustard seeds.
When they start to sputter, add red chillies, then onions.
Saute until onions turn light brown. Now add the tomatoes, sugar, salt and turmeric.
Let it cook for 5 to 10 min or until raw smell of tomato disappears and oil oozes out on the sides.
Now add methi powder, stir once and then switch off the flame.
Serve with rice, rotis, idlis or dosa.

Enjoy !!

Buckwheat Galette/ Buckwheat dosa

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Galette, the recipe in today's blog may sound fancy but it is just another name for crepes. There are two forms of galette, one is the thick crusty variety and the other is a thin crepe like variety. I present here my version of the thin crepe like variety. I love dosa and crepes of any form. Any flour lying around the house becomes dosa batter for a quick meal at home. And buckwheat flour is no exception .....

The first time I had galette was in a small french cafe in NJ. The name and the description of the dish so reminded me of dosa (not to mention that it was one of the few vegetarian options in the menu) that I decided to try it. The dish was a big buckwheat crepe/dosa filled with sauteed spinach - needless to say, it was a wonderful, hearty meal and the inspiration for my recipe here.

A few quick ideas for the filling are:

Savory filling
Potato masala filling (Masala dosa version of galette?)
Spinach with ricotta or cream cheese filling
Mixed vegetable filling or Ratatouille

For the sweet version:
Any fruits with mascarpone cheese or caramelized bananas with ice cream would be wonderful. Chocolate filling - perfect!

With a bit of imagination there sure are a hundred possibilities.

After a long day's work I was in no mood to make the filling and then make the crepes. So I took the short cut !! I grated carrots, ginger and cilantro and mixed it right into the batter. I am sure any other vegetable and/or herbs would work just fine. Normally the galette recipe calls for eggs, but I didn't have any. So I substituted it with some oil and it works perfectly well. The whole process of mixing the batter can be done in a food processor. I normally grate all the vegetable in the food processor, then add the flour on top of this and continue with rest of the steps.

Ingredients:
1 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
1 to 1-1/2 cup water
salt to taste
finely grated carrots (optional)
finely chopped cilantro (optional)
2 tsp minced ginger (optional)

Method:

Mix both the flour and salt.
Now add any vegetable or herbs that you would like. (If you aren't going to add any, skip this step).
Add the oil, buttermilk, mix well and slowly add water. Add just enough so that you get a thin pourable consistency (like a dosa batter or crepe batter).
Heat a girdle or a crepe pan if you have one.
Pour a ladle full of the batter and swirl the pan so you get nice circle with uniform thickness.
Cook on medium heat for 2 min or so.
Remove it from the pan when the galette looks brown underneath and the top portion looks cooked.
You dont have to cook the other side but if you are not very sure if the top portion is cooked, you can flip it and cook the other side for 30 seconds or so.

Fill it with a filling of your choice or just roll it up even without it and serve with chutney and yogurt on the side.

This is a good dish to have for breakfast, lunch, dinner or anytime in between.

This will be my entry for WYF: Breaksfast event hosted by EC of Simple Indian Food blog.

Rava Kesari/Saanja

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:43:00 +0000

I cant believe its been almost 9 months since I blogged.....When I started out I was pretty sure I would keep blogging no matter what, but as always, its easier said than done. Well, in my defense I did have a real busy few months with lotsa good things and a bit of recession induced not-so-good stuff. Anyway, things are promising to look better or so I would like to think :-) - enough personal stories I guess. Moving on to the recipe for my blog, I thought I should come back from my hiatus with a sweet treat. Here is a simple Indian dessert that I made for Varalakshmi viradham. This is one of the least time-consuming and easiest desserts that I know of and has always been my "go-to" one ....

Ingredients:
1 cup rava/semolina
1-1/2 cup sugar (adjust to taste, can range from 1-1/4 cup to 1-3/4 cup)
2 cups water
A few drops of red or orange food color
1/4 cup ghee/melted butter
1 tsp powdered cardamom
2 tbsp raisins
2 tbsp cashew pieces

Method

In a large saute pan, heat 2 tbsp ghee.
Roast the raisins until it plumps up; set aside.
Roast the cashews until golden brown; set aside.
Roast rava for a 3-4 minutes, until it turns light brown; set aside.
Boil 2 cups of water in the same pan.
When the water comes to a rolling boil, add the sugar. Let it boil for a few minutes, until the sugar dissolves and the water gets a little viscous.
Add the food color and then the roasted semolina.
Stir vigorously so that no lumps are formed.
Keep stirring until semolina absorbs all the water, about 3-5 min.
Add the ghee slowly, half a tbsp at a time.
After a few minutes the whole mass will start pulling away from the side.
Check to make sure semolina is fully-cooked (by now it should have).
Add the cardamom powder, raisins and cashews. Mix well, switch off the heat.
Serve warm.

