spicyana

2011-11-03T22:15:00.000-07:00

Off we go to coconut land !

This fall we will be walking around in flip flops, basking in the sun, strolling in verdant stretches of beaches,slurping on fresh coconut water every now and then to rev up our spirits. Not really but close ! We are off to Kerala for a month long vacation,although we surely will be walking around wearing flip flops ,this time it is all about spending most of our time driving back and forth on NH47, the main thoroughfare in my home state, shuttling between the preparations for two weddings in the family. My brother and T’s brother are both getting married.

We are looking forward to seeing most of our extended family this time and to facing all that comes with it :) We will be back in time for Christmas, until i see you all again, keep having fun. Here again is a cake, made for a friend’s baby shower.

2011-09-27T06:39:00.000-07:00

A deep sea party!

Our little girl who would like to be known hereafter as “BIG GIRL SARAH” celebrated her 4th birthday last week.

She wanted a mermaid cake; I made one, turns out now that she had the deep sea princess Ariel in her mind. She is very happy about the cake I am assured, but the mermaid’s hair should have been the color red!

That is the fun with a 4th Birthday, you realize that your itsy bitsy, once flannel bound bundle of joy has a very detail oriented plan about everything !

A quote from her favorite Dr. Seuss book Horton Hears a who describes it best.

"A person's a person, no matter how small."

2011-09-05T21:53:00.000-07:00

ഓണാശംസകള്‍ !

We wish you all a very Happy and Cheerful Onam , complete with a scrumptious sadya, replete with warm memories of the Onams past !

If you feel like experimenting with the payasam you are making this Friday, here is a special something for you. This is a carrot halwa meets pal payasam kind of sweet stuff. You will process the carrots till it goes to an almost Halwa-ish stage, before taking a turn and swiftly adding it to a pot of pal payasam. I can only describe it aptly in Malaylam, a language I heavily rely on for speaking out what I really,truly and sincerely mean.

ക്യാരറ്റ് വിളയിച്ച പാല്‍ പായസം !

ഓണാശംസകള്‍ !

Carrot rice pal payasam (Milk and rice pudding with carrots sautéed in ghee)

Recipe

Milk – 10 cups
Water- 2 cups
Broken red rice – ¼ cup
Carrot - very finely grated – 5 cups
Sugar – 1 3/4 cup
Ghee- 1 tbsp
Cardamom – 4 pods
Cashew nuts – ¼ cup
Raisins – ¼ cup

In a non stick pan, mix grated carrot with ¼ cup sugar and ½ tbsp ghee. Cook with constant stirring at high heat, till the grated carrots dries up (about 10-15 minutes). Turn off the heat. You can do this step ahead of time, and keep the prepared carrot frozen until ready to use. In a pressure cooker, mix milk, water, rice and sugar. Close the lid, turn on the stove. When you see steam coming out of the valve, put the regulator on, keep in high heat for 2 more minutes. Turn the heat to low and leave the cooker undisturbed for the next 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and open the cooker after releasing the steam. Add the prepared carrots; turn the heat back on, cook with constant stirring at medium heat for about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, add cardamom powder. Heat ½ tbsp ghee in a small pan, add cashew nuts and raisins. Sauté till the nuts begin to turn golden brown. Add it to the payasam. Serve warm or cold.

2011-08-31T21:53:00.000-07:00

Berry quick muffins!

Sarah’s school opens in sixteen days, that is about seven days to be precise, but sixteen because that is her favorite number for the past couple of days or so we are told. She is so looking forward to seeing her bosom pals again and to saying Hello to her teacher Ms. Charcie whom she plans to adopt someday.

Before we fall back into the school year routine (she is going to pre-school, I know we are not even half way there as far as routines go), we thought of catching up on necessary life sustaining skills and made some berry quick muffins together.

This is a recipe any three year old kid can make, with a little bit of help from adults. These muffins are only mildly sweet, superfast to put together, and splendid to eat warm out of the oven, with a dab of butter on top. We had so much fun making them, and my child says that she will be making it again.

Blueberry quick muffins
Recipe

Whole wheat flour – 2 cups
Blueberries – 1 cup
Sugar – ½ cup
Salt – ½ tsp
Baking powder – 3 tbsp
Butter – ¼ cup- melted
Egg –slightly beaten – 1
Milk – 1 cup

Heat oven to 350⁰C. Lightly butter a muffin pan (regular size/12 muffin cups per pan) Mix 1 ¾ cup of flour with baking powder, sugar and salt. Add milk, melted butter, and egg to the flour mixture. Combine everything together with a wooden spoon until just combined, do not over mix. Now sprinkle 1/4 cup flour over berries, gently toss to coat. Add the berries to the batter, gently fold in. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups till about 3/4th full. Bake for about 18-20 minutes or till a toothpick inserted at the center of the muffins comes out clean. Keep the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Unmold, serve warm with a dollop of butter or enjoy after the muffins cool down.
Substitute blueberries with peaches, mangoes, other berries etc.
This recipe is adapted from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook

2011-08-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

Sweet potatoes (or is it yam?) and green peas curry

Can’t tell a sweet potato from a yam? I can’t either, you have company! Every year around Thanksgiving someone will brief me about how to and why, which I dutifully forget by the time spring arrives. One of the life lessons about vegetable curries that I have learned after moving here is that you are never actually limited by the options around you. You can make anything out of anything, that’s it, thank you!!!

Here is a curry that we often make with sweet potatoes/yams assuming that these are pumpkins (where we live, pumpkins are not hard to find, I must add). This is made based on a simple “Mallu” logic that a curry concocted with ground coconut mixed in and topped with more toasted coconut cannot go wrong. Adding caramelized onions at the end makes it very special and sets it apart from the formidable Erissery.

Recipe

Sweet potatoes cut into chunks – 4 cups
Cooked green peas – 2 cups
Onions chopped – ½ cup
Grated coconut – 3/4 cup + 1/2 cup
Green chilies – 2 nos (to your taste)
Cumin – ¼ tsp.
Curry leaves – ¼ cup
Turmeric – ¼ tsp.
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp.
Salt – to taste

Add sweet potatoes to a stew pot, sprinkle with half the amount of turmeric and ¼ tsp. salt. Add 1 ½ cups of water, mix well and cook till the pieces are tender. Then add the cooked green peas, adjust salt if needed, turn the heat to low. Grind 3/4 cup of coconut, green chilies, half of cumin and the remaining turmeric to a coarse paste. Add it to the cooked potatoes, and cook for 2 more minutes at low heat. Turn off the heat. Heat 1 tbsp. of Oil in a pan. When the oil is hot, add mustard seeds. When the seeds stop spluttering, add chopped onion and sauté till golden brown. Now add the remaining 1/2 cup of grated coconut, curry leaves, cumin and toast till the coconut turns golden brown. Turn off the heat and add the seasoning to the curry. Mix well and serve with rice or enjoy it as such.

2011-07-31T14:08:00.000-07:00

On a Sunday ....

I would rather be here !

Diamond Lake
OR

2011-07-25T23:09:00.000-07:00

Roasted Indian eggplants

One of these days we will stop eating eggplants in our house, which simply means that I will, because I am the only one who does it currently! I love this vegetable, T despises it, and S so far has shown no affection. So for old times sake, I buy a couple of Indian eggplants every once in a while, and do what I always do. I roast them in a microwave oven, and then eat them all on my own, for lack of good company!

Roasted Indian Eggplants
Recipe
Indian eggplants – 6
Black gram,skinned – 3 tsp
Cumin – ¼ tsp
Chilly pepper flakes – ½ tsp to 1 tsp
Salt- ¾ tsp + ¼ tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp

Wash eggplants, leave the stems on. Mix ¾ tsp salt with 2 cups water in a bowl, keep aside. Make 4 to 6 deep cuts on the eggplant running from top to bottom, immediately plunge it in the salted water. Repeat with all eggplants. While the eggplants are soaking, heat a pan, when the pan is hot add black gram and dry roast till the color turns pale yellow. Add cumin and then roast till gram turns brown. Add pepper flakes, turn off the heat, cool. Grind the mixture to a coarse powder adding ¼ tsp salt. Add 1 tbsp oil to the spice powder, mix and keep aside. After the eggplants are soaked for about 30 minutes, drain and pat dry with paper towels. Using a knife, liberally apply the spice mix deep into the cuts. Arrange on a microwave safe plate, microwave at high for 3 minutes. Let it stand for 1 minute. Open the door, close the door again and microwave for 3 more minutes or till the eggplant turns soft to touch but still preserves its shape.

2011-06-30T07:34:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

It is not easy to keep blogging about food, to do it every week with gusto is like making a minor miracle happen, to people who do it with such assured ease and charm i tip my hat, you are all beyond awesome!

But then, getting back to blogging with some regularity is even harder after you take a break. . You start with misspelling your blogger account password several times before hitting it right by chance, your survival coding skills are beginning to fade away, and then suddenly you so miss the good company that you want to get back into the bus no matter what.

So here i am, i was trying to take life a little easy ( turns out, it wouldn’t work !) ,thank you so much for sending mails, messages, ~~and flying over to visit me.~~ For all the much appreciated loving thoughts you sent my way, i give you back potatoes! Roasted, Indian style, made in a flash, in a microwave oven ! Here we go...

Indian style roasted potatoes
Recipe
Red potatoes ( medium size) - 5 ( cut into ¼ inch thick rounds)
Crushed red pepper flakes - ¼ to ½ tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - ¼ tsp
Paprika - ½ tsp
Cumin - ¼ tsp
Curry leaves ( optional) - 10

Sprinkle salt and ½ tbsp oil over the potatoes, toss to coat. Arrange the pieces on a plate, and microwave uncovered at high for about 4 minutes. Open the door, after one minute, microwave again at high for 4 more minutes. Let it stand for 5 minutes. Heat the remaining oil in a small pan. When the oil is hot turn off the heat, immediately add cumin, followed by pepper flakes and curry leaves. When the oil is cooling down, add paprika. Transfer the potatoes to a glass mixing bowl, add the seasoning, and toss well to coat. Microwave at high for one minute, serve hot.

2011-03-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

Kadala Pidi aka Undayum Kadalayum

Please go on and repeat the title after me 5 times, that is a crash course on Malayalam for you. Now you have proved that you can learn our language easily, please proceed and try your luck at enouncing the following line 3 times “ethappazham puzhungi vizhungi”. Well done! You are hereby ready to plan your retirement in a beautiful little cottage by the backwaters in Kerala. You will thrive; conversing in the language with such fluency that will put the locals to shame! Thank you. Also, none of these words are bad; title of the post means chickpeas and dough balls roughly and the next one is something like “Plantains boiled and swallowed”.

The name by this dish is called in northern Kerala ( Undaym Kadalyum) sounds more like a title of a story I might have heard as a child, but it is not. As a matter of fact, I had no idea about its existence until about two years ago a friend from Kannur casually mentioned it when we were talking. The description sounded more like a vegetarian version of kozhi pidi, a dish made of rice dumplings and spiced chicken.

The dumplings can be made using rice flour, wheat flour or using both. Black chick peas are preferred, but if you cannot get it by any means, garbanzo beans could work too. The prep work is time consuming; you really will have to make the dough balls as small as uncooked garbanzo beans to get the dish right, but well worth the effort I would say. I got the generous company of my three year old while working on the dough, who had a better idea about how small, small should be. While the tiny dumpling I made looked like an Indian gooseberry at the beginning, she got it right at the very first time. It is all a matter of perspective I say!

Kadala Pidi

Recipe

Rice flour – 2 ½ cup
Chick peas black – 2 cups
Coconut grated – 1 ½ cup
Curry leaves – ¼ cup
Onion chopped – 1 cup + 2 tbsp
Garlic crushed – ¼ cup
Ginger crushed – 1/4 tbsp
Green chilies – crushed – 1 tsp
Cumin – 1 ½ tsp
Fennel seeds – crushed – 1 tsp
Garam masala – 1 tsp
Chilly powder – 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder – 2 tbsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Oil – 4 tbsp
Salt – 1 tsp

Soak black chick peas over night in water. Cook till the peas are soft in a sauce pan or by using a pressure cooker. When the peas are cooked (with the skin still intact), add 1/4 tsp salt, keep for 10 minutes, and drain excess water. Keep aside

Heat a frying pan and add 1 cup of grated coconut. Dry roast with constant stirring till it is golden brown. Turn off the heat, immediately transfer to a plate. Let it cool. Grind the roasted coconut to a fine paste using a blender, adding just enough water to keep the blades working. Keep aside.

Add the rice flour in a large mixing bowl, add 1 tsp crushed cumin,1/2 cup coconut , 2 tbsp finely crushed onions, and ¼ tsp salt. Add some boiling water (about 1 ½ cup, add more if needed) and mix with a wooden spoon till the flour comes together as a soft dough. When the dough is still warm (but not hot) knead the dough really well with your hands, till it is soft and without lumps (for about 6 minutes). Apply some oil to your hands and form small balls out of the dough (size of a cooked garbanzo bean), and arrange on a greased cookie sheet. Repeat the process till all the dough is used up.

Heat 1 tbsp oil, when it is hot, add crushed green chilies, ½ tsp crushed cumin, crushed garlic, crushed ginger, crushed fennel seeds and sauté for 1 minute. Turn the heat to low, add garam masala, chilly powder, coriander powder, and turmeric powder. Mix well, and sauté for 1 more minute. Now add three cups of water and ½ tsp salt to the mixture. Bring the heat up, cook till the water comes to a rolling boil. At this point add the dough balls. Keep covered and cook for 10 minutes, occasionally stirring to keep the balls separate. After 10 minutes, open the lid, add the cooked chickpeas, adjust the salt if needed and continue cooking with occasional stirring till the mixture starts to thicken. Now add ground coconut, mix well, and cook at high heat with constant stirring till the mixture becomes almost dry with the gravy thickly coating the dough balls. Remove from the stove.

Heat 2 tbsp oil, when the oil is hot add 1 cup finely shopped onions, sauté till the pieces are golden brown. Add curry leaves, when the leaves stop spluttering turn off the heat and add the seasoning to the cooked dumpling mixture. Stir well to combine, keep covered for 5 minutes before serving, garnished with toasted grated coconut and cilantro

Serve along with onion tomato raitha

Onion tomato raitha

Chopped tomato – 1 cup
Chopped onion – ¼ cup
Yogurt – 1 cup
Water – ½ cup
Salt – to taste

Mix everything together and keep for 1 hour before serving.

2011-03-10T07:25:00.000-08:00

A crinkled egg

Coconut oil has seen it all, from getting dissed as a health hazard to being lauded as the next best thing to boost your well being, and everything in between. Looks like we are talking about its benefits once again, but I do have my doubts about how long this is going to last. There is presumably only one reason for the roller coaster ride coconut oil is taking with regard to public affection, which namely is an astonishing lack of unbiased information about the nature and effects of the oil. We are surely in need of some meticulously planned, un-skewed research to shed the much required light into the properties of virgin coconut oil. Where else should they do it other than in places were the palm grows in plenty? KAU, are you there?

When it comes to using coconut oil in anything, people from Kerala are in no dearth for ideas. My earliest memories of the world around me are a little blurred, thanks to that bottle of coconut oil my mother used to empty on my head during bath times. The oil never left my eye you see ! The oil did not help much with my hair either, but to this day I love coconut oil in cooking. We use it in moderation, but curries from my home state in India are not quite the same with out coconut oil in it.

This is my favorite Kerala style egg roast, the only way I make them these days. I especially love the crinkled appearance of the egg, which is achieved by pouring hot oil all over it. To make it work better you can use some more oil than what is called for in the recipe to fry the eggs, and then use only the required amount to fry the onions.

Egg roast
Recipe

Eggs, hard boiled and peeled – 4
Onions thinly sliced lengthwise – 4 cups
Kashmiri chilly powder – 1 tsp
Vinegar – 1 tbsp
Coconut oil – ¼ cup
Salt – ½ tsp
Curry leaves – 10
Green onions chopped – ¼ cup ( optional)

Sprinkle salt all over the sliced onions, mix well, keep aside for 20 minutes. Now using your hands squeeze most of the water out of the onions and spread on a paper towel. Heat oil in small sauce pan (so that you can spoon the oil easily). When the oil is hot, add two eggs at a time. Spoon the hot oil over the eggs; you will see the surface crinkling. Turn the eggs around, and take it out and drain excess oil on a paper towel. Repeat with the remaining eggs. Roasting two eggs usually takes one minute.

Now to the hot oil (you may need to switch to a sautéing pan at this point) add the sliced onions, sauté till it gets a pale golden brown color. Turn off the heat. Take 1/4th of the sautéed onions and grind to a fine paste adding chilly powder ,vinegar and ¼ cup of water in a blender. Add the ground mixture to the sautéed onions in the pan, turn on the heat, add curry leave, and green onions if using, and sauté at medium heat till the gravy is very thick. At this point, add the eggs, and gently toss to coat with the gravy. Turn of the stove; keep the pan covered for a minute before serving

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2011-03-02T06:50:00.000-08:00

Cardamom cashew cookies

Snow in summer plants are not in bloom yet, these photos were taken on a day two years ago when I could go out and pluck a flower from our back yard, and then compose a shot around it. I love flowers as props, but only when I can get them from our garden. Our first snow storm which amassed a whopping one inch of snow came a week ago, and in just a couple of hours withered the first blooms on my lovely Euphorbia plant, which blossomed for the first time after taking its time to grow up . My gardening pals assure me that it will spring back in a week or two, I hope it does, or else I am going to be very annoyed at the snow, don’t you dare come back this year, or may be you can, on Christmas day, that is fine with me. Thanks.

Perched snugly below these flowers are some lovely cardamom cookies, slathered generously with some white chocolate. What make these cookies burst with flavor is the powdered toasted cashew nuts in them, so if you decide to skip the decorating part altogether it will be quite alright. Just like you would do with any other rolled cookie, chill the dough for a good one hour before you start working with it.

Cardamom cashew cookies
Recipe

Cashew nuts – 1 cup
All purpose flour – 2 cups
Salt – ½ tsp
Butter, unsalted – 1 cup (two sticks)
Sugar - 2/3 cup
Egg yolks – 2
Cardamom powder – 1/4 tsp ( or seeds from 10 pods powdered)
White chocolate chips (optional) - for decoration 3/4 cup

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and spread cashew nuts on it. Roast the nuts at 350oC till the nuts are slightly browned (takes about 10 minutes, but keep an eye on it from after 5 minutes)Turn the oven off; take the sheet out, cool on kitchen counter. When the nuts are cool, grind to a fine powder adding ¼ cup sugar, keep aside.

Cream butter and the remaining sugar together till fluffy (about 5 minutes), add eggs and beat again for 2 more minutes. Add the ground nut mixture, cardamom powder and mix well for a minute. Now add the flour mixture and mix thoroughly to combine (for 1 minute). Devide the dough into two, cover with kitchen wrap and refrigerate for one hour.

Heat oven to 350 degree C. Roll the dough between parchment sheets to about 1/8th inch thickness and cut shapes out of it. If it gets difficult to lift the cut out shapes, return the dough to fridge, chill for 5 minutes and then take out the cutouts. Keep the cookies 1 inch apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-15 minutes or till the edges begin to brown. Cool the cookies on a wire rack, store in an air tight container for up to a week. Makes about 40 cookies.

Decorating (optional)
Keep the white chocolate chips in a thick glass mixing bowl. Microwave till the chips look glossy but still hold the shape. Take the bowl out and with a fork, whisk thoroughly, till you a get a smooth mixture. Apply the molten chocolate on the cookie using a brush. Sprinkle with some crushed nuts or decorative sugar crystals if you like.

2011-02-24T06:10:00.000-08:00

Chicken Vindaloo

It is snowing now; the strange white stuff does not fall from the sky very often where we live. When it does and accumulates to anywhere near 1 inch, we call it a snow storm and make snow men with zest. A certain person makes chicken vindaloo; I am not naming names, but will share a recipe with you today.

After being surrounded by so much food trivia these days, we now know that vindaloo, originally had no “aloo” in it. The name is derived from Portuguese words for wine and garlic. But I wouldn’t be upset if you decide to throw in some potato chunks into the recipe that we have here, the curry can definitely stand it

Like many other Goan recipes Vindaloo is a blend of the best of both worlds. The spice mix is very easy to make, as you do not need all the components of the garam masala, but having some Kashmiri chilly powder in your pantry is very helpful.

