Ahaar

Playdate #3, Kerala chicken stew Ann Arborized!

2012-01-31T18:00:00.000-05:00

(picture courtesy of: Nicole)

Look at the beautiful table Nicole set for this meal! When I look at this picture, I can still remember all of us trying to savor the meal, talking to each other and tending to the little ones all at the same time. It felt like a busy evening, but a great one spent in the company of friends.

Nicole and I had set a big goal for this evening. We were going to make a chicken stew and bake bread to go with it. I selected Sailu's Chicken stew recipe and made some adjustments, and for the bread we chose Susan's Laziest Loaf. I look forward to these cooking dates when we can chop, cut and cook together and exchange stories. I never realize when a couple of hours have gone by and hungry husbands, and children re-enter.

I made the chicken stew a few more times after the playdate and it came out great every time. It's perfect for cosy evenings when you want to catch up with friends and family and have a hearty bowl to go with it.

For the chicken stew, we decided to add some more vegetable and stick with low fat coconut milk. I also ground half of the garam masala with the fennel and it gave a wonderful aromatic smell to the stew. For a milder flavor I used white peppercorns instead of the black ones. Here is my tweaked recipes.

Ingredients:

(recipe courtesy of Sailu's Kitchen)

2-3 lbs chicken cut into bite size pieces
2 medium onions, finely sliced
2-3 medium potatoes, cubed (I left the skin on)
3 medium carrots, peeled and cubed
12-15 green beans, cut into smaller pieces
8-10 curry leaves
1/2 tsp ginger paste
3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
3-4 green chillis, (I didn't slit them but you could)
4-5 cloves
1″ cinnamon
2 cardamoms
8-10 white peppercorns
1/4 tspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tpsoon fennel powder (I ground some fresh fennel seeds)
1/2 tsp garam masala pwd
2 cans light coconut milk

salt to taste
1 tbspoon lemon juice

1 1/2 tbspoon oil
1 tbspoon butter
chopped mint and cilantro mix (optional)

Method:

Heat oil and butter in a heavy bottomed vessel, add curry leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper corns and saute for few secs till you start smelling the garam masala. Add garlic slices and saute for a minute. Add ginger paste and green chillies and saute for a minute. Then add the sliced onions and fry for 4-5 minutes.

Add turmeric powder and combine. Add the chicken pieces and cook over medium heat for 7-8 minutes.

Add 1 can of coconut milk and salt and combine. Cook for another 5-6 minutes. Add garam masala powder, fennel paste, potato, carrots and green beans in the pan. Add the rest of the coconut milk and let it cook and the chicken and veggies are cooked and soft.

Turn off heat. And serve warm. I leave the lemon wedges and the mint cilantro mix in the bowl so everyone can customize their own.

Serve warm with rice or bread.

We ate ours with a French Bread that we baked using Susan's @ Well-Seasoned Cook's recipe. We followed it exactly and it worked well. The bread turned out soft and delicious as well and was perfect to soak up the last bits from the bowl.

Thank you Sailu and Susan for these wonderful recipes.

Strawberry birthday cake

2012-01-19T21:19:00.000-05:00

(photo courtesy: Venky Rao)

My little one recently turned 2. He is officially a toddler. How time has flown! I remember holding him, seeing him crawl, learning how to walk and now he is running around proclaiming his independence. He wants to do everything "self" and of course it takes twice as long. He recently tasted cake and has shown a preference for cake without icing.

So for his birthday I decided to make a simple cake. Since he has been going around asking for pink ice-cream, I though a strawberry birthday cake will pair well with it. I came across a recipe for strawberry cake at Smitten Kitchen which looked delicious. I baked the cake and it got rave reviews from everyone. Aswin's niece declared it as "divine" and "super delicious". Ameya ate a few bites as well. Thank you Smitten Kitchen for this wonderful recipe!

I made a few tweaks adding a couple of t-spoons of olive oil along with butter and used brown sugar instead. And like she described, the edges were faintly crisp and gave a wonderful flavor to the cake. This is probably one of few cakes that uses only 1 egg in the ingredients. Here is how to make it:

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tspoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups flour (I used whole wheat and barley flour mix)
1 1/2 tspoons baking powder
1/2 tspoon salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tbspoons sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Butter a 9-inch cake pan and flour and keep it aside. Strain flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl.

In a larger bowl, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy for about 3 minutes. The butter shouldn't be liquid, just soft. I melted mine and had to put it in the fridge again. Once it's fluffy, mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined.

Once it's done, add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.

Pour into cake pan. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.

Bake cake for 10 minutes at 350 deg F then reduce oven temperature to 325 deg F and bake cake for 50-60 min till the toothpick comes out clean.

(photo courtesy: Venky Rao)

Let cool in pan on a rack.

Cut into wedges and serve with ice-cream or whipped cream. Enjoy!

Custard and pudding cravings resolved!

2012-01-03T21:23:00.000-05:00

Welcome 2012! The last couple of months of 2011 were busy, sick, busy, and then some more. But we got a good break, changed our pace and relaxed with family and friends. That rejuvenated and energized us. Here is a picture from our trip to Marquette in the Northern Peninsula Michigan.

We also did a few dinners: for playdate #3, with some old friends and made some new. And for one of the dinners I made this chocolate and vanilla pudding dessert. The pomegranate and the blueberries cut the sweet and provide the right amount of sharpness in this. The best part you can make it ahead and cool it!

I made the chocolate pudding from scratch using the recipe from Smitten Kitchen and took a shortcut with the vanilla pudding using Brown and Polson custard powder.

1. Chocolate Pudding
Adapted from Smitten kitchen

Ingredients:

2 tbspoon cornstarch
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3 ounces chocolate (I used bittersweet chocolate bar) - chopped
1 tspoon pure vanilla extract

Method:
Combine the cornstarch, sugar and salt in a pan on low (I didn't do the double boiler. Instead I kept the heat on low and used a thick bottomed pan to do this and stirred often.)

Slowly whisk in the milk, scraping the bottom and sides with a heatproof spatula and keep stirring. After 15 to 20 minutes, the mixture start to thicken and coats the back of the spoon, add the chocolate pieces. Keep stirring here as the chocolate melts and mixes well with the rest of the mix.

Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

2. Vanilla custard

Ingredients:
1 cup milk
2 tbspoon vanilla custard powder
1/2 tspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar.

Method:

Heat milk in a thick bottomed pan. Take a few tspoon warm milk out and make a smooth paste with the custard powder. Melt the sugar in the milk and once it comes to a boil, take it off the heat and add in the custard powder and stir well. The milk will start to thicken immediately. Put it back on the heat and cook for 2-3 minutes and keep stirring.

Take it off the heat and add the vanilla extract.

Assembly of the dessert:

You can assemble it in any order. Here is what I did.

Take 3-4 tbspoons of chocolate pudding in a dessert cup, then layer it with 3-4 tbspoon of vanilla custard. Sprinkle pomegranate seeds and blueberries and chill for atleast 30 minutes before serving.

Here's hoping that your new year will be as sweet and tangy with the right amount of satisfaction. :)

Orange and saffron cake

2011-12-21T18:00:00.000-05:00

Little A is going to be 2 next month and I think I made a breakthrough this month. You see, last year, I made this delicious birthday cake for him and he barely tasted it. This entire year, every time we went to a birthday party or if I baked a cake at home, I would try to get him eat a bite. Lil A would make a face, and now that he's talking say 'yucky' and walk away. So I had kind of given up on him eating cake. So this cake was not for him.

It was for us and for our friends. This has been my go to recipe for this holiday season. I've already made various versions of it (including a cake pudding trying to salvage a disaster) and it comes out great every time. But let me not digress.

At our friend's place when we were getting ready for dessert, Lil A points towards the cake. I ask him surprised "You want a piece?" He nods his head. So I sit him on a chair and cut a piece and he takes a bite. And another and then another. Yeah, Lil A ate and liked the cake. :)

It also helped that there was a 4-year-old sitting next to him eating a cake piece. But I may have just found a winner. Here is the recipe with Lil A's stamp of approval. I got the recipe from here, and modified it with saffron and reducing eggs and baking powder.

Ingredients:

(Modified from: Morocconfood)
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
2 cups flour
3 tspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Juice from 1 fresh orange and its zest
1 good pinch of saffron soaked in 2-3 tbspoon warm milk
2-3 tbspoon powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350° F (180° C), butter and flour the pan and keep it aside. Beat the eggs and sugar until it becomes thick. Then slowly add in the oil.

Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt in the mix, and then the orange juice, little bit at a time. Beat until smooth, and then mix in the zest and saffron milk.

Add the batter into your pan, and bake for about 40-45 minutes till the toothpick comes out clean.

Cool on a rack and then add some dusting of powdered sugar.

Serve plain or with some ice-cream.

Have a wonderful holidays everyone.

Playdate # 2, this time it's raviolis

2011-12-12T18:00:00.000-05:00

Little N and Little A, and this time there was also Little O, got together for another playdate, or rather Nicole and I got together again for some wine and another cooking session. We made raviolis, and enjoyed it with family and friends along with some salad, and ice-cream.

Wine bottles were opened, stories were exchanged, and raviolis were made under Nicole's guidance. I've never made raviolis before. It confounds me, the thinness of the dough, how much filling to add, when do you know it's done, do we need a sauce? All these questions were swirling in my mind when Nicole generously agreed to show how to do it.

To save some time, we each made a filling and a sauce beforehand and then put it all together just before dinner.

Nicole made:
1. Ricotta and spinach filling and a tomato sauce.

I made:
2. Butternut squash filling and a white sauce.

Nicole brought her pasta machine to roll out the dough and a ravioli maker. She gave me one ravioli maker too! We rolled out the dough using her pasta machine, spread the final dough sheet on the ravioli maker, filled it up with a filling and voila, in a couple of hours we had a good batch ready to be cooked.

I also have a cool video of Nicole explaining how much filling to put and the ravioli maker and I promise to post it soon ( as soon as the battery is charged).

Here is how Nicole made the ricotta and spinach filling and the marinara sauce:
Ricotta and spinach filling
(Adapted from Lidia's Italian American Kitchen)
Ingredients:
3 c whole milk ricotta
2 T olive oil
1 leek, white part only, chopped
1/2 c minced scallions (about 6)
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed.
4 c fresh spinach chopped
salt
pepper
1 c grated parmesan cheese
1 egg

Method:
Drain the cheese overnight in the fridge in a fine mesh colander lined with a coffee filter.
Saute the leeks and scallions in the olive oil about till soft.
Stir in spinach, garlic, salt and pepper, and cook until vegetables are soft, about 10 min., until liquid has evaporated. Cool before next step.
Stir together ricotta, parmesan, spinach mixture and egg. Chill before filling the ravioli, otherwise it will cook the pasta dough.

Tomato sauce
Ingredients:
1 35-oz. can of diced San Marzano tomatoes, with liquid
1 can "6 in 1" ground tomatoes (Plum has it. If you can't find that brand, you could use tomato puree.)
1/4 c olive oil
1/2 c chopped onion
1/2 c chopped red bell pepper
1/4 c finely shredded carrot
1/4 c finely shredded celery
4 fresh or 2 dry bay leaves
1 T grated parmesan cheese
1 t brown sugar (optional)
chopped basil to taste

Method:
Sautee the onions and peppers on medium until the onion is translucent, maybe 5 min.
Add celery and carrots. Cook til it turns a light golden color, about 10 min.
Add the tomatoes and bay leaves and bring to a boil
Lower heat to a simmer, add brown sugar, and cook for about 45 min, stirring occasionally.
Remove bay leaves. Remove 1/2 to 2/3 of the sauce from the pan and carefully puree it in the blender. The amount you puree depends on how chunky you want the sauce.
Stir pureed sauce back into pan.
Stir in parmesan cheese and basil.
Season w/salt and pepper if necessary

Here is how I made the butternut squash filling and the white cheese sauce.
Butternut Squash Filling

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash - sliced
10-12 green olives chopped
1 small onion chopped
handful walnuts chopped
1/2 tspoon cumin seed powder
salt
fresh black pepper powder
2 tbspoon oil

Method:

Heat the oven to 350 deg F and put the sliced butternut squash in for 40-45 min mixed with 1 tbspoon oilive oil and salt and pepper. When there is 4 min cooking time left, add in the walnuts to toast them.

Take it out, mash the butternut squash, chop the walnuts and set aside.

Heat the rest of 1 tbspoon oil and add in the chopped onions and saute for a couple of minutes. Add in the mashed butternut squash, and mix it together. Add the chopped olives, cumin seed powder, salt and pepper and let it cook together for a couple of minutes. Add in the walnuts and take it off the heat.
Let it cool before you add in as a filling.

White Cheese sauce

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup cheese (I used a combination of parmesan and white cheddar shredded)
1/4 tspoon basil powder
2 cloves garlic minced
salt to taste
1 tbspoon butter

Method:
In a deep pan, heat the butter and add the garlic and saute. Then add the cheese and milk and let it cook on low heat till the cheese dissolves. Add in the salt and basil powder and then let it thicken for 3-4 minutes. Take it off the heat.

Putting the raviolis together
Once the raviolis are ready, heat water with some oil and and salt. When the water is boiling add in the raviolis and let it cook for 12-13 minutes.

Then add the cooked raviolis to the sauce and serve immediately.

Nutella and Raspberry Jam Cake

2011-11-29T21:37:00.001-05:00

I had big plans for Aswin's birthday this year. We invited a few friends, I had my menu ready, shopping done and then Ameya fell ill. So we ended up cancelling the dinner plans but I decided to bake a cake instead continuing the tradition of last few years. For this year I chose to make a nutella and raspberry jam cake. I had frozen some raspberries from the summer which were perfect for the jam.

I wasn't sure how the combination would work. The cake turned out moist and delicious. I put some jam and some custard in the middle and topped it with some hazelnut chocolate. We had it with some sandwiches and it made for a perfect tea-time break. And Lil A enjoyed blowing on the candles!

Ingredients:

For Raspberry Jam:
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1 tspoon grated fresh ginger
1 tbspoon lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar

For the cake
2 cups flour, plus more for dusting pan
1 tspoon baking powder
1/4 tspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3large eggs
2 tspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup Nutella
3 tbspoon milk
1/2 bar of hazelnut chocolate

Method:

For Raspberry Jam:
Heat a small sauce pan and add frozen raspberries, ginger, lemon juice and sugar.
Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, until jam comes to a boil and thickens.
Set aside to cool.

For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 325° and grease a couple of cake pans.
In a small bowl, lightly mix the eggs and the vanilla and set it aside. Strain the flour with the baking powder and salt and keep it aside.

Now beat the butter and sugar till it's fluffy. Add in the egg mixture until it's fully incorporated. Then add the flour mixture in small batches, till it mixes to a nice batter.

Thin the nutella with the milk. I just microwaved it for 30 seconds a couple of times till it became a smooth mix.

In each pan, spread 1/4 of the batter and add in nutella and raspberry jam. Swirl it around with a fork. Then add another 1/4 of the cake batter with nutella and raspberry jam.

Bake the cake for 45-55 minutes till a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool for a couple of hours.

While the cake is cooling, make the custard (optional). Mine became a little runny and oozed out of the middle.

Assemble the cake with the remaining jam in the middle. For the topping melt the hazelnut chocolate with a couple of tablespoons of milk and spread it over the top.

Now cut a big slice and serve!

An Open Source Recipe - Tofu and Green Beans Rice

2011-11-22T17:34:00.000-05:00

To tell you about the name, I will have to tell you a story about introducing a friend and colleague to Indian food. She is our new webmaster at work and I took her to Suvai, an Indian restaurant for lunch. As we were walking in, she said she's not a fan of spicy food. I was in two minds about the buffet. Just then the manager came in and insisted that we taste the food "It's not spicy at all".

And I'm glad we did. The lunch was great and the couple of things that stuck out to her was the coconut rice and the beans poriyal. On the way back we started to talk, "How can we make a one pot meal with the combination?" she asked. And we started talking about all the things we can add to it to make it a one pot meal. So it was a collaborative effort. And the name is in her honor - open source.

It'll make an interesting twist to the green beans if you decide to take this to the Thanksgiving table.

And in the true open source fashion, go ahead and make this and create your own twist. Send me a link if you make this with your own flavor and I will add it to the main post.

Ingredients:

1 cup rice (I used brown rice)
1 cup chopped green beans
1/2 pack extra firm tofu
1/2 tspoon turmeric
1/2 tspoon red chilli powder
1/2 tspoon cumin seed powder
1/2 tspoon mustard seeds
1/4 cup coconut
1 red chilli
2 bay leaves
3-4 curry leaves

1/4 cup nuts (I used almonds, but really any one would work)
2-3 tbspoon oil
salt to taste

Method:

Here are the three main ingredients:

1. Boil the rice.

2. Cube the tofu and stir fry them in a tbspoon oil with 1/4 tspoon turmeric powder and 1/4 tspoon chilli powder.

3. In a saucepan, heat oil and temper it with mustard seeds, bay leaves, chilli and curry leaves. Then add the green beans, and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the grated coconut, cumin seeds powder, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and salt and cook till the green beans are tender.

In the same pan, add the rice and mix it well with the beans. Then add the Tofu and the nuts. Stir for 2-3 minutes till everything mixes well together.

Serve warm. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Another Thanjavur marathi recipe - Daangar

2011-11-10T18:00:00.000-05:00

It's not a dagger, it's daangar a tanjore marathi delicacy with a fierce name!
I had heard about it a few times, but never tasted it. This time when my MIL was visiting, I asked her to make some. It's simple and makes for a quick side dish to Tamarind rice, Ambat bhaji. We had ours with Tamarind Pohe (recipe coming). It is also had as a first course to a meal.

The photos are not the best, but I wanted to capture all the steps and get all the titbits that go along with making a recipe as she made it with a 11/2 year old tugging me saying "up" "up" all this time. He wanted to be a part of the conversation too.

The urad dal flour soaks the excess sourness of the buttermilk and makes it nice and creamy side dish. I think it would go well with parathas as well and intend to try the combination over the weekend.

Here is how to make it:

Ingredients:

2-3 tbspoon urad dal - you can get this readymade in Indian stores
1 cup buttermilk ( I used homemade yogurt and water)
4-5 curry leaves
1 red chilli
1/4 tspoon mustard seeds
1/4 tspoon cumin seeds
1/4 tspoon urad dal
pinch of asafoetida
salt to taste
1 tbspoon oil

Method:

Take the urad dal in a bowl and

add the buttermilk till you get a creamy smooth paste with no lumps.

In a separate pan, heat oil and temper it with asafoetida, red chilli, curry leaves, mustard and cumin seeds and urad dal.

Add it to the urad dal paste, add salt and mix it all together.

It's ready to be eaten!

Quick rosogollar payesh for diwali

2011-10-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

No sweets for diwali, No! That's what my brain was telling me all through the week. So I decided to make something and use a shortcut. I've heard about rosogollar payesh and have been wanting to try it. And I can get ready made rasgullas, that's half my work done.