Adjust ghee and sugar according to your taste. I sometimes add as little as 2 tbsp or so of ghee. The more fat you add, better is the taste but feel free to adjust the amount as per your requirement. Also, the ratio of semolina to water depends on the variety. If you are using a coarse semolina it might need more water. I normally start with a nominal quantity of water. If the semolina absorbs all the water and still looks uncooked, then I add a ladle full or so of boiling water and keep doing this until the semolina is cooked well. You can adjust the quantity of the ingredients in this recipe right until the end of the cooking process to get the desired result.

Enjoy!

Basil Flavored Vegetable Pulao

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:06:00 +0000

Vegetable pulao is one of those dishes I have been making since my first experiments with cooking and the one I do not get bored with. Its a great dish to make for a quick meal or even for one of the big meal events such as a dinner party or a pot luck. So it was one of those days where I opened my fridge to see an assorted variety of vegetables staring at me. I decided to make pulao but didnt have mint to make my usual version. But then, my grind-and-freeze habit came to my rescue (whenever I have an excess of mint, cilantro or basil I try to grind it up and store the paste in freezer) - I had some ground basil in the freezer. Time for some improvisation !!! - I decided to give my pulao recipe an Italian twist, with basil instead of mint. As with such improvisations (the ones done under "duress" :)) - the basil pulao turned out to be quite flavorful and I sure plan to make this recipe more often.

A few things to note - basil flavor is pretty subtle here so make sure to limit the amount of garam masala as it can easily overpower the basil flavor. Soaking rice in salted water ensures that the grains remain separate and the rice doesnt turn mushy. Use a 1:1 measure of rice to water if you are going to soak the rice. You can always add more along the way. But if you do not have time to soak the rice, do go ahead and use the usual 1:2 (rice:water) or the measure you would normally use.

Ingredients

2 cups basmati rice
11/2 cups mixed vegetables (carrots, cauliflower, peas, beans, bell peppers etc)
2 medium onions, chopped
4 green chillies, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tsp finely chopped ginger
4 tbsp basil paste
2 tsp jeera
2 tsp fennel seeds
6 cloves
3 pods cardomam
2" stick cinnamon
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp garam masala powder(optional)
Fried cashews (optional)

Method

Soak rice in generous amounts of salted cold water for 30 - 45 min. Then drain the rice and set it aside (this is optional, see above for more details).
Heat oil in a pan, add all the ingredients from jeera to bay leaves. Saute until the mixture turns brown taking care not to burn the same.
Now add the chopped onions, basil paste, green chillies, garlic and ginger and saute until onions turn golden brown.
Add all the vegetables, sprinkle garam masala and saute for 5 min.
Transfer the contents into a microwave safe bowl or the rice cooker, add rice, required amount of salt.
Pour 2 cups of water and cook until the rice is done.
Garnish with fried cashews and serve with raita.

This is my entry to Srivalli's "Rice Mela".
Enjoy!!

Panzanella - A Hearty Bread Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:42:00 +0000

Panzanella is a traditional Italian salad made with leftover stale bread, tomatoes and basil. For a weeknight meal, this salad is the easiest one I have found... yet.... Panzanella is a very summery dish but using seasonal vegetables this dish can be made all round the year. Fall is here, apples abound the market in tons and hence my salad here features apples. Dressing for this salad cannot be any simpler either: just olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. I added some black beans that I had on hand to make this hearty enough for a light supper. But feel free to add any kind of beans. Also, to reduce the pungent taste of onions, soak sliced onions in ice cold water for 10 min, drain and pat dry before adding it in the salad. This ensures a crunchy yet mellow onion flavor.

Ingredients
3 cups of bread, cubed
1 apple, cored and quartered
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
3 tomatoes, seeded and quartered
1 big carrot, sliced
1/2 cup black beans
2 tbsp chopped cilantro or parsley
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp red wine vinegar
salt and pepper, according to taste
shredded Parmesan (optional)

Method

Mix 1 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss the bread in this mixture, spread it on a sheet pan.
Toast it in a 425ºF pre-heated oven for 10 min or until the bread turns golden brown and crunchy.
In a salad bowl whisk in rest of the olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
Toss in the veggies, bread, beans and mix well until the dressing is evenly distributed.
Sprinkle some Parmesan and serve.

Variations:
A few things that can be added or substituted:
- Quartered hard boiled eggs
- Fresh mozzarella instead of Parmesan
- Basil instead of cilantro/parsley
- Veggies like bell pepper, roasted peppers, olives

Moong Dal Kheer - A Vegan Fare

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 02:00:00 +0000

Can't believe its been almost a month since I blogged. Past few weeks have been crazy and sadly one of the things that had to be pushed to the back burner was blogging and blog surfing. I think I have missed most part of the Dussera goodies that have been posted on the blogosphere. But I do hope to catch up with all of them very soon.