Chicken Vindaloo
Recipe

Chicken pieces (bite size) – 2 lbs
Garlic cloves – enough to fill ¼ cup
Ginger chopped – ¼ cup
Whole cloves – 8 nos
Black pepper – 10 nos
Cinnamon – One 3 inch stick
Cumin – 1 tsp
Kashmiri chilly powder – 3 tbsp
Vinegar – ¼ cup
Onion thinly sliced – 1 ¾ cup
Oil – 3 tbsp
Salt- 1 tsp
Cilantro – to garnish

Heat a thick bottomed pan, lightly brush with oil. Add garlic cloves; roast it for about five minutes at medium heat, frequently tossing with a spoon. Do not let the cloves char. Transfer the roasted garlic cloves to a bowl. To the hot pan now add whole cloves, black pepper and cinnamon and roast for a minute, add cumin, stir well, turn off the heat and quickly add the chilly powder. Mix everything together with a spoon. Let it cool down. To a blender jar add all the roasted ingradeints, ½ tsp salt, ginger and vinegar. Grind to a fine paste. Pat dry the chicken pieces with a paper towel, add the ground spice mix, and toss very well to coat. Cover the bowl and refrigerate over night (at least 6 hours)

On the next day, heat a pan and add half a spoon of oil. Add ¾ cup onions, sauté until tender, do not let the onions change color. Transfer to a blender jar and grind to a smooth puree. Add to the marinated chicken and mix well to combine. Heat a large pan for making the curry. Add 1 tbsp oil, when the oil is hot add the remaining onion pieces and sauté till golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain excess oil on a paper towel, keep aside.

Add 1 tbsp oil to the same pan, when the oil is hot, add the chicken pieces, and stir well for the first 1 minute. Now keep the heat at medium, and stand back till the chicken pieces start caramelizing. This could take 5-10 minutes. Toss the pieces occasionally to help with even browning. The more time you spend on this step, the tastier the curry gets. After some time you will see oil separating. Now add 1 1/2 cups of water and caramelized onions, give the curry a final gentle toss with a spoon. Keep the lid on, and turn the heat to medium. Let the curry slowly simmer for the next 20 minutes. Turn of the heat and keep 5 more minutes with the lid on before serving. Serve garnished with cilantro. I some time add some sautéed strips of jalapeno skin at this point, but that is purely optional. Serve with plain cooked rice, or with flat breads.

* If you are not able to find Kashmiri chilly powder use half regular chilly powder and half paprika.

2011-02-17T00:02:00.000-08:00

The marble cake ! What are you making amma? Marble cake, YUM ! Oh.. no...no.. But why honey bee , why?

My child then launched herself into a frantic search under the couch, inside a box, and unearthed a couple of marbles she plays with, picked it up, puffed a weensy sigh of relief and left the place without looking at the cake again. Now may I ask, why do we loose our inherent ability to connect the dots as we grow up? Offer me many leads on anything and I am still clueless. When you are three you need only one to get going! Chocolate vanilla marble cake is one of the three desserts I fondly remember from when i was young. Back then it was always served plain with out any frosting which undoubtedly was the best way to enjoy a cake with such intense milky taste and a melt in the mouth texture.

Unlike I did while making this cake you see in the photo, mix coco with only 1/4th of the batter, which helps in getting a finer marbling. There are many ways to make this well working recipe taste even better. Add 1 tsp of instant coffee granules to the coco mixture and you could call it a mocha marble cake, or just add ¼ tsp instead and make people wonder about what kicks the chocolate flavor up a notch in the cake. Substitute milk with evaporated milk and the cake tastes out of this world, trust me.

I am sending this post to the Kerala kitchen event hosted by Ria this month celebrating recipes from or inspired by the cuisine of the state

Vanilla-Chocolate Marble Cake

Recipe All purpose flour – 1 ½ cup Corn flour/starch – ¼ cup Sugar – 1 cup Butter – ½ cup (1 stick) Eggs -3 Baking powder – 2 tsp Vanilla essence – 1 tsp Coco powder – ¼ cup Milk- ¾ cup Salt – ½ tsp

Make sure all ingredients for this cake are at room temperature. Pre-heat oven to 350 degree F. Butter and flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Mix all purpose flour, corn starch, salt and baking powder with a wire whisk for about 1 minute, keep aside.

Beat softened butter with sugar till it is light and fluffy. This step is very important to get the right texture for this cake. You will have to mix at medium speed if using a stand mixer for about 6 minutes. Now add eggs one at a time mixing in between. Add vanilla essense.Keep mixing for 2 more minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary. Add the flour mixture in four batches, alternating with milk. Mix till everything is well combined. Add 4 tbsp boiling water to coco powder, mix well with a spoon. Take out 1//4 th of the batter to a separate bowl and whisk in the coco mixture. Mix very well. Spoon the white and chocolate batter in an alternating fashion to resemble a checker board. (Use a big spoon for white and smaller one for chocolate to make it easy) Once you spoon in all the batter, tap the pan twice strongly on the work bench to remove the gaps between the two batters. Now run a knife deeply through the batter going from one side to another from one end to the other in a swirling fashion. Repeat the swirling process 2 more times.

Bake for 40 minutes or till a tooth pick inserted at the center comes out clean. Keep the pan on a wire rack and let the cake cool for 10 minutes. Unmold the cake and allow to cool down completely ( ~ 1 hr). Enjoy with a cup of tea.

* I used Hershey's Special dark coco to get the deep chcolate color you see in the cake

2011-02-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

Craving street food

This post is for you if you crave street food and good health (not necessarily in that order) all at the same time. Indian street food dwells in a realm of its own. That is where interesting flavors first got juggled together, red food color was whisked in with zest and monosodium glutamate was never put under a taboo. Who could resist the reddish orange fluorescent glow of a piping hot plate of chilly idli, eaten from a brightly lit peddler stand where a tea samovar is always brewing? You can then enjoy whatever you have ordered listening to the cacophony of cast iron spatulas pounding on giant cast iron griddle in the process of making kothu parotta, to the tang of which to this day I am an addict. Also, I have suffered dearly for it. That is all I am saying.

You could order a kothu parotta, from many of the restaurants in India now, it is that time in the country, when big hotels are running street food stands. Also you could easily make something very similar at home according to your own terms, with out compromising the taste, with out adding MSG or food color or anything that annoys you even if that is broccoli! Here is how.

Before we begin, please suffer though some trivia. In India, you would make this with shredded up porottas (not to be confused with parathas), a flaky oh –so-good flat bread, which is toothsome to eat on its own. However, the making of porottas requires talent, patience, training and a good amount of vegetable shortening called Dalda, all of which I am in short supply. So I usually make some crepes, over cook them, shred, chop some vegetables and throw in some left over chicken curry if I have it, stir fry everything together with some spices and call it a complete meal. To make everything immensely better, these days I use whole wheat crepes, and declare it healthy, with out compromising the taste of course. I am starting to develop an affection towards using King Arthur Flour Company’s white whole wheat flour these days, that way you could be on a secret little mission to serve whole grains to the family and they will never have a clue! KAF Company is not paying me a dime to write this, but I am still doing it because I have a good hunch that you will like it too.

If you don’t have left over chicken curry, you have to make something which vaguely tastes so, by following a quick method described below, which should only be used for the purpose using in this recipe. It will not really taste that great otherwise as a regular chicken curry.

Spicy Stir fried crepes (Indian street food style)

Recipe
*Crepes chopped - 4 cups
Onions cut into ½ inch squares - 1 ½ cup
Ginger- finely chopped - 2 tbsp
Garlic - finely chopped - 1 tsp
Green chilies -cut into rounds - ½ tsp
Carrot thinly sliced - ½ cup
Bell pepper sliced - ½ cup
Cabbage shredded into long strips - 1 ½ cups
Tomatoes - cut into 1 inch pieces - 1 ½ cup
Zucchini/radish/or any other vegetable - ½ cup
Green onions- chopped - 1 cup
Cilantro chopped - ½ cup
Boneless chicken pieces from a chicken curry -shredded to pieces - 1 cup
Gravy from the curry - 4 tbsp
Vegetable bouillon cube - 2
Cumin - ¼ tsp
Fennel - ½ tsp
Black pepper - crushed - ½ tsp
Lemon - 1
Oil - 2 tbsp

Heat Oil in a wok. When the oil is hot, add cumin and fennel, quickly followed by onion, ginger, garlic, green chilies and crushed bullion cubes. Stir fry for two minutes. Then add carrot, bell pepper, zucchini, and stir fry for a minute. Now add chicken pieces, followed by gravy and toss very well to mix. Add chopped crepes and cabbage, stir fry for 1 more minute at high heat Turn the heat to low and add tomatoes, crushed black pepper, half of shopped cilantro, half of green onion. Toss very well to mix everything. Serve piping hot with a wedge of lime squeezed over, sprinkled with cilantro and chopped green onion Serve with a simple cucumber raitha.
*Recipe follows

Crepes
All purpose or whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Egg-1
Water -1 ½ cup.
Salt -¼ tsp

Mix all ingredients together in a blender to make a thin batter (crepe/dosa batter consistency). Heat a griddle, brush lightly with oil, Spread ¼ cup batter in a thin layer. Cook for a minute. Turn it over and cook the other side, till brown spots form. Lift it from the griddle and keep uncovered on a baking tray. Make crepes using the whole batter. When the crepes cool down, roll two of them up, and shred with a knife

Quick fix chicken masala

(If you don’t have left over chicken curry)

Boneless chicken pieces - 1 cup
Garlic chopped- ½ tsp
Ginger chopped - 1 tsp
Tomato chopped - ½ cup
Clove crushed -1
Fennel seeds crushed – ¼ tsp
Cinnamon powder - ⅛ tsp
Chilly powder - ½ tsp
Paprika - 1 tsp
Coriander powder – ½ tsp
Cilantro chopped – 2 tbsp
Salt – ¼ tsp

Heat a sauce pan, when the pan is hot, add all ingredients except tomato and chicken. Stir to combine (for less than 1 minute). Now add tomatoes, chicken, salt and ½ cup water. Mix everything together and cook covered till the gravy coats the chicken pieces. Cool and store till further use. This amount of masala prepared substitutes the chicken pieces and gravy listed in the recipe.

Cucumber raitha
Finely chopped cucumber – 1 cup
Yogurt -1 cup
Minced onion – 1 tbsp
Minced green chilies – ¼ tsp (or less)
Salt – to taste
Mix everything together in a bowl. Keep covered for 10 minutes before serving.

2011-02-02T06:56:00.000-08:00

Indian food and blogging

Food blogging is one of the most enlightening activities I have ever done. It is such an amazing feeling to be surrounded by so much talent and dedication. Together, my fellow food bloggers capture the most amazing food pictures, bring out the beauty of simple things, demystify the complicated and then most importantly remind all of us that cooking is essentially all fun.

To me many of these blogs also offer a revised understanding of the diverse cuisine I root my feet deeply in. You know this already; Indian food served in restaurants world wide represents only a minuscule fraction of the country’s intensely diverse cuisine. Each state in India has its own very unique dishes that the people living in a neighboring state might not be even aware of. Also with in these states lie niches of culinary identity emphasizing the fact that unless you purposely make an effort to understand it, you will never get a glimpse of it, even if you are living close by.

This could sound like an exaggeration, but it is not! The delicious, twelve layered chatti pathri is as much of a foreign dish in my neck of the woods as potato gnocchi, yet the Malabar region from where the delicacy is from is in my home state Kerala and is only a couple of hours drive away from the place I lived many years. Of course the situation has improved with the advent of local travel cookery shows in TV, but it seldom cross language barriers.

This is where Indian food blogs are increasingly playing the part in unraveling the secrets of dearly local Indian cuisine. When people share an heirloom recipe or reminisce on a local favorite dish in the town that they grew up, or blog about a popular street food from a place they lived in India, I am sitting here in front of the computer, feeling very lucky that I chanced upon it. Almost 6 years into reading Indian food blogs, I am increasingly getting illuminated about the umpteen ways to cook curry, make a pulao, or make a dessert from just plain milk and sugar!

Thank you fine people !

Five Indian dishes I never knew about before I started blogging.

Bakkar wadi

Lemon Sun pickle

Naksha Bori

Dal Dhokli

Mango rice

The following is not an authentic Indian recipe, but an inspired creation based on the comforting flavors I like in an Indian style snack. Serve it with a cup of tea on the side. These toasted cakes will happily go very well anywhere a falafel goes, most importantly in wraps.

Toasted spinach cakes

Recipe

Garbanzo beans/Kabuli chana – 2 cups

Whole wheat flour - 1/4 cup
Onions finely chopped – 1 /2 cup
Ginger minced – 2 tbsp
Spinach chopped - 2 cups
Coriander leaves chopped – ¾ cup
Cumin crushed – ½ tsp
Jalapeño chilies chopped – ½ tsp
Baking powder – 1 ½ tsp
Oil – 3-5 tbsp

Soak garbanzo beans in water for 6 hours. Drain, and grind it along with ginger and jalapeño to a coarse paste in a blender. At this point take out half of the mixture out. Continue blending the remaining half till the mixture is smooth. Mix both coarse and smooth purees and stir in the whole wheat flour. Add onions, spinach, coriander leaves, baking powder, cumin, and salt. Mix very well to combine. Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan, spread the mixture evenly in the pan (you can use a baking pan of any dimension; make sure that the mixture is spread to half inch thickness). Loosely cover with Aluminum foil. Bake at 350 degree for 15 -20 minutes or till a tooth pick inserted at the center comes out clean. Cool the cake for 10 minutes in the pan. Brush the top of the cake with some oil. Turn it over to a parchment sheet, and brush the bottom part also with oil. Cut out shapes using a cookie cutter like I did, or simply cut into squares. Heat a pan, brush generously with oil. When the pan is hot arrange the cakes on top of it. Cook for 1-2 minutes each side, or till you see toasted dark brown spots on the cakes. Serve with coconut chutney and of course tea!

2011-01-24T22:11:00.000-08:00

On mulligatawny soup

On the matter of mulligatawny soup, I stand divided against myself, doesn’t really know what the real thing is, or if there is a real McCoy for this altogether. I have tasted mulligatawny from a couple of restaurants in India, each time the soup presented itself as a concoction different from the one I had before. The texture ranged from being moderately thin to thick enough to almost cut with a knife. Ingredients varied a lot too, but the flavoring spices were probably the same. The soup originated in Anglo-Indian kitchens, while India was under the colonial rule, and the name probably is derived from Tamil words “Milagu thanni” which literally translates to “pepper water”

When I hear the word "thanni", out of all respect for the venerable mother language Tamil, I think of water, flow and clarity. So if I am to conjure up the image of a soup from this name, my first instinct will be to think in line of a consommé, a rasam of sorts. On the contrary, it turns out that this soup nowadays has the status of a complete meal in a bowl, texturally more complex than I originally thought it would be.

There was this one remarkable bowl of Mulligatawny I had, from the roof top restaurant of erstwhile Classic hotel ( nowadays goes by the name Madurai Residency)in Madurai, from where looking at the lighted up ancient city on a mild weather evening was almost an ethereal experience. It was a warm and hearty bowl of chicken soup with vegetables and lentils, with layers of flavor coming from spices like cumin, nutmeg and cloves.

Here is my mulligatawny soup recipe, based on the trace of memory I have about the soup mentioned above, guided by several other recipes around, and utterly devoid of curry powder for good. This is my favorite soup for now. I told you “SOUP” at the beginning of this year, and I am sticking to it.

Mulligatawny soup

Recipe

Cooked basmati rice – 1 cup
Chicken split breast – 1 piece
Diced mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, beans, corn, radishes etc) – 2 cups
Vegetable bullion cubes – 2
Masoor dal or any other quick cooking lentil – 1/4 cup
Onion Diced – 1 cup
Ginger, finely grated – 2 tbsp
Garlic, finely chopped – 1 tsp
Cloves – 6
Nutmeg powder- 1/8 tsp
Cinnamon powder – 1/8 tsp
Lemon -1
Celery seeds – 1 tsp
Coconut milk – 3/4 cup
Turmeric – 1/2 tsp
Cilantro, chopped – 1/4 cup + enough to garnish
Cumin – 1/2 tsp
Black pepper – Coarsely crushed – 1 tbsp
Salt – to taste
Olive Oil – 1 tbsp

Heat oil in a sauce pan. Sauté onion, garlic and ginger till the onions are translucent. Add, cloves, turmeric, nutmeg powder, cinnamon powder, cumin, celery seeds, and masoor dal, mix well with a spoon. Add 5 cups of water, crushed bullion cubes and bring the mixture to a rolling boil. Add the chicken piece and vegetables. Turn the heat to medium; add some salt and cook covered for 15 minutes without stirring. Meanwhile blend coconut milk and rice together adding a cup of water till the mixture turns into a coarse paste. Add it to the soup, stir well, turn the heat to very low, and cook covered with out stirring for 10 more minutes. Turn of heat, take the chicken piece out. With the help of a fork and knife shred it into small pieces. Add the pieces back to the pot. Squeeze the juice from a lemon and add to the soup. Add ¼ cup cilantro and crushed black pepper. Turn of the heat. Keep the soup covered for 5 minutes. Serve sprinkled with chopped cilantro, with a wedge of lime on the side and some crusty bread.

2011-01-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

Persimmon-Greek yogurt frozen parfait

It rained through most of the long weekend, my head almost felt like a “muddy mud puddle”. Our little girl uses these words generously to describe anything from a drop of water on the floor to the real thing, but my head definitely was closer to the latter, as a result of my own doings.

I started sorting my food photos from the past several years on Saturday morning, but it quickly turned into a bigger task than I originally thought it would be. Reason, even though I was not blogging often enough for almost two years, it turns out that I was liberally taking photos of almost anything special i cooked or ate. There were abstract photos of licked clean plates and rugged dish towels, about the capturing of which I have no wisp of memory remaining now. The good news is that as of today, my photo folders contain a lot less digital clutter, well worth the effort, even if my head felt like a “muddy mud puddle”

Then we realized that we needed dessert, and there were persimmons lovingly gifted by a friend, waiting to be made into one. If you ask me what the flavor of this fruit is like, following is my answer. Persimmons are peaches trying to be mangoes, who haven’t realized their inner sapotas yet. To let the subtle flavor of the fruit shine through I made a frozen parfait, making of which involves very less cooking of the fruit pulp.

This dessert could easily be prepared using other fruits like mangoes, peaches or even berries. If you are not able to find Greek or any other type of hung yogurt at your grocery, these easy instructions will help you to make some from your home made or store bought yogurt.

Persimmon-Greek yogurt frozen parfait

Recipe
Persimmons- 2
Greek yogurt or prepare hung yogurt 1 ½ cup
Sugar -1/2 cup + 2 tbsp
Gelatin – ½ tsp

Making caramel syrup
Mix ½ cup sugar with 2 tbsp water in a sauce pan, turn on the heat, and mix well till the sugar dissolves. Now stand back and wait for the sugar syrup to start caramelizing, mix with a wooden spatula till the syrup turns deep golden brown. Turn the heat to low, add 1/4 cup water ,increase the heat a bit with constant stirring till all sugar clumps dissolve. Transfer to a wide mouth glass jar and refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours or till it becomes very thick but still scoop-able.

Flavoring yogurt
Gently mix caramel syrup with Greek yogurt, Refrigerate till use.

Preparing fruit puree
Dissolve gelatin in 2 tbsp hot water. Microwave the mixture for a couple of seconds to completely dissolve gelatin. Keep aside. Peel persimmons, puree with ½ cup water and 2 tbsp sugar. Transfer to a sauce pan and heat with constant stirring till the mixture is warm, but not boiling. Turn of the heat; add dissolved gelatin while mixing the puree very well with a wire whisk.

Putting everything together
Now take some shot glasses or jelly molds and spoon some persimmon puree to fill 1/4th of the mold. Freeze for 1 hour. Now pipe in caramel Greek yogurt to fill the mold. Level the top with a spatula or a knife. Freeze for at least 1-2 hrs depending on the size of the mold used. To unmold the parfait, wrap a towel dipped in hot water around the mold, loosen the edges if needed with a knife and invert over a plate.

2011-01-15T21:28:00.000-08:00

Weekend cake peek

Here is a cake photo for you fine people, not a new one though.