I used one tin of rasgullas and the syrup to sweeten the milk. It took me a while to thicken the milk, about a couple of hours, but it was sitting in the back and I stirred it often and let it do its magic. I cooked the rasgullas for 5-10 min in the milk which gave it a nice creaminess. I threw in a good handful of almonds for crunchiness and that's it!

It's really simple, here's how to do it.

Ingredients:

1 tin rasgollas ( about 15-18)
about 5-6 cups of milk (I used 3 cups non fat and 2 and half cups of full fat)
about 2 cups of rasgolla syrup
good pinch of saffron
handful of slivered almonds

Method:

Take 5-6 tspoon of warm milk and soak the saffron. Heat the rest of the milk in a thick bottomed pan. Leave a spoon in the pan so that the milk doesn't spill over. Heat it on medium low and let it come to a boil.

After it has been boiling for an hour, add in the syrup, half of the saffron and let it cook to another hour. You want to end up with about 2-3 cups of milk.

Add the rasgollas, the rest of the saffron and almonds and let it cook for another 5 minutes on low.

Take it off the heat and chill before serving.

Happy Diwali! Have a bright and sparkling one.

You may also want to check out the e-book the the Indus Ladies published with 100 sweet recipes including one of mine.

For more rosogollar payesh see here and here.

Aloo Gobhi parathas

2011-10-18T17:58:00.000-04:00

The weather is changing, we're changing our wardrobe, putting things away from the summer. And in the midst of all this, I've lost my camera. There I've said it aloud! It's been a little more than a month, I kept thinking we've misplaced it somewhere, but I haven't found it. The possibilities of it being in a closet or a drawer is becoming slimmer and slimmer, unless Little A has a stash hiding in his special corner somewhere in the house!

I've resorted to taking pictures with my iPhone till I get a new camera, and all the pics for this post was taken by it. Not too bad, what do you think?

I made this aloo gobi paratha recently, and it turned out quite well. Little A had a special small one which he ate with raita. I'm going to try making more of these. What other vegetable can I use? Do tell.

So to make it easier, I boiled the potatoes and grated the cauliflower and mixed it together with the dough to help rolling out and it helped. I didn't use any extra water and the parathas were soft.

Ingredients:

2.5 cups Whole wheat flour

2-3 medium potatoes - boiled

1/2 caulifower grated (run in it the mixer once)

1/2 tspoon coriander powder

1/2 tspoon cumin powder

1/2 tspoon red chilli powder

1 tspoon salt (adjust as needed)

10 tbspoon oil

pinch of freshly ground pepper

Method:

Boil the potatoes and mix it well with the grated cauliflower, coriander and cumin powder and the pepper.

Take the dough, add the salt, chilli powder, a tspoon of oil and mix it with the potato and cauliflower mix. You can do it the other way too, putting the filling in the middle and rolling it out. But mixing it together is easier and helps me in rolling out the parathas. Keep it aside for about 30 minutes or so.

Divide the dough in equal parts and then make balls. Roll out the in circular parathas, use some flour dusting if it sticks, but not too much.

Heat a hot griddle or pan, cook both sides, put a tspoon of oil and cook till the brown spots appear.

Serve hot with raita, pickle or sugar :)

Making saffron sandesh on my own

2011-10-12T05:30:00.000-04:00

Shubho Bijoya everyone. How was your dusshera/Navratri/Durga Pujo. Here is a picture from the pujo we went to over the weekend.

For the pujo prasad, I made some saffron sandesh. The last time I made sandesh was for diwali 3 years ago. My mom was here, and I had plenty of help. This time, I was on my own.

I made chana (cheese) at home by boiling milk and curdling it with lime juice. I hung it in cheese cloth in two batches. And here is what happened. One batch came out well - the chana was smooth. The other one retained a little bit water (I didn't know that at the time), so the sandesh from that batch had small grains (you can see it in the images). The tip I got from my mom - put something heavy on the chana like a pan filled with water. This will help dehydrate the chana completely. I am going to try it next time.

The sandesh tasted great. Everyone including Little A and his little friend at the pujo loved it. After the first one, Little A's friend came up to me and asked for another sweet. I offered her an alternative. "Do you want some strawberries?," I asked. "Does it have sugar in it?," she asked back. "No," I said. "Then I'll just have another sweet," she said and walked away with another sandesh.

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:
2 cups chana (cheese)
1 1/2 cups sugar
good pinch of saffron
5-6 tbspoons warm milk
few roasted almond slivers for decoration

Method:

Soak the saffron in the milk and keep it aside. Mix the chana and the sugar really well taking care that there is no lumps. Once it's mixed well, transfer it to a deep botton pan on low medium heat and keep stirring it.
It will loose water first and then start binding together. Keep stirring till it begins to stick together almost like a dough.
Take it off the heat, mix the safrron milk and put it in the processor to make it smooth.
Make small balls, flatten them and put a sliver of almond in the middle.

Serve fresh.

And this is going to Susan's Black and White Wednesdays. Thanks Suasan!

Durga Pujo and Potoler Dolma

2011-09-28T18:12:00.003-04:00

It's Durga Pujo time and I am feeling nostalgic. About people, about food, about the adda and more. So I made something special - Potoler Dolma. Potol is pointed gourd and is available during the summer. I didn't like Potol growing up and would crib about it whenever my mother made it. But times change, and now I go searching for it in Indian stores in the US.

Imagine my surprise when I found some fresh ones in the Indian store in Ann Arbor. I scooped it up and brought the coveted vegetable home and called my parents hoping to get thakuma's (paternal grandmother) recipe. But long conversation ensued and we kept talking about what actually went in her recipe. I remembered it differently than my father and my brother. Well, that's what memories are all about!

We finally came to an agreement and I got my ingredients together to make it.

Now Potoler Dolma is a quintessential Bengali recipe in my mind. Imagine my surprise when I find out that Dolma is not really Bengali, it's originally Portuguese and has been Bengalified with Potol. :)

You can make the dolma filling any way, there are hundreds (ok slight exaggerations here) of mixes with prawns or scraped coconut mix or dry fruits or minced meat or boneless fish or vegetables like mushrooms or mashed potatoes and paneer. I decided to do it vegetarian and simple, like my grandmother usually made.

It is a time consuming process and took me good couple of hours to finish it. But it was totally worth it. What better way to celebrate the pujo than with a good meal that takes you back to your childhood!

Ingredients:
8-10 Potol (pointed gourd)
1/2 cup scraped Coconut
1 1/2 tspoon Mustard seeds
5-6 almonds
1 tspoon Ginger paste
1/2 tsp Cumin powder
1/2 tsp Red chili powder
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
1 tspoon roasted and ground cumin seeds
1 tspoon coriander powder
1 or 2 Bay leaves
3-4 Cardamoms
1 stick cinnamon
1 tomato - chopped
3-4 tbspoon oil
1/4 tspoon sugar
Salt to taste
3/4 cup water

Method:
There are few steps which I have tried to divide to make it easier:

Scooping and cleaning the potols: Wash the pointed gourd and scrape the skin alternately. Then cut one end of the potol and start scooping out the seeds and flesh with your finger or with the help of a spoon. Sprinkle little salt and leave for few minutes.

Don't throw the seeds and the flesh, it goes back in the stuffing!

Heat 1 tbspoon oil and fry the Potol till they start to brown and then set them aside.

Making the stuffing: Meanwhile heat some oil in a pan add the mustard seeds. Then add the almonds, coconut and the flesh and seeds that you scooped out. Saute till the coconut slightly changes its color to light brown. Then add salt and sugar, cumin seed powder and 1/4 tspoon red chilli powder, fry them for another couple of minutes. Add 1-2 tspoon water to mix it together. Take it out from the pan and cool it to room temperature. Put it in a grinder and mix it together so the mustard seeds, the potol seeds and the almonds are ground to a smooth mix.

Filling the Potol: Once the filling has cooled, take the potol and stuff it with the mix.

The final putting it together: Heat the rest of the oil in a saucepan and temper it with bay leaves and cardamoms and cinnamon. Add the ginger paste and tomato and saute for a minute. Then add the roasted cumin seed powder, red chilli powder, turmeric and coriander powder. If you have any filling left, add it to the curry now. Add water and adjust for salt. Once it comes to a boil, add the stuffed potols in it and simmer on low heat for 8-9 min till the potol is completely cooked.

Serve the potoler dolma or dorma with plain white rice.

I found a great video about stuffing the potols on YouTube. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCz3gcWsKFQ

Have a wonderful pujo everyone!

Chicken Tikka Masala and a Playdate

2011-09-20T17:00:00.000-04:00

(photo courtesy of: Nicole)

I recently had a playdate for Little A with Little N, a friend and colleague's daughter who's two. Actually, let me correct that. It was a get together, cooking session and a playdate for the mammas :) We got together at Nicole's house early sans kids, popped open a wine bottle and cooked some chicken tikka masala, rice, salad and cookies before the kids came over. I didn't put any chilli powder as the little ones were going to be eating. They were served the chicken tikka masala and rice. Little A stared at it for a few minutes and then ate his apples. Little N on the other hand, ate a few helpings of it and declared "I love Indian food." What can I say? You're got to try this now. :)

I have been cooking this chicken tikka masala for a few months now and it I think it's finally ready to be shared. It doesn't have the cream and I stir in some yogurt as and when the mood strikes me. And thanks to Nicole, I have lovely pictures of the process too!

We have plans for the next play date and a ravioli making session. Stay tuned!

Ingredients:
1 four lbs chicken chopped

To marinate: ( I marinated the chicken for a couple of hours)
2/3 cup yogurt
1 tbspoon paprika
1 tspoon garam masala
1 tbspoon olive oil
1/4 tspoon fresh ground pepper
salt to taste

For curry:
1 big onion
2-3 tbspoons tomato paste
2 tspoons ginger garlic paste (I do a big batch and keep it for the week)
1 tspoon cumin seeds
2 green chillies (don't slit it)
3-4 cardamoms
1 stick cinnamon
2-3 cloves
2 bay leaves
1 tspoon turmeric powder
1 tspoon cumin seed powder
1 tspoon coriander seed powder
1/2 tspoon garam masala powder
2 tbspoon oil
salt to taste

Method:
Set the over to broil. Put the chicken on a cookie sheet with foil, put some olive oil on top and cook for 11-12 minutes. Then turn the chickens and cook the other side for 4-5 minutes. Set it aside.

(photo courtesy of: Nicole)

Heat some oil in a pan, and temper it with some cumin seeds, green chillies. Quickly add the bay leaves, cardamoms, cinnamon and cloves. Then add in the ginger garlic paste. Stir it for a minute.

(photo courtesy of: Nicole)

Then add in the chopped onion and let it saute on low medium heat for 3-4 minute with stirring every minute or so till the onions are soft and translucent. Then add in the tomato paste. Cook for another minute.

(photo courtesy of: Nicole)

Then add the turmeric, cumin seed powder, coriander powder, and garam masala and let it cook and mix well together. Put the chicken in (with all the juice and all) in the pan and stir it all well together. Add about a cup and half of water, salt and let it cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes.

(photo courtesy of: Nicole)

Add about 2 tbspoon of nicely whisked yogurt if you want it creamier. Garnish with chopped cilantro (optional) and serve hot with rice and naan.

Chickpea and Chard curry

2011-08-31T11:14:00.001-04:00

We recently got a big bunch of chard from our friends (thanks S, N and little V!). I wanted to make something special with it, so I set it aside and then promptly forgot about it. Last week, when I was scrambling for dinner, I opened the fridge, and there sat the chard, slightly wilted, but waiting patiently.

I gave a big sigh of relief, and used the fresh chard with chickpeas (which I happened to have in the pantry) for delicious curry which we had with chapatis. We gave a little bit to Little A, who played with it, but refused to eat it. His new favorite is plain rice mixed with some ghee. I put it in a plate or bowl in front of him. He exclaims "bhaat, bhaat" and will eat it either with spoon or hands.

Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas (you can also soak dried chickpeas)
1 bunch chard - chopped
1 large onion - chopped thin
1 tspoon grated ginger
1/2 tspoon garlic
2 medium tomatoes
1 tspoon cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
2 green chillies
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tspoon coriander powder
1/2 tspoon cumin powder
1/2 tspoon ghee (butter)
2 tbspoon oil
salt to taste

Method:
Heat oil in a deep saucepan and temper it with cumin seeds, bay leaves and green chillies. Then add the ginger, garlic and the onions. Saute it for 2-3 minutes. Add the chard and let it cook for 3-4 minutes.

Now add the tomatoes, turmeric powder, cumin and coriander powder and let it cook for another 2-3 minutes till the tomatoes turn soft. Drain and wash the chickpea and mash some roughly with your hands.

Add the chickpeas, 1/2 cup water and salt. Let it cook on medium heat (closed lid) for another 4-5 minutes till it all mixes well together. Add ghee and take it off the heat.

Serve warm with chappatis, rotis or rice.

I am sending this to MLLA- 38 hosted by Preeti @ W'rite' food. The event was started by Susan "The Well-Seasoned Cook".

Zucchini dosa rocks!

2011-08-17T08:00:00.002-04:00

The day I saw the recipe for zucchini dosa on Nupur's blog I got some fresh zucchini's from a colleague's garden. So I was all excited about trying it at home in the evening. Of course, I didn't have all the ingredients, so I improvised and made it quickly for dinner. It was a hit among adults and babies alike. Little A loved it! He ate almost one dosa for dinner and since we are in the process of getting him to eat more by himself, we were thrilled. Thank you Nupur! We've already made it a few times and it comes out great every time.

I followed most of what Nupur said, but I added some mint, no chillies and a little bit pepper and coriander powder instead. I also ended up adding about 1/4 cup water. Now I am a big fan of trying new things with zucchini. Recently, someone told me that they make zucchini brownies. That's what I am trying the next time I get a big batch of zucchinis.

In other news, I am excited about my kitchen garden. We have been getting tomatoes and chillies for little over a month now. The zucchinis are blossoming and the cabbage and broccoli are beginning to form. We had a nice harvest of tomatoes this week, here's a picture.

And here is how I made the zucchini dosas.

Ingredients:
(recipe courtesy Nupur of One Hot Stove)

2 cup zucchinis - shredded
About 4-5 tbspoon rice flour
About 4-5 tbspoon chickpea flour
pinch of fresh ground pepper
1/4 tspoon coriander powder
pinch of turmeric
1/4 onion -grated
big bunch of mint - chopped finely
salt to taste

(I can never get a decent round)

Method:
Add salt to the zucchini and set it aside for 10-15 minutes. Then add the rest of the ingredients and make it into a batter. Add a little bit water if needed to make it into a pancake batter like consistency.

Heat a pan and spoon a ladle and let it cook on low to medium heat. Turn over to cook the other side till brown dots appear.

Serve warm with chutney, or pachadi. We had ours with Beetroot pachadi.

I am also excited to send the Black and White image to Susan at The Well Seasoned Cook for Black and White Wednesdays. A great idea Susan.

Vacation, Vacation..

2011-08-03T15:52:00.004-04:00

Last month we went to London and Scotland for a week-long vacation. Aswin had a conference and we all tagged along and joined in the fun. I've never been to London so I was quite excited, but also a little worried. This was little A's first outing and I didn't know how he was going to do. But I needn't have worried. He had a blast roaming the aquarium, running around in the park and playing with his (ahem, Aswin's) iPad. He also got along famously with our friends and would spend an hour every morning watching planes go by with "bua".

One of the highlight of the trip was the high tea we were invited to by another friend. It was an amazing spread. There were sandwiches, scones, crumpets, pastries, everything I had read in Enid Blyton books growing up.

The tea stretched over 3 hours and by the time we left, we couldn't stop talking about all the goodies we couldn't taste.

All the Indian food we tasted was amazing. We had great kerala food from a small restaurant called Raagam. And on the last day, we went for afternoon chai to "Dishoom" in Covent Garden,

we enjoyed with kebabs and pav bhaaji.

The resort in Scotland was breathtakingly beautiful. We joke that Little A played in probably one of the most beautiful playground. While Aswin was busy, Little A and I roamed around and discovered a beautiful garden.

He also insisted on pushing his own stroller, but we had all the time in the world to walk in the garden
and throw stones in the puddles.

Even the snack offered on the flight piqued my interest. Now masala papad, I can eat that on any flight!

I also spoke to Sunita. We couldn't meet, but made plans for the next time.

The one week went by quickly, we are now back to our routine. Before I sign off, a big thank you to our gracious hosts. We had so a lot of fun and I am secretly making plans to visit the city again.

Gooseberry Thokku

2011-07-27T09:40:00.004-04:00

I found some fresh gooseberry at our Farmer's Market recently and I was so excited. I quickly bought a bunch and went in search of my mother-in-law who was chasing Little A through the market.

So this is how our farmer's market outings look like. We arrive at the market with Little A sitting quietly in his stroller, waving hellos and blowing kisses to strangers. And as soon as we start walking around, he starts insisting loudly that we let him out of the stroller.

After a few minutes of this, we usually do and then spend the rest of the time taking turns chasing him as he threatens to put crafted earrings with zucchini flower or tries to follow the divider.

At some point, we decide it's enough exercise for all of us and head back. This time, I had this bunch of gooseberry. My MIL made this delicious thokku out of this bunch. What else can we make?

Ingredients:
bunch of gooseberry
2 tbspoon jaggery
salt to taste
2 tbspoon oil
Dry fry and powder
1 red chillie (you can use more for your taste)
1/2 tspoon fenugreek seeds
pinch of asafoetida
1/2 tspoon mustard seeds
For tempering
1/2 tspoon mustard seeds
1/2 tspoon urad dal
3-4 curry leaves

Method
Grate the gooseberry in a mixer in a and keep it side.

In a pan, heat half of the oil and add the gooseberry pulp. Let it cook on low heat and covered for 2-3 minutes. Then add the dry fried spices, jaggery and salt and let it cook for another 5-6 minutes till the water disappears and the mixture starts to get thick.

In a separate pan, heat the rest of the oil and temper it with mustard seeds, curry leaves and urad dal. Add that to the thokku and take it off the heat. Stir well.

You can serve it with a variety of things. It makes a good spread for sandwiches, a good side for Pesaratt, or just to jazz up plain dal and rice.

Chanar Dalna (Matar Paneer)

2011-07-19T21:54:00.004-04:00

Chanar Dalna is probably a staple in most Bengali households. It was also the most common niramish (vegetarian) food served if we had guests coming over who were vegetarian. If there was no murgir jhol or macher kalia, the next thing my dad would say, "chanar dalna banai?"

Trying to replicate my mom's recipe without talking to her is never easy. I always feel that I didn't get it right and when I do end up talking I find our that there was indeed an ingredient missing. So this was a big surprise because I felt that this was quite close to her recipe.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs paneer, cut into cubes
2 -3 potatoes cut in cubes
2/3 cup green peas
2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 tspoon grated fresh ginger
2 green chillies
1 tbspoon cumin and coriander powder
2-3 green cardamoms
1 stick cinnamon
2 bay leaves
1 tspoon cumin seeds
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
4-5 tbspoon oil
1/4 tspoon sugar
Salt to taste
bunch of cilantro for garnishing

Method:
Heat all but 1 tbspoon oil and put in the paneer pieces and saute them till they start to turn brown. Then put them in salted warm water. In the same oil, add the potatoes next and saute them lightly. Keep them aside.