Here is a quick and tasty kheer I made for Dussera. Traditionally kheer is made with lots of milk but I wanted to make a dessert that would qualify for the "Sweet Vegan" event hosted by Vaishali. There is no doubt that being vegan is much more challenging than being a vegetarian but it is also fun to come up with a recipe which does not involve any dairy product. I wanted to make a traditional Indian dessert with a vegan twist and also something that did not require me squeezing my brain out trying to come up with one :-) My first attempt was jangiri which is very much a vegan dessert as is made traditionally if ghee be substituted with oil for frying. It came out well for the first attempt but I think it needs a bit more work before I can post it. I hope to do so pretty soon.

No festival goes without having some kind of kheer and in my family important festivals must always be celebrated with kheer made of jaggery (we call it "gulacha kheer"). So as per the tradition, I decided to make moong dal kheer which I so love. The long version of this kheer, the way my mom makes is using khus-khus/coconut paste, milk, moong or channa dal and jaggery. In order to make this a vegan recipe I substituted milk with coconut milk. I find it very hard to make a smooth paste of khus-khus with the food processor I have and I hate the grainy texture of partially ground khus-khus. Hence I skipped it altogether and there was no soaking or grinding involved which make this a perfect recipe for a weekday celebrations. Also molasses works amazingly well as a substitute for jaggery. And finally, need I say this dish is very healthy. It is almost fat free...er... if you discount the fat from the coconut milk :-)

Ingredients
1/4 cup moong dal
1/4 cup jaggery or as required
1 tbsp slivered cashew
1 tbsp slivered almonds
4 pods cardamom
1 cup coconut milk

Method

Dissolve jaggery in 1/4 cup water, boil for 3-5min or until the jaggery is well-dissolved.
Remove from heat, strain to remove any dirt and set it aside.
Dry roast moong dal until it starts to turn light brown and aromatic.
Dry roast cashews and almonds until light brown.
Boil moong dal, cashews, almonds and cardamom in 1/2 cup (or just enough) water.
When the moong dal is cooked but still firm add the dissolved jaggery.
Boil for 5 min and then add coconut milk.
Let this boil for another 3 min or so.
Serve this warm or cold.

And then there was this sweet surprise from Usha a few weeks ago. I should apologize for not having shared this award earlier, but guess its better late than never.
Thanks Usha for the lovely Dussera gift and I would like to extend my friendship award to these wonderful people: Anudivya, Sagari, Sireesha, VIJ, Arundathi.

Curried Tomato Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:46:00 +0000

This particular recipe is adapted from Mark Bittman's Curried Carrot soup that appeared in his Bitten column in NYTimes. I am a huge fan of Mark Bittman, I love his show on PBS , his column Bitten in NYT and also his book "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian". And the book, it' s a bible..no - encyclopedia...oh well... I'll just say its one of the most resourceful books yet in my collection. I have never made a recipe exactly as given in his book but I have used them as a foundation to build my own version. And the result has always been wonderful... Speaking about Bittman, I cant wait to watch the show on PBS "Spain...On the Road Again". Looks like it will be a good show given that it has Mario Batali as well who is yet another of my fav TV chefs .....

Coming back to the soup...the great thing about this soup is that it is simple as well as light. Soup has become an integral part of our eating lifestyle. After a weekend of overloading the digestive system, Mondays are the perfect day to stick to a simple meal of hot soup. It doesn't take too long to cook a pot of soup and what better way to ease into the next few days of grinding work.

To make this soup really light go easy on the coconut milk. I have used half a can, which gives a good flavor without inducing a heaviness to the dish. But if you like the soup to be really heavy on the coconut flavor, go ahead and add a little more....

Ingredients:

3 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, roughly chopped
10-15 cherry tomatoes or 5-6 medium sized tomatoes
1 clove garlic
1" piece ginger, grated
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cayenne pepper, or as required
1 cup vegetable stock or water
1/2 can coconut milk or even less if you prefer
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Cilantro (optional)

Method:

Heat oil in a large pan, add cumin seeds, coriander seeds, diced chopped onions, garlic, ginger, cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
Add tomatoes, turmeric, salt and let it cook until tomatoes are well cooked.
Add cayenne pepper, stock and let it boil 10 min or so. Now add coconut milk.
Allow the mixture to cool and puree it in a blender or food processor. Adjust the consistency of the soup by adding more stock.
Boil the pureed soup for 5 more minutes, adjust salt and pepper as per taste.
Garnish with cilantro and serve.