I have no idea about what impelled me to start sorting out my food photos this morning; the year 2010 is still many many folders away. A rainy, relaxing long weekend chills your neurons well enough to make you believe that it is easy to do the impossible. Hope you all are having fun.

2011-01-12T22:48:00.000-08:00

On luck and leftovers

Holiday baking always leaves its trace in the pantry, look for it in January and you will see! A forlorn looking chestnut seriously lacking company to go to the oven, half a dozen pecans , 23 wiggly walnut halves, bits and pieces of cashew nuts, loads of raisins, and some good amount of cranberries in my pantry reminds me of the month of flour and butter that I just baked away. Tossing all these leftovers together with some rice, a couple of pantry staples and handful of herbs and calling it a rice salad – delicious!!!

Looks like I am off to start a lucky streak this year. Usually, my odds at winning anything is like 1 in 10 to the power of n , where n equals the number of rest of the people on planet earth ( oh, come on, give mathematics a break) Not any more my people, not any more, all the false notions I was harboring about my winning chances are reduced to smithereens now. I have won a copy of the book 500 cheeses at a giveaway in talented Aparna’s blog My Diverse Kitchen. Winning isn’t everything, but it sure makes one boastful. Thank you Aparna.

Fragrant rice salad

Recipe

Basmati rice cooked 2 cups
Mixed chopped nuts 1/2 cup
Cooked shredded chicken 1 cup
Broccoli –small piece 1/4 cup
Green bean-small pieces 1/4 cup
Dried sweetened cranberries 1/2 cup
Pineapple-chopped 1/4 cup
Raisins or dried apricots 1/2 cup
Thai basil –chopped 1/4 cup
Cilantro-chopped 1/4 cup
Parsley- chopped 1/4 cup
Crushed black pepper 1 tsp
Cream 2 tbsp
Lemon juice from 1 lemon
Vegetable bouillon cube 1
Garlic-chopped 1 tsp
Cumin 1/4 tsp
Olive oil 2 tbsp
Salt To taste

Heat the rice in the microwave till it is warm to touch. Sprinkle cream and 1 tbsp olive oil over rice, mix with a fork and keep aside. Heat 1 tbsp oil, add cumin, garlic, chopped vegetables, crushed vegetable bouillon cube and stir fry till the vegetables are tender. Add to the rice, add the remaining ingredients except lemon juice and parsley to the rice, toss well. Check the salt. Add some salt to lemon juice if needed and sprinkle over the rice, toss well. Keep covered for 10 minutes before serving

2010-12-31T08:02:00.000-08:00

I have resolved,

to take everything easy, speak my head and not heart whenever required, make phone calls to my friends often enough to induce earnest irritation on the receiving end, keep the house as if we are having guests the next moment, get less embarrassed thinking about the possibility of getting embarrassed, and eat more soup than anything else in this brand New Year about to begin tomorrow.

We wish you all an exciting year ahead; live your life with zest, happy 2011 everyone !

Coconut crusted crab cakes

Recipe

Cooked crab meat – 1 cup
Egg – 2
Boiled and mashed potatoes- ½ cup
Bread crumbs – 1 tbsp
Jalapeño skin chopped– 1 tbsp
Black pepper coarsely crushed -1/2 tsp
Green onion minced – 2 tbsp
Ginger minced – 1 tbsp
Garlic minced – ½ tsp
Fennel seeds crushed -1/8th tsp
Dried coconut flakes – 1 cup
Salt – to taste
Oil – for frying

Mix crab meat with 1 egg and rest of the ingredients except coconut flakes and oil. Refrigerate for 20 minutes. Beat one egg. Spread the coconut flakes on a plate. Form small patties with the crab meat mixture, dip it in beaten egg, and roll in dried coconut, arrange on a plate. Heat oil in a frying pan and shallow fry the patties on both sides turning after each side is done. Drain excess oil on paper towels. Serve hot with chutney mayo or a dollop of sour cream. Makes about 20 small crab cakes.

2010-12-24T20:16:00.000-08:00

Wish you a very merry Christmas !

May the love, peace and happiness of the season be with you.

Now you know where those wrapped little boxes went,don't you ?

2010-12-24T09:21:00.000-08:00

Let there be lights !

Christmas lights from Peacock lane,Portland Oregon.

2010-12-21T05:33:00.000-08:00

Baking !

Our Christmas week will come to you in pictures, here is one to show how the whole house is at work to keep things going !

2010-12-15T05:33:00.000-08:00

Season’s sweet things – “You-know-what”

Gleeful happenings are taking place on the lower quarter of our Christmas tree, ornaments are constantly switching places and ribbons seem to be perennially on the move. A pink Dora whistle and a yogurt tub lid were found spending time on the tree for a while, before getting replaced with a scrubbing pad and a piece of chalk. Altogether it looks like so much Christmas fun for someone in the house!

I purposely decided not to start off this post mentioning fruitcake; you are still here, aren’t you? People from my home state are long known to pledge their allegiance to this cake perhaps from the time when British inspired bakeries began making the cake, substituting difficult ingredients like molasses with home made caramel syrup, adding on other spice favorites like shajeera, lavishing on cashew nuts, and skimping on candied fruits for good. Every Christmas we bake some, buy some, gift some, eat even more and then start off again in our relentless pursuit for making the best fruit cake ever. The journey is on and we all know that getting there is perhaps all the fun!

My favorite fruitcake recipe still is the most viewed post in this blog, so I think it is only fair to share one more. The Rum and raisin fruit cake gets its intense flavor and melt in the mouth texture from the boiled raisin puree used in the recipe. Always make sure that you bake the cake till the cake tester comes out clean with some crumbs attached to it. Also if you are using a dark surface cake pan, cover outside with Aluminum foil to prevent over browning of the cake during the prolonged baking time.

Rum and raisin fruitcake

Granulated sugar 1 ½ cups + ½ cup
Butter ¾ cup
Eggs 2
All purpose flour 2 ½ cups
Baking powder 2 tsp
Ground cloves ½ tsp
Ground nutmeg ¼ tsp
Ground Shajeera 1 tsp
Salt ¼ tsp
Orange extract ½ tsp
Rum ¼ cup +1/4 cup+ 2 tbsp
Raisins 2 cups + 2 cups
Chopped cashew nuts 1 cup

Raisin Puree
Cook 2 cups of raisins with 1 cup of water, and ¼ cup of Rum with occasional stirring till the raisins are very tender. Cool the mixture, blend to a fine puree adding just enough water to get the blender going if needed.

Caramel syrup
Mix ½ cup sugar with 2 tbsp water in a sauce pan, turn on the heat, and mix well till the sugar dissolves. Now stand back and wait for the sugar syrup to start caramelizing, mix with a wooden spatula till the syrup turns deep golden brown. Turn the heat to low, add ½ cup water ,increase the heat a bit with constant stirring till all sugar clumps dissolve. Cool and refrigerate up to 1 week.

Soaking fruits
Soak 2 cup raisins in ½ cup orange juice+ ½ cup water+ ¼ cup rum for 1-2 days in the refrigerator (Or microwave the mixture (without rum) for 4 minutes, add the rum and soak for 4-6 hours). Drain off the excess liquid before adding fruits to the batter.

Heat oven to 325 degree F, grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan

In a bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, and spices with a wire whisk.

Cream butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes, add eggs, orange extract, spices, caramel syrup and continue creaming for 2 more minutes. Add the raisin puree and flour mixture alternating between the two, mixing very well after each addition. Add soaked raisins, chopped nuts and mix well with a wooden spoon. Spoon the batter (it will be very thick, you may add a couple of tablespoons of water to the batter if and only if it is needed, otherwise the fruits will sink to the bottom of the cake) into the prepared pan and bake for about 1 hr and 30 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake come out clean with a few crumbs on it. Start testing after 1 hr 15 minutes. Keep the cake on a wire rack to cool down for 20 minutes. Invert the cake, brush it with 2 tbsp of rum (optional) and let the cake rest for a day before serving. Store at room temperature for up to 7 days, refrigerate for up to a month

2010-12-12T00:02:00.000-08:00

Packed !

2010-12-08T07:19:00.000-08:00

Season’s sweet things – Indian spice cookies

It is the season again, my favorite of all times. As we begin December, I am not craving for sunshine or missing the crisp air of autumn, I have only Christmas in my head for now, and that is where I will stay for the rest of this year. I try to do everything early enough, so that I can kick the kitchen apron off, bunch up icing tips, tuck away rolling pins, brush all purpose flour off every surface in the house, and relax as we get close to Christmas day. That never seems to happen, I go like a spinning wheel come December, till about Christmas Eve when everything suddenly settles, and serenity comes back with such a force that I will not ever have it in any other way at any time in my life! There, I said it!

Now I dare you all to make a batch of these cookies I loved to hate growing up. My attitude has mellowed ever since, this year I am even making some to include in the goodie basket for friends, a few of them are probably in for a surprise. Hidden behind the deceptive appearance of a crumbly butter cookie lurks an inner self perked up with some good amount of chilly powder and garam masala. A couple of bakeries in my home town used to spice these cookies up so high that your lips will burn for some good number of minutes after you ate one. When you adjust the heat level to fit your tolerance, you will see that these cookies are delectable in a different way.

Masala/Spice Cookies

All purpose flour 3 ¾ cup
Butter 1 ¾ cup
Confectioners sugar 1 ½ cup
Cashew nuts, finely chopped 1 cup
Garam masala 1 ½ tsp
Chilly powder 2 tsp
Ginger paste 1 tsp
Salt 1/4 tsp

Heat oven to 350 degreeC. Soften butter with a wooden spoon, add the rest of the ingredients and make smooth dough with the help of a wooden spoon or a hand mixer. Do not over work the dough, if it gets sticky refrigerate for 20 minutes. Make 1 inch balls of the dough and arrange on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12 minutes or till the edges begin to brown. Immediately transfer cookies along with the parchment sheet to a wire rack. Cool, store in air tight container for up to a week.

Makes approximately 70 cookies

Optional : Decorate with edible gold dust to fit the season.

2010-12-04T06:31:00.000-08:00

Felt - the stuff memories are made of

To make these felt ornaments you will need

Stiff felt
Star cookie cutter
Ribbon
Assorted buttons
A discerning three year old to glue stuff together

2010-12-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

The winner is ....

A BIG THANK YOU to all of you for stopping by and leaving precious comments in my previous post, I am sending you all my love and friendship. I used random line picker to pick the luckiest. The winner of the all –things-good - gift basket is ….

Dalia, please send me an email (spicyana at gmail dot com) with your postal address.

Now Christmas begins……

2010-11-21T23:05:00.000-08:00

Allow me to say…..

to all my readers for being very nice to me. It has been more than 4 years since I jotted down my first blog post in a moment of passing curiosity. This blog has gone through bouts of hyperactivity, stretches of inaction and everything in between ever since. But for some reason beyond my brain, you have decided to stick with me, choosing to visit, even when this space was dormant for over a year. Such gracious acts should be remembered, and I will.

This post will be open for comments till the end of this month. The winner will be randomly picked, and will be announced here on Dec 1st.

Wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving and a relaxing long weekend. Try not to fret over your turkey, will you? We are going to take it easy, and visit our pals over the long weekend, so lots of chatter is assured to be on the table. Have a very nice time folks, and please enter your name for the drawing.

Here is a recipe for a sort-of – Indian -inspired-cottage pie – (but made with chicken instead) we made this weekend to ward off the cold weather blues.

Chicken pie with Indian spices

Potatoes – medium size – 4 nos

Cooked, shredded chicken – 2 cups

Green peas – ½ cup
Carrots-chopped – ¼ cup
Onion- chopped – 1 cup
Tomato- chopped -1
Garlic-minced – 1 tsp
Ginger –finely chopped -2 tsp
Jalapeno skin –chopped- 1 tbsp
Cilantro- chopped – ¼ cup
Turmeric – ¼ tsp + ¼ tsp
Paprika- 1 tsp
Black pepper –crushed – ¼ tsp+ ½ tsp
Cumin powder – ¼ tsp
Cardamom-crushed – 1 pod
Nutmeg powder – ¼ tsp
Cinnamon powder – ¼ tsp
Clove powder – ¼ tsp
All purpose flour – 2 tbsp
Coconut milk – ¼ cup
Oil – 2 tbsp + ½ tsp
Salt- to taste
Butter or cheese – 2 tbsp

Heat ½ tsp oil in a pan; when it is hot add ¼ tsp turmeric powder and ¼ tsp cumin powder, fry for a couple of seconds. Add coconut milk, stir well, and turn off the heat. Cook the potatoes, peel and mash with the coconut milk mixture prepared above, ¼ tsp crushed black pepper and salt to taste. Keep aside. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan. When the oil is hot, add chopped onion, ginger, garlic and jalapeño. Sauté till the onion pieces turn golden brown, add all other spice powders, all purpose flour and sauté for 1 more minute,. Add carrots, green peas, chicken pieces, tomato, and mix well. Cook covered at low heat for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and add ½ cup water (or vegetable broth). Mix well, cook till the mixture thickens and all the water evaporates. Add chopped cilantro and mix.

Fill ramekins about 3/4th with the chicken mixture, and top with mashed potato. Fluff the mashed potato with a fork. Grate some frozen butter, or cheese over it. Bake at 375 oC for 20 minutes or till the potato layer turns crusty and gets golden brown specks

2010-11-15T23:53:00.000-08:00

You can never eat just one

Apple chips are very easy to make, easier if you have a mandoline, but easy nonetheless. I have always used my knife for this purpose, but at times demand for the chips exceeds my supplying power, and my chopping skills go astray. If a certain someone in my household is reading this by chance, look no further to see what is in my wish list for this year’s Christmas. Wow, we are talking Christmas already, with due respect to all the months in the calendar, where did this year go?

Recipe

Apples (like Gala or Pink lady or Granny smith) – as many as you like

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degreeF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. If using a mandoline slicer, slice the whole apple into very thin rounds. If using a knife, it is easier if you halve the apple first, anchor the half on the flat side on a chopping board and slice lengthwise as thin as possible. Now arrange the pieces without overlapping on the baking sheet. Bake/dry for 1 hour in the oven. Check to see if the pieces are sticking to the paper. Loosen the pieces if necessary, dry for 10 more minutes or till the pieces are crispy. Enjoy!

2010-11-09T19:06:00.000-08:00

A bowl of noodles for the weather

At the beginning of summer, which now seems was like eons ago; I picked up a weakling of a lemon grass plant from a garden sale. No aspirations were harbored about brewing pots of flavored soup, liberally distributing bundles of the herb to my friends, freezing some to survive the winter or even selling some lemon grass to get rich fast ! All we wanted was to see if the plant will fare in our back yard, may be setting forth a leaf or two on the go, which will be put to good use in a soup. But as life will have it, we were able to do everything I have listed above except for the getting rich part, for which it turns out that we will have to wait!!

The plant is still going strong despite the weather getting colder. If it fails to come back next spring it will still be alright with us, the plant has served us enormously well already, I will be buying one again next year.

This season brings steamy hot noodle bowls to our table once again, with a plentiful supply of lemon grass at hand; we have been making this favorite yellow curry noodle dish very often.

Yellow curry noodles recipe

*You can cook the noodles and make the sauce ahead of time and keep it refrigerated. Before serving, keep the noodles in boiling water for 2 minutes, drain. Heat up the sauce in a microwave oven. Then serve with freshly stir fried vegetables and meat

Rice noodles (any width) - 8 oz
Sliced mixed vegetables - 3 cups
Quick yellow curry paste - made using the recipe given below
Thinly sliced boneless chicken pieces - 1 cup
Chopped Thai basil - 4 tbsp + for garnishing
Chopped green onion - 2 tbsp + for garnishing
Chopped cilantro - for garnishing
Corn flour - 1 tbsp
Coconut milk - 2 1/2 cups
Soy sauce - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Lemon grass leaves - 3 leaves made into a knot
(or chopped stalk – 2 tbsp)

Yellow curry paste

Cumin - 1/4 tsp
Coriander powder - ½ tbsp
Ginger - 4 tbsp
Lemon zest (optional) - ½ tsp
Fish sauce - 1 ½ tsp
Brown sugar - 1 tsp
Chopped cilantro - ¼ cup
Turmeric - ¼ tsp
Cinnamon powder - a pinch
Lemon grass stalk chopped - 2 tbsp
White pepper - 1/2 tsp
Green onion chopped - 2 tbsp

Grind all ingredients together in a blender adding just enough water to make a smooth paste. You will need to use the entire recipe of the paste for this noodle dish, but you can easily scale up the recipe and freeze it for future use. Spread the paste in half inch thickness on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Freeze for 2 hours. Peel the parchment backing off; break the frozen paste into pieces and store frozen in a zip lock bag. When you need it you can simply take out the required number of pieces.

Preparing the noodle bowl

Boil 5 cups of water in a sauce pan. Add the dry rice noodles, cover with a lid and turn off the heat. After 20 minutes, drain the water, spread the noodles on a plate, and keep covered.

Heat ½ tsp oil in a pan, add the curry paste and corn flour, fry the paste for a minute with stirring, add 2 cups of water, stir very well to break apart clumps, add a bundle of lemon grass leaves (or chopped stalk) and cook till the mixture starts to thicken. Then add 2 1/2 cups of coconut milk. Taste the sauce and adjust salt. Turn of the heat. Add 2tbsp of chopped green onions, and 2 tbsp of chopped Thai basil. Before serving, reheat the sauce if needed and discard the knot of lemon grass leaves if using.

Thinly slice vegetables and keep aside (carrots, broccoli, choy, bell pepper, zucchini etc.) Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan. Add ½ tsp sugar, when the color turns to golden brown add chicken pieces and stir fry at high heat at for 4 minutes. Now toss the pieces with soy sauce. Add vegetables, ½ tsp of crushed ginger, 2 tbsp of chopped basil and stir fry for 5 minutes or till the vegetables are just about tender. Taste and adjust the salt.

To serve, arrange some noodles on a bowl, ladle ¾ cup of sauce over, and top with stir fried vegetables. Sprinkle with some chopped green onions, cilantro, and Thai basil.Serve hot.

Serves 4.

2010-11-03T07:25:00.000-07:00

Spaghetti squash thoran

What else do you think we made with some spaghetti squash we had? THORAN! The quintessential everyday meal dish served with rice in Kerala and in many other Indian states, yet so unfairly denied a place in Indian restaurant menu cards. Versatility makes this dish popular, with a miniscule amount of creative thinking thrown in; you can make perhaps ten different thorans based on a head of cabbage! I am not saying anything further.

Thoran recipe
Spaghetti squash strands prepared – 3 cups
Cooked beans (Moth beans/Mung beans/Cowpeas) – 1 cup
Grated coconut – ¾ cup
Green chilies minced – ½ tsp (or less)
Onion chopped – ¼ cup
Cumin seeds – 2 pinches
Garlic – one clove, minced
Curry leaves – 10-15 nos
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Salt – to taste

Spread the prepared spaghetti squash on a chopping board and make several cuts with a knife to shorten the strands. Crush the grated coconut in blender adding turmeric and green chilies, or with a wooden spoon thoroughly mix the three ingredients in a bowl. Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is hot, add mustard seeds. When it stops spluttering add chopped onion, chopped garlic, cumin and curry leaves. Cook at medium heat till the onion pieces are translucent. Add the prepared spaghetti squash and salt. Mix very well, till all the clumps break up. Add the beans and mix again. Turn the heat to low and add the crushed coconut mixture. Mix well, cover the pan with a lid and cook at low heat without stirring for 6- minutes. Serve with rice.

How to prepare spaghetti squash ?

2010-10-31T18:59:00.000-07:00

Spooky sights in the neighborhood…

Our carved pumpkin reflecting the family’s general attitude towards the world

Dead leaves leave their marks everywhere, you only have to look close enough....

Have fun !

2010-10-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

Diwali treat -Spaghetti squash halwa

Diwali is around the corner, many million lights will illuminate the Indian subcontinent in a week’s time, celebrating the victory of good over evil, light over darkness and life over death. This is also the time to be in India, if you are a connoisseur of fine Indian sweets, sweet shops offer their best, and households make the most compared to any other time of the year. To celebrate this season of mirth and indulgence I made some halwa with that squash which begs to be made into a halwa !