Add the rest of the oil and temper it with cumin seeds, bay leaves, green chillies. Then add the cardamom and cinnamon. After a minute add the ginger and the tomatoes. Once the tomatoes start to turn squishy, add the turmeric powder, cumin and coriander powder and the peas. Let it cook together for a couple of minutes.

Add in the potatoes, and salt and 3/4 cup of water. Let it cook together for 4-5 minutes. Then add in the paneer cubes and cook it for another 3-4 minutes till the potatoes and peas are cooked.

Garnish with cilantro and serve warm with rice.

Family advice and lauki kofta

2011-07-08T15:44:00.004-04:00

My phone conversations with my parents revolve around Little A. "How is he eating?" "Has he gained weight?" "What are his new words?" and so on. You get the idea. During these conversations, they also tell me things I should make that he might like. Some thing I try and some just slip by. Lauki kofta is one of them. They have been telling me to try this recipe for months now. But for some reason, I kept postponing it.

Then last week, I was bored with my lauki tarkari. So what did I do? I called my parents immediately and asked for the recipe. They gave me detailed instructions and also said that Little A might like it as well . I made it quickly and we had it for lunch. It was fantastic. This time Little A didn't care for it much, but I going to try it again and give him the koftas. What do you think? What else do your kids like?

Ingredients:
1 medium bottlegourd - enough for 8-10 koftas
2 tbspoon besan
1 tspoon coriander powder
1 tspoon cumin seeds powder
1/4 tspoon red chilli powder
1 tspoon grated ginger
1 medium onion - grated
1 1/2 tomatoes - pulp
2 green chillies
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
5-6 tbspoon oil
1 tspoon cumin seeds
1-2 bay leaves
1/2 tspoon ghee
cilantro - chopped
Salt to taste

Method:
Grate the lauki (bottlegourd) and use your hands to squeeze out all the water. Then mix in the besan, 1/2 tspoon coriander, and cumin powder, 1/4 tspoon turmeric powder and red chilli powder and salt. Mix it well with your hands. Then make small balls using about 1 1/2 tbspoon of the lauki mix. You should get about 8 koftas.

I didn't deep fry it, but shallow fry in a deep pan on low heat till they brown nicely. Take them and keep them in the bowl you would like to serve.

Then in a sauce pan, add 1 tbspoon oil and temper it with cumin seeds, green chillies, and bay leaves. Add the grated ginger, saute for a minute and then add in the onion and tomatoes. Add in the rest of the coriander and cumin powder, turmeric and salt, about 3/4 cup of water and let it all cook together for 6-8 minutes on medium heat till it all mixes and comes together as a gravy.

Pour it hot on top of the koftas and garnish it with cilantro. Serve warm with hot rice.

Mango Rice and 5 years of blogging

2011-06-28T12:05:00.007-04:00

My blog turned five! Yes, it's true, I am pinching myself as well because it doesn't feel like it. Well, maybe because the last couple of years have been more sporadic partly because of this little guy who keeps us on our toes. :)

(running towards me to grab the camera)

I have learned so much in the five years. Here's my take of the last 5 years.
1. Experimentation - I've experimented with new cuisines, sometimes only once. I looked through my blog and there are many different recipes I made for an event, but never made them again.
2. New Ingredients - Not only new cuisines, we have adapted new ingredients which are now part of our regular diet. Quinoa, for example, is one of them.
3. Simplicity - One pot meals have been my favorite. And now as Little A tries new things, it's more important than ever.
4. Taking it easy - this was not an easy lesson, but I have learned how to take it easy when I need to. This blog gives me a lot of joy and I intend to keep blogging without stressing too much.
5. Last, but the most important are all of you, who come here even when I am slacking and encourage me. I have made friends, exchanged pictures, and now talk about babies and more with other food bloggers. So friends Thank You!

I started the blog thinking about mangoes, so here is a mango recipe to celebrate the milestone. This is my MIL's mango rice recipe. When she mentioned it, I salivated, almost. I have heard about it so much, I really wanted to try it. Now I know why it's a big hit with everyone.

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked white rice (it shouldn't be mushy)
1 cup raw green mango (grated)
handful of cashews (roasted)
salt to taste

For tempering:
2 tbspoon oil
3/4 tspoon mustard seeds
1 tspoon chana dal/urad dal
2-3 dry red chillies
pinch of asafoetida
5-6 curry leaves - torn
1/2 tspoon grated ginger

Method:
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed vessel and add the mustard seeds. Once they pop, add the chana/urad dal. Then add the red chillis, grated ginger, curry leaves, ginger, and asafoetida. Saute for a minute. Then add the grated mango and cook it for a few minutes Add a few drops of water if needed. Add the roasted cashewnuts, turn off heat and keep aside.

Once it cools a little bit, add the rice and adjust salt to taste.

Serve hot with raita.

Methi Chicken curry

2011-06-08T14:44:00.003-04:00

We went to our Indian store a couple of months ago and saw a notice "fresh vegetables on Tuesday". Of course, I planned on going to the store every Tuesday but it never happened. When I finally did, I found some fresh okra and a good bunch of methi. For some reason, I had methi chicken curry in mind and proceeded to make it.

Whoever said methi and chicken are made for each other, I completely agree with you. The flavors went really well together and I couldn't help dipping my fingers in the curry and tasting the deliciousness several times. We had it with chapati and the leftovers with rice the next day.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs chicken
1 1/2 cups fresh methi leaves - chopped
2 tbspoon ginger garlic paste
1 big onion thinly sliced
1 big tomato
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tspoon chilli powder
1 tspoon cumin seeds
2 green chillies
1/2 cup yogurt
4-5 tbspoon oil
Salt to taste

Spices to grind:
2-3 cloves
1" cinnamon
1/4 tspoon methi seeds
1/2 tspoon coriander seeds
1/2 tspoon cumin seeds

Method:
Mix the yogurt and 1 tbspoon ginger garlic paste long with chilli powder and smear it on the chicken. Keep is aside.

Now heat the oil and temper with cumin seeds and green chillies. Then add the ginger garlic paste, and then the onions immediately after. Saute it till the onions start to brown.

Add in the tomatoes, the spice mixture and the turmeric powder. Saute it together till the tomatoes become mushy.

Now add in the chicken pieces and let it all cook together on medium low heat with closed lid. The yogurt will release water. After it starts to dry, add in 1/2 cup water if needed.

When the chicken is about 3/4 done, add in the methi leaves and cook it till you get a nice thick gravy.

Serve warm with rice, chapatis or parathas.

Baked sweet Potato fries

2011-05-25T11:03:00.003-04:00

I started making this as a side dish to go with chappati and rajma, but they came out so well that they ended up becoming the star of the dinner. Once it was done, we made some fresh guacamole and had it as wraps. I started with just sweet potatoes, but mixed in some plain potatoes to highlight the savory taste. I finished the last of the sweet potatoes and am now looking forward to spring vegetables.

The farmer's market had rainbow chard this weekend, and a lot of vegetable plants. I bought some tomato and pepper plants, but have not been able to plant them yet. I am hoping to get to it this weekend. What are you planting?

Ingredients:
1 1/2 sweet potatoes
2-3 medium yukon gold potatoes
1/4 tspoon red chilli powder
1/4 tspoon turmeric powder
1/4 tspoon fresh black pepper powder
1/4 tspoon cumin seeds powder
3/4 - 1 tspoon salt (adjust according to taste)
1 1/2 tbspoon olive oil

Method:
Preheat the oven to 400deg F. Chop them in cubes. You can even slice them longer.
Mix all the spices with the potatoes and sweet potatoes. Put it on a tray and cook it for 12 min. Then stir it around and cook it for another 8-9 minutes till it's cooked.

You can serve it as a side dish, or even make wraps, sandwiches.

Here is a pic of our dinner plate.

Eggless Omelet

2011-05-17T21:54:00.004-04:00

This was going to be my Mother's Day post, but then Ameya fell ill and everything got pushed to the back burner. Things are better now, we all seem to be emerging from a fog of nasty colds, coughs, and ear infections.

Just when we were drowning in tissue papers and cough syrups, this brightened our day. This was perfect for that sunny afternoon when we relaxed, drank some hot tea and coffee and sat a little longer with our plates, chatting and catching up, while Ameya ran around babbling and laughing.

We first saw a version of this on a TV show. It got our attention with the eggless omelet bit. I didn't note it down, so we modified it to our tastes.The base crepe is made with chickpea flour and the filling is made with sprouts, onions, tomato and cilantro. It will brighten any morning.

Ingredients:
For filling:
1 cup sprouts
1 medium tomato - chopped
1 small onion - chopped
1 small bunch cilantro - chopped
1 tbspoon lemon juice
salt
freshly ground pepper

For crepes:
1 cup chickpea flour
1 green chilli
1/4 tspoon ajwain
1/4 tspoon cumin seeds
pinch of salt
1 cup water (additional 1/2 cup if needed)
1 tbspoon oil

Method:
Mix the filling and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.

In a separate bowl, mix the chickpea flour, spices and water till the batter is crepe or dosa consistency.

Heat a pan and pour the flour for a big round crepe. Turn it over in a minute when the brown spots appear.

Pour a few drops of oil on the outside and put the filling on the inside. Once the outside becomes golden brown, fold it over and take it off the heat.

Serve warm with some ketchup or even mint chutney.

I am sending this to Srivalli who is celebrating her 4th blog birthday!

Spring fix- asparagus, mushrooms & onions

2011-04-29T15:45:00.003-04:00

You know one sure sign of spring is when asparagus starts showing up in farmer's market and vegetable aisles. One of my friends told me a few years ago that asparagus is at it's best when had during spring than at any other time of the year. So when I saw them at the store a week ago, I hurriedly bought a bunch.

At the checkout, our friendly cashier casually mentioned that he has bought 5 bunches and plans to each a bunch every day.

I made a quick stir-fry with the asparagus, mushrooms and onions tossing it with some soy-sauce, sriracha, lemon infused olive oil and some cumin seeds. It tasted delicious and reminded us that spring is not that far :)

Here is how I made it:
Ingredients:
1 bunch asparagus
10-12 cremini or white button mushrooms
1 medium onion
1 tspoon cumin seeds
2 tbspoon soy sauce
1/3 tspoon sriracha (you can increase or decrease it depending on your spice level)
1 tbspoon olive oil
1/2 tspoon cumin seed powder
salt to taste

Method:
Cut asparagus, and mushrooms and slice the onions thinly. Heat oil and temper it with cumin seeds. Then add the onions and let it saute for a couple of minutes. Then add the mushrooms and asparagus and mix it well together. Add the soy sauce, sriracha and the cumin seed powder, salt and let it cook on medium heat with closed lid.

Cook for 10-12 minutes till cooked. Serve hot as a side with pulao, quinoa or even paratha.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

2011-04-19T15:42:00.004-04:00

It was the middle of winter. There were long stretches of gray days and it was at that time, whenever I would log into my Facebook account I would see an add for Sweet Potato Biscuits at PBS Parents. Usually, I would ignore such ads, but after seeing it for the 10th time, I broke down and decided to give it a try.

As soon as I reached home, I got my ingredients together and put it in the oven. We had biscuits for dinner, but they were pretty delicious. I am keeping this recipe and also looking out for more such ads on my Facebook page.

Have you ever given in to such cravings?

Here is the recipe:
(recipe courtesy: PBS Parents)

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour 
1 tbspoon baking powder 
1 tspoon salt 
1 cup mashed sweet potato (from 1 – 2 cooked sweet potatoes. I baked my sweet potatoes) 
2 tbspoon firmly packed brown sugar 
1/2 cup butter flavor Crisco (I just used unsalted butter),
1/2 tspoon baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk ( I didn't have any, so I used 5-6 tbspoons yogurt and mixed it well with water)

Method:
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Then combine the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

Mix the cooked and mashed sweet potato with sugar, and butter. I didn't have a mixer, so I just mixed it by hand until it blended well.

Add the baking soda in buttermilk. Then add the buttermilk and sweet potato mixture alternately into dry ingredients until they are just combined.

I cooled my dough in the fridge for about 30 min. Then roll dough ½ inch thick on floured counter. And then cut small rounds in that. I used a juice glass for it.

Put it on ungreased baking sheet and bake for 15 – 20 minutes. Serve warm.

We had ours with some shredded chicken and salad.

Beetroot pachadi (beetroot chutney)

2011-04-06T16:43:00.008-04:00

I first had this when my friend Swati visited us last year. She was coming to see one month-old Ameya and brought a big box of beetroot chutney with her. I tasted it tentatively, but the sweet and sour taste of the pachadi drew me in and I took a big heap of it immediately. We had it with lunch and dinner till it was all gone.

She gave us the recipe, I couldn't remember it, but Aswin did. So I made him make a big batch... and then again. Over the past few months, he forgot the exact measures. So I wrote to Swati again, got the recipe and here it is:

Ingredients:
(recipe courtesy: Swati B)
2-3 beets
2-3 cloves garlic
2-3 green chillies
pinch of turmeric powder
1 tspoon tamarind paste
big bunch of cilantro
for tadka
1/2 tspoon mustard seeds
1/2 tspoon cumin seeds
pinch of asafoetida
1-2 red chillies
3-4 curry leaves

Method:
Grate the beets and fry with 2-3 cloves of garlic, 2-3 green chillies, pinch of turmeric powder. It has to be nicely fried.

Grind up the mixture with cilantro - a big bunch - salt and tamarind.

Then do the tadka, put it on top of the beets mixture and enjoy.

This works great plain or as a side too.

Guacamole Chicken

2011-03-30T13:53:00.003-04:00

I am back from a long India trip. I was visiting India the last few weeks, but feels like I left yesterday. Now that I am back, I am thinking of all the things I didn't do, all the friends I didn't call. But I did attend a wedding, played holi after many years, spend time with my extended family, attended functions, but above all watched little A take his first steps while visiting my family!

Now it's trying to get over the jet lag, get back to routine and looking out for the first signs of spring.

Before I left, I saw this recipe on Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. I don't know the name of the recipe, but I made up my own name - guacamole chicken. I mixed in some sweet potatoes, made some other changes and tried it right after I saw it and we both loved it. It was delicious and I am thinking of trying it again.

Here is the modified recipe.
(original recipe: Food Network)

Ingredients:
1 sweet potato
2-3 pieces of chicken
1 1/2 ripe avacados
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 onion - sliced thinly
1/2 tspoon pepper
1/4 tspoon chilli powder
1/2 tspoon cumin seed powder
salt to taste
1 tbspoon oil

Method:
Chop the sweet potatoes and chicken with salt, pepper, chilli powder, cumin seeds and oil and bake it on 350deg C till it is cooked.
Slice the onions thinly, and chop the avacados in small cubes. Now comes the best part.

Mix it all together with your hands. Add in the Worcestershire sauce and mix it all together once more.

Now heat some tortillas, fill in the guacamole chicken and make a nice wrap. We enjoyed ours with a light salad.

On another note, I have been getting a lot of spam comments. Any ideas of how I can minimize them?

Chocolate and Banana Birthday Cake

2011-02-23T10:17:00.003-05:00

(Photo courtesy: Venky Rao)

My son turned one last month. I decided to bake a birthday cake for him. It took me a while to think of what to make. I wanted to include chocolate and something blue in it as he seemed to like those two elements. But I didn't want it to be overly chocolatey either.

After looking around, I decided on one chocolate layer, one banana cake layer; all covered in blueberry cake frosting. The number one on top was made with dried blueberries. Little A took a couple of swipes of the frosting, and maybe a spoon of the cake. But the rest of us enjoyed big pieces after we sang "Happy Birthday" :)

For the chocolate cake I got the recipe from Chocolate and Zucchini. All her cake recipes, that I have tried so far, have turned out great. And this one was no different. It almost had a brownie texture and was a hit with the adults. Everyone, including me, was oohhing over the richness of the cake.

For the banana cake, I dug in my archives and came up with this recipe. And this was a favorite of the kids.

Here are the recipes:

Chocolate Cake
(courtesy Chocolate and Zucchini)

Ingredients:
2 sticks minus 1 Tbsp butter
7 oz dark chocolate (I used 54 %)
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
a rounded tablespoon of flour

C&Z recommends that you make it a day in advance. But I ended up making it the day of, and it was moist and delicious.

Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 350°F. Butter the pan and set it aside.

Melt together the butter with the chocolate. I did it in a microwave heating it for 30-45 sec and then stirring it. I cooked it for 5-6 minutes. After it's all melted, transfer into a medium mixing-bowl. Add in the sugar, stir with a wooden spoon and let cool a little. Add in the eggs one by one, mixing well after each addition. Finally, add in the flour and mix well.

Pour the dough into the pan, and put into the oven to bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the center is set but still a little wobbly. Let it rest in the warm (switched off oven) for another hour. Then, put the pan on a cooling rack on the counter to cool completely.

Banana Cake

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tspoon baking soda
1 tspoon baking powder
1/2 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature.
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 tbspoon sour cream
1/2 cup milk

Method:
Preheat the oven to 50 F.

In a large bowl mix the flour, baking soda and baking powder. In another bowl, whisk together the egg and the butter together. When they mix well and is fluffy add the sour cream and the milk. Whisk well.

Then add sugar slowly to the mix. When it all mixes well, add in the bananas. Add flour to this mix slowly stirring well. I don't have a food processor, so I used a egg whisk and a fork alternately.

Pour batter in the bundt pan bake for 40 to 45 minutes or till the toothpick comes out clean.

Whipped cream topping

Take heavy whipping cream and add in two tspoons of sugar. Whip till soft peaks form. Then add in 1 cup fresh blueberries puree. Mix well.

I put the chocolate layer in the bottom and banana on the top and layered it with blueberry whipping cream. Yummy!

Phulkopi aar aloo dalna

2011-02-21T09:10:00.001-05:00

It's grey outside and has been snowing for the last couple of hours straight. Just when we thought there was spring in the air (temp above freezing for one whole week!), the snow storm warning comes back on. In this gloomy weather, I needed some cheering up. I decided upon this cauliflower and potato curry which my dad made when he was visiting.

After he made this, I asked him to write the recipe which he did and then shared it with me on Google docs. He was quite thrilled that he could share documents with me without e-mailing them. I am hoping that he will have more recipes to share soon.

It provided the perfect warmth in this otherwise snowy, cold day.

Ingredients:
2 medium potatoes - cubed
1 small cauliflower - cut in small florets
4 green chilies - slit in half
1" ginger - grated
1 small onion - chopped
I tomato - chopped in small pieces
1/2 tspoon cumin powder
1/4 tspoon asafoetida powder
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
1 tspoon coriander powder
1 tspoon cumin powder
1/4 tspoon garam masala powder
1 cup water
2-3 tbspoon oil
Salt to taste

Method:
Microwave potato and cauliflower adding salt and turmeric powder for 2 minutes.This will reduce your cooking time.

In a non-sitck frying pan add oil to fry potato first and then cauliflower. Temper the rest of the oil with cumin seeds and green chillies. Then add asafoetida powder and ginger and onions.