Another version of this soup is to substitute the coconut milk with buttermilk. This version is a bit tangy but still yummy.

And this week's recipe is my entry to the "WYF:Salad/starter/soup" event hosted by EC of Simple Indian Food blog.

Happy Slurping :-)

Cracked Wheat Idli

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:38:00 +0000

A recent addition to my cook book collection is Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India by Chandra Padmanabhan. It has some really good pictures and I can't resist a cookbook with pretty pictures :-) This book has a wonderful collection of South Indian recipes, most of them traditional but a few that were very new to me. I hope to try them in the near future and post them soon in my blog. Idli is a staple in most Tamil (as in Tamilnadu) homes and Ms. Padmanabhan dedicates a whole section of the book to idlis! I have been eyeing rava (semolina) idli for a long time having come across quite a few in the blog world. So I decided to make rava idli for dinner from the recipe in the book except that I substituted rava with cracked wheat and tweaked the recipe to suit our taste. I love the taste and texture of cracked wheat - not to mention the whole lot of goodness packed in it. These idlis turned out to be very soft and yummy.... Guess this will be added on to my oft-repeated-recipe collection. Bulgur is a good substitute too and for people who are wondering isnt bulgur and cracked wheat the same, do read this very interesting article.

Ingredients:
11/2 cups cracked wheat
1/2 cup rava
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp chopped/ground ginger
5-6 cashews halved or quartered (optional)
2 tsp chana dal
1 tsp split urad dal
2 tsp jeera
2 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp asafoetida
few curry leaves
Salt to taste
1 tsp coarse ground pepper
3 cups buttermilk or more if required
2 tsp oil

Method:

Mix cracked wheat, rava and soda together.
Heat oil in a pan, add chana dal, urad dal, cashew, jeera and mustard. When they crackle add chillies, ginger, asafoetida and curry leaves.
Remove from the stove and add this to the wheat/rava mixture.
Add buttermilk, salt, pepper and mix well until a smooth batter is obtained. Consistency should be similar to idli batter.
Grease idli plates and fill it with the batter. Steam for 10-15 min until a knife/toothpick inserted at the center of the idlis comes out clean.

I served the idlis with tomato korma though idili powder or chutney will work very well. I hope to post the recipe for tomato korma soon :-)

This will be my entry to Tasty Palettes "JFI - OCT '08 - Whole Grains".

And here is my first blog award presented by Easy Crafts of Simple Indian Food blog, yay :-) Thanks a lot Easy Crafts for the encouragement. I appreciate it. As per the rules of this award, you are to pass this award to at least 7 other blogs whose content/design you find brilliant. I am guilty of being a silent visitor sometime and I use this opportunity to let my blogger friends know how much I appreciate their work.

I present this award to:

Asha of Foodie's Hope
Manasi of A Cook at Heart
Srivalli of Cooking 4 all Seasons
Usha of Veg Inspirations
Kitchen Flavours
Meeta of Whats for Lunch Honey
Vaishali of Holy Cow

Puliyodarai

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:30:00 +0000

So, after many months of salivating looking at all the different puliyodarai recipes/photos I have come across, I decided its time to turn the page... make some puliyodarai paste from scratch. Though many of them swear by MTR's puliyodarai powder I am not one of their greatest fans. Well, the reason for this is my friend V's mom, rather her awesome puliyodarai powder. She used to send us loads of this powder all the way from Mumbai and every time we had a pot luck our go to dish was puliyodarai made with this powder. It was such an easy dish to make and also an easy item to carry coz unlike the usual puliyodarai paste which oozes with oil, this was a powder which lasted the 10,000 mile trip and the green channel with no problems at all. Another major advantage was its long shelf life, it lasted in our freezer for almost an year or even longer. Needless to say this dish turned out to be the star of the show every time we made it. I keep telling V that her mom should patent this recipe, start a small scale business and I am sure it will turn out to be a super hit :-) I will probably be the first one to stock up on it !!!
Anyway, getting back to the present, I decided to take the conventional path and make the traditional puliyodarai paste. My recipe here is based on ideas I drew from two of my most trusted sources: My mom and Google. I improvised my mom's recipe added a few ingredients of my own (such as sugar) to make one that I think turned out to be a keeper. So here is my take on the traditional puliyodarai recipe. Depending on your taste and heat level you prefer, adjust the amount of tamarind concentrate and red chillies.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp chana dal
1 tbsp urad dal
2 tbsp dhaniya
1/2 tbsp seasme seeds
1 tbsp jeera
1/2 tbsp fenugreek
10-12 red chillies
11/2 tbsp tamarind concentrate
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp sugar
salt to taste
Tempering:
1 tsp chana dal
1 tsp urad dal
2 tbsp peanuts
4-5 curry leaves
2 red chillies
1 tsp jeera
1 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp hing
1 tbsp oil

Method:

Roast all the ingredients starting from chana dal to red chillies, individually and powder it together.
Dissolve the tamarind concentrate in water.
Heat oil in a large pan, add chana dal, urad dal, peanuts and when it is starting to brown add jeera, mustard, curry leaves, red chillies and hing.
Now add tamarind, salt, sugar, turmeric and allow this to boil well.
When the raw smell of tamarind disappears, add the prepared powder.
Let this cook until the mixture thickens.
Let cool and store it in a air-tight container.