Spaghetti squash is your friend, if you wish to make a halwa like you do with the carrots-ie by starting off with grating it. All you need to do with this one is to microwave ( boil/bake) it, and then with a fork, score the flesh out. Thin spaghetti like threads you get, could easily be made into a halwa. Sources inform me that I could use these cooked squash threads as fake spaghetti when I go on a no-starch diet. I will not get there that fast, but knowledge is power!

Spaghetti squash halwa

* Tastes like a cross between a crunchy Agra peda and moist pumpkin halwa.

Preparing the squash
Cut the squash open horizontally into two pieces. Remove the innards with a spoon. Add two tbsp water to a microwave safe plate and keep the squash cut side down on it. Microwave at high heat for 6-8 minutes. Check for doneness by running a fork deep into the flesh. If strands are falling out, it is ready. Let the squash rest for 5 minutes before you work on it.

Now, run the fork lengthwise on the flesh and you will see it falling out as fine uniform spaghetti like threads. Scoop out all the flesh this way.

Making halwa

Prepared squash threads - 2 cups

Sugar - 1 1/4 cup

Milk - 1/4 cup

Water- 3/4cup

Butter/ghee - 2 tbsp

Slivered Almonds - 3/4 cup

Cardamom - seeds from three pods -powdered

Heat a pan and add almonds, roast with constant stirring at high heat for about 5 minutes or till the pieces begin to change color. Turn off the heat, when the pieces cool grind it into a fine powder using a coffee grinder or a blender

Mix water, milk and sugar in a pan. Boil till the sugar dissolves and a syrup forms, add squash, mix very well and cook covered for 10 minutes at medium heat. Then increase the heat to high and cook till the mixture thickens. Add butter/ghee and cardamom. When the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, turn the heat to low. Add almond powder in 4 batches, mixing very well in between to avoid forming lumps.

Line a baking tray with butter paper and spread the cooked mixture on top in about 1/4 inch thickness. After it completely cools down, keep the tray in freezer for 1/2 an hour. This helps in cutting through the threads easily. Cut into shapes, let it come back to room temperature and serve. You can serve hot halwa spooned in little cups when it comes out of the stove too. Make 12 healthily generous portions.

2010-10-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

You can never say no…

to the urge to make pickles !

Pickles run in families, if you grew up with shiny little Horlicks bottles sitting around a well’s rim glaring at you, you will agree too. I cannot seem to stop pickling, while many are just ordinary some turns out to be very good enough to write home about. I literally do that- every single time when a pickle turns out good, I swiftly pass the recipe on to my mother. It is my way of telling her thank you, for passing the pickling gene on!

Ripe tomatoes are easy to pickle using an Indian style recipe, you don’t have to worry too much about chopping, just cut them up, and throw into the pan, let the seeds be in there. When it cooks down to the tasty spicy mush, you will be thankful to the seeds for the added texture. The recipe that we have here is a good way to pickle cherry tomatoes if you so wish, clean them well and throw them in, no hassle about chopping and such. This pickle fares really well as a dip for some crusty bread, thanks to the olive oil in the recipe.

Tomatoes - roughly chopped – 5-6 lbs
Garlic – chopped – 1 cup
Ginger julienned – 1 ½ cups
Jalapeño- chopped – ½ cup
Curry leaves – ½ cup
Mustard seeds – 1 tbsp
Fenugreek seeds – ½ tsp
Olive Oil - 1 cup
Vinegar – 1 cup
Brown sugar – 1 tbsp

In a thick bottomed large sauce pan (preferably a Dutch oven), heat 1 tbsp olive oil. When the oil is hot add mustard seeds, when the seeds finish spluttering add brown sugar quickly followed by fenugreek seeds, garlic, ginger, jalapeño and curry leaves. Stir well and cook for about 5 minutes at high heat. Turn the heat to low and add tomatoes, and salt, stir well and cook with occasional stirring till most of the water evaporates and the mixture begins to turn thick ( This could take 1/2 to 1 hr depending on the tomatoes used) At this point, increase the heat and cook with constant stirring till the mixture begins to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Add vinegar, stir very well, and add the remaining olive oil. Cook for 2 more minutes at high heat. Turn of the stove and let the pickle cool down. Store at room temperature for up to a month or keep refrigerated for long term storage.

2010-10-11T20:22:00.000-07:00

Apricot tarts for a rainy day

Days now resemble the kind of days I was used to for a long time, sun rises around 6.3am and sets by about 7 pm, and this rings a vague bell of normalcy in my head. This will not last long, it happens during a short window of time before it gets too cold and too rainy in fall. I am an early riser, I love it when the world sleeps around me when I gleefully make my first cup of tea, and splatters it in the microwave only because I was 20 seconds too late to get it out. Now when I look through the window at 6am in the morning, the world suddenly turns into a flat familiar landscape, no matter where you are you are in the same place!

What else I see when I look out of my window on a rainy Saturday morning? The color purple, that too lots of it, thanks to perennial verbena plants blooming in this glum weather as if they are on a mission. To make the most of everything, I suddenly decide to bring some of those flowers in, and bake an open face tart to fill our kitchen with warmth and color.

A tip on storing left over puff pastry sheets

I usually cut the leftover puff pastry sheets into squares or rounds, arrange it on a baking sheet lined with parchment and freeze for about 1 hour, then transfer it to a Ziploc bag to store it in the freezer. This helps me to pull out just the right amount to use at a time. No heartbreaks over over indulgence you see! To thaw, arrange the rounds on a baking sheet; keep on the kitchen counter for 10 minutes, before using.

Decided to send the first photo for the October-DMBLGiT event hosted by My Diverse Kitchen. Thank you for hosting, Aparna.

Open face apricot tarts

Puff pastry base, cut into 2-3 inch rounds or squares 12
Apricots (thinly sliced) 4
Sugar 3/4 cup
Crushed toasted nuts ¼ cup

Arrange the puff pastry cutouts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle with ¼ cup of sugar to reach all of it evenly. Arrange the apricot slices in an overlapping fashion ( 6-8 nos/base). Dust with the remaining amount of sugar on top. Bake at 400 degree C for 12-15 minutes till the base is puffed up and begins to brown around the edges.

2010-09-29T23:35:00.000-07:00

Making a fondant ribbon rose

A fondant ribbon rose is an easy sugar flower to make, classy enough to adorn a wedding cake or sufficiently playful to sit atop a toddlers Birthday cake. Even without much practice you can make one flower per minute from pre-cut fondant ribbon. I made all the flowers for Sarah’s Birthday cake while watching a movie. You just can’t beat that convenience!

Two slightly different methods of making these flowers are here and here

2010-09-23T07:43:00.000-07:00

Our little girl turns three today...

2010-09-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

Pineapple mousse with a hint of rum

Homemade desserts used to be very simple in the times when I was a kid, payasams were made whenever an occasion called for celebration, custard was considered fancy, un-churned ice creams of varying degrees of toughness were all considered exceptional. For everything else, there were local bakeries and ice cream parlors to turn to, from cream horns to jelly rolls they got it all covered for us.

On those days of simple living, only one fruit stood on its own as the whole dessert course for a non vegetarian feast in our neck of the woods, and that was not mango but pineapple! A piece of pineapple served along with Biriyani on some social functions hinted that no ice creams will be served thereafter. The fruit seemed like a perfect ending for the feast packed with a riot of flavors. Even now, I couldn’t agree more!

Pineapple mousse with a hint rum – Egg less and super easy!

Pineapple – 1 can (10-12 oz)

Evaporated milk – ½ cup

Sugar – 1 cup

Confectionary sugar -1/2 cup

Heavy whipping cream 2 cups

Caramelized almonds – 1 cup (recipe follows)

Plain gelatin – 1 ½ tbsp

Artificial rum extract – ½ tsp (optional)

To prepare nuts, caramelize 2 tbsp of sugar in a thick bottomed pan. When the color turns to golden brown turn off the heat and add 1 cup of thinly sliced almonds. Mix with a fork to coat the nuts with caramel. Spread on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil. Crush with hands when cooled. Store up to a week in an airtight container.

Puree pineapple along with the syrup in a blender till very smooth. In a thick bottomed vessel combine 1 cup of sugar with pineapple puree. Cook till the mixture boils; keep boiling for 5 more minutes with constant stirring. Add evaporated milk, stir well. Dissolve gelatin in 3 tbsp of hot water, add to the pineapple mixture with constant stirring. Add rum extract, stir well, and turn off the heat. Let the mixture cool completely on the kitchen counter. When the mixture is at room temperature start whipping heavy cream with ½ cup of confectionary sugar , whip till soft peaks form. With a fork beat the pine apple mixture to break up lumps if any. Slowly fold in the whipped cream in 3-4 batches. Spoon the mousse into ramekins. Sprinkle with crushed caramelized nuts, chill for at least 6 hours before serving. Serves 12.

2010-09-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

Ginger chicken wrap – Indian style

Life is keeping me busy this week; I will try my best to come up with an enormously boring drown-out post in a couple of days. Meanwhile just to keep you entertained, here is our favorite Indian style ginger chicken wrap recipe complete with chutney yogurt and a truck load of vegetables :)

Ginger chicken wrap

Flat bread (Naan/Chappathi/Lavash/Tortilla)

Baked spicy ginger chicken strips ( recipe follows)

Baked /grilled vegetables (Zucchini/egg plants/bell peppers etc.)

Onions thinly sliced

Tomatoes, sliced

Lettuce, chopped

Cilantro/Jalapeno /green onion, finely chopped (optional)

Chutney yogurt (recipe follows)

Lemon (Optional) - to taste

Layer vegetables and chicken pieces on the flat bread, sprinkle with chopped herbs, squeeze 1/4th of a lemon over if you wish, add a dollop of a chutney Mayo. Wrap it up and enjoy!

Baked ginger chicken strips

Boneless chicken strips (approximately 6x2 inch) 12 nos
Ginger chopped 3 tbsp
Jalapeno chilies (seeds removed) 2 nos
Cumin ¼ tsp
Salt ¼ tsp
Paprika (Optional) ½ tsp
Turmeric (Optional) ¼ tsp
Yogurt 1 tbsp

Grind all ingredients except chicken to make a fine paste. Rub the spice mix over chicken pieces, marinate for 20 minutes to over night. Preheat oven to 400oC. Arrange the chicken pieces on a wire rack kept on a baking tray. Bake for about 20 minutes or till the chicken pieces are cooked. Chicken pieces can be grilled too.

Chutney Yogurt

Green yogurt 1cup

Grated coconut (fresh/dry) 2 tbsp

Ginger paste ½ tsp

Crushed cumin ¼ tsp

Cilantro ¼ tsp

Salt To taste

Mix everything together in a bowl using a wire whisk, refrigerate till use, keeps well up to 1 day.

2010-09-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

Lavender-Caramel Pots de Crème

I smell fall in the air, rains are back, looks like it is time to head indoors once again. Each season holds its own charm, but from a food blogger's perspective having pure natural sunlight around for more time is definitely an advantage. Summer is also a ‘props” bounty time, walk out and pluck a bunch of flowers and leaves from the patio or backyard and your photos shine!

We are back from a short but invigorating stay with friends at the coast. I still hear the ocean in my head, but it is time to get back to the usual, what else could do the trick than making a simple no fuss comfort dessert perfumed with home grown lavender blossoms!

Eggs 2 whole + 1 yolk
Evaporated milk 1 cup
Milk 1 cup
Sugar ¾ cup + 2 tsp
Dried lavender blooms ¼ tsp

Heat the oven to 325oC
Heat two tsp sugar in a thick bottomed pan till it is golden brown.

Turn the heat to low and add couple of tablespoons of milk, increase the heat and stir well till no caramelized sugar clumps remain.

Add the rest of the milk, evaporated milk and cook till the mixture boils, turn off the heat.

Add the lavender blooms; let it seep for about 10 minutes. Sieve the hot milk to remove the blooms.

In a bowl, beat sugar, eggs + yolk with a whisk, start adding the hot milk ¼ cup at a time beating thoroughly after each addition.

Divide the mixture between ramekins or Pots de Crème jars, till the ramekins are 3/4 th full. (Baby food jars works well too). Lift foam formed on the top using a clean paper towel or a spoon.

Keep the ramekins/jars in a casserole dish and keep in the oven. Pour hot water in the dish till the ramekins are about 3/4th immersed in water.

Bake for 30 minutes, remove from oven , let it cool at room temperature for half an hour, the Crème will be a bit wiggly in the middle, but it will set as it cools down.

Cover the crèmes with a plastic wrap and chill for 1-2 hours before you enjoy it.

2010-08-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

We wish you all a very Happy Onam !

Making pazham ada from scratch

Five days from today, people in a green strip of land in southern India will sit down for a splendiferous vegetarian feast called “sadya”, served with great reverence on a banana leaf, fresh flower carpets called “pookalam” adorning their front yards, vivid memories of the season from years gone by floating in their heads. The rest of us from that place scattered around the globe, will scramble about to see if we can make at least one curry from the sadya fare, luckiest will find an Indian store nearby to gather everything they need to make the sadya, many will still prepare one no matter what, some will actually find fresh banana leaves, but all will be thinking of Onams gone by!! Regardless of where you are, if you have experienced an Onam before, you will surely be thinking about it, it is that kind of a season!

From here, I could go on a nostalgic rant (plenty of whiffs and sobs included) and make you flee from this blog instantly; instead I chose to make some ada from scratch for making a payasam for this year’s Onam and post a pictorial of sorts. . For beginners, ada in this context is a crushed up eggless flat rice noodle used for making payasam, the king of all desserts from my place. This is a melt in the mouth – oh-so –really –good – ada almost exclusively made of mashed ripe plantains, with just enough rice flour to hold everything together. The result is absolute plantain flavor explosion in every bite! Once you prepare the ada, you have two delectable options ahead of you, make ada pradhaman (payasam with jaggery) or prepare a pal payasam (with white sugar). I am making pradhaman for Onam, for the trial run I made some pal payasam.

If you are to make this the way it is traditionally made, you will dip your hands in batter, and with fingers pointing down, gently wave over a banana leaf which in turn will be rolled up and steamed. The batter in the traditional recipe is thinner than the one I used here, and could contain more rice flour than this recipe as well. I purposely decided to digress because
1) we are using parchment paper instead of banana leaf, less water in the batter is better.

2) I wanted this ada to be extra smooth and bursting with plantain flavor.

If you are planning to make this paysam, you still have enough time to do so. Making this will only take some 60 minutes out of your life. This freezes incredibly well, I have a batch in my freezer waiting for Onam as we speak.

Here you go, 1-2-3 !

Making Pazham – Ada

Plantains (ripe, with plenty of black spots on the skin) or very ripe bananas – 5 nos
Unroasted rice flour – 3/4 cup
Ghee or clarified butter– 1 tsp

Peel plantains and puree till very soft in a blender, add ghee followed by rice flour 2 tbsp at a time, blending in between. Add some water to loosen the batter if it gets too thick. The batter should fall from the spoon in thick sheets when lifted.

Cut 30 cm x10 cm parchment paper pieces. Spread 4 tbsp of the batter on the paper, making it as thin as possible. An offset spatula is very helpful in doing this. Roll the paper tightly starting from the short side; keep the roll seam side down in a steamer. Repeat the same with the rest of the batter. Steam the rolls for 30 minutes. Let the rolls cool down for 20 minutes, peel the paper backing off. Chop the cooked ada sheets into thin pieces. Use fresh for making pradhamans or freeze up to a month. Before using in the paysam, crush some ada with your hands, so that some will break down into irregular pieces, which to me improves the ruggedly look of the payasam.

Pal Payasam

Ada – 3 cups

Milk – 10 cups

Sugar – 21/2 cups

Crushed cardamom – 4 pods

Long method
In a thick bottomed pan, melt sugar with ½ cup of water. When the syrup forms, add ada, cook with stirring for about 10 minutes. When the mixture thickens, add a cup of milk to loosen it. Add the rest of the milk, turn the heat to medium, and cook with occasional stirring till the milk reduces to about ¾ th of its initial volume. At this point turn off the heat, add crushed cardamoms and keep it covered. The payasam will thicken as it cools.

Quick method
Add all the ingredients to a pressure cooker. Keep on the stove in high heat till you see steam coming out of the vent. At this point keep the valve weight and turn the heat to very low/simmering mode. Cook for 40 minutes this way, occasionally lowering the heat if the cooker readies to blow a whistle. Open the cooker 20 minutes after turning the heat off. This is pretty much a hands off method, and the end result is just as good.

Ada Pradhaman

Ada – 3 cups
Brown sugar – 2 cups
Molasses – 1 cup
Ghee – 1 tbsp
Coconut milk – 2 cans (13 oz each)
Dried ginger powder – ½ tsp
Coconut slivers fried in ghee – ½ cup Optional

Mix molasses, brown sugar and ¼ cup water in a thick bottomed pan. Heat till the sugar melts, add ghee, ada and cook with constant stirring for 5-10 minutes. Mix 1 can of coconut milk with 3 volumes of water and add to the mix. Cook with stirring till the ada pieces are tender (~20) minutes. Add the remaining can of coconut milk, cook for 2 more minutes with constant stirring, and turn off the heat. Add powdered dried ginger and fried coconut pieces. Let it stand for 20 minutes for the flavors to blend.

• Substitute molasses and brown sugar with three cups of grated jaggery
• If using fresh coconut milk, use 6 cups of thin milk for the first step and 3 cups of thick milk for the second.

2010-08-10T23:40:00.000-07:00

Simple desserts - Farina Pudding with warm berry compote

Simple is not always plain, it is not definitely boring, and if you are talking desserts, at times it can be out of this world delicious! We always reserve the flamboyant sugary creations for those occasions when we have company (which blessedly we have often - another reason to love Portland), but savor simpler ones whenever we wish. What I make often is influenced by the taste dispositions of two prominent members of our household. They both love fresh fruits, milk products and keep their distance from anything cloyingly sweet.

This simple rava pudding serves them right, it pleases me enormously since regardless of the miniscule amount of effort that I put in, it looks inviting and tastes soothingly good. If you are making this pudding, be sure to top it with sharply contrasting compotes made of berries, for as much as I know peach doesn't sit right on this.

Everything is served with a berry on top in our house now! You can’t help noticing the riot of colors in the fruit section of the grocery shop and buy a pack or two. We know that very soon we will have to dive into our freezers to find some, so while it is fresh and plenty, we are trying our best to enjoy it. The berry compote I usually make for topping this pudding has both cooked and uncooked strawberries in it for the color and the crunch respectively.

Number of Servings - 4

Rava (Farina) - 1/4 cup

Evaporated Milk - 1/4 cup

Milk - 2 cups

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Salt - a pinch

Water - 2 cups

Vanilla essence (optional) - 3 drops

In a thick bottomed pan, boil 2 cups of water, add rava and salt, cook stirring constantly ( with a wire whisk preferably) at medium heat, till the mixture is thick ( Takes about 5-7 minutes) Turn the heat to low, add milk, vanilla and cook with stirring till the mixture coats a wooden spoon. Turn off the heat and add evaporated milk. Now the mixture will have the thickness of crepe batter, it will set while cooling. Pour into serving dishes and chill for at least 11/2 hours. Serve with warm berry compote on top

Fresh strawberry compote

Chopped up strawberries - 1 cup

Thinly sliced strawberries - 1 cup

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Lemon zest (optional) - 1/4 tsp

Mix sugar, chopped up berries, cook in a thick bottomed pan till the sugar dissolves in the released berry juice and the mixture turns red. By this time pieces will be tender. Turn of the heat; let it cool to room temperature. Add lemon zest and thinly sliced berries. Serve atop the pudding.

2010-08-04T22:55:00.000-07:00

Lemon sun pickle

Just like our neighbors and their neighbors in the place where I grew up in Kerala, we had and still have a good number of mango trees growing in the yard of my home there. That meant one formidable sight come April every year, rows of sparkly clean -labels removed -Horlicks bottles glistening in pure sunshine neatly arranged on the rim of our well to dry. My mother then made mango pickles using an assortment of methods, one better than other, which were filled in these bottles and either aged or given out. Yet, I never knew that lemon pickles can be made this way till I read this post four years ago. All I wanted to add to it was to speed up the cooking a process a bit. Slicing lemons pretty thin and adding more lemon juice considerably helped with that.

Most of the lemon pickles I am familiar with are either aged for many months, or the lemons are pre-cooked to get past the waiting. Now when the sun shines, I buy lemons and work hard for about 20 minutes and then let sun almighty do his little trick for a week. On day 6 your pickle is ready.