Next add the tomato, turmeric powder, cumin and coriander powder along with potatoes and cauliflower pieces and saute it on medium heat for 4-5 minutes.

Add water and salt to taste. Boil the curry for 8-10 minutes on medium heat closed lid till they are fully cooked.

Add garam masala, let it cook for another minute and take it off the heat.

Serve warm with rice or rotis. Now doesn't that look like sunshine in a bowl?

Murgh Tamatar (Tomato chicken curry)

2011-01-10T21:53:00.004-05:00

Aswin made this chicken curry a few months ago and it came out delicious. Since he is too busy to post, I took matters out of his hand and decided to blog. He first made this curry in summer, when I had taken little A for a walk. And when I came back this curry was simmering in the pot, and there were naans in the oven. We had it with some light salad that evening. It was tangy, and spicy without being hot. Since then we've made it a few times and it comes out well every time we make it.

Ingredients:
2-3 lbs chicken
1 tspoon fresh grated ginger
1 tspoon garlic paste
1 1/2 medium onion - chopped
1 can tomato
2-3 green chillies
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
1 tspoon coriander powder
1 tspoon garam masala powder (for this roast cardamon, cinnamon and cloves together on dry heat and grind)
1 tspoon cumin seeds
2-3 tbspoons oil
salt to taste
small cilantro bunch - chopped for garnishing

Method:
Marinate the chicken with half of the ginger, garlic, coriander powder and salt and leave it aside for an hour or so.
In the meantime, heat oil and add the cumin seeds and green chillies. Then add the onions and let it cook on medium heat for a couple of minutes. Add the rest of the ginger garlic paste and let it cook till the onions brown.

Add in the chicken and let it cook together for 6-8 minutes. Then add the coriander, turmeric, tomato, garam masala and cook it together for another 6-8 minutes. Then add about 1/2 cup (more if you want) water, salt and let it cook for 10-15 minutes or till the chicken is cooked.

Take it off the heat, garnish with cilantro and serve warm with rice, naan or chapati.

Ringing in the new year with Chocolate Banana Cake

2011-01-04T13:36:00.003-05:00

Everything quietened the last week of December. We were off, spending time with family, relaxed, and caught up on sleep. All of this helped us get rid of the cold, cough cycle and start the new year on the right note :)

Our menu for new year was dal palak, and black beans& paneer for lunch and potato gnocchi for dinner. What was your new year menu?

To ring in the new year, I decided to bake a cake. Something simple with ingredients available at home. The choice was easy, I settled on banana chocolate cake. I got the recipe from Sunita's World, and altered it for our tastes. I added more bananas, reduced an egg, left out the cinnamon and added sugar. The cake turned out fabulous Sunita!

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tspoon baking powder
4 tbspoons oil
4 tbspoon chopped dark chocolate ( I used 85%)
1 tspoon vanilla essence
handful of almonds slivers

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Butter the cake pan and set it aside.

Beat the eggs and add sugar till it mixes well. Then add in the bananas. When it is mixed well, with constant stirring, add in the oil and the vanilla essence.

Sift the dry ingredients together and then add it to the mix a little at a time. The batter should be runny and smooth. Once it's mix, add in the chopped chocolate and fold it with a spatula.

Pour the batter to the cake pan, add the almonds on top and let it bake for 40-45 min or till the toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely. You can cut and store it in a airtight box. Tastes amazing with tea or coffee.

Happy New Year everyone. Have a fabulous year ahead.

Shorshe Chingri (Shrimps in mustard sauce)

2010-12-22T10:18:00.004-05:00

Last year at this time we were eagerly waiting for our new arrival. How quickly has this year flown by! Parents has gone back and we are trying to get into a new routine. It hasn't helped that the little one has been unwell. Cold, cough and ear infection... do you have any home remedies that have worked for you? I would love to hear about them.

So coming back to today's recipe, I craved it immensely when I was pregnant. The craving would come strong and suddenly, and I would go looking for some shrimps for shorshe chingri. When I said this to my mom when she was here, she of course made a spicy, hot batch immediately.

Here is how to make it:

Ingredients:
10-15 shrimps
3-4 green chillies
1/2 tspoon - kalo jeera
1 1/2 tbspoon mustard seeds
1 1/2 tbspoon posto (poppy seeds)
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tspoon turmeric
salt to taste
2 tbspoon oil

Method:
Clean and devein the shrimps. Add salt and turmeric powder and keep it aside.
In the meantime, make a paste with 1 green chilli (more if you like it spicier), mustard seeds, poppy seeds and garlic clove.

Heat oil in a pan and lightly saute the shrimps. Take them out and in the same oil, add the kalo jeera, green chilli. After a couple of minutes add the mustard-poppy seed paste, turmeric powder and salt. Let it cook for a few minutes and then add the shrimps.

Let it cook for another 2-3 minutes on low heat.

Serve warm with rice.

Lemon, Ginger and Honey cake

2010-11-19T21:14:00.004-05:00

Every year around this time I am looking for a new cake recipe for Aswin's birthday. This time I came across this recipe which doesn't use any sugar or butter. I was intrigued and decided to try it out.

I was not going to do this post because I thought the cake had not turned out exactly as I expected it. But everyone who tasted it said it was unique and delicious. So even though it didn't rise as much as I had expected, the flavor shone through. So here I am writing about it.

I took the recipe from Cookthink and then tweaked it to our taste. I used whole wheat, omitted out the cinnamon and used fresh ginger which gave it a spiciness. I also made a syrup of fresh lemon juice, honey and powdered sugar which I added on top.

Here is how I made it

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
3 tspoons baking powder
1/4 tspoon salt
2 tspoons fresh ginger
zest of 1 large lemon
2 large eggs
1 cup good honey
1 cup whole milk, warmed (but not boiling)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tspoon vanilla

For glaze:
juice of 1 lemon
2 tbspoon honey
2 tbspoon powdered sugar

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350F, grease an 8-inch cake pan generously with oil spray, and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt, ginger and zest together to blend. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs a large bowl, then add the oil and mix it together. Then add the honey until well-blended.

Next add the warm milk to the egg mixture in a slow, steady stream. Add vanilla and and whisk again.

Add the flour slowly to the mix, stirring constantly till everything is mixed well. The batter was quite runny.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 35-45 minutes. Keep checking though as mine was done in 38 minutes.

Transfer it to a plate. For making the glaze, mix all the ingredients together, warm it and then pour it over the cake.

For the dinner, I served it with some chocolate pudding and fresh raspberries.

Previous birthday cakes:
Orange and Almond cake
Spiced Applesauce cake
Black Forest cake
Chocolate cake with Whipped Cream

Happy Diwali!

2010-11-05T21:35:00.002-04:00

Happy Diwali dear family, friends, bloggers and readers.

Fried Butterfish - two ways

2010-11-03T13:58:00.002-04:00

We've entered the winter season, and I know it from the cold, ear infection, cold, cough and many more rounds of the same in our family. The other way I know is I am starting to crave more fried food, and especially if it is a fresh fish, nothing makes me happier.

We found butterfish at Monahan's (we have found great variety and wonderfully fresh fish here) and picked up a few not knowing what I was going to do with it.

I ended up frying it a couple of times with different marinades. Don't ask me to choose one cause I won't be able to. Each one gave it a distinctive taste and nothing spells comfort like a fried fish on a rainy day.

Ingredients:
Fish Fry -1
With Soy Sauce marinade
3-4 fish
2 tbspoon soy sauce
1 tspoon rice wine vinegar
1 tspoon chopped garlic
1/2 tspoon siricha sauce
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
3-4 tbspoon oil
Salt to taste

Fish Fry -2
With ginger, garlic paste, cilantro and green chillies stuffed (the fish soaked in all the flavors from the stuffing)
3-4 fish
1 tspoon ginger grated
1 tspoon garlic
2 green chillies - chopped
small bunch cilantro (you can replace it with your favorite herb) - chopped
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tspoon chilli powder
4-5 tbspoon oil
Salt to taste

Method:
After letting the fish marinade for 1-2 hours, heat oil in a shallow nonstick pan and fry the fish 4-5 min on each side or till done.

Serve warm either as a starter or with garam garam dal bhaath!

Date and Almond Peda (Indian fudge)

2010-10-17T21:25:00.003-04:00

It's Durga Pujo season! And it's also Ameya's first pujo. So as I was getting everything ready to take for the pujo, I decided to make sweets at home rather than buying from the Indian store.

I wanted to make Indian sweets using dates and came across this recipe at Red Chillies. I tweaked it a little bit to make date and almond peda. I had help from my mom as we were trying this recipe.

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:
20 dates
1/2 cup milk
2 tbspoon ghee
400g condensed milk
2 tbspoon almond powder
chopped almonds for garnish

Method:
Chop dates and cook it with 1/2 cup milk on low heat till it all melts together. Cool it and grind it in a mixer.

Heat a pan and melt the ghee. Then add the date mix and condensed milk. Then add the almond powder and cook it on low heat till the mix comes together and leaves the sides.

Cool it and then make small balls, flatten them and put a almond sliver in the middle. You can cool it for a few hours in the fridge and the serve.

Shubho Bijoya everyone!

Spicy eggplant and potato sabzi (alu beguner tarkari)

2010-10-10T18:08:00.003-04:00

Sometimes, we are so comfortable using a vegetable in a particular way that it takes time to think of making different sabzi/bhaji/tarkari with it. Such is the case with eggplant and me.

We enjoy our bharta, begun bhaja/beguni so much that we continue to make it regularly. So when my mom suggested making alu beguner tarkari (eggplant and potato sabzi), I was in two minds. I was excited to try a new combination. On the other hand, I was happy with my eggplant variations.

When the tarkari was done and I took the first bite, my first reaction was a sigh! It was so delicious, and so different from my regular creations that I took multiple helpings till my taste buds were satisfied. And of course, we've made it several times since.

As I write this, my mom adds that it turns out even better if you choose a fresh eggplant. We have been getting some fresh ones from the Farmer's Market and they melt in the tarkari.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 medium eggplant - cubed
2-3 medium potatoes- cubed
1 medium onion - chopped
1' ginger - grated
1/2 tspoon garlic
2 green chillies - slit
1 medium tomato - pureed
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
Salt to taste
1/2 tspoon cumin seeds
1 tbspoon oil
1/4 cup water
chopped cilantro - to garnish

Method:
Heat oil and temper with cumin seeds. Then add the potato cubes and saute for 3-4 minutes. Once they are done on one side, add the onions and turmeric powder and turn to the other side. Then add garlic paste. Stir for a couple of minutes. Then add in the ginger, and green chillies.

Add the eggplant and let it all cook together. Pour in 1/4 cup water, salt and let it cook on medium heat with closed lid. When the tarkari is almost done, add in the pureed tomato and cook for another 1-2 minutes.

Then take it off the heat and add in the cilantro and let it sit for 4-5 minutes.

Stir and serve warm with rotis.

3 pepper baked salmon

2010-09-28T14:15:00.002-04:00

I made this recipe a while back, forgot about it and then tried it again recently. Even though it says 3 pepper, it's not super spicy.

I guess as we move towards winter, with grey skies, I am beginning to crave more spicy food. With black pepper, chilli powder, and ancho pepper, garlic and olive oil, this gave a nice kick to the smooth salmon. We frequently bake salmon, and this recipe is easy, healthy and filling. I am always trying out new marinades and this was one of the trial recipes which clicked. This goes especially well with salad or even simple dal and rice.

Ingredients:
2-3 Salmon fillets (you can even try it with salmon steaks)
1/2 tspoon black pepper,
1/2 tspoon chilli powder
1/2 tspoon ancho pepper
1 tbspoon olive oil
1 tspoon garlic
salt to taste

Method:
Mix all the ingredients and lather the salmon fillets with the marinade. Set it aside for 30-45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 325 deg F and cook the salmon for 15-20 minutes till it's completely cooked.

Serve warm.

Green beans & carrots (tumis bunchis)

2010-09-03T15:07:00.002-04:00

This is an Indonesian recipes I made from Madhur Jaffrey's cookbook Step by Step Cooking a few weeks ago. It was interesting to see the similar ingredients used in a slightly different way. For instance, if I had made this earlier, I wouldn't have put garlic and curry leaves together with beans and carrots. But we all liked how it turned out.

Since then, we have made it a few times and liked the results every time.

Here is how we made it.
(Recipe courtesy: Madhur Jaffrey's Step by Step Cooking)

Ingredients:

1 pound green beans

2 medium carrots

2-4 hot green chillies

1inch cube ginger

1 inch cube galangal (optional)

1/2 medium onion

4 garlic cloves

3tbsp veg oil

8-10 curry leaves

Salt to taste

Method:
Chop everything into thin slices.
In a pan, when the oil is hot, put in chillies, ginger, garlic, curry leaves, and onion.

Then add green beans, carrots and salt. Saute it all together for a couple of minutes. Then add about 3/4 cup water and let it cook for 5-7 minutes till the carrots turn soft and the water disappears.

Serve hot with rice and dal.

Sprouted moong stirfry

2010-08-24T10:23:00.000-04:00

When I come back home after work, it's hard to cook for the night from scratch. That's because I want to feed the little one, spend time with him, take him out for a walk etc. So it helps if things are half done and that's one of the reasons I like this recipe so much. Not to mention that it is a healthy side with either chapati or rice.

I can get the sprouted moong ready the night before. Then it's quick to make this delicious and easy recipe.

Here's how to do it:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sprouted moong
1 medium onion - chopped
1 medium tomato - chopped
1 tspoon grated ginger
1/4 tspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tspoon cumin seeds
1/2 tspoon cumin seed powder
2 green chillies - slit
1 tbspoon chopped cilantro
salt to taste
1 tbspoon oil
1/2 cup water

Method:
Wash and clean the sprouted moong. Heat the oil in a pan and temper it with cumin seeds and green chillies. Then add the ginger, onion and saute for a few minutes till the onions turn soft, but not brown. Then add the tomatoes and let it cook till the tomatoes turn soft.

Add the sprouted moong, cumin powder, turmeric powder, and salt. Add about 1/4 -water and let it cook till moong is cooked. It shouldn't turn mushy though. Add more water if needed.

Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with a wedge of lemon.

Banana Almond Flour Bundt Cake

2010-08-15T10:49:00.000-04:00

This is the story of three over ripe bananas. Sitting in the hot kitchen they debated if they will be used in a milkshake or with yogurt or as baby food. They didn't know that the chef had completely different plan for them.

The little one just turned six months and to celebrate the first half birthday, I used the bananas to make banana and almond flour cake. I looked around for recipes and found a good one at Elena's Pantry. I tweaked it a bit for my taste and convenience and made it over a weekend afternoon. I must say it felt good to be baking again after a long hiatus. It helped that the cake turned out great too!

Ingredients:
2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tspoon salt
1 tspoon baking soda
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oil
2 eggs
1 tbspoon vanilla extract (you can also use almond extract)
1/2 cup yougurt
3 bananas mashed

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. In the meantime in a large bowl, mix together almond flour, flour, salt and baking soda.

Then combine sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla extract. Then stir in the mashed bananas. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients, stirring constantly.

Prepare a cake pan and pour in the cake batter. Bake for 40 minutes or till the toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from oven and cool.

On another note, Ameya has started eating solid food and I am always thinking of new combinations and starter foods for babies. What worked for your little one?

Eggplant in hot, sweet and sour sauce (Pacheri Terong)

2010-07-18T17:38:00.002-04:00

It was one of those perfect days, the sun was neither too hot, nor too timid. I had just managed to to find enough time to put the pickle I put every year (thanks again Manisha!) and I still had time. The little one was taking one of those rare long afternoon naps!

We were getting food ready for dinner. I had a eggplant and was wondering what to do with it when Aswin brought out one of our Madhur Jaffery recipe books. It dawned on me that I had not used one of those in a few months. So I looked up and found a Malaysian recipe - Pacheri Terong - that sounded fantastic.

We had all the ingredients, I adjusted it to match our tastes and started cooking. I have to say it came out delicious. I could taste all three - hot, sweet and sour - in perfect balance with each other. And the cinnamon in eggplant, I had not used it before, gave it a wonderful aroma as well.

Here is the recipe:

(Recipe courtesy: Madhur Jaffrey's Step by Step Cooking)

Ingredients:
1 onion - sliced thinly

1 inch cube ginger - grated

1 tspoon cumin seeds

1 tspoon coriander seeds

2 red chillies

3 cloves

2 inch cinnamon

1 big eggplant - cut in cubes

4 tbsp oil

1 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp tamarind paste

1 tbsp dark brown sugar
3/4 cup water
Salt to taste

Method:
Grind cumin, coriander, red chillies, cloves, and cinnamon to a fine powder. Heat oil and then add onions and ginger. Saute it for a few minutes till the onions become soft and translucent.

Then add the powdered spices. After this, add water and turn down the heat and let it cook together for a couple of minutes. Then add paprika, tamarind, sugar and salt.

Put in eggplant, and cook for 20-30 minutes until eggplant is tender and the sauce is thick and sticks to the eggplant.

Serve with rice or chapati.

Mango Gojju- another Tanjore Marathi delicacy

2010-07-09T14:10:00.002-04:00

We has a couple of mangoes at home which were ripe, but not completely, so they were tart and firm. No one was interested in eating it when sweeter ones were available. So when my MIL was visiting, she took the two mangoes and made Mango gojju.

This is a completely new recipe for me. I had used ripe mango in Thai recipe before, but never tried it with Indian spices.

It was the perfect use of the mango. It was so delicious, perfect mix of fiery spices balanced with sour and sweet. We finished it the same day. Recently Aswin made it for a brunch and again it was over in no time.

Here is the recipe.
Ingredients:

2tspoon urad dal
1/2 tspoon chana dal
1/4 tspoon fenugreek seeds
1/2 tspoon mustard seeds
1 tspoon coriander seeds
1/2 tspoon sambar powder
2-3 dry red chillies
pinch of asafoetida
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
bunch of curry leaves
1/2 tspoon tamarind extract
2tsp jaggery
2 firm, ripe mangoes
1 tspoon besan (if needed)
1 tbspoon oil
Salt as per taste
chopped cilantro for garnish

Method:
Saute urad dal, chana dal, coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds in 1 tspoon oil and then grind to a smooth paste.
Cut Mango into small pieces . Add about 1 1/2 cups water or more if needed and bring it to a boil. Then add the paste, tamarind, Turmeric, jaggery and sambar powder. Let it simmer on low heat for 3-5 minutes.
In a separate vessel, temper the rest of the oil with mustard seeds, dry red chillies, asafoetida and curry leaves. Add it to the Gojju. Add salt as needed.

If you feel that the gojju is very thin, you can add either chickpea flour or rice flour to thicken it up. We didn't use it.

Garnish with cilantro and serve warm.

Treat from Holland

2010-07-08T14:31:00.003-04:00

Recently I met a school friend, who was visiting Ann Arbor, after 19 years. There I've dated myself!

It was nice, talking about school and other friends, not to mention sitting out in the sun, enjoying delicious food from Seva, as music filtered through from a neighboring concert.

She got us goodies from Holland which we've been enjoying. But I've saved some for the World Cup finals. Can I enjoy the chocolate and still support Spain?