Preparing the rice:

Cook 2 cups of rice and spread it in a large bowl.
Mix in 1-2 tsp oil, then add 2 tbsp of the prepared mixture.
Adjust the amount of the mixture according to taste.
Serve with vadaam/chips or just plain yogurt.

To store:

Store in a dry air-tight container.
This paste can be stored in the refrigerator for almost 2-3 weeks.
If the paste dries out add a couple of tsp of oil to the mixture.

This is my entry to "Long live the shelf" event hosted by Roma.

Help Needed: Srivalli of "Cooking 4 All Seasons" blog is doing a great job of raising funds for a noble cause. Please visit her site and help her help a person in need.

Cooking in a Jiffy - Beans Koottu

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:31:00 +0000

With cooking time reduced to an hour or less, I have started looking for innovative ways to cut down the cooking time. A friend of ours from Ames was visiting us and we had a mini get together talking about good old grad school days. As usual the talk veered towards cooking and we were reminiscing those simpler grad school days, living with room mates, taking turns to cook where one ended up cooking for just once or twice a week. Now that we have all moved on to the next phase in life, living with significant others or living all alone, working 8-10 hours a day, cooking on an everyday basis is getting harder. But I guess each one of us has tried out different things and have finally managed to devise our own ways to tackle this day-to-day problem.
Eating out is a very simple alternative but may not be good for health or for the wallet. Cooking 4 different dishes or so on Sundays, as one of my friends does eliminates the need to cook over most part of the week. Yet another way to minimize cooking time is to partially cook and freeze the dish for use over the week. And this is my way of saving cooking time on weekdays. In fact I try to make substantial amounts of masala for different dishes, portion control it and store in the freezer. This way, a major part of my cooking is taken care of and it hardly takes 15-20 to mix the masala with veggies or lentils to make an entire dish.

Heads up: Time saving tips

Grind coconut, jeera, peppercorn and green chillies ahead of time and pop the ground mixture in the freezer. This stays good for 2-3 weeks. Increase the amount of ingredients to four fold (or as per your need), grind it all at once, portion it into 4 different containers and use it on 4 different days.
Beans is just one of the veggies that I had on hand. Feel free to substitute it with cabbage, greens, carrot & peas or just about any vegetable.

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped green beans (1/2" long pieces)
1 cup moong dal
1/4 cup toor dal
One large pinch of turmeric.

To grind: (This part can be done ahead of time and the masala stays good in the freezer for 3-4 weeks)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
2 tsp jeera
2 green chillies
5-7 peppercorns

For tadka:
2 tsp oil
1 tsp channa dal
2 tsp split urad dal
2 tsp jeera
1 tsp mustard
A few pinch hing
Few curry leaves
cilantro for garnish.

Method:

Boil green beans and dal until well cooked, about 20 min.
Soak all the ingredients listed under 'to grind" for 15 min and then grind well to a smooth paste.
Add the ground mixture to boiled dal and beans.
Let this mixture boil for 15 min.
In a small kadai heat 3 tsp oil, add all the ingredients for tadka.
Add the tadka to the boiling mixture and let it boil for 2 more min.
Garnish with cilantro (optional).
Goes well with rice or roti.

Isn't that simple....

And this is my entry to "WYF: Colour in Food" event hosted by Simple Indian Food blog.

A Middle Eastern Dinner

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:08:00 +0000

Lemony Couscous with Eggplant Salad

It was a Tuesday evening and the mid-week syndrome was just setting in. All I was looking for was a simple meal that I can have on the dinner table in half hour or so. I could have looked up on the Internet to see if Rachel Ray had any vegetarian dish to get me through the evening in under 30 min but I wasn't in the mood to browse for 30 min trying to get some ideas to make a 30 min meal :-) I opened the fridge and the same old veggies stared at me: eggplants, beans, bell peppers. Now that we have been regulars at our neighborhood farmers market, we do not have the luxury of choosing between 30 different varieties of veggies ( Pardon me, am going crazy with the 30's but some of you out there might understand :-)). We have to buy whatever is in season and now is the season for eggplants, beans, bell peppers and of course, summer squash. The produce tastes so good that I am for once not complaining about having to cook with just these few veggies for 3 straight weeks now. Anyhow, I decided to make a simple eggplant salad with no fuss, dress it simply and let the flavor of the veggie speak for itself.