For making this pickle you need day time temperatures above 80oF for 5 days, so check your local weather predictions before you begin.
Lemon – 10 nos
Ginger julienned – 1 cup
Garlic, each clove cut into two – 1 cup
Mustard seeds – 1 ½ tbsp
Curry leaves – 20 nos
Green chilies (jalapeno or your choice) – 5 nos or to your taste
Fenugreek seeds – ½ tsp
Turmeric (optional) – ½ tsp
Lemon juice – from 5 lemons
Oil (olive or Mustard) – 1 tbsp
Cut lemon into two halves. Thinly slice each half into 8 slices. Cut jalapeno peppers into thin rounds. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds allow it to splutter, turn the heat to low, add fenugreek seeds, curry leaves, garlic, ginger, turmeric and green chilies. Mix well till the ginger pieces are tender. Add ½ tsp salt, turn off the heat. In a wide mouthed glass jar with a lid mix lemon with the mustard seasoning you just prepared. Add 1 1/2 tsp salt, pour in the lemon juice, and mix well with a spoon. Close the lid and keep the jar outside where you get sun for at least 6-8 hours. In the evening bring the jar in, give it a good shake, and repeat this for 4 more days. By the end of day 5 you will see that the lemon pieces are very tender, it is then ready to use. Keep refrigerated.

2010-07-27T00:42:00.000-07:00

In praise of grill pans !

Summer is not playing hide and seek with us here anymore, we are up in the eighties and hopefully will be staying around there for some more time. Sunshine magically lifts everything out of the ordinary, a work day evening feels like a new beginning, happy sounds floating in the air, and if a friend drops in, a party!

Talking of parties! I will never stop loving my grill pan for helping me with it, this cast iron “contraption” has, over the past couple of years helped us grill practically anything regardless of the season, achieve incredible grill marks on whatever we put on it and then without us even knowing it, might have helped to save a couple of bucks in liquid propane!!!!

Making these mini kebabs is a breeze if you have a stove top grill pan, you will need a grill top vegetable basket if you are firing up your outdoor barbecue grill. I used this recipe for spicing these kebabs, loved it for the prefect blend of subtle yet contrasting flavors. Feel free to use your favorite spices in the marinade, but do try out this mess free way of serving these appetizers, very easy to pass around, in its own cup and loaded with a day’s servings of vegetables ( Oh, not really !!)

Method

I use frozen chicken breasts for making these mini kebabs to make the prep work easier. A single breast piece will give you 10-14 strips. Thaw the piece on kitchen counter for 20 minutes or so, and then cut breadth wise into 5 to 7 strips. Cut each strip lengthwise in to two. This whole process will only take 5 minutes if the meat it still partially frozen. Marinate the pieces with flavors of your choice and thread on to pre-soaked bamboo skewers. Prepare vegetables, cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds (if using zucchini, carrots etc) or small bite size pieces, marinate.

Oil the grill pan very well and wipe it off with paper towels. Heat the pan, oil it once more, and wipe the excess off with paper towel. Grill the chicken pieces by arranging many together in the pan at a time. Grill 1 minute each side (ie by the time you are done arranging the last piece on the pan, it is time to turn the first one and so on). Clean up the pan with a moist paper towel, spread the vegetables in the pan and grill for a minute.

Serve 3-4 kebabs over a bed of grilled vegetables in a transparent cup. You can set this up in advance and then serve with a fresh dollop of dip/dressing on top.

2010-07-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

Stove top berry cobbler

In Oregon, you are never too far away from a wild blackberry bush. The wetland near our house used to be a wild berry sanctuary before it was redesigned to let a road go across. We miss the happy crowd that used to be there, walkers and joggers making a pit sop, kids with faces speckled with berry juice.

T, came home last evening with tub of plump wild blackberries picked from the banks of Willamette river in downtown Portland, more interestingly during his lunch break from work, and I couldn’t resist making a cobbler .Who wants to heat up a big oven for making a cobbler which could only fit a 6 inch round pan, when you can almost do the same trick stove top? As a perk, you can unmold this cobbler for serving; the caramelized berry syrup left in the pan is so berry delicious that it utterly deserves to have a recipe of its own.

For one cup of black berries, this recipe works incredibly well, I have never tried scaling up, we almost always seem to have just a cup of berries or less left to cook with, I wonder why!

All purpose flour ½ cup

Baking powder 1 tsp

Heavy cream ¼ cup

Salt a pinch

Sugar ¾ cup

Milk ½ cup (or enough to make a thick batter)

Confectionary sugar, whipped cream – for serving

Berries ( Black, Marion,Boysen or Rasp berry) 1 cup

Add sugar to berries, toss well to coat, and keep 20 minutes. Mix the rest of the ingredients with a whisk till a thick batter forms. Butter a 6 inch round non stick sauce pan. Pour the prepared batter into the pan, spoon the berries on top. Turn on heat, cook at medium heat for 2 minutes. You will see the batter rising , and it will begin to peep through the berry layer. At this point, turn the stove to the lowest heat level, and cover the pan with a lid wrapped in a dish clothe. Cook for 12 minutes. Before you take it off the stove, cook at medium heat for 1 more minute. Turn the heat off and, let the cobbler rest for 10 minutes (if you want to unmold it) or enjoy the scoops from the pan right away. Serve dusted with confectionary sugar with whipped cream on top

2010-07-11T16:31:00.000-07:00

When summer comes calling !

When summer comes calling with a profusion of berries to offer who can resist making a dessert as simple as this?

It looks a lot like summer now, a stark difference from the weather we had for the long weekend, when many of us here, went for the 4th of July barbecues sporting winter gear!

We picked blueberries and strawberries this weekend, and bought a good amount of cherries from a U PICK farm at Sauvie Island, will be going back for more raspberries and boysenberries in the coming weekends. You need to do only a little with freshly picked berries, the hard work is done by Mother Nature herself. Simple cobblers, puddings or compotes, everything looks so good with berries in, it is hard not to take a photo and post after mhhhhhh…. many many months.

Blueberry Pudding

1 cup blue berries

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp farina (rava)

1/2 cup confectionary sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup water

Mix the dry ingredients together with a wire whisk. Add berries and just enough water to make a thick batter. Spoon the batter in to buttered ramekins (3/4th full) or mini cake pans. Bake 325 degree for 20 minutes. Serve at room temperature with chilled Creme Anglaise( recipe here)favored with lemon zest and rosemary (optional).

2010-04-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

Bread of Life

Unleavened bread to share for Maundy Thursday, to remember a Seder meal shared a long time ago. The bread is made according to the tradition in T’s home town, where griddle roasted “Kalthappam” made of ground rice, rich in sautéed shallots and coconut slices is the preferred bread for this Holy Day over the steamed “Pesaha Appam” made all through out the rest of Kerala

2009-09-01T22:57:00.000-07:00

ഓണാശംസകള്‍ !

Wish you all a very happy Onam !

2009-08-31T23:03:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for Onam – Thulli Payasam

This is that time of the year when I could launch myself into a nostalgic ramble with ease and enthusiasm. Onam is just a day away. My head is filled with images of clear blue skies, eye tickling sunshine of a gentle kind and old Dalda cans full of home made banana chips. Folks back home tell me that there the current Onam visual consist of traffic blocks, appalling prices for food supplies and a maddening rush to get into every shop regardless of what they are selling. Yet, we are back to the Onam of our childhoods the moment we sit down for the sadya, no matter catered or homemade. T is traveling this week, so we made Onam sadya in advance with two good payasams.

We made thulli payasam for the first time, and LOVED IT. . The word “thulli” means “drop” in malaylam . This payasam is made with cooked drops of rice flour batter. It tasted so much like the one made with homemade ada, only with less hassle attached to it. May be you could tell me which part of Kerala this excellent idea is from. While I wait to hear from you, here is the recipe.

Rice flour - ¾ cup
Bananas, ripe – 3nos
Ghee – 2 tsp

Brown sugar/jaggery – 2 cups
Coconut milk – thick and thin a cup each
Ghee toasted Cashew nuts and raisins or chopped coconut – to garnish
Dried ginger powder ( Chukku) – 3 pinches

In a blender puree 2 bananas with ¼ cup of water, add ghee and rice flour, blend till a thick batter is formed, adding more water if necessary. Keep it for 10 minutes. Boil water in a large sauce pan and drop the prepared batter in to it through a slotted spoon to make drops ( thulli, hence the name ) When the batter drops are cooked it will raise to the top. Whisk the cooked drops with a slotted spoon and spread on a plate. Repeat till all the batter is over.
Finely chop a banana. Heat ¼ cup water in a thick bottomed vessel and add banana. Cook till the pieces are tender, adding more water if necessary. When the pieces are completely cooked, add brown sugar, 1 tsp ghee, cooked thulli, and cook for another 5 minutes with constant stirring. Add thin coconut milk (mix canned coconut milk with equal quantity of water to make thin C milk), ½ cup of water and cook for 5 minutes. Add thick coconut milk and cook for 2 more minutes. Turn off the heat. Keep the vessel covered for the next five minutes. Add ginger powder, ghee toasted cashew nuts and raisins or toasted silvers of coconut. Payasam is now ready to serve

2009-08-26T22:53:00.000-07:00

An award and a tip on growing Zucchini

My mother is thrilled reading your comments about her cross stitch work. She is poised enough to calmly handle a couple of compliments thrown in her way. But I turn into a walloping mass of soft butter when a dear friend like Rushina hands over an award. Thank you, this is my first of its kind, and I shall be proudly wearing it.

Did I tell you about the Zucchini bumper crop that we once had? After taking a break for one year we came back to growing it once again, taking into account of the fact that we use Zucchini a lot in cooking. Just to site few examples, we know from our experience that this vegetable can skillfully disappear in to a sambar, blend very well in a dal, or act as substitute snake gourd in an avial. This year we are careful about harvesting it in the right time though. What we lacked as fresh owners of a cultivable strip of land two years ago, was the simple wisdom to harvest this vegetable at the right time, that is when they are about 6-8 inches long. So if you are not acting judiciously you can bake a bread with, fry some, make one or two curries, and then trash the rest of the single ginormous Zucchini we are talking about. We have learned the lesson and are now wiser!

And here is the award, read how it is passed around in blogosphere.

“Of course, as with every Bloggy Award, there are A Few Rules. They are, forthwith:

1) Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
2) Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
3) Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.
4) Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
5) Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog “

I am honored to bestow this award upon the following ladies whose blogs are genuinely inspiring and exceptional.

1) Indian Food Rocks – She knows how, when and what to write in a blog. Her posts are peppered with subtle good humor and I love it.

2) Cooks Cottage - Simply delicious style of writing, I am a huge fan.

3) A mad tea party - A story is always hers to tell, and I am all ears

4) Mahanandi – The first Indian blog I came across, has been a favorite ever since. Love the grounded air of the blog.

5) എന്റെ നാലുകെട്ടും തോണിയും – Ingipennu from the food blog Ginger and mango writes this blog in Malayalam. When you step into her blog, you will know instantly that there is more to Ingi than what you know.

Recipe for grilled Zucchini

* This recipe works best with a cast iron grill pan

Zucchini - 3 nos
Coconut milk - 2 tbsp
Ginger paste - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - crushed - 1 tsp
Chilly powder - 1/2 tsp or more
Turmeric- optional
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Coconut oil - to brush on the grill

Cut Zucchinis length wise into strips of about 5 cm thickness. Mix, coconut milk, ginger paste, crushed curry leaves, Kashmiri chilly powder (more if you so desire), turmeric and salt. Arrange the pieces on a flat surface and gently brush on the marinade, turn sides and brush again. Keep for 20-30 minutes. Heat a grill pan, when it is very hot brush with coconut oil. Grill the marinated pieces for about 3-4 minutes each side

2009-08-09T23:34:00.000-07:00

Cross stitch picture from my mother

We have something really precious up on our wall, thought i will share it with you. My mother spent many hours in the past two months making this elaborate cross stitch picture for us. I adore her persistence when it comes to doing crafts. She could come back to the same project every evening for many weeks and enjoy doing it till the last knot, a quality I seriously lacks. Ammachi, thank you, you are the best !

Pattern : Bucilla Mother and Child stitch kit

2009-07-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

Thoughts on getting back to blogging, and a cake

It was not fun being away from blogging on and off for about 2 years. There were lingering thoughts in the back of my mind about recipes to share, stories to tell, and photos to capture. In the year before I went missing from the blogosphere, I made the most friends I ever did in a span of 365 days, and loved it. We exchanged emails, made phone calls, shared laughter, recipes, everyday ups and downs, all the while learning a thing or two from each other. Thank you folks, you have touched my life in more ways than you think.

When I look into my routine now, I realize that there is just enough time to accommodate blogging into it. After all, you are only as busy as you think you are. Life’s little rushes will keep on catching me at times, but I will try to post as often I can. Please stay tuned. Just for a start, here is a cake I made for our wedding anniversary this year. My mind was set on a coral color chiffon wedding sari from the Sixties that I saw a while ago, very similar to the ones those charming leading ladies draped around and danced on in the Hindi movies from that period.

Happy anniversary V&S !

To Pramila, Thank you.

2009-07-12T23:19:00.000-07:00

CLICK – the photo event, sunny days and tapioca pearl pappadoms

Another interesting edition of CLICK-the photo event is here again. Theme is bi-color, a challenging one if you ask me. But this time I am kicking my shoes off, and carefully watching the event from the sidelines. Bee and Jai asked me to join the panel of judges for this month’s event, thank you folks. So while the gavel rests here, please do pick up your cameras and challenge yourself into shooting something in bi-color. The colors I picked for my judge’s entry are white and yellow. I could have gone for more contrast, but all I was thinking about while taking this photo was sunshine.

We enjoyed a couple of warm sunny days during the past long weekend. A jaded yard long bean plant that we had almost given up on, set vine and started twining up in what seemed like hours. Such was the power of sunshine that pushed us in to a tapioca pearl pappadom making spree. This is one easy recipe,what you need most is an abundance of sunshine. Jalapeño peppers and cumin are the spices used in this recipe, what you add in there is open to your imagination.

To make about 2 dozens of medium size pappadoms, please follow the recipe. You could make them smaller if you wish

1 cup tapioca pearls
1 jalapeño pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt
4 cups + water

Grind pepper to a coarse paste, crush cumin seeds. Boil 2 cups of water and add tapioca pearls. Lower the flame and cook covered for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. At this point if it gets too thick add just enough water to keep the mixture loose enough to stir. (This step replaces the overnight soaking of the pearls) Turn the heat off, keep covered for 3-5 minutes. Add two more cups of water, salt, and cook with stirring for about 6-8 minutes in medium heat till the mixture thickens and the pearls are completely translucent. Stir in cumin and pepper paste, cook for 1 more minute. Lightly brush a wax paper with oil, and wipe away the extra oil Drop spoonfuls of the mixture on to the prepared wax paper, spread with the back of a spoon to make circles or irregular shapes. Let it dry in sun for several hours (It took almost 5-7hrs for me). Peel the pappadoms off the paper and store in airtight containers. If you still have the sun on day 2, arrange the pappadoms on a paper lined cookie sheet and dry for 1-2 hours. This improves the shelf life.

2009-07-07T00:15:00.000-07:00

While the sun shines ........

2009-05-30T14:43:00.000-07:00

Cardamom - cashew cookies for CLICK May 2009

Good news alert !

I am thrilled to shreds. How could i not be, when all those fine judges at CLICK-May edition picked this photo as the second place winner in the best capture category? This might just give me the much needed inspiration to pick up the camera and shoot before i eat anything. Congratulations to all the winners and thank you judges

Cardamom cashew cookies for CLICK , a monthly food photography event at Bee and Jai's awe-inspiring blog Jugalbandi I WILL BE BACK SOON

2008-02-05T06:24:00.000-08:00

A happy note

Haaa, what should I say? I am excited beyond words to be there with all of the winners of the first DMBLGIT of this year. A photograph you saw here during the holiday season has won first place in the aesthetics group and finished third in the overall excellence category in DMBLGIT-Jan2008 hosted over at “The Food traveler” .It was my first time at the competition. I thank the host and the panel of judges for their excellent contributions in coordinating this event. Congratulations to all the winners.

2008-01-08T20:28:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin coffee mousse

For an hour or so during Christmas day, Mother Nature lured us all into thinking that we are enjoying a white Christmas. Snow stuck on the ground for almost one hour, enough to make us all cozy and happy while we sat down for lunch. I guess I wished hard enough this time. Holiday season has taken its toll on my general attitude towards anything sweet, the most appealing dessert will only get a cold gaze from me now, plus I am almost feeling allergic to whipping egg whites till those soft white peaks hold. This is not going to last too long, I might only take a week or two to get back to my usual sugar loving self.

As we begin another year together sharing a love and appreciation for good food, here is a cup of pumpkin coffee mousse for you, made in one of the last days of the past year. A toast to the New Year with a shot glass full of the mousse made from leftover (frozen!) pumpkin puree from holiday baking days. As easy as it gets, at its mouss-y best!

Pumpkin puree –1/2 cup
Sugar – 1/2 cup + ¼ cup
Heavy whipping cream – 1 1/2cups
Instant coffee granules – 11/2 tsp
Nutmeg powder + Cinnamon powder – ¼ tsp

Mix pumpkin puree with sugar. Cook in medium heat with constant stirring till sugar is completely dissolved. Add coffee granules, spice powders and mix well. Cool thoroughly. Meanwhile beat whipping cream with ¼ cup sugar till peaks hold shape. Gently fold in the whipped cream to the pumpkin mixture. Spoon (or pipe) the mousses into serving cups and chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

2007-12-25T08:08:00.000-08:00

2007-12-23T07:14:00.000-08:00

Melting moments

I wish for a white Christmas (especially so since we spend time at home on the day) every December even after knowing that the odds are against me. National weather service forecast office predicts a desperately low probability of 0.8 % for seeing snow in Portland on Christmas day. The last white Christmas here was in 1937, so we just do not have high hopes. Yet, I wish!

In our kitchen it was snowing though, I spend most of my time yesterday (which isn’t much these days), making melting moments. There is something ethereal to the look of these cookies sitting on a baking sheet, clad in a fine dust of confectionary sugar. There is no other cookie which lives up to its name as this one does, practically crumbling and melting away in your mouth. I flavored one giant batch with cardamom and another with coffee, two of my favorite flavors. My personal pick is cardamom, but coffee went neck and neck for the honor. We have packed cookie bags for our friends , fruitcake is ready, crib and tree are set. Come on Christmas !

Thank you all for a fantastic year of companionship, for your hearty comments, lovely mails and of course for visiting a blog that was silent for the most part of the year. We wish you all a jovial season filled with merriment, laughter, good food, and company. May the love and abundance of this season be with you through the coming New Year . Thank you.

Recipe I used is from Joy of Baking website. For a batch of cardamom flavored cookies, I added 12 tsp of freshly ground cardamom seeds to the basic recipe. For making coffee cookies, add 21/2 tsp of instant coffee granules instead.

2007-12-21T07:21:00.001-08:00

It is snowing, on a cookie !

2007-12-13T20:28:00.000-08:00

Cookies to keep- Cashew nut biscotti

Time flew exceptionally fast this year; Christmas is here before I knew it. Yet there is no going back in drinking to the gaiety of the season, this year’s Christmas is very special in our house. Our daughter Sarah is now 3 months old, happily spending her time to eat, coo, smile and you know what. We cling to her as much as we can, we are warned that they grow up so fast,holiday baking can wait.

But then, this is the year to start a holiday baking tradition, especially since we do not really have any. We make fruitcake year around, as it is the only cake MrT ever longs for. I do bake cookies during the holiday season, but it changes from year to year. So I have picked a couple of my favorite cookies to make it our own, to pass it along my family tree! Cookie no 1 is going to be that fried cookie, which is nothing but a traditional Indian goodie my mother used to make for many other celebrations except Christmas. As for picking number two, currently I have no conflict of choices; it is going to be a biscotto. " Biscotti " if you are planning to eat two or more. Dunking is one of my favorite pass times. I grew up with good old rusk, dunked in black tea, swallowed without a thought crossing the mind. Rusk will eventually be honored in this blog with due respect and affection. But for today I raise my cup of tea to the very dunkable , al Italiano, biscotti. Be merry, it is the season!

The recipe is adapted from an almond biscotti recipe from BHG website.