Plantain kofta curry and a anniversary

2010-06-28T15:27:00.002-04:00

It's wonderful to have parents over. I remember when Ameya was about 2 1/2 - 3 months, there was a period of 10 days when neither set of parents were around. I think we ate out for half of the days.

Now it's back to delicious home-cooked food even when we have no time to cook. Last week, Aswin got plantains; my parents made plantain and potato kofta curry. When I told them I don't have the recipe on the blog, they volunteered to take pictures and write the recipe. I am only reproducing their work here.

Now to the anniversary part: Ahaar is four-years old. This baby is so much older and wiser than the 5-month old. It hasn't complained that I haven't paid much attention to it recently, but greets me as enthusiastically when I see it occasionally. So happy four dear Ahaar! I hope to see you much more frequently as I learn to manage my time all over again. And thank you dear friends, and fellow bloggers for dropping by and your insightful and encouraging comments.

Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 plantain - cut in small pieces
3 medium potatoes - cut in half
1 tspoon - red chile powder
1 onion - grated
1 tomato - chopped
1 small piece ginger
1 tspoon garlic paste
1/2 cup chickpea flour
2-3 green chile
2 dry red chile
1/4 tspoon asafoetida
1 tspoon cumin seeds
1/2 tspoon cumin powder
1/2 tspoon coriander powder
2 cups water
4-5 tbspoon oil
salt to taste

Method:

Boil plantain and potato. Take out the skin of plantain and potato and mash it. Add salt to taste and 1/2 tspoon chilli powder and mix it well.

Make small round balls of the mix. Now, add water to the chickpea flour to make a thick paste.Dip the round pieces in chickpea flour paste and then fry them. We shallow fried them.

Take the onion tomato, green chile, ginger and garlic and grind them to a smooth paste. Now heat the rest of the oil in a deep pan and temper it with asafoetida. Then add the red chile, and cumin seeds. After a minute, add the onion, tomato paste. Saute for a couple of minutes. Then add cumin powder and coriander powder and saute for another 2-3 minutes till the oil seperates from the paste. Add the rest of the water and bring it to a boil in medium heat. Once the water starts boiling, add the fried koftas into the curry. Let it cook on low heat for 4-5 minutes and then take it off the heat.

As the curry cooks, the plantain and potato koftas will soak some of the curry. Serve warm with rice, or naan.

Asparagus aar Pyaaz kali bhaja (Asparagus and Scallion stir-fry)

2010-06-17T20:53:00.002-04:00

Now that the Farmer's Market has started, we took our little one for Saturday visits. He likes the trips, looking at the vendors and their offering just like other little ones who are out with their parents.

I bought several tomato and pepper plants. Then, I saw fresh asparagus and green onions, spinach, and other green veggies. I picked a bunch of veggies and for lunch, made some quick stir fry with asparagus and onions. It turned out to be a great combination and went well with dal makhani and brown rice.

Here is how I made it.

Ingredients:
1 bunch fresh asparagus
1 bunch green onions ( you can also substitute it with a medium onion)
1/2 tspoon cumin seeds
2 sry red chillies
1/2 tspoon cumin seed powder
1/2 tspoon red chilli powder
1/4 tspoon turmeric powder
1 tbspoon lemon juice
salt to taste
1 tbspoon oil.

Method:
Chop the asparagus and onions. Then heat oil and temper it with cumin seeds and dry red chillies. Then add the asparagus, onions, spices, salt and stir-fry it for 7-10 minutes till its cooked. You may add few tspoons of water if needed for the vegetables.

Once cooked, sprinkle the lemon juice an serve warm.

Kovakkai Mixed Rice (Ivy Gourd/Tindora rice)

2010-05-27T13:53:00.005-04:00

This is one of the recipes my MIL tried last month. When I asked her how she came up with the combination, she said that she was bored with the regular tindora fry and wanted to try something else. I took a big lunch box that day and even saved some for the night. :)

It was lite with a nice coconut and onion flavor. You can probably substitute kovakkai with any other firm green vegetable and it would still taste good.

Here is how she made it:

Ingredients

2cups Rice (boil and keep aside),
1 medium onion - chopped
1 small cup kovakkai(abt 150 grms) - chopped
2 tbspoons grated coconut
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
3/4 tspoon chilli powder
1 tbspoon limejuice
2 tspoons oil
6-8 curry leaves
Salt to taste

For tadka (tempering)
1 tspoon mustard seeds,
1 tspoon urad dal,

Method
Heat Oil in a wok and temper it with mustard seeds, and urad dal. Then add turmeric powder, chopped onion and kovakkai and saute for 6-7 minutes till the onion is translucent. Then, if needed add some drops of water and let the kovakkai cook through.

Then add chilli powder, salt, curry leaves and lime juice. Mix in the rice till rice is fluffy and mixed well with the spices.

Serve warm. This taste delicious with a light raita and side of chips.

Restaurant Review: NeeHee's

2010-05-18T16:40:00.000-04:00

I am not a big restaurant critic, in fact I try to stay away from it most of the time. But I couldn't stay away from recommending this one. We found out about NeeHee's accidentally when a friend mentioned that she's seen a new Indian restaurant in Canton, Michigan - about 20 min drive from Ann Arbor. "It's a chaat place," she said and that got my attention.

I've not found many good chaat places in the US so far, so I was curious to try this one. I was surprised to see that not only do they offer an extensive chat menu - bhelpuri, chole bhature, dahi puri etc, they also had dosas, and indo-chinese. Most of the time it's a recipe for disaster! Not this one.

To describe the place, it's in a strip mall, next to an Indian store. The decor is quite bare, the utensils are all plastic, so if you were there for the first time, like we were, you would wonder if you had made the right decision to go there. I would say, eat fearlessly :) Not only they have different cuisines on their menu, they do it well too.

We've been there several items and sampled chaat, dosas, uttampams, and even some Indo-chinese. Everything we've eaten so far has been good. I would even say that it's probably one of the best Indian places for me overall.

Here are some of the items that we tried the time I took the camera.

Chole Bhature

The bature were soft and fluffy, reminded me of homemade ones, not the greasy street kind I've eaten before. The chole just the right kind of spicy and tangy. And for $5.99 it's a steal.

Pani Puri and Sugarcane juice

The sugarcane juice is delicious, sweet, with hint of lemon and pudina. It went perfectly with all the spicy, street food that we ordered.
Panipuri, what can I say! I was eating it after so long, eaten a regular one would have sufficed. But this one was better than that. This was delicious. Filled with potato mixed with black chana and hint of sweet chutney, the puris were gone in no time. $3.99

Mysore Masala Dosa

Smeared with "gun powder" on the inside, the dosa had quite the kick to it! Go for it if you can handle the spice level. If not, I would highly recommend the rava masala which got rave reviews from Aswin and my MIL. $6.99

Dahi Puri

This was a find. I can eat this entire plate and then some. It had the perfect balance of spice and sweetness mixed it with yogurt and sprinkled with some sev on top. My MIL recommends this immensely. She says that this is better than the ones she's had in India. $3.99

Overall, it's great addition to the Indian cuisine scene. It's affordable, delicious and quick.

Location:
45490 Ford Road
Canton MI-48187
PH-734-737-9777

Guiltfree Payesh (kheer)

2010-04-05T14:47:00.005-04:00

The last couple of weeks have seen a lot of transitions in the family. I am getting back to work and it's full of mixed feelings. And from what I've heard from my friends it lasts a while and there isn't any easy way out. In the middle of all the work, home, baby duties, food blog has taken a backseat.

Here's what happened. I missed hosting Meeta's Monthly Mingle in all this. I had asked her to host this event many months ago. The deadline came and went, and in my busy days I checked my e-mail a little too late. I felt terrible, even thought about going on hiatus for a while. Sorry about this Meeta! Then I heard from friends (long lost ones) that they're enjoying my blog and it encourages me to come back again.

So in the guilt-ridden times, I give you guiltfree payesh. It's cooked with zero-fat milk, and was cooked on a weekend (the pictures is from diwali though). It always turns out good and soothes those tensions with one sweet bite.

Ingredients:
1 cup govindobhog rice (this is a short-grain, aromatic rice that my parents brought. You can use any short-grain rice or broken basmati too)
4-5 cups zero fat milk
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar (according to taste)
5-7 cardamom (ground the seeds)
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup slivered almonds

Method:
I make it the way my mother made it, letting 2-3 cups of milk simmer on low heat for a couple of hours, while stirring constantly. Once the milk comes to a boil, add the rice and let it cook in low heat.

Add 1-2 cups of milk once the rice soaks it up and let it cook till the rice is boiled and it has a nice thick consistency.

Add the sugar now and cook for another 5-10 minutes. Put the cardamom, raisins, and almonds and cook for 5-10 minutes till everything has mixed in together.

Serve warm or cold.

Baked Salmon with Wasabi

2010-03-16T16:55:00.003-04:00

Time sure flies. Feels like just yesterday when I posted about the break. Ameya is turning two months tomorrow. He is smiling, cooing and beginning to move his hands around (not very coordinated yet!).

Slowly but surely we are getting into a routine as we figure out schedules, time to cook, eat, and catch zzzs. While we are enjoying delicious home-cooked meals, thanks to my MIL, I am constantly looking for quick fix recipes that I can make as well.

I stumbled upon this just by going through the jars sitting in the refrigerator. The flavor and sweetness of honey when combined with the sharpness of wasabi brought out a unique taste of the salmon. I cut thin slices of onions and baked the fish with it on top, broiling it for the last 2 minutes for the nice brown look. The salmon turned out great.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
2 salmon fillets
1/2 tspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tspoon ginger garlic paste
1 tspoon honey
less than 1/4 tspoon wasabi (adjust it acc to taste)
1/2 onion - thin slices
salt to taste
1 tbspoon olive oil

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 deg C. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and marinate the fish for 30-40 minutes.

Place the onion slices on top of the fillets and cook the fish for about 18-20 minutes and then cook it on broil for a minute or so.

Serve with salad or roasted vegetables.

New Arrival!

2010-02-02T16:03:00.002-05:00

(Pic: Courtesy of Venky Rao)

We are so excited to announce the arrival of Ameya, our new family member! He arrived two weeks ago, and needless to say we've been operating on little sleep since then.

Keep watching this space for more pictures, and I promise to be back soon.

Happy New Year

2009-12-31T19:48:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year!

May the new year and decade bring good food, good health and good times.

This, that and other news...

2009-12-30T20:13:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since I came here to post a new entry. I look at pictures, imagine various entries, but they fail to materialize.

So, instead of coming up with excuses, I am going to share some pictures of the food that we've enjoyed this month. There are many more pictures to share and hopefully the list of posts under "drafts" will get smaller in the coming year.

We enjoyed a scrumptious brunch of smoked salmon, bagels, capers, avocados, tomatoes, scrambled eggs and cupcakes early this month.

This was dinner during one of the busy December weekdays. Butternut Squash soup with fried onions on top, buttered toast and a simple tomato and avocado salad.

This was a weekend lunch, one of the few moments of relaxation. Aswin made this story-fry with black beans, peas and peppers and served it with quinoa. And yes, we had avocado on the side.

We also have some news to share. We are getting ready to welcome a new member to our family! I am due in January and at present am enjoying my vacation, getting the house ready and waiting.

I may not post as often, but will check in chance I get.

Bhelpuri for a sunny day

2009-12-09T10:45:00.003-05:00

After several "will it or will it not" moments, snow has covered the ground, temperatures have fallen and there is no denying that winter is here. The first snow, undoubtedly, is the prettiest. I looked out to our backyard today morning and there was this pristine blanket of white covering everything.

With winter knocking at our doors, it's time to post this recipe I made last month when we had some nice weekends. It was for a friends dinner party and everyone enjoyed bhelpuri.

Ingredients: (for 6-8 people)
4 cups of puffed rice
1 cup sev
1 cup of papadi’s broken
1 big onion - chopped
1 tomato - chopped
1 cup boiled chopped potatoes
2-3 cucumbers chopped
2 tbsp cilantro leaves, chopped
salt to taste

Green chutney
2 cups coriander leaves
1/2 cup mint leaves
5-6 green chilies
1 tbs lime juice
Salt to taste

Tamarind chutney
1 tspoon tamarind concentrate
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp salt

Method:
Mix puffed rice, sev, and broken papadi in a large bowl. Add onions, tomato, cucumbers, boiled potato. Then add green and tamarind chutney as needed. Mix well and garnish with sev and cilantro.

Serve immediately.

You can store the extra green and tamarind chutney in an airtight container in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

Orange and Almond cake

2009-11-24T17:57:00.005-05:00

It was Aswin's birthday couple of weeks ago and that's usually when I search for a new cake recipe.

When I saw this orange and almond cake recipe, I was intrigued. Whole oranges with rind and all... really. And no flour, how will almond flour hold up to the baking? These questions were swirling in my mind. But curiosity got the better of me and I decided to give it a try.

And I'm happy that I tried. It had a delicate orange flavor, mild sweetness and the softness of the cake floored me. We took the cake to the restaurant where we dined. After dinner, we enjoyed the cake with our friends with some vanilla ice-cream.

I had some extra batter and I made a couple of small ones which are in the picture.

Orange and almond cake (serves 6-8)
(from Fig and Cherry)

Ingredients:
2 medium naval oranges
3 eggs
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup flour
1 tspoon baking powder

For the topping
1/2 orange juice
3-4 tbspoon honey
10-12 almonds - crushed

Method:

Preheat the oven to 335F. Grease the cake pan and set it aside.

Cut the oranges in half. Place the oranges in a saucepan, cover with cold water, bring it to boil and cook for 15-20 minutes. Drain (to reduce bitterness) and repeat. Coarse chop and remove seeds. It is important that the oranges are soft.

Place the chopped oranges in a blender with a splash of water (if needed) and pulse until smooth (It should make about 12 oz).

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until thick and pale. Add the orange, almond flour, flour and baking powder and fold to combine.Pour the mixture into the cake pan and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Set aside to cool while you make the syrup.

Zest little of the half orange and then juice it. Add the honey to the orange juice and cook on low heat stirring constantly for about 2-3 minutes until it becomes syrupy. Gently poke holes all over the top of the cake with a skewer and then spoon over the syrup. Garnish with crushed almonds.

Serve warm or at room temperature with some ice-cream.

Here are the previous birthday cakes:
Spiced Applesauce cake
Black Forest cake
Chocolate cake with whipped cream

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Mulor Ghanto (Dry Radish Mix)

2009-11-18T20:40:00.004-05:00

This is a easy to make. It came about when I told my parents that I had picked some fresh radishes from the Farmer's market. They suggested that I try making mulo'r ghanto and even gave me the recipe. I didn't know it was so quick and easy.

Mostly the prep time is for grating the radishes. After that it comes together quickly. It is a great accompaniment with some hot rice and dal.

Ingredients: (serves 2-4)
2-3 radishes (grated)
2 green chillies
1 dry red chilli
1/2 tspoon cumin seeds
1/2 tspoon nigella seeds
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tspoon coriander powder
pinch of sugar
1 tbspoon oil
salt to taste

Method:
Heat oil in a pan and temper it with cumin seeds, nigella seeds, dry red chilli, green chilli.

Then add in the grated radish, turmeric powder, coriander powder, salt and sugar and let it cook for 3-4 minutes. Then add in 1/2 cup water if you need to and let it cook for another 6-7 minutes closed lid till the radish is cooked and the water disappears.

Serve warm with rice.

Roasted Butternut Squash

2009-11-04T21:13:00.003-05:00

Do you have days when you want something just simple and hearty? I was in that mood this week. When we were at the Farmer's Market this weekend we picked up some butternut squash and I decided to roast it with maple syrup and chilli powder.

It was so good - sweet, meaty, salty and hot- all at the same time. The best part, it's simple to make and is a satisfying meal. We had ours as a first course followed by chicken curry and rotis. Yummy.

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash - cut in rounds
1 tbspoon maple syrup
1/4 tspoon red chilli powder
1/4 tspoon coriander powder
1/4 tspoon fresh black pepper
1 1/2 tbspoon olive oil
salt to taste

Method:
Mix all the spices with oil and syrup and coat it over the butternut squash pieces.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Roast the squash for 40-50 min till the squash is cooked and tender.

Serve warm.

Apple Dal

2009-10-27T20:05:00.004-04:00

I don't know where my day goes nowadays. I don't find enough time to post more regularly. Friends are beginning to comment, requests are piling up, so are the recipes and pictures. Here is a recipe that has been waiting it's turn for a year.

When my mother-in-law was here last year, she brought a bunch of Tamil food magazines. In one of them was this apple dal recipe. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out when we made this for the first time. But it was such a simple recipe and the slight tart and sweet taste of apples really enhanced the lentils. It really captured the fall :)

Ingredients:

1-2 green apple (choose slightly tart ones)
1 cup cooked toor dal
1 medium onion - chopped
2 green chilies

1/2 tspoon each of mustard & cumin seeds

1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tspoon red chilli powder
1/2 tspoon cumin seed powder
1/2 tspoon coriander seed powder
pinch of asaefotida
1/2 tspoon lemon juice
2-3 curry leaves
bunch of cilantro - chopped to garnish

Method:

Peel and dice the apples into medium cubes and mix it with lemon juice. Set it aside for 10-15 mins. Heat oil and temper it with asafoetida, mustard and cumin seeds. Then add in the green chiles, curry leaves and the onions.

Add the turmeric, cumin, coriander, and red chilli powder. Then add in the apples and let it simmer for 4-5 minutes. Then add in the toor dal, 1 - 1 1/2 cup water and let it cook till the apples turns soft.

Garnish with cilantro and serve warm with rice.

Happy & Prosperous Diwali!

2009-10-16T22:03:00.004-04:00

This Diwali, I made my comfort dessert - payesh. Recipe coming soon!

Have a safe and joyous Diwali!
Wishing you sparkly days filled with happy memories.

Two Bean Chili with Turkey Meatballs

2009-10-13T20:35:00.004-04:00

It's supposed to be fall right? Just checking, because the temperatures have dipped below freezing at night and Aswin mentioned that there may be flurries this weekend. With everything around me pointing to winter instead of fall, it was time for me to bring out my slow cooker.

Well, my slow cooker is ancient. I bought it second hand several years ago when I was a student at a garage sale. And it has traveled with me everywhere. Instead of fancy settings, this cooker has only two settings - high and low. I have thought about getting a new one several times, but hesitate, because I am attached to this old one which has shared so many of my adventures.

I was going to make three-bean and realized that I had only two. So I made two bean chili and added some pre-cooked turkey meatballs at the end when it was simmering. It turned out awesome. Just what we needed to drive the chill away and pretend that it's still fall.

Ingredients:
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into small cubes
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut into small cubes
2 carrots small cubes
1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tspoon ginger grated
2 bay leaves
1 dry red chilli
1/2 tspoon red chilli powder
1 tspoon cumin powder
1 tspoon coriander powder
1 tspoon fresh oregano
1/2 tspoon dried parsley
1 can diced tomato
1 can tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2-3 cups water or broth
2 tbspoon oil
6-7 turkey meatballs cut in halves or quarters
chopped fresh cilantro leaves
lemon wedges for serving

Method:
I start this in a suacepan and end it there, but all the cooking happens in the slow cooker.