Indian cooking uses a lot of eggplants and so do middle eastern and Mediterranean cooking. In my recipe here I have used a very typical middle eastern flavor, Tahini for the salad dressing. Also, I had some left over falafel in the freezer which I used to make the salad more filling. Addition of falafel is completely optional. The salad is quite substantial even in the absence of falafel. And for the carb part of this dinner, I made couscous with a tangy lemony flavor. It sure turned out to be a flavorful and delicious meal just enough to beat the mid-week syndrome at least temporarily!

A few things to note: drain and dry the eggplant really well so the salad doesn't get soggy. If you think the eggplants are soggy, sprinkle some all purpose flour along with the dry seasoning, this will help absorb the excess moisture. Also the amount of tahini can be adjusted according to your taste.

Ingredients
For Couscous:
11/2 instant couscous
3 cups water or vegetable broth
1 handful raisins
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
1 tsp fennel
1 tsp cumin seeds
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tbsp lemon juice (or more if reqiured)
2 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
For salad:
4 medium sized eggplant
2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp olive oil
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp tahini paste
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar or honey
Salt to taste
Falafel (optional)

Method
Couscous:

Heat olive oil in a pan, add fennel, cumin, raisins, garlic and onion.
Saute till onions get soft and translucent.
Add peas, lemon zest, thyme, salt and 3 cups of water/broth. Let it come to a boil.
Now add the couscous, turn off the heat and close the pan with a lid.
Let it rest for 5 min or until all the water is absorbed.
Fluff the couscous with a fork, add lemon juice, pepper and stir well.

Salad:

Dice eggplant into 1/2" cubes, soak it in salted cold water for 15 min.
Drain the water and dry it well.
Mix cayenne powder, cumin powder and oil. Coat the eggplant evenly with this mixture and spread it out on a sheet pan.
Bake it in a 425F pre-heated oven for 15-20 or until crisp (take care not to burn it).
In a large bowl, mix rest of the ingredients, except tomatoes to form a vinaigrette.
Toss in the tomatoes and the crispy eggplant with the vinaigrette. Falafel can be added at this point if you are using it.
Serve this on a bed of lemony couscous.

This is my entry for AFAM event for Aug '08: Lemon, hosted by Simple Indian Food blog.

Enjoy !!!

Ghatte ki Subji

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:37:00 +0000

Moving from one royalty to another, from the Mughals to the Rajputs. The recipe I am sharing with you all today is a Rajasthani dish called ghatte ki subji. Rajasthan being a desert and all has limited availability of fresh veggies and water. Hence the cuisine is greatly influenced by ingredients that were readily available such as dried lentils, flour. Besan (gram flour) is widely used to make ghatta (pl. ghatte), pakodi etc. Ghattes can be used in subji, kadi or even pulao. Once the ghatte are ready, the whole dish can be made within 20-30 min which makes this a wonderful dish for a busy weekday meal. To boost its nutritional value, I have added bell peppers; vegetables such as carrots, cauliflower etc can be also added.

Ingredients:
For Ghatta:
2 cups besan
1 tsp ajwain
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp Dhania-jeera powder
1/2 tsp amchoor
2-3 tbsp vegetable oil salt to taste
For gravy:
1 onion
3 tomatoes
2 bell pepper (cut into big pieces)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, minced
11/2 chilli powder
2 tsp dhania-jeera powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp amchoor
1 tsp jeera
1 tsp fennel
2 tsp thick yogurt or sour cream
1 tsp kasoori methi
cilantro for garnish

Method:
Ghatta:

Mix all the ingredients for the ghatta with enough water to form a tight dough (like that of a chapathi dough).
Roll it out into an inch thick cylinder and cut into bite size pieces.
Drop the pieces into salted boiling water and let it cook for 10-15 min or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
Drain them and let it dry for a few mintues.
Shallow fry or saute these ghattes in a few tablespoon of oil.

At this point, ghattes can be frozen and they stay good for a month or so.

Gravy:

Heat oil in a saute pan, add fennel and jeera.
Add ginger, garlic and onions. Saute until the onions are golden brown.
Now add the tomatoes, turmeric and salt. Cook until the raw smell of tomato disappears.
Add chilli powder, dhania-jeera powder, amchoor and let it cook until it becomes thick.
Now add the yogurt/sour cream and mix in bell peppers.
Add 1/2 cup water and let it boil for 5 min or until the bell peppers are cooked but firm.
Now add the ghatte and let it boil for 10 more mins or until the ghatte are soft.
Sprinkle the kasoori methi and cilantro.