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
11/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup coarsely chopped cashew nuts
1/4tsp ground caraway seeds ( purely optional)

Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl. Make a well in the center of this mixture, add eggs and egg yolks. Stir to combine with the dry ingredients. Add melted butter and ground caraway seeds ( if adding), mix with a wooden spatula or by hand. When the dough comes together, stir in the chopped nuts.

Line a cookie sheet with foil. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface; divide into three equal portions. Form each portion into a 14-inch-long log. Keep the logs approximately 3 inches apart on the baking sheet; flatten slightly until about 1-1/2 inches wide. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until firm and light brown. Remove from oven and cool for several minutes. Using a serrated knife cut each roll diagonally into 1/2-inch slices. Place slices, cut sides down on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Turn cookies over; bake 10 to 15 minutes more or until golden brown. Store in an air tight container for a week or two.

2007-12-01T07:47:00.000-08:00

Pickled!

There is only so much you can do to resist the urge to make pickles, when an interesting recipe comes by , you have to surrender. Thank you RP, for your Vaah-inspiring chicken pickle recipe.

2007-11-16T09:13:00.000-08:00

When inertia gets the best of you – make a bowl of fried rice !

You have to start somewhere to get going. Ingi told so, and so here it is.

Out of the numerous variations of desi fried rice that we tasted and loved, here is one with no sauces added during preparation. Rice is flavored with a medley of vegetables, spring onion and freshly ground white/black pepper. If you are venturing into this recipe, please feel free to get benefited from the following three tips.

1) Use freshly ground black/white pepper
2) Cool the cooked rice thoroughly
3) Never opt to omit bell peppers

Bharathy, this post is for you.

Rice (long grain, preferably Basmati) – 2 cups
Garlic minced – 1 ½ tbsp
Boneless cooked shredded chicken – 1 cup
Diced carrots – 1 cup
Diced green beans – ½ cup
Diced bell pepper (red and green mixed) – 1 ¼ cup
Green onion chopped – ½ cup
Whole white or black pepper – ½ tsp
White vinegar – 2 tbsp
Eggs – 2
Oil – 3 tbsp
Salt – to taste

Heat 1 ½ tbsp oil in a pressure cooker (lid off!). Lightly sauté 1/4 tbsp of garlic. Before garlic pieces change color add Basmati rice and gently mix to coat the grains with oil . Add 2 ½ cups of hot water, 1 tbsp vinegar, salt and pressure cook till one whistle. Turn off the heat, wait 5 more minutes. Release pressure, open the cooker, spread the cooked rice on a platter and let it cool. You need thoroughly cooled rice for making this dish, so it is better to prepare the rice the day before and store it in the fridge.

Beat eggs with a pinch of salt. Heat oil in a pan, scramble the beaten eggs. Remove from the stove to a chopping board, finely mince and keep. In the same pan heat 1 tbsp oil, add 1 tbsp garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add green beans and carrots, toss to coat with oil. Add 2 tbsp water and cook covered for 1-2 minutes. Remove the lid, increase the heat, add bell peppers, chicken, half of the chopped green onions and finely crushed black/white pepper. Add salt to taste. Stir fry for 1 minute at high heat. Add the cooked rice, keep stir frying for 2-3 more minutes. Sprinkle 1 tbsp vinegar; stir fry for 1 more minute. Remove from stove, add the remaining spring onions and scrambled egg. Mix well and serve hot.

2007-08-26T07:57:00.000-07:00

ഓണാശംസകള്‍ !

A prelude to good things to come - Plantain skin and Green gram thoran

Onam once again is so merrily upon us, for me like many others this festival is not about celebrating a single day, but it is all about mentally re-creating a season slathered in golden sunshine. This of course is a time many of us take a walk down the memory lane, reliving the good times we had in the past or raking our brains about how Onam has evolved over the years into the big time shopping season that it is now. But when we sit down for that one meal of the Onam day known as “sadya” , served on a banana leaf, we realize that the spirit and cheer of Onam as we once knew never left us for good.

A meal sometimes if not always can do wonders, forget the calorie highs you get, a sadya properly served is a reassurance of your connections to the past, a promise of good things to come, it is no grave matter if your avial contains Zucchini, or lacks drumsticks in it. My first Onam sadya in the US for that matter was made out of dried coconut flakes, canned coconut milk, and those vegetables I found in the nearest grocery shop. A marked absence of banana leaves topped it all. There was hardly enough time between my arrival here and Onam that it felt seemingly impossible to look for the resources back then. Managing with what we had was the best way to go. Two banana leaf shaped melamine platters I found at Macy’s just two days before Onam immensely lifted my spirits up, and I hold on to them dearly still. You may never know where life will take you next !

Over the past couple of years, as I made more friends and started exploring the city, there came answers for all sadya shopping needs. Now we live close to the two good Indian grocery stores in town, so this year I am assured that I might find all the necessary vegetables neatly packed and stacked in freezers there. I might even find frozen grated coconut shipped from Kottayam ! Sadya being set in that way, there is something else I look forward to cooking this season, which serves as a humble prelude to the grand gastronomical events associated with Onam. My mother every year makes a thoran made out of plantain skins, which regularly appeared along with rice in our plate in one of the days preceding Onam. The day of serving this dish was a sheer a matter of convenience. The day my mother found time to make fresh banana chips was the day this curry was made. A simple statement of sustenance in cooking popular in my hometown, this thoran tastes as good as any other vegetable thoran if not slightly better if you ask me. Hope all of you are having a nice time, enjoy the rest of the summer days.

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY ONAM

Recipe

Green gram – 1/4 cup
Finely chopped unripe plantain skins – 4 cups
Fresh grated coconut – 3/4 cup
Green chilies – 1-2
Cumin- 3 pinches
Curry leaves – 15
Turmeric - ½ tsp + 2 pinches
Dried red chilies – 3
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Salt – to taste
Oil- 1 tbsp

Cook green gram with salt till soft not mushy, drain and keep. Finely chop plantain skins and soak in water mixed with ½ tsp turmeric. Drain after half an hour. Coarsely grind grated coconut, green chilies, 2 pinches of turmeric and cumin. Cut the dried red chilies into 1 cm long pieces; remove the seeds if you wish to control the heat. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, and let it crack. Lower the heat, add red chilies and curry leaves. When curry leaves start curling up add chopped skins, salt and stir well to mix. Add the ground coconut mixture, sprinkle 2 tbsp water, and mix well. Cook covered under medium heat for 10 minutes. Remove the lid, turn the heat up. Stir in the cooked green gram and keep stirring till the thoran is dry (about 3 minutes on high heat). Serve with rice and a curd based curry or rasam on the side.

Skinning a plantain – You need unripe or medium ripe plantains. Make a long shallow vertical cut on the skin, using your hands unwrap the plantain out of its skin working through the incision.

2007-07-19T19:45:00.000-07:00

Eat your flowers while you can - for GBP Summer 2007

Zucchini flower thoran

Thanks to T, now we have a thriving vegetable patch and something to show off for the green blog project this summer. Getting preoccupied with the thousand little nothings associated with a move, we ended up starting our vegetable patch a bit late, so now we have flowers when we should be talking vegetables! Pumpkin and Zucchini thankfully belongs to the same botanical family Cucurbitaceae, and I hear that their flowers are equally edible and tasty. This crumb of information is pure joy for me who had the privilege of eating a decent amount of pumpkin flowers growing up, and then for the past several years was deprived of that vantage. So when I saw these zucchini flowers blooming in my backyard, I got a very pleasant premonition about the events to unfold in my kitchen.

Stuffing and frying Zucchini flowers, I am sure is an excellent way to savor these blossoms, but first I had to make a simple Kerala style thoran hoping my best that these flowers will taste similar to pumpkin flowers. The word Thoran is a generic name for a simple Kerala style vegetable preparation, though there is no reason to be surprised when you hear somebody talking about a fabulous fish thoran that they once tasted. While most of the thorans depend on cumin, grated coconut, curry leaves, mustard and chillies playing along with the vegetable for the flavor, onion and garlic gets into the list of ingredients based on the practice in your neck of the woods in the state. Thoran in essence is mildly spiced; you should be able to eat many spoonfuls of this dish, without ever shedding a tear or running for a cup of water, and it tastes best served with rice. This post is on its way to the Green Blog Project- Summer 2007 event hosted by Deepz of Letz cook. To read more about this blog-green revolution and to meet the ‘YOU KNOW WHO’ that started it, visit this blog.

There are two kinds of Zucchini flowers, males and females; both are edible and easily distinguishable from each other. Male flowers have thinner stalks while the females have stems resembling zucchinis. You might want to leave all or a desired number of female flowers back on the plant for the future zucchini harvest, but can reap most of the male flowers leaving a couple for the fertilization process. Best time to collect is in the morning, being the fragile flowers they are storing for more than two days is not recommended. I used flower stalks along with whole flowers in this recipe. 5 to 6 cups of chopped flowers will give you a cup of prepared thoran, so collect as much as you can.

Recipe

Chopped zucchini flowers and stalk – 5 cups
Chopped Green chilies – 1/4 tsp (or according to your taste)
Cumin – a pinch
Garlic- 1 clove, chopped
Curry leaves – 3 -4
Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
Coconut grated – 1 /4 cup
Salt – to taste

Mix chopped zucchini with grated coconut, a pinch of salt and chopped garlic. Heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds. Add curry leaves and cumin. Quickly add the chopped flowers, mix well. At this point these flowers will release a surprising volume of water, shrinking into 1/4th of the initial quantity. When this happens, you might want to move the flowers over to the side of the pan, so that the water will drain into the middle of the pan. Let the water evaporate to a teaspoonful or so (takes about 2 minutes)., mix everything again and stir till the thoran is dry and ready ( 1-2 minutes in high heat)

2007-06-13T22:35:00.000-07:00

Hello again !

A big ‘THANK YOU’ and tons of smiles to all of you for visiting this blog and keeping in touch while I was away. Everything went well, and we are almost settled in our new place. I hope I will be able to get back to my routine blogging schedule very soon. I have a lot of catching up to do, so many interesting new blogs, even more fantastic posts from the bloggers I know ! I am just so glad to be back.

2007-03-05T12:01:00.000-08:00

March 5th - Bloggers protest against plagiarism

In solidarity to my fellow bloggers and friends I am joining in the protest against Yahoo-India’s defiant stand on copyright violation issues. Read the full story here. Yahoo India’s Malayalam Portal blames it all on their subcontractor/content provider Webdunia, instead of making an apology to the blogger whose weblog content was taken and published without crediting the source. It is a shame that Yahoo-India failed to practice the proper etiquette of web publishing. If they are looking for solutions, start with a proper apology, try crediting the source for the content, and let Webdunia take some time off to refresh (or learn) their ABCs on copyright protection laws.

Icon designed by Sandeepa of Bong mom's cook book

2007-02-25T13:13:00.000-08:00

Cake peek and blogging break

I am taking a short break from blogging , will be back in a month or so. In the next couple of weeks we will be packing our stuff and moving to the new house we bought, which thankfully is not so far away from where we are living now. Until I see you all again, take care and have fun !

Here is a cake I made two years ago, my first attempt to make a sugar bow. The bow is handmade out of sugar paste, trimmed with gold luster dust.

2007-02-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

Stuffed eggplant

The vegetable eggplant rarely held a good standing in the household I grew up, it was almost always the purple floating object in a sambar or an ingredient in a last minute stir fry, except for a limited number of occasions when my mother made a pretty decent curry with lots of coconut milk added. But to get a feel of how interesting this vegetable can be when used properly in a recipe, I had to wait for a couple of more years till the day I tasted Baingan Bharta for the first time in a Mumbai restaurant. It was rich creamy and mildly fragrant, pleasantly different from any of the eggplant dishes I ever tasted. I buy Indian egg plant very often these days, and I am hooked for life to a stuffed egg plant recipe of Indira’s, and now I even have a recipe of my own! Well, it uses the same elements my mother uses in the curry I mentioned; only that the ingredients are stuffed inside the eggplant, and baked. To make this you will need Indian eggplants of medium size. It is as easy as scooping the flesh out, sautéing with spices and onions, refilling the shells and baking.

Indian eggplant –4 nos
Chopped onions – ½ cup
Ginger paste- ½ tsp
Chopped garlic- 1 tsp
Thick coconut milk – 1 ½ tbsp
Chopped green chilly skins (I used jalapeno)- 1 tsp
Curry leaves, chopped fine – 3
Red chilly powder – ¼ tsp (adjust according to your taste)
Salt- to taste
Oil (Did I say coconut?)- ½ tsp + ½ tsp for brushing

Split each eggplant horizontally into two halves, scoop out the flesh leaving about 5mm on the shell. Heat ½ tsp oil till smoking hot; add chopped onion, ginger, garlic, green chilies, chopped eggplant flesh and curry leaves. Stir fry for 1 minute. Mix in chilly powder, add salt and coconut milk. Turn of the heat, and let it cool for 5-10 minutes. Fill the eggplant shells with this mixture. Brush with coconut oil and bake at 350 degree in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Serve hot with rice and a yogurt based curry on the side.

2007-01-20T05:20:00.000-08:00

Weekend cake peek

A cake made for our friends’ cute baby boy , when we went to say Hello to him for the first time. All decorations are fondant made.

2007-01-09T18:24:00.000-08:00

Tiramisu Cookies

Not long ago, while scampering through a pile of books in a clearance sale, I picked up an edition of “Desserts-500 delicious recipes” by Ann Kay. Like in many of my spur of the moment cookbook purchases, I had no idea about this book altogether. It was in mint condition, had an elegantly styled photo on dust jacket and looked totally out of place in that tarnished assemblage of books. Priced barely under $15, studded with beautiful food shots and bearing a promising number of 500 in the title, the book marched straight into my collection. I am happy about it till this day ! The book is an interesting hodgepodge of dessert recipes ranging from an Indian Kulfi, to a Moroccan serpent cake, encompasses an array of well working recipes for cakes, pies, and frozen treats. I have relied heavily on this relatively no frills recipe book for many occasions, mainly as an inspiration for bringing in some diversity to the desserts I make.

Heterogeneity of the recipe collection is not the lone significant attribute of this book; there are plenty of refreshing takes on some of the popular desserts like Tiramisu. If you are willing to look beyond ladyfingers or if impatience bothers you when you wait for that bowl of tiramisu to chill off, there is a Tiramisu cookie recipe for you in the book. The recipe is for a soft and chewy sandwich cookie with a Mascarpone-coffee-rum center. The book recommends drizzling melted white chocolate all over the sandwich before decorating it further with chocolate shavings, a good idea as such. But I liked it better when I gave it a light and shade effect with dark and light coco powders. Making tiny little paper stencils for printing shapes on to these cookies is fun, make a heart, or make any shape you love. Falling for an eye candy dust jacket is a sin I commit often while buying cookbooks, but this one is an exception, I am not repenting!

For cookies
Butter (at room temperature) – ¼ cup
Confectioners sugar – ½ cup
Egg, beaten- 1
All purpose flour- ½ cup

For filling
Mascarpone cheese – 2/3 cup
Rum – 1 tbsp (Optional, though recommended)
Instant coffee powder – ½ to 1 tsp
Brown sugar-3 tbsp

For decoration
2 tbsp dark coco powder
1 tbsp light coco powder
* I used HERSHEY’S

To make the filling: Mix coffee powder with rum and beat together with the rest of the ingredients. Cover and chill until use.

To make cookies: Preheat oven to 375 degree. Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add egg, mix well, mix in flour, and mix thoroughly to get a smooth batter. Fill the mixture in a piping bag fitted with ½ inch plain round nozzle (or simply make a cut of that size on the tip of a parchment /wax paper cone.), pipe 28 blobs on to the baking sheet, spaced slightly apart. Bake for 5-6 minutes. (Till the cookies are firm at the center and the edges are starting to brown) Remove from oven, and cool.

Assembling cookie Sandwiches
Take a pastry bag fitted with a round tip and fill with the prepared Mascarpone cream. Take a cookie; pipe a blob of cream filling and sandwich with another cookie of identical size. Repeat till all cookies are finished, and arrange on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Take 2 tbsp light coco powder in a tea strainer and dust all over the cookies. Carefully place the paper stencils (size of the paper should be bigger than the cookie with a small cutout portion of the desired shape in the center) over the cookie and lightly dust with dark coco powder. Remove the stencils; you should be able to see the stenciled shape on the cookie. Refrigerate and serve, tastes great when served at room temperature too. Can be refrigerated for upto2-3 days, freeze up to a month.

* Recipe adapted from Desserts-500 delicious recipes – Edited by Ann Kay

2006-12-31T16:43:00.000-08:00

Cracking a coconut for the NEW YEAR !

Kerala Mixed vegetable stew- for JFI Coconut

I have my fair set of resolutions ready for the brand new year, nothing too ambitious, just simple plans, no froufrou. Along with other targeted self improvements, I will roll out chapattis thinner and will try to make idlis from scratch again in 2007. But no matter what ever I do, I cannot let this year go off without THANKING ALL OF YOU, for the unconditional support and encouragement you have been giving to this blog. Thank you.

We wish you all a very happy new year !

Food for thought is one of my favorite blogs, and to make things even better Ashwini, the immensely creative writer of that blog cracked a coconut for this month’s JFI ! Thank you, I am going nuts already. My home state in India, looks like a coconut tree forest from above, there is no wonder that along with air, water, light and rice I consider coconut as one of the prime life sustaining forces! Oh, yes I am indeed exaggerating, but my pantry is always well stocked up with cans of coconut milk, dried coconut flakes, and frozen grated coconut. Yet, picking a recipe for JFI-coconut was not very easy; too many choices can be too much on your brain sometimes. Right from the mundane to the festive, it is really hard to think of a traditional Kerala recipe without that obvious hint of coconut. But there are certain recipes which underscore the taste of coconut itself, using a fresh coconut in such a recipe can be extremely rewarding. Kerala style stew is a celebration of the finest spices and ingredients abundant in that piece of land, freshly squeezed coconut milk, dashes of fresh ground black pepper, crushed cardamom seeds and curry leaves blend together so well creating a stew with a characteristic dulcet aroma too complex to even describe. This stew’s best companion is appam , but you can enjoy it with rotis or breads. Whatever you decide to do with your bowl of stew, do take a moment to enjoy the delicate scent of this dish.

Potatoes diced into cubes – 2 cups
Carrots cubed – 1 cup
Green beans cut into 1 cm length – ½ cup
Onions, cut square shaped pieces – 1 cup
Ginger chopped – 1 tbsp
Garlic minced – 1 tbsp
Cinnamon – 1 inch stick
Cloves – 3
Star anise – ½
Green chilly split lengthwise– 1
Black pepper, freshly ground – ½ to 1 tsp
Cardamom – 3-4 pods
Curry leaves – a sprig + 2-3 leaves
Oil (preferably coconut) – 1 1/2 + ½ tsp
Coconut milk (freshly squeezed or canned) – 1 ½ cups
Salt – to taste
Water -11/2 cup

Steam (~ for 5 minutes) or microwave (Mix with a tablespoon of water and a pinch of salt) green beans and carrots till tender. Heat 1 1/2 tsp oil in a thick bottomed pan, add cinnamon stick, one crushed pod of cardamom, star anise and cloves and fry for half a minute. Add onions, ginger, garlic, green chilly and a sprig of curry leaves, sauté with a pinch of salt till the onions are translucent. Add diced potatoes, mix well and pour in 11/2 cup of water and ½ cup of coconut milk. Cook covered in medium heat till the potato pieces are tender. Open the lid, add steamed vegetables, and stir in a cup of coconut milk. Sprinkle with remaining crushed cardamom and ground black pepper. Cook covered for 1-2 minutes. Turn off the heat. In a small bowl coat curry leaves with ½ tsp coconut oil, and slightly crush it with hand. Add it to the cooked stew, and keep the lid on for 5 more minutes. Open the lid, mix the stew and serve hot with appam, or bread.

* Green peas, cauliflower and other vegetables of your choice can be added to this stew.

Links
Making lacy appoms- here and here

2006-12-24T14:30:00.000-08:00

A very merry Christmas to you !

We wish you all a merry and blessed Christmas, enjoy the holidays.