Heat oil and temper it with bay leaves and dried chilli. Add in the ginger and garlic and saute for a minute. Add in the onions and cook it for a couple of minutes till the raw smell goes away. Add all the spices and mix it together.

Now put this spice mixture in the slow cooker. Add in the vegetables, tomato puree, diced tomatoes, beans, and broth on top. Mix well and let it cook together. Alternately, you can cook it on stove top for 30-45 minutes on low heat till the vegetables are cooked and mixed well together.

I made a big batch of chili. So for dinner, I took out some, added pre-cooked turkey meatballs and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Serve it warm with lemon and cilantro. Enjoy.

This is going to MLLA: 16th Helping hosted by Cook Sister. This was started by Susan of Well Seasoned Cook.

Doodh Pitla (with Butternut Squash)

2009-09-30T20:03:00.003-04:00

We had friends over for dinner a few weeks back, and it was one of the few days this past summer that actually felt like summer. I wanted to avoid making anything spicy, and decided to try my luck with a dish that I enjoyed as a kid. This is another tanjore marathi staple (and I'm sure there are variants out there in Tamil cuisine) typically made with pumpkins, with the milk serving to cut the spice levels.

Ingredients:
1/2 -1 cup Milk
1 small Butternut squash or pumpkin
Salt to taste
Chopped cilantro to garnish

To roast and grind:
1 tspoon cumin seeds: 1 tsp
6-8 Black pepper
2 dry red chillies
1 green chilli
1" Ginger - grated
1 tbspoon Chana dal
1.5 tbspoons Toor dal
1/2 cup Coconut - shredded

To temper:
1/2 tspoon Mustard seeds
1/4 tspon Asafoetida
1 tspoon Urad dal

Method:

Chop and boil the squash and set it aside. Roast and grind the ingredients.

In a thick-bottomed pan, mix the paste with the boiled squash along with some water (as needed). Add salt and let this cook for 8-10 minutes on medium-low heat.

Temper with mustard seeds, urad dal, and asafoetida. Take this off the stove and slowly add 1/2 cup of milk (or more if desired) and mix well.

Add chopped cilantro and serve with hot rice.

This treasured recipe pic is going to Heirloom:Click hosted by Jai and Bee at Jugalbandi.

Pujo season with Peanut Butter & Raspberry muffins

2009-09-25T21:01:00.003-04:00

It's Durga Pujo season! And that means that it doesn't matter how busy I am, I always try to make something sweet during this time. When my parents were here last year, my mom made special meals to celebrate different festivals and painstakingly made narkeler nadu, sandesh and payesh for pujo and Diwali. Even though I wanted to do all that, the busy week left me with little time and energy. But, I had to make something sweet!

We had some extra raspberries in the freezer and I combined it with peanut butter to make peanut butter and raspberry muffins. How I came up with the combination? It was what was available at home and just a feeling that this would work. And it tasted great!

There's the sweetness of the muffins, the tartness of the raspberries and the lingering creaminess of the peanut butter.

Ingredients: (Makes 6-8)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 tbspoon peanut butter
1/4 stick butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup fat-free buttermilk
1/2 tspoon vanilla extract
1/2 tspoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/4 cups flour ( I used a combination of whole wheat & all-purpose)
1/4 tspoon baking powder
1/4 tspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup fresh raspberries
Cooking spray for muffin cups

Method:
Preheat oven to 375° F.

Mix the sugar and peanut butter together and mix. Then add in the butter and whisk till it's well blended. Add the egg next and whisk. Add buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon juice and mix until it combines smoothly.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Gently add in the buttermilk mixture and mix till it becomes smooth. Fold in raspberries and let the batter stand for 5-10 minutes.

Spoon batter into pre-coated muffin cups. Bake at 375° for 17-18 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center.

Happy Durga Pujo everyone.

Keema Matar

2009-09-24T09:33:00.000-04:00

This is another of Madhur Jaffrey's recipe from Quick & Easy Indian Cooking that I made recently with great success. I did make a couple of changes to bring down the heat and marinated the ground chicken for an hour.

I don't usually get ground meat. In fact, I've always hesitated about making keema (ground meat) as I don't know the source of my ground meat. But when I was at our Whole Foods, they mentioned that they'll do it using my choice of cuts. That was all I needed to hear. So, I chose a mix of chicken breasts and thighs.

While browsing for recipes, I came across Madhur Jaffrey's recipe and it sounded easy and delicious. So I decided to give it a go.

Ingredients:
(adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's recipe in Quick and Easy Indian Cooking)

1 1/4 lbs ground chicken (you can substitute it with any other meat, but remember to change the cooking time too)
1 medium onion - chopped
2" fresh ginger -grated
4-6 garlic cloves - grated
1 tspoon coriander powder
1 tspoon cumin powder
1/2 tspoon ground turmeric powder
1/2 tspoon red chilli powder
2 tspoons garam masala
2-3 tbspoon vegetable oil
1/2 tspoon cumin seeds
2 dry red chilles
2 dry bay leaves
1-2 medium tomato - chopped
1 c peas, fresh or frozen
1/4 c plain yogurt
salt to taste
2 tspoons fresh lemon juice
cilantro for garnish

Method:
Put onion, ginger, and garlic in food processor for a coarse past. Heat oil in a wide nonstick pan and temper it with cumin seeds, bay leaves and red chillies. Then add in the onion, ginger and garlic mixture. Stir and fry until it is somewhat brown.

Then add in red chilli, cumin, coriander and turmeric powder. Stir and mix the spices together. Then add in the tomato and yogurt at low heat and stir. Cook with closed lid until the tomato is soft and it looks like a good gravy.

Put in meat, salt and garam masala. Stir, breaking up any lumps, for 2-3 minutes.

Then add in 1 cup water stir and bring to low heat. Cover and cook on low heat for 20-25 minutes or until the chicken is almost cooked.

Add in lemon juice, and peas. Cover and cook on low heat for another 7-10 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and serve warm.

Tastes great with naan, chapati, parathas or rice.

Mango Soup (Aamras)

2009-09-13T20:46:00.004-04:00

It seems like every time I post, I am explaining my long absence. This time I have none. I have lazed around, reading, traveling, making the most of the last few weeks of summer before the semester starts and our life goes back to the busy routine.

When I was at my sister-in-law's place, she made this delicious Aamras from Madhur Jaffrey's recipe book "From Curries to Kebabs" and it was absolutely fantastic! We had it with pooris and it made my day. Since then, I have already made it a couple of times for friends and it's been a success each time.

When you take the first bite, you taste the sweetness of the mango. Next, you get the tartness of yogurt and then the spices hit you subtly at the base of the throat. It's so delicious you can't wait to take the next bite and taste it all over again!

In my preparation, I increased the yogurt to one cup and omitted the curry leaves and green chillies.

Ingredients:
(From Curries to Kebabs by Madhur Jaffrey)

2 tbspoons chickpea flour
1/8 tspoon ground turmeric
3/4 tspoon cumin powder
3/4 tspoon coriander powder
1 cup plain yogurt
3 cups mango pulp (sweetened) from a can
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 tspoons salt
1/2 tspoon sugar, or to taste
1 tbspoon oil
A generous pinch of ground asafetida
1/2 tspoon whole brown mustard seeds
1/2 tspoon whole cumin seeds
2 whole hot dried red chilies
1/8 tspoon whole fenugreek seeds

Method:
Mix chickpea flour, turmeric, cumin, and coriander in a medium bowl. Then add very slowly, 1/2 cup of water, mixing with vigorously till there are no lumps left. Add yogurt, mixing it in with a whisk. Pour in the mango pulp and an additional 1-2 cups of water. Add the salt and sugar. Mix well.

Heat the oil in a thick, lidded pan and temper it with asafetida first and then, in quick succession, the mustard seeds, the cumin seeds, the chilies, and the fenugreek seeds. Take the pan off the heat.

Stir the mango mixture and quickly pour it into the pan. Stir. Put the pan over low heat and simmer over very low heat for 5-6 minutes, stirring regularly with a whisk or spoon as you do so. Take the pan off the heat, cover, and leave for at least 30 minutes to allow the spices to release all their flavors.

Strain it through a coarse strainer. Spoon out some of the smaller seeds — the mustard and cumin — from the strainer and stir them back into the soup to add some colorful flecks.

Serve it heated or chilled. I have been serving it chilled.

Fish Wraps with Mango Salad

2009-08-25T18:01:00.004-04:00

When we recently had friends over for dinner, we decided to do something different. Instead of spicy curries in the hot weather, we made fish wraps and lentil soup. The dinner was lite, the conversation lively and it was a pleasant evening spent with friends.

I warmed up to the idea of fish wraps, and was really delighted with how it turned out. The combination was light and spicy, the fish was spiced right and the mango in the wraps provided the unexpected sweetness.

Ingredients: (serves 4-6)
For Fish:
1 tspoon garlic, minced
1 tspoon cumin, ground
1/2 tspoon fresh black pepper
1/2 - 2/3 tspoon salt
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 tspoon cayenne pepper, ground
6-7 fish fillets, fresh or frozen, thawed
3 tbspoon olive oil

For Salad:
1 ripe mango chopped small
1 1/2 tomato chopped small
1 big cucumber
1 medium onion
1/2 can drained and washed black beans
salt to taste
2/3 tspoon freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tbspoon lime juice (depending on taste)

1 pack whole wheat tortilla wraps

1 pack fresh guacamole

Method:

For Fish:

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Whisk oil, lime juice, garlic, cumin, black pepper, salt and cayenne pepper in small bowl and coat the fish liberally.
Allow it to marinate in a fridge for up to an hour.
Then bake it in a tray for 20 to 25 minutes until fish is opaque and flakes with fork.

For Salad:
Mix all the ingredients and let it sit for 15-20 minutes for it to mix together.

Building the wrap:
Here is a nice trick I learnt for building the wrap. Sprinkle some drops of water on paper towel and put the tortilla on top. Then heat it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds. The tortilla turns out super soft and helps while building the wrap.

Spread the guacamole, then pile a few tbspoons of the salad in the middle, then put the fish on top and roll from one end to another.

Serve with chips, or soup.

Simple Beetroot bhaji

2009-08-19T20:35:00.002-04:00

Since the Farmer's Market has opened I must say that we are eating much better. We pick up all kinds of vegetables because they look fresh, juicy and then come up with ways to finish them. For instance, tonight we had radish and green onion parathas with cucumber (from farmer's market) and tomato (from garden) raita. Everything in the market looks so good that sometimes I pick up enough to last a couple of weeks!

But that is not what I want to blog about tonight. I want to tell you about this simple beetroot bhaji we made a couple of nights ago. Yes, the beetroots were from the Farmer's market as well. You know that I am not terribly fond of beetroot and don't make them often. But these looked so fresh, and when Aswin said he had the perfect recipe, I had no hesitation in picking this bunch.

The bhaji did turn out simply delicious. The sweetness of the beets mixed with the pungent mustard seeds and spicy notes of chili powder was great. It went well with dal and steaming hot rice.

Ingredients:
4-5 beetroots cut in cubes
2 dried red chillies
1 tspoon mustard seeds
1 tspoon urad dal
pinch of asafoetida
few curry leaves
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tspoon red chilli powder
Salt to taste
1 tbspoon Oil

Method:
Heat oil in the pan and temper it with asafoetida, mustard seeds, urad seeds, curry leaves and red chillies.

Then put in the beetroots, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and salt, little bit water (1/4 cup water) and cook it on medium heat for 10-12 minutes till the water disappears and beetroots are cooked.

Serve warm.

Berry Cherry Weekend

2009-08-10T18:17:00.003-04:00

After complaining for weeks about the meek summer, we were hit with a blast of heat this weekend. All complaining evaporated in the heat as we switched on all fans and looks for recipes to cool us down.

I had picked up fresh cherries from the Farmer's Market and we ate it all up in a variety of ways over the weekend.

Berry Cherry Smoothie
This was a refreshing change from the regular menus and was filling enough to keep us busy for a few hours.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup strawberry
1/2 cup pitted cherry
4-5 tbspoons honey (adjust with taste)
1 1/2 cup cold milk

Method:
This is the easy part. Blend it all together, and serve chilled.

Berry Cherry Compote (almost!)
I had plans of making cherry crumble with the rest of the cherries. But the idea of switching the oven turned me off. We had friends coming over for dinner, so I decided to make this simple dessert which went incredibly well with some ice-cream!

Ingredients:
2 cups strawberries (chopped in half)
1 1/2 cup pitted cherries
4-5 tbspoon honey
1 tspon brown sugar
juice of one lemon
1/4 tspoon zest
pinch of cinnamon powder

Method:
Unlike compote, this requires no heating. Mix it all together and chill for a couple of hours before serving. This gives enough time to mix it all together.

Serve with ice-cream.

Fresh Cherry Tomatoes

2009-07-30T21:36:00.004-04:00

Finally, finally I get my first batch of cherry tomatoes. The good news is the squirrels here don't eat tomatoes. Yippee!

I have been picking 1-2 cherry tomatoes from the pot every week, but today when I was watering the plants, Aswin noticed that we have couple of handfuls of cherry tomatoes ready to be picked.

I cannot resit the urge to show the red and green pearls off. The picture is going to Jugalbandi's Click. This month's theme is Bi-color.

Spicy Whitefish Curry

2009-07-28T19:11:00.004-04:00

I recently picked up a couple of fresh whitefish fillets from Whole food recently. And on Sunday afternoon after cleaning brick patio of some moss, I decided to make some spicy fish curry. Who knew there's so much to do around the house?

The fish curry was quick and satisfied us after the yard work. The fish was lightly sauteed with turmeric, chilli powder and salt. And the curry was spicy with chillis and tangy with tomatoes. We had ours with hot brown rice that afternoon and leftover the next day with hot chappatis.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
1 fillet whitefish cut in 5-6 pieces.
1 medium red onion
1 tspoon ginger paste
1/2 can steamed tomatoes or 2 medium tomatoes
1/2 tspoon kala jeera (nigella seeds)
1/2 tspoon coriander powder
1/2 tspoon cumin powder
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tspoon chilli powder
2 green chilles slit
4-5 curry leaves
3 tbspoons oil
Salt to taste

Method:
Marinate the fish with turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt. Heat 2 tbspoon oil and shallow fry the fish on both sides for a couple of minutes.

In a pan, heat the rest of the oil and temper it with nigella seeds, green chilles and curry leaves. Add in the ginger and let it cook for a minute, then add in the onions and saute for 2-3 minutes. Then add in the tomatoes and cook with closed lid till it all mixes well together.

Add in all the spices, 1 cup of water and let it cook for 3-4 minutes. Then add in the fish pieces, adjust salt and cook it all together for another 2-4 minutes.

Serve warm with rice.

Honey & Mango Frozen Yogurt

2009-07-20T21:20:00.000-04:00

A month back I received an e-mail from Kristina at Stonyfield Yogurt's launch of Oikos. I have used Stonyfield yogurt for a while now, but was excited to try some of their new Greek yogurt. Soon, I got coupons for the Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt (along with a nice yellow bag.)

After the move, I picked up the coupons and went to the local grocery store. I was happy to see that it is readily available in stores, unlike Fage which we get at Trader Joe's. I picked up couple of plain and a couple of honey-flavored Oikos.

Before trying Oikos, I have used Fage greek yogurt and Oikos tasted similar - creamy, delicious, smooth. The only difference I found is Oikos has less calories without cutting on taste. From the website: oikosorganic.com
"called “yiaourti” in Greece, Greek yogurt is creamier than regular yogurt. Authentic Greek yogurt like ours owes its extra creaminess to a centuries-old straining process that removes the whey (liquid) from the yogurt.

I liked the plain flavors and we used it in raita, and a bunch of various dishes. But I couldn't wait to try the honey yogurt. I had fresh mangoes in the fridge and decided to make frozen yogurt. I tried it two ways.

The first one, I chopped mango into small pieces and Aswin didn't like the texture too much. I also didn't add much honey, so decided to make another batch, this time with pureed mango, more honey and result was stunning. The mild notes of mango, and honey brought out the slight tartness of the yogurt and made it a unique flavor.

Ingredients:
1 Oikos honey yogurt
2 slices of mango
3-4 tbspoon honey

Method:
Puree the mango and then mix it with the yogurt and honey. Once it's mixed well, it was ready to be chilled. Since I don't own a ice-cream maker, I did the David Lebovitz way - chilling it for 45 minutes and then mixing it, whisking it and putting it back in the chiller. I did that a few times and froze it overnight.

The yogurt is ready.

Serve when it's not melting.:) I forgot to serve after I took it out, and then rushed around to click a picture before it all melted away. Soon after the picture, the yogurt was gone in no time :)

My first friday morning@SELMA

2009-07-15T21:29:00.004-04:00

Mandira and I had heard of Friday mornings@SELMA, a "local foods breakfast salon" here in Ann Arbor, but never had a chance to visit. Last week, thanks to a couple of friends - one of whom was the guest chef for the day - I had a chance to be part of a truly remarkable community working towards re-connecting our bodies and lives to regionally produced food. And SELMA - Soule-Eberwhite-Liberty-Madison-Affiliation - is much more:

So Friday mornings often involve breakfast, which at times attracts over a 100 people. It's all volunteer run and the food, needless to say, is delicious! The chef for the morning was Olivia who runs the blog From the Kitchen of Olivia. Here are a few pictures.

Breakfast Menu

My Breakfast

A-2 Farmer's Market #13

2009-07-13T21:16:00.002-04:00

Like my previous Farmer's Market posts, I can show you a picture of the radishes, cabbage, cherries and chicken I picked up this past weekend. Instead, let me tell you about my new discovery!

I noticed a new vendor- Pilar's Tamales - with a big queue outside her store. Tamales? We were intrigued. So, we stood in line and picked up a couple to go. It came with small salad pickled in apple cider vinegar and fresh salsa.

Aswin picked spinach and feta tamale, which also had banana peppers and whole olives. And I picked up chicken tamale with had potato and cheese filling. With a fresh salad, it was scrumptious lunch!

Another move, another year...

2009-07-07T21:06:00.003-04:00

It's been a busy few weeks. Between our sporadic posts, we were going to open houses, meeting with agents and visiting houses, yes, we were house hunting!

After seeing countless places, just when we thought we weren't going to find something, we saw a house that we liked. The next few weeks were a blur - painting the house, closing on paperwork, packing, moving and now unpacking.

We are now in the new house, unpacking and getting all the services back. I hope to be back full swing in a week. The picture above is of our new living room. :)

But before I go, another big announcement! Ahaar turned THREE :) Here's to another great year and thank you for your support, encouragement and friendship!

Fried Squash Blossoms

2009-06-21T09:45:00.000-04:00

I bought some squash blossoms in the Farmer's Market and decided to make some as soon as I came home. Last year, I had some when my parents were visiting. At home, the batter is made of chaal bata (rice that is soaked and made into paste) and spices including mustard paste.

Since I was in a hurry, I used rice flour and spices available at home. No deep fry here, I shallow fried the flowers and the result was crispy on the outside and soft and almost sweet on the inside.