Serve with hot rice or roti.

This post is my contribution for the "curry mela" blog event hosted by Srivalli of Cooking 4 all seasons blog. Hope you all like it :-)

Quick Vegetable Biryani

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:58:00 +0000

One of the most flavorful and aromatic rice dishes is biryani, brought to India by the Mughal rulers. For those of us interested in the history of biryani, this is a good read. Traditional biryani is labor intensive and takes a good couple of hours to get done. The final step in a traditional biryani is the layering: a heavy-bottom pan is filled with alternate layers of rice and veggie masala, top is covered with dough (made of wheat flour, similar to roti dough) and cooked on a slow fire. This dough helps to seal all the flavors inside, thus enhancing the flavor of the dish. A more modern alternative is to layer rice and veggies in a glass or an oven-proof vessel, cover with aluminum foil and bake in an oven. Here is my take on biryani: an easy and a fast one for everyday cooking!! Since my version is the quick cooking one, I skipped the layering part and just mixed the whole thing together and let it cook covered for a few minutes.

The time-consuming part in this version is marinating the veggies, longer it stands better it tastes. I like to marinate a whole bunch of veggies at a time, use half for immediate consumption and store the other half for another day. I normally freeze the unused portion and it stays good for 3-4 weeks. Once you have the marinated veggies ready, the masala takes just about 20-30 min to cook, which is normally the time it takes for rice to get done. Cook the rice just three quarters way through initially as it gets completely cooked at the end with the veggies.

Ingredients:
2 cup rice (mix rice with 2 cardamom, 4 cloves, 1 bay leaf)
1 small onion
1 big tomato
1 tsp cumin (jeera)
1 inch stick cinnamon
3 cardamom
4 cloves
2 bay leaves
2 cup mixed veggies (carrots, cauliflower, beans, peas, potatoes, bell pepper, mushrooms, zucchini)
2 tsp oil or ghee
Garam masala powder, to taste
Salt to taste

Grind together: 1/2 cup mint, 3 green chillies, 1 inch ginger, 3 cloves garlic
For Marinade: 2 tbsp yogurt, 2 tsp red chilli powder, 2 tsp Coriander-cumin powder (dhaniya-jeera powder), 1 tsp dried mango powder (amchoor), 1tsp sugar, 1 tsp turmeric
Garnish: cilantro, fried cashews or peanuts (optional)

Method:

Mix all the ingredients for the marinade and stir in half of the ground paste. Add veggies to this marinade and let it rest for 1 hour or so.
Cook rice + whole spices mixture with 2 cups of water for 20 min .
Add 2 tsp oil in a big saute pan. Add cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaves, cloves, jeera and the onions. Saute until the onions are brown. Add tomatoes, remaining half of the ground paste and saute for 2 more minutes.
Now add the marinated vegetables along with the marinate. Saute for 2 more minutes.
Add 1 cup of water and cook until the veggies are tender but firm and all the water has been absorbed.
At this point, add the cooked rice to the veggies. Mix well. Add salt and sprinkle some garam masala powder.
Sprinkle a few tablespoon of water, close the pan and let it cook for 5 - 10 minutes in a low heat (take care not to burn the dish).
Garnish with cilantro and serve with raita.

This dish can very well be jazzed up for a special occasion but that's for another week :-)

Happy cooking.....

5 PM Hunger Pangs!!

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:31:00 +0000

Here we are, working hard for 8 hrs and you come home to what......"the 5PM hunger pangs" :-) Its that time of the day when its too early for dinner and a light snack is all we need to stave off hunger till dinner time. A quick option is the vending machine, if available or the snack in a packet which may not always be healthy. This blog is all about a few relatively healthy snacks that can be conjured up in just a few minutes. Make it ahead of time, freeze it and voila... you have a snack in less than 10 min.

Keeping up my promise of giving more recipes using mint pesto, here's a snack/appetizer that is easy to make, healthy but delicious. Any bread that you have on hand will work and for a more classic touch a baguette may be used.

Bruschetta with Mint pesto
Ingredients:
6 slices of multi grain bread (any kind would do)
Mint pesto
Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Spread each slice with generous amount of mint pesto.
Sprinkle with cheese (salt and pepper if required).
Toast in a 400F pre-heated oven for 5-8 min or until golden brown and cheese is melted.
Cut into pieces and serve warm.

Corn Meal Appam (Savory appam)

I used a non-stick appam pan that I hauled all the way from India. Little did I know that it is available in many stores for around 20 dollars, only that it is called Aebleskiver pan rather than an appam pan.