2006-12-21T20:34:00.000-08:00

Diamond cuts- Dressed up for Christmas

At the beginning of this month, when there were 25 good days between me and Christmas I contrived elaborate plans for holiday baking, now I do not even remember what those plans were. Most of it is edited beyond recognition and some are even deleted from a non-existent list I so meticulously maintain! But there are some sparkles of accomplishment in a sense, it is true that fruitcake loaves are ready, and I did make my mother’s favorite festival treat which goes by the name “diamond cuts” in our family.

Many of you might know the snack I am talking about, most probably under a different name. The amount of simplicity involved in the making of this snack is well hidden under a glittering name and an equally appealing taste. The dough is an elementary mixture of flour, salt, and crushed cardamom, rolled out, cut into diamond shaped pieces and deep fried. A light tossing with sugar syrup is all you need to dress up this fried dough for any occasion. When I was thinking through and through to see if there was a Xmas cookie recipe which came rolling down my family tree (No there isn’t any, but I am not worried!)), somehow good old diamond cuts marched right into my head. Just to make it crunchier and puffier I added some baking powder and an egg to the basic recipe, made bigger dough cutouts, deep fried, and dusted it with confectionery sugar.

For the dough

All purpose flour – 2 cups
Baking powder – ½ tsp
Egg –1
Cardamom powder – Seeds from 4 pods powdered or ¼ tsp
Salt- 3 pinches

For dusting

Confectioners sugar – ½ cup
Cardamom powder – 2 pinches

Mix all ingradients together forming a tight dough; use just enough water to bring the dough together. Divide the dough into 6 portions. Roll out each piece very thin, and cut diamond shapes out of the dough by diagonally and vertically running a sharp knife over it. Deep fry the pieces in vegetable oil, and drain on paper towels. Mix cardamom powder with confectionary sugar and dust over the fried cookies. Store in an airtight container.

2006-12-17T08:24:00.000-08:00

A tiny tree

A tabletop Burlap base xmas tree decorated with homemade dried orange slice ornaments.

Dry orange pieces at 150 degree for 2-3 hours.

2006-12-13T19:21:00.000-08:00

Fruitcake – Yes please!

A mere mention of the word “fruitcake” during holiday season evokes strong sentiments among people, they love it or hate it, at least on this matter we all seem to have a decision made . Regardless of the sides we take on this cake, we are strong in our convictions, nurturing a love that grows deeper over the years or a loathing that gets rooted as time passes. I am from a part of India where fruitcake was a cake for all seasons once not too long ago, my first engraved cake visuals in memory are of these cakes covered in hard royal icing, decorated with icing or foil flowers and silver dragees. As a kid my tested method for relishing this goody during Xmas season was to first start with the inside of the cake reserving the candy like icing pieces and flowers for those increasingly uninteresting days leading to school reopening. Even though there are many trendy confections in vogue in Kerala right now, fruitcake still is a xmas time favorite. From the ceremonious soaking of dried fruits to hosting cake melas, bakeries big and small celebrate the goodness of this cake as holiday season approaches.

Baking cakes and yeast breads enriched in dried fruits and nuts is a long standing Xmas tradition spread across the globe with recipes reflecting regional ingredient preferences. Even though the exact place of origin of a rich fruitcake is a matter of debate there are certain elements tying all recipes for this cake together, a high fruit to flour proportion and an emphasis on aging the cake are the most obvious. An Indian Xmas fruit cake-Kerala style is not a dense candied fruit brick, there is more “flour space” (you know what I mean!) in the cake. Instead of candied peels, fresh grated rinds are used with an optional addition of marmalade or orange juice to enhance the taste. Allspice is a no-no in the recipe, but there are other usual fruitcake spices present along with hints of shajeera. Molasses is substituted with caramel, soaking in liquor is not generally practiced, although these cakes are aged for at least a couple of days.

Recipes from fellow fruitcake aficionados, RP and Annita

This cake needs to be aged for a couple of days. In 2-3 days, texture softens and flavors blend very well together. I usually bake this cake two weeks ahead of Xmas and forget all about it till Christmas Eve.

The following recipe is for an eight-inch round/square/loaf cake.

Soaking dry fruits

Golden raisins ¾ cup
Dried currants ¾ cup
Dried apricots chopped – 14 (optional, substitute with a dry fruit of your choice)
Dried cherries – ¼ cup
Orange juice – 1 cup
Nutmeg powder – 1/4 tsp
Cloves - 3
Honey (optional)- 2tsp
Rum – 4 tbsp
Grated orange rind – 2 tsp

Warm orange juice, add all the other ingredients and mix well, keep in an airtight container for at least 12 hours or up to 2-3 days

Making caramel

Sugar – 1 cup
Water – 1 tbsp + 4 tbsp
Butter – ½ tsp

Mix 1 cup sugar with 1 tbsp water, heat in a thick bottomed pan, till the color starts changing to a place shade of golden brown. Stir well from this point on, till the color turns to a dark golden brown (In this step you will have to go a little bit farther than a regular golden brown caramel stage)
Add ½ tsp butter and 4 tbsp water, mix very well, remove from heat, cool and store (refrigerate for up to a week).

Ingredients for the cake

Cake flour – 2 ¾ cup
Baking powder – 2 tsp
Confectioners sugar – 1 cup
Butter – 1 cup
Eggs, beaten – 5
Cinnamon – A pinch or two
Shajeera , finely ground- 3/4 tsp
Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
Soaked dried fruits – from step 1
Caramel – from step2
Cashew nuts chopped and coated with 1 tsp of flour- ¼ cup

Preheat oven to 300 degree F , butter and flour the cake pan ( PAM for baking saves time), line the bottom of the pan with parchment/ wax paper. Sift cake flour with baking powder and mix in spice powders. Cream butter with sugar, add eggs, vanilla essence, caramel, and beat well till the mixture is creamy. You can reduce the amount of caramel to get a lighter color for the cake. Add flour, half a cup or less at a time, and gently mix in. Stir in soaked dry fruit mixture and cashew nuts. Gently mix. Pour into the prepared pan and bake at 300 degree F for approximately one hour 15 minutes or till a tooth pick or tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean (Start checking after 50 minutes). Cool on a wire rack and unmold. Cover the cake with foil and keep in a cool and dry place for a minimum of 2 days (If it wouldn’t be too much on your patience, keep for a week). Optionally (not all required) brush the cake with brandy or rum everyday for a week or two. This cake stays very well outside for 2-3 weeks and inside a refrigerator for 1-2 months.

2006-12-06T22:56:00.000-08:00

Walnut-cheese tartlets

I can hardly imagine that one plump year flew by this fast, but there is no reason to complain, Christmas is close. We got our first Xmas card yesterday, every time we get one, I try to guess who the sender might be, and that for me is one joy of the season. A random delight may come to you throughout the year, yet when it is closer to Christmas, a season filled with expectations you are all the more excited about it. Figuratively, if I flex my lips to a joke on all the other months of the year I might go LOL or even rofl (what ever that might be) over the same during this season !

Here is a very flexible (use any nut and cheese combination of your choice) recipe for savory tartlets, simple and fast if you use a short dough for the crust.

Short dough crust- Recipe here.

For filling
2 eggs
1/4 cup cream
3 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded Gouda cheese
1/3 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1/3 cup finely chopped red bell peppers
½ tsp dried chives
1/3 cup chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 375°F. Roll out the dough slightly thinner than you would do for a piecrust. Cut the rolled out dough into 12-14 squares. Keep each square on an ungreased tartlet pan (or use a mini muffin pan), and press to the sides and bottom. Remove the excess dough from the sides.
Whisk eggs, cream, flour, dried chives and salt together till the mixture is smooth and creamy. Divide the cheese and walnuts equally between the prepared tart pans. Pour the egg mixture on top of cheese and nuts. Sprinkle chopped pepper and parsley. Bake tartlets for approximately 20 minutes or till the edges slightly brown. Cool, unmold and serve at room temperature.

2006-12-03T19:24:00.000-08:00

Christmas time !

A slice of cake for all of you,
for coming in today.
Happy times and lots of fun
as we ride the sleigh !

2006-11-28T22:16:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin bread pudding

I roasted a turkey for the first time this Thanksgiving Day, if you leave out those nightmares I was having about the bird coming out charred from the oven, everything went well without a hitch. In the previous years we were either joining our friends for dinner or flying to India during thanksgiving weekend, and thereby depending on what we chose, made desserts to take along or hauled those oversized bags to the airport. We had friends over for Thanksgiving dinner last week, they brought in lovely home made pies and just for the sake of not letting any celebration go off without making a dessert I made a pumpkin bread pudding. I used a recipe from Pillsbury website which sounded different from the conventional bread pudding recipes as it calls for bread crumbs instead of pieces. The baked pudding resembles a cake in form and texture, with a softer and richer feel to it, something I would describe as a pudding cake. It might not be a bad idea to experiment with other fruit purees in this recipe.

This is my entry to the Festive food fair event hosted by Anna of Morsels & Musings, do check out the round up for fabulous holiday meal ideas. Thank you Anna.

Recipe source : http://www.pillsbury.com/

3 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup butter melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 3/4 cups Plain Bread Crumbs
2 cups milk
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2-cup raisins

For spiced whipped cream

1 cup whipping cream
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ginger or ¼ tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350°F, spray 8 or 9-inch square pan with cooking spray (or use butter). In a mixing bowl beat eggs well, add sugar, spices, butter, vanilla, and beat again. Add bread crumbs, milk and pumpkin and gently mix. Keep for 10 minutes. Add raisins, mix well and pour into the prepared pan. Bake at 350°F for 30-40 minutes, check doneness using a knife or tester. Cool on a wire rack, unmold, and slice into squares. Serve hot or cold topped with spiced whipped cream. Leftover cranberry –apple-orange sauce worked well with this pudding, and so will any other berry puree or preserve.

2006-11-23T10:23:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving

2006-11-21T18:24:00.000-08:00

A good root !

Sweet potato is a nifty root, and when it comes to cooking with it I somehow sport a minimalist approach. I have made chiffon pies and biscuits out of it, yet plain boiling or baking is still the favored method for cooking this root in our household. But whenever we chance upon substantially interesting recipes, we get all the less prejudiced about it, and carry on with our pots and pans. Here are two recent additions to our sweet potato repertoire.

1) Grilled

Recipe from C for Cooking - Thank you.

2) Whipped

4 cups Sweet potatoes cooked and mashed
2 teaspoon unsalted butter (optional)
2 tablespoons cream
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
Salt and pepper or maple sugar ( or demerara sugar, just for the look of it) -to taste.

Mix all the ingredient except the last one, beat vigorously with a handheld mixer till the mixture is smooth and shiny. Season with salt and pepper for serving as a side dish. Pipe whipped potatoes and sprinkle with maple sugar to turn it into a light dessert. Recipe adapted from www.cooksrecipes.com

2006-11-16T22:15:00.000-08:00

Pasta with fennel

Ever since I cooked fennel bulbs for the first time after coming here, I was wondering if there are any traditional Indian recipes for cooking fennel bulbs and fronts. India is one of the major producers of fennel seeds, and so I was naturally curious about the use of fennel bulbs in Indian cuisine. Search for an authentic Indian recipe using fennel bulbs did not generate promising results (Correct me if I am wrong, a comment on this regard is greatly appreciated), and it was disheartening to think about squandering those toothsome bulbs once the seeds are harvested. Somehow this obvious lack of a classical Indian way of cooking for an edible plant grown in many parts of India sounded improbable considering the diversity of vegetarian cuisine in the country, and how it is adapted to accommodate the local edible flora.

A couple of Google searches later, now I know that Florentine fennel cultivated for its succulent bulbs does not set forth the best of fennel seeds. Indian fennel seed is from a variety of fennel plant with characteristics similar to the wild type, bulbs are smaller, harder, stronger in taste, and overall not rated prime for cooking. What a relief, we are not wasting anything super delicious after all! Being milder in taste, fennel bulbs go very well in sweet or savory recipes. Here is a recipe for an easy breezy fennel pasta, the bulbs can trap a lot of mud; rinse in plenty of water after slicing.

Spaghetti – ½ lb
Fennel bulb
(Cleaned and sliced thin)- 2 cups
Fennel fronts finely chopped – ½ cup
Garlic, minced fine – 4 pods
Onions finely chopped – ½ cup
Fennel seeds (optional) – a pinch
Olive oil – 1 tbsp
Crushed chilly pepper – ¼ tsp
Parmesan cheese ¾ cup
Cream (or milk) ½ cup
Salt to taste

Cook pasta al dente, drain and keep. Heat olive oil in a pan; add onions, garlic, and pinch of salt, sauté till onions are translucent. Add chopped fennel bulbs and seeds (if using) and sauté till the pieces are tender. Add the crushed chilly pepper. Reduce the heat to minimum and add cream followed by cheese. Mix till the cheese melts (less than a minute), and turn off the heat. Add cooked pasta, chopped fennel fronts and toss to coat with the sauce.

2006-11-08T19:38:00.000-08:00

A simple zucchini curry

The word “curry” is on its way to confuse me, I face my worst moments whenever I am confronted with bottles labeled “curry powder” in a grocery shop, or when I am dipping a piece of naan into that omnipresent red gravy served in Indian restaurants here, which appears in the menu in many different curry avatars. I have a bottle of curry powder which has almost acquired the status of a keepsake, was once opened and a tablespoon or two used and is gathering dust ever since. Any spice blend as it is used in India, be it a sambar powder or garam masala, can be strong but is devoid of that lingering fetor that some of the “curry powders” have. What is that secret ingredient or formula which suppresses the fragrance of the spices, and turns this blend into a pungent smelling buff colored power? In India majority of everyday no frill curries feature simpler spice combinations and reflect regional and personal spice preferences. Here is a simple zucchini curry, with coconut milk and curry leaves, tastes best when served with rice.

Zucchini (medium size)- 2
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Kashmiri chilly powder – 1 ½ tsp
Salt - to taste
Curry leaves – 8-10nos
Coconut oil – 1 tsp
Onions sliced (preferably red) – 1 ½ cup
Ginger finely chopped – 1 ½ tsp
Garlic finely chopped – 1 tsp
Coconut milk (light) - 3/4cup

Halve each zucchini horizontally. Cut each half into 1-½ inch slices. Score (2 or 4 lines) the flesh side of the pieces with a knife. Mix chilly powder, coriander powder and a pinch of salt, add 1 tbsp water and make a thick paste. Marinate zucchini pieces in this paste for 10-20 minutes. Heat ¾ tsp oil till smoking hot; add onions, ginger and garlic and sauté till onions are translucent. Add 3/4 cup of water to the sautéed mixture and let the water boil. Arrange the marinated zucchini pieces with cut side up in this mixture. Mix ¼ cup of water with the remaining marinade and add to the pan. Add ¼ cup of coconut milk. Cook covered for 8-12 minutes. Remove the lid; turn the heat up to thicken the gravy. Once the gravy is thick, add ½ cup of coconut milk, and gently mix. Turn of the heat. Slightly crush curry leaves with ¼ tsp coconut oil and add to the prepared curry. Keep it covered for 5-10 minutes. Mix well before serving with rice.

2006-11-02T07:28:00.000-08:00

Sesame ginger soba noodles

I have nothing against those recipes featuring instructions galore, or the ones with ingredient lists spreading across pages, but I am definitely not trying one of those on a cold and dark autumn evening. The extra hour of darkness we earned for our evenings ever since last Sunday, resulted in an increased affection for favorite quick fix meals, and a comfort ginger sesame soba noodles is back in the everyday food radar. Soba noodle is made of buckwheat flour, and as far as I gather it is a wonder flour, low in gluten, contains rutin, and the calorie value per cup is closer to that of whole wheat flour. Along with all these formidable qualities this flour also has a unique earthy and nutty taste, which is mildly reflected in soba noodles. Tossing these noodles with a simple sesame-ginger dressing with a dash of mirin is all you need to complement the inherent flavor. To make things even better, this is a versatile recipe. On a hot summer day, if you are upset by an overwhelming abundance of sunshine(!), fix it up as a cold noodle salad or on the turn of the plate if you are sulking on a chilly wintry evening, perplexed about what to cook, toss some hot freshly cooked noodles with a warm dressing made with the same set of ingredients, and you will never be disappointed. One of these days, I will find my sunny self again and might disappear into the kitchen to try out something special, but for now we are very pleased with our hot noodle bowls !

6 ounces dried buckwheat (soba) noodles
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon peanut sauce
2 tbsp finely grated ginger
½ tsp grated garlic
1 cup finely shredded green onions
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sesame paste
½ tsp mirin (optional)
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1-2 tsp chilly paste or oil (adjust according to your heat tolerance)
Vegetable oil – ½ tsp

Dry roast sesame seeds, keep aside. Cook Soba noodles in excess of water. Drain and keep it covered. Heat ½ tsp vegetable oil in a pan; add finely minced garlic, stir fry for half a minute. Lower the heat to minimum, add grated ginger and ¼ cup of chopped scallions, stir well. Turn of the heat. Add sesame paste, peanut sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and chilly oil ( or paste). Whisk all the ingredients together. While the noodles are still hot, toss with the sauce mixture and add toasted sesame seeds and the remaining green onions. Top with your choice of meat, seafood, eggs or vegetables, stir fried or grilled. For a summer salad, make a dressing by simply whisking all the ingredients together, mix with cold cooked noodles just before serving.

2006-10-27T22:56:00.000-07:00

Weekend cake peek
Fondant ribbon roses

Cake covered with marshmallow fondant, topped with M fondant roses,leaves, and beads. M fondant irregular pearl border.

2006-10-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

Shahi tukde, my way
For JFI- Diwali treats at Vee’s place
and for VCC Q3 at My Dhaba

Sometimes a single problem might result in many interesting solutions, when mankind looked at a stale leftover piece of bread as a problem; many solutions sprang up all over the world as bread puddings of all different sorts. There is of course the English bread pudding, which eventually became universal in appearance , bodding ( what a lovely name !) which is Belgian, and along with many other forms of this pudding there is the Indian version called Shahi tukde (Shahi tukre). “Shahi” is a splendid word, and when you see it as a prefix to the name of a dish, expect a royal treat. Rich creamy gravies, captivatingly perfumed rice preparations, sumptuous desserts topped with edible silver foil (varq), “shahi” is a word to look for in an Indian restaurant menu. .You can find an authentic version of this fantabulous dessert here. The recipe I used is slightly different, and rich in pistachios and cashew nuts. Being a lesser mortal, I do not generally stock up silver leaves; wish I had some to decorate this dessert!

Wish you a very happy Diwali

White bread pieces – 15 (~ 5cm x 5cm)
Evaporated milk – 11/2 cup
Pistachios
Shelled, skinned – 2 tbsp
Crushed – 3 tbsp
Cashew nuts – ½ cup
Milk – 2 1/2 cups
Fresh cream – 2 tsp
Cardamom – crushed 3 pods
Rose water – ¼ tsp
Ghee or oil – for shallow frying bread pieces.
Sugar – 1 cup + 2 tbsp + 1 tsp
Water – 1 cup

Soak Pistachios and cashew nuts in 1 cup of milk for 1-2 hrs. Mix sugar and water, boil till a thick syrup forms. Add rose water and keep. Shallow fry bread slices till the edges are golden brown. Drain on paper towels. To the soaked nuts, add 1 cup of milk and grind to a fine paste in a blender. Add ½ cup of evaporated milk and 2 tbsp sugar to the mixture. Cook in a thick bottomed pan with constant stirring till the mixture thickens (takes 5-8 minutes). Add crushed cardamom, cool. In a bowl mix 1 cup evaporated milk,1/2 cup fresh cream ,1 tsp sugar and 1 crushed pod of cardamom Dip bread slices in sugar syrup quickly and arrange 5 pieces on a plate , top with the nuts+ milk mixture ( use a pastry bag so that you can easily pipe a blob on to the bread piece). Cover with bread and repeat layering till you get 5 neat stacks of 3 bread pieces each with the milk mixture in between. Drizzle the cream + milk mixture on top and decorate with crushed nut mixture. The above directions are for individual plating of this dessert, can be arranged in a baking dish as a single layer of bread pieces and milk mixture. Chill and serve

2006-10-13T22:42:00.000-07:00

2006-10-07T22:58:00.000-07:00

“Meen Pollichatu”
Fish in banana leaves – Kerala style

Certain recipes are all about assembling the right ingredients together, "Meen pollichatu" a signature fish preparation of the central coastal region of Kerala is one good example of this class. In the original recipe a fresh water fish called Pearl spot ( Karimeen) is slow cooked with a limited number of spices in a pan lined with banana leaves, and the preparation is finished off with a fine drizzling of freshly squeezed coconut milk. Like many other dishes, this one also tastes best when all ingredients are fresh, but as long as you manage to gather all the required components together, a “close to original” taste is assured. With the advent of backwater tourism in Alappuzha and Kottayam, this fish curry now occupies a cardinal spot in the houseboat dinner menus. If you happen to cruise along the splendid backwaters of central Kerala, in a gorgeous houseboat like this, do request your chef on board (yes, most probably you will have one), to make a “Meen pollichathu” with a fresh catch of pearl spots.