One thing to remember is to make sure you clean the flowers thoroughly and remove the stamens from the middle.

Ingredients: Serves 2
4-5 squash flowers
3 tbspoons rice flour
2 tbspoons chickpea flour
1 tspoon chopped cilantro
1/2 tspoon lemon zest
pinch of tumeric powder
1/4 tspoon red chile powder
1/2 cup oil (reserve some and add as needed)
salt to taste

Method:
Run the flowers under water, remove stamen from the middle and pat dry. Set it aside.

Now mix all the ingredients in a bowl with water to make a smooth mix/batter. It shouldn't be too runny. Soak the flowers in the batter for 2-3 minutes.

In the meantime, heat oil in a pan. As the oil heats, put the flowers one by one and fry each side 2-3 min on medium heat or till they are golden.

Serve warm. We had ours with kichuri, salad and yogurt.

A-2 Farmer's Market # 12

2009-06-20T14:51:00.005-04:00

The A-2 Farmer's Market series is back! I have been going to the Farmer's Market for the last few weeks, but have somehow didn't get around to taking pics on time. So today before I left for the Farmer's Market, I left the camera on the table to remind me when I got back.

The weather's wonderful, and the farmer's market was packed as usual. I browsed different vendors and found that only one was selling tomatoes. So I picked a few from there. And along the way I also got some cucumbers, squash flowers, zucchini, thai chilli pepper plants and some flowers.

I also got my order in for some chicken.

Now I am off to fry some of those squash flowers today. With the next batch, I am going to try stuffing. Any suggestions?

Here are the previous ones from last year:
Farmer's Market #1
Farmer's Market #2
Farmer's Market #3
Farmer's Market #4
Farmer's Market #5
Farmer's Market #6
Farmer's Market #7
Farmer's Market # 8, #9
Farmer's Market #10
Farmer's Market #11

Broccoli with onions, olives, and almonds

2009-06-08T20:54:00.006-04:00

Mandira was supposed to write a post, but she is mad at the Burns Park squirrels who ate all the chard and cauliflower leaves. So I decided to make a quick dish with broccoli which went really well with quinoa and fish fry. I can't quite remember where I first came across a recipe involving broccoli, olives, and pine nuts - might be Mark Bittman's blog - but here's my variation on it.

Ingredients:
1 big broccoli flower or 1/2 pack of packaged broccoli
1 medium onion
1/2 tspoon coriander powder
10-15 black olives
1/4 tspoon fresh black pepper
handful sliced almonds (or pine nuts)
Salt to taste

Method:
Chop onions into very small pieces. Heat oil, add the onions and saute for a couple of minutes.

Then add the broccoli, and a few tspoons of water and let it cook. Once it is semi-cooked, add the spices and the olives and cook it uncovered till the water dries.

Sprinkle almonds and serve warm. This super healthy vegetable side is this week's contribution to our Healthy Series.

Jazzing up Maggi!

2009-05-26T21:32:00.003-04:00

The weather was perfect, we enjoyed a long walk and were settling in to watch IPL (Indian Premier League Cricket) match. There was just the question of dinner. We looked around in the fridge and pantry and saw the Maggi packets peeping out. We always keep a couple of packets for moments like this. For this meal we decided to jazz up our dinner.

Growing up we both liked Maggi plain, without any additions, just like they showed it in the advertisements. We can't do that anymore. For this meal, we cooked the Maggi as per the instructions, then tempered oil with cumin seeds and chopped onions, then add some chopped carrots, peas and beans and mix it with the Maggi noodles.

We then topped with some sauted Tofu, cilantro and a wedge of lime. One satisfying meal. How do you like your Maggi?

Gajar Ka Halwa (Carrot Halwa)

2009-05-20T20:09:00.003-04:00

Gajar ka Halwa is probably one of my favorite winter sweets. In India, especially in the north, you can see this cooking in a big kadai (wok) in a local sweet shop. If you were to ask for some, a mithaiwala would take a portion from the wok, mix it with some meva in a separate tawa, top it with some nuts and serve it piping hot. Yummy!

It's an annual ritual at home too. My mom would make a big batch of halwa and I loved eating the leftovers the next day.

Since I didn't make it during the winter this time, I had to make it soon. Here is how I made it.

Ingredients
Shredded carrot - 2 cups (shred it not too thin)
Milk - 1 1/2 cup (I used non fat)
Sugar - 1/2 - 3/4 cup (depending on your taste)
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tspoon
Unsalted butter/ghee - 2 tbspoons
Handful of raisins and nuts to garnish (I used walnuts)

Directions
Roast the nuts and raisins in a 1/2 tbspoon ghee and keep it aside.

Bring the milk to a boil in a heavy bottomed pan. Then add the shredded carrots and let it cook on medium heat for 5-6 and then reduce it to low. Let it cook for another 10 minutes, then add in the sugar and let it cook on low heat.

Cook till the halwa is mixed together, the milk has evaporated. Now heat the rest of the butter/ghee in a separate pan, add the halwa and cook till it starts leaving sides. Add in the cardamom powder.

Mix well and garnish with roasted nuts and raisins. Serve warm or cold.

This is going to Mithai Mela hosted by Srivalli at Cooking 4 all Seasons. Wishing you many, many delicious posts :)

Ambat bhaji - another tanjore marathi twist

2009-05-10T21:34:00.004-04:00

It's been a while since I did anything in my "corner" on Ahaar. And I know I haven't responded to the many kind comments we received for the very first post about thanjavur marathi food. But now that the semester is over, I hope to post more often and perhaps even dig up some interesting tidbits about thanjavur marathi cuisine.

To get things started again, here's a recipe for Pala Ambat Bhaji (Pala: greens; ambat: sour; bhaji: vegetable dish). The ambat comes from the use of tamarind and ambat bhaji is usually made with different kinds of greens or cabbage. And to liven things up, we fry a few mor milagai (see this) to go with the ambat bhaji.

Ambat bhaji makes for a nice variation from sambar and kootu. Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:
1/2 pack frozen chopped spinach
1 cup Toor dal
1/2 tspoon Tumeric powder
1/4 tspoon Methi seeds
pinch of Asafoetida
2 dry Red chillies
1 tspoon Cumin seeds (not required, but I like to)
Salt to taste
1 tbspoon Oil
3/4 - 1 tspoon Tamarind paste (depending on how tangy you want it)

Method:
Boil toor dal. In a pan, heat oil and temper with some cumin seeds, red chillies, and methi seeds (be careful to not heat the methi seeds too much or they turn bitter).

Add chopped spinach to this and cook with a little water till the raw smell of the greens is gone. To this, add tamarind juice and let this cook for about 5 minutes. Then add the boiled toor dal, salt, and let it cook for about 10-12 minutes on low-med heat.

Serve warm with rice.

Apple Blossoms & Roasted Asparagus & Brussel Sprouts

2009-05-06T21:01:00.003-04:00

Spring is slowly spreading through the garden. I was happy when I got the vegetables from Farmer's Market last week, but I am even more excited because the apple tree in front of the house is in full bloom. I see bees hovering over the flowers and it makes a pretty sight whenever I open the door. But most of all, it's a reminder that I'll be getting some delicious apples pretty soon!

With our busy schedule this past week, we've been trying to do some quick cooking. This week, I made a quick roasted vegetables with inspiration from Jugalbandi. It was delicious, healthy and a great combination with spinach dal and rice.

Ingredients:
3/4 lb brussel sprouts
1/2 lb asparagus
1/2 tspoon dry ginger powder
1/2 tspoon coriander powder
1/2 tspoon red chilli powder
1 1/2 tbspoon olive oil
Salt to taste

Method:
Preheat the over to 400deg F. In the meantime, sprinkle the vegetables with the spices. Take a baking sheet, and then put pat half the olive oil on the sheet. The rest of it, add it on top of the vegetables.

Bake for 20-25 minutes till the vegetables are done - the Brussels sprouts start to get crisp and brown.

Serve it warm as a side dish or as part of a salad.

A-2 Farmer's Market and Bhindi Masala (Okra Fry)

2009-04-27T20:32:00.003-04:00

This past weekend, when the weather was nice and it seemed like the entire city was out, I decided it was time to go back to the Farmer's Market. And of course, everyone had the same idea... it was great being back in that setting. I picked up large brown eggs, placed my order of chickens and hold your breath... picked up vegetables plants! From now on, I am going t0 wander there and restart my Farmer's Market series.

I have started a few at home and in the backyard - cilantro, chillis, mustard greens, spinach and carrots. From the Farmer's market, I picked up a variety of tomatoes:

cherry tomatoes hanging down, beefsteak tomatoes, purple cherokee and pink tomatoes, along with chard and cauliflower. This summer there won't be flowers hanging in the front yard, rather it'll be juicy cherry tomatoes, enough to make everyone drool.

After all the work of potting and planting the veggies, I was in the mood for something simple. So I made some khichudi, bhindi masala (okra fry) and cucumber and mint raita. After this great meal, I was ready to go out again in the afternoon.

Here is how I made the bhindi masala (okra fry).

Ingredients:
1 lb okra - chopped
1 red onion - sliced thinly
1/2 tspoon mustard seeds
1/2 tspoon cumin seeds
1 dry red chilli
1/2 tspoon grated ginger
1/4 tspoon turmeric powder
1/4 tspoon red chilli powder
1/2 tspoon coriander powder
1/2 tspoon lemon juice
1 tbspoon oil
Salt to taste

Method:
Heat the oil in a pan and temper it with mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red chilli. Then put in the onions and saute for a couple of minutes. Then add in the okra, and let it cook on medium high heat for 2-3 minutes. Then add in the spices and lower the heat to medium low and let it cook till it is almost done. Add 1/2 tspoon water if needed.

Here is a cool trick that I've learned. Add in the lemon juice and stir it around for a couple of minutes. It cuts some of the stickiness of okra and brings out the flavors.

Serve warm with rice, kichudi, or chapati.

Here are some of my other okra recipes:
Okra and Shallots Fry
Oriya Bhendi Masala

An Ann Arbor find: Durham's Tracklements and smoked salmon pizza!

2009-04-19T21:08:00.006-04:00

This is a different kind of review. This is unsolicited endorsement of one of my favorite places in Ann Arbor: Durham's Tracklements! I stumbled upon this store, and have enjoyed going there ever since. Not to mention the easy friendship with T. R. Durham, who owns the store!

Through TR (as we all call him), I was introduced to smoked fish and meat, and to pairing different fish with varied spices. There is tandoori-spiced salmon which is absolutely fabulous. My other favorites are kippered salmon, Gauri's garam masala mackerel and my own panch phoron mackerel!

TR's smoked fish has won praise from The New York Times, Washington Post and many others, and I can tell you that each and every bite of any fish that you get will be delicious. They ship smoked fish and meat across the world and in the US, selling up to 7 tons of cold smoked salmon in 2007.

TR has recently written a book titled The Smoked Seafood Cookbook, published by the University of Michigan Press. The book includes many innovative recipes to try (there are recipes by Mario Batali, Sara Moulton among others) as well as detailed notes about the process of smoking.

I was in the store this weekend and sampled some delicious pizza fresh out of the oven. I loved the flavors and told TR I am going to try it at home. Being the generous person that TR is, not only did he give me some delicious kippered salmon, but also all the ingredients that went into the pizza. I made the pizza last night and it was gone in no time (before I could click a picture of the finished pizza).

This picture is of the pizza before I put it in the oven! I used mustard paste, olive oil and white wine vinegar as a first layer, then a layer of caramelized onions. On top of that went the cheese and smoked salmon. After cooking it in oven at 400 deg F for 10 min, I topped it off with some fresh arugula and small lemon skin pieces. It was fantastic!

We enjoyed the rest of the salmon in a fresh salad today along with some pomegranate juice and sparkling water.

Durham's Tracklements
212 East Kingsley Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-930-6642

Hours
Wednesday & Friday 10-3
Saturday 8-3 & by appointment
Best selection & Product tastings on Saturdays

Shubho Nabobarsha

2009-04-14T21:47:00.002-04:00

Wishing everyone sweet beginnings this new year!
Shubho Nababarsha... Happy New Year!

Chicken, salad & couscous done right!

2009-04-13T18:54:00.005-04:00

Last week I received a case of 100% pomegranate juice from Pom Wonderful. On the way to pick up Aswin from the airport and back, I decided my menu with what I had at home to avoid a trip to the store: pomegranate juice marinated chicken, mango and avacado salad, and Israeli couscous & red quinoa mix.

I marinated the chicken with 1 1/2 cup pomegranate juice, fresh ginger, red chilli powder, salt, coriander powder, & black pepper. The chicken was caramelized on stove top and finished in the oven. While the chicken was cooking, I reduced the leftover marinade with some white wine, and used it as a glaze for the chicken. It was tart, smoky, spicy and fantastic!

We had our delicious dinner and topped it with some dark chocolate and a movie. :)

Here is how I made the pomegranate juice marinated chicken:

Ingredients:
3 chicken thighs
1 1/2 cup pomegranate juice
2/3 tspoon red chilli powder
2/3 tspoon coriander powder
1 1/2 tspoon fresh ginger - ground
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tspoon fresh ground pepper
salt to taste
1 small onion - chopped
fresh cilantro - chopped for garnish
1 tbspoon oil
2-3 tbspoon white wine

Method:
Marinate the chicken with the juice and the spices and set it aside for 1 - 2 hours.

Then, heat oil in a nonstick pan and saute the onions for 2-3 minutes. Add the marinated chicken in the pan and let it cook on each side for 1-2 minutes. In the meantime, heat the oven to 380 deg F and bake the chicken 6-7 minutes on each side or till it is completely cooked.

Add the rest of the marinade along with 2-3 tablespoon white wine in the pan and let it simmer on low heat to a thick sauce.

Once the chicken is done, pour the sauce over it, garnish with fresh cilantro and serve.

Methi Matar Malai

2009-04-08T22:18:00.000-04:00

For the last few weeks, I have been picking up fresh methi leaves from the Indian store. The only ways I have had methi before is in methi saag or methi paratha. But, I wanted to try something new. So I searched around for methi recipes and came across Sanjeev Kapoor's Methi Matar Malai.

I tried it with some changes, and have been hooked ever since. The slight bitterness of methi leaves is complemented perfectly with the natural sweetness of peas. I omitted out garlic and amchur powder while replacing cream with some non fat yogurt. I loved how it turned out - mild, flavorful - and have made it a few times now.

Ingredients:
(adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor's Methi Matar Malai)
1 pack fresh methi leaves
1/2 pack frozen peas
1 medium onion - chopped
1 tspoon ginger - grated
1/2 tspoon red chilli powder
1/4 tspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tspoon cinnamon powder
1/2 coriander powder
1/2 tspoon cumin seeds
3 tbspoon yogurt - whipped
1 tbspoon oil
Salt to taste

Method:
Clean and chop the metho leaves coarsely. Heat oil in a pan temper with cumin seeds. Then add the chopped onions and saute till they turn soft and translucent. Then add grated ginger and saute for a minute Then add in the methis leaves and let it cook with closed lid for 3-4 minutes.

Then add the peas, chilli powder and salt and let it cook together for 3-4 minutes. Then add the cinnamon powder and mix well.

Reduce the heat to low, and add the yogurt, stirring it well. Let it cook for 1-2 minutes and then take it off the heat.

Serve warm with some naan, roti or chapati.

Almost Spring Chicken Salad

2009-03-30T22:33:00.003-04:00

The weather has been playing games for the last couple of weeks. Just when I think it's good to go out in a light jacket, the wind picks up or when I am all bundled up, it's nice and sunny in the afternoon. But when the weather forecast said snow, I balked. "NO MORE SNOW," I wanted to yell. But this first bloom I saw in the front yard cheered me up. I know spring can't be that far away.

This chicken salad is my defiance. I call it "Almost spring chicken salad" with colorful vegetables like tender lettuce, strawberries thrown in together. The dressing is lemon juice, sesame oil, cumin powder and it makes the salad fabulous.

Method:
2 chicken breasts ( this is from the chicken leftover from the previous recipe)
Marinated in:
1 1/2 tbspoon yogurt
salt to taste
1 tspoon fresh black pepper
1/4 tspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tspoon chilli powder
1/2 tspoon garam masala

For Salad: (for 2-3)
1/2 bag lettuce and purple cabbage mix
1/2 Onion - chopped
1 avocado - chopped
6-8 strawberries - hulled and chopped
1 tomato - chopped
1 medium cucumber - chopped
1 medium carrot shredded

For dressing:
1 lemon juice
1 tbspoon sesame oil
salt to taste
1/2 tspoon roasted cumin seed powder
pinch of fresh black pepper

Method:
Marinate the chicken and keep it aside for an hour. In the meantime, pre-heat the oven to 350 deg F and then grill the chicken for about 8-10 min on each side depending on the oven. Take it out and let it cool to room temperature.

Mix the rest of the ingredients together and put in the dressing an mix it well. Then add the chicken on top and serve.

And this is my entry to Click:Wood hosted by Bee and Jai at Jugalbandi. These are two of my favorite woodwork - salad bowl and my cutting board. Don't know what would I do without them!

Murgh Masala (Masala Chicken Curry)

2009-03-25T10:20:00.004-04:00

Even though I finished the week-long Eating Down Your Fridge challenge, I am still continuing to clear my fridge. This week, we bought a few vegetables, milk and fruit. For this chicken curry, I decided to use the chicken I got from Farmer's market and had stored it in the freezer ever since.

I used a few pieces for this curry and the rest I grilled for a delicious chicken salad (recipe in the next post).

Ingredients:
5-6 Chicken pieces (I used bone pieces)
1 big onion - finely chopped
1 tbspoon grated ginger
1 tbspoon grated garlic
1 tspoon red chilli powder
1 tspoon turmeric powder
1 tspoon cumin powder
1 tspoon coriander powder
2 whole green cardamom
2-3 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
7-8 black peppers
2 bay leaves
1 dry red chilli
1 tspoon cumin seeds
3 ripe tomatoes, pureed
salt to taste
1 1/2 tbspoon oil
1 cup water

Method:
I used whole garam masala for this curry. I put it in right at the very beginning and let it cook through the whole process. It gave a wonderful flavor to the chicken masala.

Rub the chicken with turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt and set it aside for 30-40 min.

Heat oil in a thick bottomed non-stick pan and saute the chicken pieces on both sides for 2-3 minutes each. Temper the remaining oil with dry red chilli, cumin seeds, bay leaves and the whole garam masala.

Once they have plumped up, add in the grated ginger and garlic and saute till it starts to give it's aroma. Then add in the onions. Let it cook til they've softened and start to turn brown. Then add in the tomato puree, chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander and cumin seed powder and let it cook til the water has almost evaporated and it is all mixed well together.

Add in the chicken pieces and water and cook it on medium heat for 15-22 minutes till the chicken is cooked and there is a nice curry base.

Serve warm with naan or rice.

Eating Down the Fridge: Mission Accomplished!

2009-03-15T21:53:00.002-04:00

Eating down the fridge has been an interesting challenge! It forced us to find interesting and creative ways once we ran out of the usual options.