Ingredients:
1 cup corn meal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 small onion
2 green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp cumin (Jeera)
1 tsp fennel (saunf)
1 tsp red chilli powder (optional)
3/4 cup buttermilk or as required
2 tbsp cashew nuts or peanuts
salt to taste

Method:

Mix all the ingredients well. Add buttermilk as necessary to get a thick batter.
Heat an appam pan and grease well with oil (Normally just a few drops in each slot is just sufficient).
Pour batter in each slot and cook on a medium heat for few min or until one side is browned.
Turn over to the other side and cook until golden brown.
Serve with tomato ketchup or chutney.

Happy munching :-)

Fusilli with Mint Pesto

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:48:00 +0000

Mint is the star ingredient of my blog today. Spring usually brings along with it a whole range of fresh veggies and herbs. Mint is one such herb that abounds the supermarket shelf this time of the year. As with any fresh herb, mint does not remain fresh for more than 4-5 days. Hence it becomes imperative that it be used as early as possible. Given that mint has an especially strong flavor, a tiny bit goes a long way. So to run through a big bunch in a single meal is quite difficult. I was looking at ways to preserve mint for more than just a few days and presto! - I thought of pesto :-)

Pesto is a sauce made of crushed herbs and garlic. Pesto is usually made of basil with pine nuts, garlic and olive oil. Here is my version of pesto made with mint, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil. This pesto lasts for more than a month when frozen.

Mint Pesto:

Ingredients:
2 cups mint leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 cup shredded parmesan
Salt to taste

Method:

Coarsely chop all the ingredients except oilve oil in a food processor.
Stream in olive oil and grind until a smooth consistency is obtained.
Freeze in air-tight container.

Fusilli with Mint Pesto:
A variety of dishes can be made with mint pesto and here's a hearty pasta dish made with mint pesto. I have used whole wheat fusilli, though penne will work fine too.

Ingredients:
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup spinach (thaw, if frozen)
1 can black eye peas (if using dried beans, soak for 24 hrs and cook until tender)
1 tsp red chilli flakes
2 tbsp mint pesto
2 pinches nutmeg powder
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
8 pitted kalamata olives (optional)
1 big roasted red pepper (optional)
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 lb whole wheat fusilli

Method:

Cook fusilli in a big pot of salted boiling water. Cook al dente.
Heat olive oil in a saute pan. Add chilli flakes, garlic and onion. Saute until onions are soft and translucent.
Add spinach and saute for 2 min.
Add wine and let it cook until spinach gets tender.
Add mint pesto and sprinkle nutmeg powder.
Add drained black eye peas and cook for 5 more minutes.
Add fusilli. A little of starchy boiling water can be added if it gets too dry.
Mix in parmesan cheese and lemon juice.
Garnish with olives and roasted red peppers.
Enjoy...!!

A closer look....

I will post more recipes with mint pesto in subsequent weeks.
Ciao.....

Strawberry Chocolate Cupcakes

noreply@blogger.com (Rajee) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:07:00 +0000

A Sweet beginning.......

Now that I have graduated to a more relaxed post-grad-student life, I thought what better way to utilize the extra time than documenting a hobby that I like the most, cooking....

My first blog is on one of the most popular dessert of all times - "cupcakes". I made a double chocolate cupcake inspired by black forest cake recipe (with a few twists of my own). Authentic black forest cake is made of chocolate cake with layers of whipped cream and cherries. Kirsch (cherry brandy) is an essential ingredient in an authentic black forest cake. I do not normally stock cherries or kirsch and so I decided to use something that I had on hand. Strawberries are now in season and on sale :-) We could not resist buying those succulent red berries and ended up buying way more than usual. We ate some, made strawberry jam and still had some waiting to be used. So I decided to substitute cherries in the black forest cake with strawberry and used the strawberry jam as a filling in the cupcake.

Here it is, my double chocolate strawberry filled cupcakes. I have used part-whole wheat flour, some honey instead of sugar and vegetable oil instead of butter for healthier cupcakes!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup cocoa powder
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup honey
2 eggs
1/2 vegetable oil
1 cup brewed coffee
1 tsp vanilla flavor
1 cup strawberry jam (Warmed over stove top or microwave)
8 fresh strawberry (halved)
Whipped cream (optional)

Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
2. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder in a bowl and set aside.
3. In another bowl beat the eggs, oil, brown sugar and honey until well mixed. Mix in coffee and vanilla.
4. Add the flour mixture into wet mixture and stir until flour is fully incorporated.
5. Line muffin tray with parchment cups and grease well.
6. Half fill the muffin cups with batter and add a layer of warm strawberry jam. Fill the rest with batter and top it with halved fresh strawberry.
7. Bake for 20 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.

Serve with whipped cream (optional). Yummmm..................