Fish, cleaned - 1 lb (preferably whole)
Shallots - ¼ cup
Garlic - 2 tsp
Ginger - 2 tsp
Chilly powder - 1 ½ tbsp
Curry leaves - 10
Coconut oil - 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Coconut milk - ½ cup
Coconut Vinegar (optional) - 1 tsp
Banana leaves - to line the pan
Salt - ¼ tsp or to taste

Heat 1 tsp coconut oil, sauté shallots, garlic and ginger for two minutes; add two curry leaves and turn of the heat. Grind the sautéed mixture with chilly powder, 1 tsp coconut oil, salt and 1 tsp vinegar. Make deep cuts on both sides of the fish. Marinate fish in ground spice mixture for 1- 2 hours. Line a thick bottomed pan with banana leaves, arrange fish on top of the leaves. Slightly crush the remaining curry leaves and mix with 1 tsp coconut oil, spread over the fish, sprinkle with the remaining marinade. Cover with banana leaves, close with lid. Cook in medium heat for 15-20 minutes. Remove the lid, sprinkle coconut milk (and optionally add ¼ cup of finely chopped tomatoes), increase the heat and cook till gravy is thick and coats the fish.

Baked version
Line a baking dish with foil and then line with banana leaves. Arrange the marinated fish topped with the rest of the ingredients and layer two pieces of banana leaves on top. Cover the baking dish with foil, poke holes on the foil to let the steam out. Bake at 300 degree F for 20 minutes. Remove the foil cover and leaf strips, sprinkle coconut milk and bake it at 350 degree for 10 more minutes or till gravy thickens.

2006-09-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

Grilled bananas laced with ghee
For JFI-Ghee

Plantains/Cooking bananas (medium ripe) - As many as you wish
Ghee - 1 tbsp for up to 5 plantains

Split bananas into half and cut each piece into two. Heat a grill pan, brush with ghee. When the grill is medium hot, keep the bananas over the grill, flat side down, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Brush the top with some ghee and turn it over to the other side. Grill till the pieces are cooked through (color changes to a deeper shade of yellow). Serve hot. Optional topping – honey

2006-09-20T18:35:00.000-07:00

Simple fried dough

Fall colors are creeping into the greenbelt to which our apartment opens through a deck, and to give a preview of a proper Oregon fall awaiting us, it is raining. I love rain; I am from a place where it rains cats and dogs for at least a month every year. The euphony of raindrops falling on rooftops and wind gliding over leaves, make me feel right at home no matter where in the world I am. A hot cup of tea, a comfy book to read, and an occasional piece of fried dough to bite on, create my kind of celebration to light up a dim rainy day.

This recipe is for the fried dough locally known as “Vettu (cut) Cake” in the central coastal region of Kerala, I am sure there are other regional names for this good stuff.

Recipe

All purpose flour - 2 cups
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Sugar - ½ cup
Water - 1 cup
Cardamom seeds crushed - from 2 pods
Nutmeg powder (Optional) - a pinch
Egg ( Optional) - 1
Vegetable oil - for deep frying

Mix baking powder and flour (sifting together is recommended). Add sugar, cardamom,mix well and add one beaten egg ( if using). Add enough water and make a tight dough. Divide the dough into 8-12 portions of equal size. Shape the dough roughly like a square with your hands. Finish shaping all the pieces. Run a sharp knife over the formed piece to make two medium deep cuts resembling a cross. Fry in vegetable oil, till golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Stores well at room temperature in tightly closed containers for up to 3-4 days.

* Egg is recommended if you prefer a more cake like texture.

2006-09-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

Grape tomatoes for GBP-Summe r
Malai tomato rice

A rice dish is perhaps not the best way to show off a grape tomato harvest. I somehow blindly believe that these tiny tomatoes belong in salads, savory pies and tarts or in recipes preserving its shape or color. Yet I made a rice dish with our GBP summer harvest, reason one being the truth that we postponed picking these tomatoes long enough to make it overripe. By the time we finished reveling on the red goodness; many tomatoes lost the crunch, so the decision to make a flavored rice was a natural choice. Malai grape tomato rice is a spin off from Sudha’s real comfort tomato baath recipe. My version has subdued spices, and added fresh cream to go along with the mild flavor of grape tomatoes reaped right from our deck. The tomatoes sure vanish without a trace into the rice, but the subtle and sweet flavor lingers.

Basmati rice -2 cups
Ginger paste -1 tsp
Garlic paste -1 tsp
Green chilies cut into rounds -1

Fennel seeds -a pinch
Cinnamon -½ inch stick
Onion finely chopped -½ cup
Cloves -2
Cardamom -2 pods
Turmeric -¼ tsp
Mint -1 leaf
Grape tomatoes,halved -3 cups
Fresh cream -3 tbsp
Chopped cilantro -1 tbsp
Cashew nuts -10
Vegetable oil -2 tsp
Butter or ghee(optional) -½ tsp

Salt -1/4 tsp ( or to taste)
Water -3 cups ( for pressure cooking) ,3 ½ cups otherwise

Wash and drain rice. In a pressure cooker with lid off, heat 1 ½ tsp oil, fry one mint leaf, add onions,a pinch of salt and sauté till onions are translucent. Add spices; continue sautéing for 2 more minutes. Once the spices are fried, add chopped chilies, ginger, garlic, and turmeric. Sauté till the onions are golden. Add tomatoes and mix well, cook for a minute. Add the washed rice and gently mix. Gently stir in fresh cream.Add salt to taste. Add water, close the lid, cook till one whistle, and remove from stove. Release pressure after 5 minutes. Fry cashew nuts in ½ tsp oil, drain on paper towels. Remove pressure cooker lid, add nuts, chopped cilantro and butter. Gently mix with the rice. Serve hot with raita and pickle.

2006-09-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

Pal Payasam
(rice-milk pudding)

Onam is over, we are getting out of a bout of nostalgia, which periodically surfaces every year during the season. We will be sitting down with our good friends for a proper Onam sadya sans Melamine this weekend. There will be “true” banana leaves, and probably a repeat of the curries we made last weekend. Payasam, which is an essential dessert topping the sadya grandeur is going to be my all time favorite, rice -pal ( milk) payasam. You could make payasams in a jiffy, or devote half a day from your life for the preparation. In the Sri Krishna temple situated in Ambalappuzha ( Kerala) where the far-famed Ambalppuzha pal payasam is made, the process of making this offering reportedly starts in the wee hours of the morning, and ends closer to noon. Onam is the only time of the year when I make pal payasam in the right way, forbearingly lingering around the stove, stirring away my impatience. There are only a couple of ingredients, but please do not forget to stock up some perseverance, you might require it in this recipe!

Long method

Milk – 8 cups
Water – 6 cups
Rice – 1 1/4 cups
Sugar – 2 cups
Cardamom, crushed – 2 pods

Mix water and milk, cook in medium heat with occasional stirring till the volume reduces to half. Wash and drain rice, add it to the cooked milk, cook under medium heat till rice is done. Add sugar, cook for 20 more minutes with frequent stirring. Add crushed cardamom. Remove from stove. Optionally, cashew nuts toasted in ghee can be added.

* I use the red rice from south India which imparts a shade of pink to the dessert, but any other not so sticky rice will do fine.

Quick method

Cook rice in 2 1/2 cups water + 1 cup evaporated milk + 1 cup milk , till rice is done ( Pressure cook if you are in a hurry) Add sugar cook for 5-10 more minutes with constant stirring. Add ½ cup evaporated milk, mix well, cook for 5 more minutes. Add cardamom. You are done!!!

2006-09-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

Meme - ABOUT ME, ME AND ONLY ME!

Here is another meme, thank you Sudha for tagging me. While you discover my dark secrets, have a peek at these photos taken during the Labor Day weekend.

Caldera crater lake -Oregon

Klamath lake-Oregon

Oregon coast

I am thinking about: buying a gift for someone.

I said : Stand tall, speak up !!

I want to : buy a cottage up on the mountains where snow falls on Christmas day.

I wish : I could skydive or at least think about it without shivering.

I regret : about spoiling a tart pan by keeping it in soap water for one full day.

I hear : a fan buzzing.

I am : into old Hollywood movies.

I dance : when?

I sing : all the time.

I cry : when I am angry, not when I am sad.

I am not : a big fan of string beans.

I am : with my hands: turning the pages of a book

I write : mails and forget to post.

I confuse : my brother whenever possible.

I need : an air brush for food colors.

I tag : Ashwini, RP, Annita, Gattina, Nabeela.

2006-09-04T23:16:00.000-07:00

ഓണാശംസകള്‍ !
Wish you a happy Onam

2006-08-31T08:46:00.000-07:00

Cardamom-Saffron Panna cotta
For JFI-Milk

Thank you Vineela for hosting this month’s JFI and for choosing a delicious theme !

A milk based Indian dessert is all about milk, milk in abundance, slowly cooked down using copious amounts of patience. The texture may vary from a creamy Basundi to a soft cookie like Milk peda, but emphasis is always given to the taste of milk itself. Whatever the dessert is, if you want to do it in the traditional way, you start with liters of milk and end up in a few cupfuls or pieces of the dessert! Every spice that you add, acts as an under taste imparting layers of warmth to a comforting taste of milk cooked with sugar.

When this month started off, I looked at the event schedules and decided to participate in two, JFI-Milk and FMR-Indian dessert fusion. There was almost a two for one deal there if I made a panna cotta (cooked cream in Italian) with the usual Indian dessert spices. But the month just rushed off, and now when I look at the FMR calendar I see that the posting deadline is over, but my mind is still set on a cardamom-saffron flavored panna cotta. Panna cotta, mildly flavored, totally egg less and very milky, can well be imagined along the flavor lines of a Kesar Kulfi or a Basundi. Cardamom and saffron are used to flavor this version of the dessert with added evaporated milk for getting that slow cooked milk taste you get with many of the Indian milk based desserts. A simple fruit puree will work very well as the sauce, mango or peach is recommended.

Have fun and enjoy the long weekend !

Cream 1 cup
Evaporated milk 1 cup
Confectioner’s sugar 1/2 cup
Rose water ½ tsp
Saffron strands a pinch
Cardamom-crushed 1 pod
Gelatin Powder 1 tsp
Pistachio crushed 2 tbsp
Water 3 tbsp

Add gelatin to water, stir well, let it stand for 5 minutes. Melt gelatin by double boiling or microwavin till the mixture is clear. Mix cream, evaporated milk and sugar. Cook under medium heat with constant stirring for 5 minutes or till the mixture is hot. Reduce the heat and cook under low heat for 10 more minutes. Remove from stove, add cardamom, saffron, and rose water. Mix well and keep it covered for 5 minutes. Strain it through a sieve. Add the melted Gelatin, mix well. Pour into molds and refrigerate for 6 hours or preferably overnight. For un-molding, keep the filled mold in hot water for 5 seconds and invert over to a plate. Sprinkle with crushed pistachio. Serve with fruit puree ( mangoes or peaches go very well with the flavors used in this recipe).To make fruit puree – Blend together1 cup of fruits and 1 tbsp of confectioners sugar, refrigerate.

2006-08-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

Pad Thai

I always thought of my Indian palate as having a well accommodating leeway for chilies used in any cuisine, till the day I stepped in for the first time to a Thai restaurant and valorously announced to the lady who was managing our table that I will have my plate of stir fry ( It was something like Pad Bai Gra Prow !!!) at its spiciest best. I learned two good lessons that day.

1) I am not as good as I thought with Thai red chilies.
2) You don’t have to be “hot” all the time; there are days in your life when you can be content just by being ‘medium”!

Ever since that incident I am trying to be humble when picking my levels and my admiration for Thai cuisine has grown beyond my own expectations.

Pad Thai is one Thai dish that I prepare often, as the recipe is devoid of hard to find fresh herbs or spice blends. This recipe treads in between a milder version of Pad Thai as it is made in the streets of Thailand and a comparatively spicier preparation closer to what we find in the restaurants here.

1/2 lb Thin dried rice noodles
3 Tbsp fish sauce
3 Tbsp tamarind juice
2 Tbsp palm or coconut sugar or brown sugar
1 tbsp + 2 tsp peanut oil
11/2 cup fresh prawns, shelled, deveined
1 cup firm tofu, cut into thin I inch strips
Sweet Soy sauce – 1 tbsp (substitute with ½ tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp brown sugar)
4-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3 shallots, thinly sliced (or 1/4 cup finely chopped onion)
2 tbsp small dried shrimp
1-3 tsp ground dried red chilies, to desired hotness
3 eggs
3 cups fresh bean sprouts
1 cup garlic chives cut into 1 1/2-inch-long segments ( optional)

½ cup crushed unsalted roasted peanuts
1 lime, cut into small wedges
Cilantro – 2 tbsp
Green onions cut into thin 1 inch long pieces – ½ cup

Soak the dried rice noodles in warm water for 30 minutes or till the noodles are limp but firm to the touch. Drain and keep. Mix tofu strips with sweet soy sauce and marinate for 10 minutes. Mix together, fish sauce, tamarind juice and palm sugar. Stir well to dissolve sugar. Heat 1 tsp oil in a wok till smoking hot. Stir fry prawns at high heat for 2 minutes. Sprinkle some fish sauce and remove from wok. Add the remaining oil to wok; add tofu and stir fry till the pieces are golden brown. Add garlic, shallots, and dried shrimp, stir fry for a minute. Add ground chilies, stir well, and add the noodles. Stir-Fry for 2 more minutes, move the mixture to the sides of the wok. Heat 1 tsp oil in the center of the wok, add beaten eggs to the center, and scramble lightly till the eggs are cooked. Mix in with the noodles. Add the sweet and sour sauce mix; stir well to coat the noodles. If the noodles are still firm to touch, add 2 tbsp water and cook for an extra minute. Add garlic chives, cut green onions and fry for 1 more minute. Remove from fire, serve hot topped with crushed peanuts and chopped green onions. . Serve with a cup of bean sprouts, and couple of lemon wedges. Servings -- 3

Recipe adapted from http://www.thaitable.com/ and http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/

2006-08-18T23:30:00.000-07:00

Weekend Cake Peek #3
Apple blossoms in baby colors !

Apple blossoms are very simple to make, work very well as elegant filler flowers in an icing flower bouquet, but I love them the most when they sit in happy clusters of their own!! Enjoy your weekend.

* This is one of the first few cakes i decorated, made for a baby shower alomst one and a half years ago.

2006-08-15T07:54:00.000-07:00

Onion Basil Tartlets
For Green Blog Project Summer 2006

There are certain issues which elude my logic, the immoderate prices of some fresh herbs even in the peak of summer is one among them. I admit that there are herbs with special climatic and other requirements for growth, at the same time paying $ 3 for couple of leaves of fresh mint is exceptionally preposterous! From my limited experience of observing a mint plant weakling rapidly booming into a rain forest, I tend to think that this blessed plant does not demand any sort of special care, or sometimes even water to grow once planted!!

Inspired by Ingi’s call for a greener blog , we tried our hands at container vegetable gardening this summer, and needless to say we started off with planting mint. As you might imagine, we were instantly gratified. So we graduated to basil, then to tomatoes and chilies. At this point, our mint plant (plants!!!) is having a blast growing and growing. Sweet basil was harvested thrice and is still flourishing. Tomatoes are ripening and peppers are maturing. Overall our deck is greener than it used to be, thank you Ingi, you did touch our deck ! I do not seem to count basil leaves to be used for a pesto, or scramble through a pack of mint leaves to top a dessert anymore, these potherbs from our deck have finally set my spirit free.

My first entry for GBP Summer 2006 is an onion-basil tartlet, one of my favorite quick fix appetizers, filled with fresh basil, caramelized onions and mozzarella cheese. Using puff pastry sheet as the base gives it a warm and flaky personality.

Puff Pastry Sheet - 1
Sweet onions (thinly sliced lengthwise) - 3 cups

Minced Garlic - 1/4 tsp
Fresh Basil (chopped) - ½ cup
Grated mozzarella cheese - 1 cup
Butter - 1 tbsp
Salt - 2 pinches

Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Melt Butter in a pan; add garlic,onions, pinch of salt and sauté till the onions are brown and translucent. Remove from fire and cool. When the sautéed onions are cold add ½ cup of chopped basil and ¾ cup of mozzarella cheese. Mix gently. Thaw puff pastry sheets, and stretch it a bit by running a rolling pin over it. Cut small squares fitting tartlet molds or muffin tins. Keep the pastry dough square in a tartlet pan, and press on to the sides of the pan. Trim off excess dough. Fill with 1-2 tbsp( depending on the size of the pans) of filling. Bake at 350 degree F for 12-15 minutes. Take out of the oven, and quickly sprinkle the top with the remaining Cheese.

2006-08-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

Heaven on a plate- Kashmiri Pulao

For an Indian like me, who has never been to that “ heaven on earth “ piece of land called Jammu and Kashmir, a state of India, Kashmiri pulao is like the gist of Kashmir served on a plate, a heaven to relish ! This rice dish is not widely recognized as an authentic Kashmiri delicacy and perhaps never served for a Wazwaan, still no other Kashmiri dish(?) is popularized all over India as this pulao. Chances are there that your order will be happily taken for this dish even in a small town south Indian restaurant. Try ordering a true Kashmiri “Gushtaba” at the same place; you might as well be confusing everyone in there.

Each and every grain of this pulao is infused with the delicate flavor of fresh cream and mild aroma of the spices. Adorned with a blend of fruits and nuts, this one can stand on its own, a mild raita or nothing at all is all you need as an accompaniment. Just like the nuts and raisin filled Kashmiri naan which is marked by its nonexistence in traditional Kashmiri cuisine, this warm and hearty rice dish traveled wide and far and acquired immense popularity making it hard to believe that this is not a traditional Kashmiri treat. This is my float for Indian Independence Day food parade, a very refreshing event organized by Indira of Mahanandi. May freedom continue to inspire the country and peace and happiness return to the valley.

Basmati rice 2 cups
Milk 1/4 cup

Cream 1/2 cup

Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp

Cloves 3nos

Cinnamon 1 inch stick

Cardamom 4 pods

Bay leaf 1

Ghee or butter 2 1/2 tsp

Water – 1 3/4 cups
Saffron strands 1/4 tsp
Rose water 1/2 tsp
Chopped mixed fruits ( apple, raisins, apricot, peaches, candied cherries etc) 1 cup
Mixed nuts 1/4 cup ( Almonds, pecan, walnut, cashews etc.)
salt to taste

Method

Wash rice with plenty of water and drain. Heat ghee/butter in a pressure cooker (with lids off) fry cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, 2 pods of crushed cardamom and cumin seeds. Lower the heat, add rice and fry for a minute. Add cream, milk, a pinch of saffron strands and salt to taste. Mix gently, add water, close the cooker and cook on high heat till you hear one whistle. Remove from heat, wait 5 minutes. Release pressure, transfer the rice to a large mixing bowl, and keep it covered with a foil. Shallow fry nuts in ½ tsp ghee and drain on paper towels. Add fruits, nuts, 1 crushed pod of cardamom, remaining saffron strands and rose water to the cooked rice , gently mix using a fork. Keep it covered for the flavors to blend. Serve hot with a mild raita.

For making this pulao in a regular pan, add ½ cup more of water along with the other suggested ingredients in this recipe for cooking the rice, and cook it covered till the grains are well done yet separate. Turn off the heat. Add fruits, nuts and the remaining ingredients .Gently mix and keep it covered for 10minutes before serving.

Raita - Mix ½ cup of mixed vegetables ( finely grated carrots, cucumber, tomatoes), ¼ tsp minced green chilly skins, ¼ tsp minced onions, 2 tbsp water, 1 tbsp yogurt, pinch of sugar, a pinch of salt. Beat well and keep it covered.