And we discovered things in the fridge and pantry that I had forgotten about. I found bagels for brunch with delicious cheddar and onion omelet. Added to discovered list was bread that was promptly thrown away before it hurt anyone, but also turkey meat balls which made a delicious lunch. I finally used the methi sitting in the fridge to make methi matar malai and ended the week on a high note!

The trying part in the challenge came when we started running dangerously low on milk on day 5 and ran out on day 6. We invited a friend to tea only to realize that we had no milk! We wavered for a bit, but decided to stick with it.

As soon as I finish writing this post, we are going grocery shopping. Can't wait for some fresh greens for a salad.

Eating Down the Fridge Day 4

2009-03-12T20:57:00.002-04:00

Now that the freezer is clearing up, I am discovering things I didn't know existed in the freezer. While pondering over dinner choices, I found a pack of frozen rotis we had bought more than a month ago to try, and then promptly forgot. You can imagine our surprise and pleasure at finding this, almost like we were on a treasure hunt! So the dinner was Baigan bharta (charred eggplant with spices) dal and rotis along with yogurt. Not bad for Day 4, wouldn't you say?

But no pictures of our lunchbox today. We overslept and then hurried to get out of the door on time.

Lunch: Leftover couscous and chicken (and it tastes even better the second day.)

Snacks: grapes, almonds and sweet popcorn

Dinner: Dal, Baigan bharta, rotis and yogurt.

We have a dinner invitation for tomorrow night that was planned before I knew we were participating in this Challenge. So no dinner to cook tomorrow night, but will continue it for Day 6 and Day 7.

Eating Down the Fridge Day 3

2009-03-11T22:01:00.004-04:00

Day 3, we're half-way through Eating down the Fridge. Suddenly I am more aware of food items running out and looking at the stock in the fridge and pantry with fresh eyes. Several of you have commented that we are eating healthy and that is probably true. If we still had bread, I am sure we would have made sandwich with Trader Joe's masala burgers (which are always there is the freezer) and taken that for lunch a couple of days. But, that option is not there this week as we ran out of bread on Day 1. We have to come up with other options. And those options have been fun, and interesting so far!

Plus, I haven't even mentioned the snacks I indulge in with my chai.

What isn't fun was that I heard Chipotle in Ann Arbor was giving away free burritos today. It had to be this week! :( We didn't go there and to treat ourselves, we had a wonderful Moroccan inspired dinner. I marinated chicken breasts with Moroccan spices and made a couscous salad with fresh vegetables (leftover greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, leftover olives, and onions). It was fantastic!

I am sure to make this again, after I restock couscous (we finished it today) :)

So here is how our food day looked like:

Lunch: Quinoa with leftover tofu, black beans curry.

Snacks: Apple, grapes and roasted almonds

Dinner: Couscous salad with grilled chicken.

Eating Down the Fridge Day 2

2009-03-10T21:14:00.002-04:00

So day 1 was easy. As many of you pointed out, we had delicious and healthy food through the day. Sure, there is some planning to do. I am learning that last night's diner makes great lunch dabba the next day. As I write this, I am planning tomorrow's lunch and I think I just came up with a great idea!

Before I digress, let me tell you all about today. I got up again to pack food for the day.

Lunch for Aswin: Leftover rice and avial.
Lunch for me: It was a busy day. So I had non fat yogurt with brown sugar, strawberries (that we got a week ago) and blueberries. I got the blueberries about a week and a half ago. Since then I have been thinking of ways to use it. There is still half box left. Maybe I will make a dessert :)

Snacks: Apple, grapes and roasted almonds.

Dinner: Aswin made dinner today as I worked late on a deadline. I came home to Aswin grumbling that there are probably two more frozen mixed veg packs that we need to use! But there was delicious Tofu, black beans and mixed veg curry with rotis and pickle for dinner. (Pre-made rotis ran out today as we didn't pick them up from the Indian store this week!)

Eating Down the Fridge Challenge

2009-03-09T22:12:00.001-04:00

While web browsing I came across an announcement for Eating Down the Fridge Challenge. Till then I had not really thought about what or how many times we eat outside. The best way to find out, I think, is to try it out. So this week I am taking the one-week long challenge - Eating down the Fridge.

No shopping for food items, and no eating outside. Let's see how we do. I will be chronicling our food for a week here. :)

Day 1:
I got up early despite losing and hour, and packed food to get us through the day.

Our lunch: baked salmon, greens and fire-roasted pepper hummus sandwich with whole wheat bread. (Since I had not shopped, bread ran out today.)

Snacks: Apple, Roasted Almonds and cranberries

Dinner was easy. Aswin had already made rasam and avial before. So I just made some brown rice and we had a leisurely dinner :)

Don't forget to come back and see our menu for Day 2.

Baked Tandoori Style Salmon

2009-03-08T19:13:00.004-04:00

You know how fond I am of doing a one pot meal during weeknights. When I came home last week on Thursday, I was in the mood for minimal cooking but lots of flavor and spices. As it was almost the end of the week, my choices were limited. After some thought, I took out the salmon and decided to bake it tandoori style with some roast vegetables. Two hours later, I had some delicious dinner on the table!

I have to confess, this was my first time baking fish with tandoori masala, and I had no idea if it was going to be a good fit. But you can look at the results. And the yogurt marinade, in my opinion, brought out the creaminess of the salmon which of course complimented the spices.

Ingredients:
24 ounces salmon
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tbspoon lemon juice
1 tbspoon minced ginger-garlic paste
1 tspoon cumin seed powder
3/4 tspoon red chilli powder
1/2 tspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tspoon garam masala powder
pinch of fresh ground pepper
Salt to taste

Method:
Thaw the salmon. In a bowl mix the yogurt with the spices. Put it in a plastic bag, put in the fish, mix it together and let it marinade for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 370 deg F. Place the salmon (and it my case, the salmon and the veggies) on a tray and bake it for 20-30 min till the fish is completely cooked. After baking it for 22 min, I put the heat to broil for last 3 min to get some of the browning you see in the picture.

Serve warm.

Mulor shaak (Radish Greens)

2009-03-02T19:05:00.003-05:00

I have been picking up bunches of radish with greens esp from the Farmer's Market. I would use the radish different ways and throw away the greens. But when my parents were here over the summer, they were horrified that I would throw away the greens.

"Eta diye bhalo saag hobe," (this will make delicious greens) my mom said as she rescued one such bunch. And yes, it was delicious with a touch of nuts at the very end! Since then, I always save these greens to make it into this simple dish.

Ingredients:
Radish greens - 1 big bunch (or 2 small ones) washed and chopped
Green Chilli - 1
Kalo Jeera or Nigella seeds - 1/2 tspoon
pinch of turmeric powder
Red Chillies - 1
toasted sliced almonds - 1 tbspoon
Salt to taste
1 tspoon oil

Method:
Temper the oil with kalo jeera, and red chilli. Then add in the radish greens, green chilli, and turmeric powder. Let it cook till it is almost done. Add the toasted almonds, let it cook for a couple of minutes and take it off the heat.

It is usually served as a first course in a Bengali household.

Cleaning the fridge with labra

2009-02-25T21:08:00.003-05:00

You know how it happens, I buy a bunch of different vegetables, cook a few and there is just a little bit of it sitting in the fridge for the next few days. Before I know, there is a little bit of pumpkin, radish, potatoes, eggplant etc in different bags. I was in one of my cleaning moods and wanted to get rid of these little bags. So I decided to make labra.

Labra is a classic Bengali dish which is a mix of different vegetables delicately flavored with panch phoron, little bit of ginger and really brings out the flavor of the vegetable. I think it is a great way to use these leftover vegetables and if you ask me "you can make labra with anything you have in your fridge".

Ingredients: (serves 2-4)
1/4 pumpkin - chopped
2 potatoes - skinned and chopped
3-4 radish - chopped
1/2 eggplant - chopped
2 medium carrots - chopped
1/4 medium cauliflower - chopped in small florets
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 tspoon panch phoron (panch phoron is a mix of five spices: fenugreek, mustard, cumin, nigella and fennel seeds)
1 1/2 tspoon ginger - grated
1 green chilli
1 dry red chilli
1/4 tspoon turmeric powder
1/4 tspoon cumin seed powder
1/4 tspoon sugar
salt to taste
1 tbspoon oil
up to 1/4 cup water
bunch of cilantro - chopped for garnish (optional)

Method:
Take a deep bottomed ban in which all the vegetables will fit. Heat oil and temper it with panch phoron, ginger, bay leaf and the chillies. Then add all the vegetables one by one and saute it for 2-3 minutes.

Then add the turmeric powder, cumin seed powder, salt and water and let it cook on medium low heat on closed lid for 10-12 minutes. Add more water if needed. Keep mixing it every 3-4 minutes to check. The water should all evaporate and the vegetables should all mix together.

Garnish with cilantro and serve warm with rice, khichuri or rotis. You can also add boris for added crunch.

Squash, Pumpkin, Black Beans & Chicken Soup

2009-02-21T14:09:00.005-05:00

After a week of melting snow and temperature in the 40s, my hopes were rising that spring was finally on its way. Then came today's storm. As I write this by the window, I can see the snow piling up the front porch, the car in the driveway and the trees.

I had plans of doing a takeout lunch, but after skidding all over the road on the way back from the gym, I refused to go out again. So I picked up what I had at home and make myself a quick soup. And it felt really comforting eating this soup by the window, being all warm and cozy, while the storm rages on outside.

Ingredients:
2 carrots - cleaned and chopped
1/4 butternut squash - cut in cubes
1 medium onion - sliced thinly
1 big broccoli
1 chicken breast - cooked and shredded
4-6 cups chicken broth
1/2 tspoon cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
1 dry red chlli
2 cloves garlic - grated
1/2 can black beans - washed
1-2 cloves
1/2 tspoon fresh black pepper powder
1/2 tspoon coriander powder
1/4 tspoon turmeric powder
1 -2 tbspoon oil
Salt to taste
1-2 tbspoon shredded cheese - for garnish

Method:
Take a deep and thick bottomed pan. Heat the oil and temper it with cloves, bay leaves, cumin seeds, and dry red chilli.

Then add the vegetables and let it saute for a couple of minutes. Then add the spices, chicken broth and let it cook on low medium heat till the vegetables are almost cooked. It may be 15-25 minutes.

Then add in the shredded chicken and black beans. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes everything is cooked.

Serve it in bowl and top it with shredded cheese. Enjoy the creamy, spicy soup!

Tofu mixed rice

2009-02-15T10:16:00.004-05:00

I still remember our first Valentine's Day. Aswin had made delicious dinner at home, I had picked up dessert from a French pastry store, we had flowers, music, candles and we were about to sit down for a romantic dinner when our friends started dropping by one by one and soon it became a roaring party! Since then, we celebrate Valentine's day with dinner outside. This year too we had dinner outside at a delicious Japanese restaurant.

I made this tofu mixed rice the night before and as we sat down to dinner, I lit some candles and it brought back the memories from all the years ago.

I used a mix of vegetables I had at home- cabbage, mushrooms, peppers, carrots, peas, chard, and onions. You can substitute it with your choice of vegetables. This is a one-pot meal and by now you know that I am a big fan!

Ingredients: (serves 2-3)
1/2 block tofu
1/4 cup cabbage shredded
1 -2 brad chard leaves
1/4 cup peas
1/4 cup frozen peppers
1 medium onion
4-5 grape tomatoes
1" grated ginger
1/4 cup carrots
1/2 cup mushrooms - chopped
2 eggs (optional)
1 1/2 cup brown rice
4-5 tbspoon soy sauce
1 -2 tbspon teriyaki sauce
1-2 tbspon chilli sauce
1/2 tspoon coriander powder
1 dry red chilli
1/2 tspoon cumin seeds
1/4 tspoon turmeric powder
1/4 tspoon red chilli powder
1 tbspoon oil
salt to taste
bunch of cilantro (chopped)

Method:
Like mole, this involves a few steps of preparing the different ingredients and it all come together.

Chop all the fresh vegetables and thaw the frozen ones. Then, cut the tofu in cubes and saute them lightly with a pinch of red chilli powder, salt and turmeric powder. Keep them aside.

Cook the rice till it is cooked. Drain the excess water (if cooking it outside) and set it aside.

Heat oil in a deep pan and temper it with cumin seeds and dry red chilli. Then add the grated ginger and onions and let it saute for 2-3 minutes. Add in the tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, mushrooms, carrots, peas, and chard and let it all cook together for 2-3 minutes. Then add in the soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, chilli sauce, coriander powder, rest of turmeric powder, chili powder, and salt. Once the liquid is drying up and the vegetables are almost cooked, add in the tofu and let it all cook together for 3-4 minutes.

Then add in the rice little at a time and stirring it in and mixing it well together.

In another pan, scramble the eggs with salt and pepper and then mix it in the tofu rice. Let it all cook together for a minute. Then take it off the heat.

Serve warm garnished with fresh cilantro.

The theme for Click this month is Tofu/Cheese. So one of the pictures is headed to Jugalbandi (as soon as I decide...)

Chicken mole with beans & rice

2009-02-11T21:57:00.004-05:00

I have been missing for almost two weeks. It's the same reasons all over again- work, busy, nasty cold that refuses to go away. But I have also been spending my evenings mostly watching film and docs, making comments and comparing notes with fellow screeners. Finally, having watched the last batch, I emerge from my hibernation!

In the midst of all this, we celebrated our anniversary. We went to Zingerman's Roadhouse for this year's dinner. For those who don't know, Zingermans is a legend around here with a deli, creamery, and bakery along with the restaurant. The story goes that whenever Mario Batali is going to his Michigan lakeside house, he stops at Zingerman's deli to stock up. Coming back to our anniversary dinner, we had some fabulous crabcakes for starters. Aswin opted for grilled fish and I got some gumbo for our entrees. The food was fantastic, but the highlight was donut sundae, which we licked clean.

For our special dinner at home, I decided to make chicken mole. Pretty adventurous your say! It probably was, considering it was a weeknight, but I did some prep work before. Still I took some shortcuts (didn't leave the seeds out of all chilies) and then paid for it by adding more brown sugar. I also left it little chunky, not pureeing the sauce completely.

Inspite of all the shortcuts, and omitted steps, the result was unlike anything I have eaten before. It's bitter, sweet, hot, smoky, almost velvety all at once, and absolutely fabulous! We had ours with beans, rice and cucumber salad.

This is probably one of the most complex recipes I have ever tried. I used the recipe by Rick Bayless and modified it to our quantities.

Ingredients:
(Source: Turkey mole by Rick Bayless, jugalbandi's recommendation)

The chilies:
4 chilies mulatos
2 medium dried chilies anchos
2 pasilla

The nuts, seeds:
2 tbspoon cup sesame seeds
1/2 tspoon coriander seeds
1/3 cup unskinned almonds
1/2 medium onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and grated
1 can of chopped tomatoes, well drained

The spices:
1/2 tablet 100% chocolate, roughly chopped
4-5 peppercorns
2 cloves
1/2 teaspoon aniseed
1 inch cinnamon stick

5-6 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 pack chicken thighs and breasts
(cumin seed and chillie powder to season the chicken pieces)
Salt to taste
1/3 cup sugar

Method:
The key to making this recipe is following the steps, grouping the ingredients and proceeding with it step by step.

Season the chicken with salt, dry red chilli powder and cumin powder. Saute it till it turns brown. Drain and keep it aside.

Then stem and deseed the chilies. I omitted the step and as a result the sauce was much hotter. Fry the chilli , soak it in hot water bowl for 30 minutes, then take the chillies an add it to a mixer. Puree it and keep it aside.

Next toast the almonds, coriander and seasame seeds, then add it to the tomato mixture. Fry the garlic, onions, till they are starting to brown and raisins till they are plump. Add it to the blender. To this, add the chocolate which is already roughly chopped. I omitted the bread/tortilla from the recipe and didn't miss it either. But I think it would have soaked some of the heat from the chillies!

Puree it together adding chicken broth if necessary.

Pour the tomato and chocolate mixture to a thick bottomed pan. Add the chilies puree to this and simmer it on medium low heat. Once the sauce starts to come together, mix in 4-5 cups of chicken broth, salt and simmer on medium low heat. Finally season it with jaggery or brown sugar. If the sauce is thicker than heavy cream, thin it with a little broth. I added the chicken pieces and let it cook together for the last 20-25 minutes.

Serve with rice and beans.

I had the added incentive of making this great dish because a friend (N.A.) gifted me some authentic Peruvian chocolate. Thanks N, next time you are in town, we have to make this together!

Previous anniversary dinners:
Fish Biryani
Poached Seabass an Quinoa Pilaf

Homemade Applesauce

2009-01-29T21:18:00.009-05:00

This year I have been blogging about the A-2 Farmer's Market and it was so wonderful walking there every Saturday for the weekly grocery. It is open even now, but there isn't much to choose from. I can't wait to go back. Infact, I went to the market till mid December, even when it was biting cold and snow was crunching under our boots, and Aswin joked that I was becoming a "Farmer's Market Fiend" :)

It did feel strange to walk back into a regular store to shop for the weekly groceries. One of the things I did over the summer and fall was that I bottled a lot of summer goodies. I made curry sauce, applesauce with apples from the tree we have in front of the house, jellies and even froze vegetables. Especially for times like this. So when I came home today and felt like eating something sweet after dinner, I opened a bottle of applesauce and had some with ice-cream. It made the snow we are expecting tonight (2-3 inches) easier to digest!

Ingredients:
3- 4 lbs apples
juice from 1 lemon
1 tspoon lemon zest
2-3 sticks cinnamon
3-4 cloves
1/2 - 1 cup dark brown sugar (adjust according to your taste and you can make it with light brown or white sugar too)
1/2 tspoon salt
water

Method:
Cut and quarter the apples and cover them with lemon juice. I left peels on some of the apples to test the texture. Then put the apples in a large pot with the rest of the ingredients.

Bring it to a boil and then lower heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes till it gets all soft and mushy. Remove the cinnamon, cloves and adjust sugar.

Then take it in batches and mash or put it in a mixer.

Serve with ice-cream or as is :)

Brunch with Friends (and a recipe for tencha)

2009-01-25T21:49:00.007-05:00

Filmmaker Paromita Vohra was in town this weekend as part of a series on Indian cities in the global era (link), and we had a chance to chat with her over brunch at our place this morning.

Brunch - rava idlis, shavige bath, crisp dosais, okra sambar, and tencha - of course, extended well into the afternoon with several cups of tea and coffee! Instead of chutney or thikkat meet (spicy gunpowder/milagai pudi), we decided to try what tanjore marathis call tencha - a tangy yogurt-cilantro sauce. It's easy to make and if you ask me, well with just about anything!

Ingredients:
1 bunch of Cilantro
2-3 Green chili
1" inch Ginger
1-2 cloves Garlic
1 1/2 cup yogurt

For tempering:
1 tspoon Mustard seeds
1/2 tspoon Urad dal
1 dry red chilli
Asafoetida
1 tspoon oil
Salt to taste

Method:
Chop cilantro, and grind to a paste with green chilis, ginger, and garlic and salt. Mix it with yogurt and make it to sauce. Now heat oil and temper it with mustard seeds, urad dal and serve.

It went well with both idlis and shavige bath.