PAYT POOJA

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

2011-11-23T08:10:00.000-08:00

Happy THANKSGIVING everyone.

I've taken a hiatus from the blog as I've been busy with revising and publishing my books on Amazon through Kindle Publishing..

I hope you'll look for my latest book, 'Prescription for Love' on Amazon and read it on your Kindle Reader or iPad, iPhone or even on Mozilla on your computer.

It is a traditional romance set in California.

I am also working on revising the six books I published with Silhouette in the 90's and am working on these six romances coming out under my Homespun Romance Series.

I do apologize for neglecting the blog...I have been cooking and plan on getting back to posting easy recipes that cut our cooking time in half so we can get on with the other things we want/have to do.

Here's a good recipe for a happy, safe holiday season with:

1 cup joy

1 cup thoughtfulness

1 cup peace and

4 cups contentment.

Easy Breezy Shrimp

2011-06-30T17:38:00.000-07:00

EASY BREEZY SHRIMP

A recent guest and friend gave me the perfect gift...a recipe so easy and quick PLUS one that meets the great taste requirements of all spoiled Indian taste buds!

I have made it so many times since Sridevi's visit but just put off sharing it as I kept forgetting to get a photograph before they all vanished.

So here's the recipe for your eating pleasure. Remember I'm making this dish for one so the portions are small.

As for the vegetarians, this works great with sliced zucchini and sliced eggplant too!

5 large frozen shrimp.

1-2 tablespoon medium sooji/rawa.

Chilli powder and salt to taste.

A pinch of hing/asafoetedia.

Mix sooji, chilli powder, salt and hing on a plate.

Rinse shrimp in warm water and place on plate.

The coating will stick to the wet shrimp...if they don't pat gently, turn and do the same to the other side.

In a small non-stick skillet heat two teaspoons olive oil.

Place shrimp in oil.

After 3-4 mins turn and cook other side for 3-4 mins.

I turn the stove down to medium after putting the shrimp in as I want them to cook slowly.

Leave for longer if you want the coating to get darker but I love the golden brown color with parts of the shrimp peeping out.

From freezer to mouth this dish takes 10 minutes, tops.

Leftover coating mix can be placed in a sandwich bag, labelled and stored in the freezer for next time.

The coating is crunchy and delicious; surprisingly so. Next I'm going to try it with a fillet of tialpia and report back when I remember to do it.

5 star Vegetarian Burritos, Indian Style

2011-05-31T09:17:00.000-07:00

5 star Vegetarian Burritos, Indian style.

When we were young my mother would take the hot chappattis off the tawa, smeared it with ghee, sprinkled it with sugar and give us each a 'roly-poly' to eat.

These burritos are like roly-poly's, with a different filling.

I tried this recipe for the first time, a while back when I had guests from India stopping by for brunch. I wanted to make a dish in one, something different and yet one that appealed to Indian taste buds and this turned out to be a hit.

Yesterday I made it again, after a year or more, to take to a friend's place for lunch.

The original recipe came from : http://kitchen-goddess.yumsugar.com/Baked-Smothered-Burritos-107864

Both times I omitted the meat.

Follow this recipe. It comes complete with great pictures so I'm not posting any.

My variations:

The first time I used vegetarian refried beans.

For yesterday's dish I soaked fresh pinto beans overnight, then cooked them for 2-3 hours and then used a food processor to make then into a paste (it's a little watery and should be).

Then I fried a large chopped onion till translucent, added grated garlic, chilli powder, cumin and salt and the bean mixture and let it cook till it was thick (about five-seven minutes).

I added chopped Mexican canned chillies as I couldn't find the Hatch sauce.

I added a couple of tablespoons of the vinegar the chillies come in as it enhances the taste.

I left out the olives but that was just a personal choice.

I used 8" whole wheat tortillas to make the dish more nutritious and reduce the size of the burritos.

I followed Yumsugar's recipe for the filling and baking, putting in less raw onion.

I used mild Picante sauce and that had enough heat in it for this dish for us. I guess the chilli powder had already added some heat.

Making the pinto beans from scratch did make a difference to the taste but I just wanted to try it out once.

While all the prep (chopping fine, grating) takes a while it is worth it as the end result is great.

The payoff to the effort invested is that these burritos freeze and re-heat excellently and one of them is a great lunch or dinner for a diabetic.

Changes to a recipe are supposed to make it one's own but I still want Yumsugar to have 80% of the credit for this one. It has joined my 5 star club of top of the line dishes.

Compliments followed every bite with this dish, and I hope you'll try it out.

Cut in half, the burritos make a good appetizer too with all the tangy tastes that appeal to Indian taste buds. One could serve two dipping Picante sauces: mild and hot, on the side.

5 star Zucchini Bread

2011-04-21T08:41:00.001-07:00

This is my daughter's recipe taken over by me, when she married and left home. We can't believe it's a 'bread' recipe...it's more like a fruit cake or, to be really accurate, I should say vegetable cake. Call it by any name...it's yummylicious!

I grew zucchini in my garden for years and she discovered the recipe in a Betty Crocker Cookbook and we've kept changing/adding to it over the years.

Recently I tweaked the recipe for a friend who doesn't eat eggs.

For those of you who don't get zucchini where you are, it is similar to 'lauki'. I have often used zucchini in sambar as if it were lauki.

They are close cousins.

I'm giving you both the original recipe and the new shortcut; adapted to my 'easily-tired' stage.

I hope you'll try the original recipe too because it's on the topmost rung of 'Tried and True Recipes', in our family.

lan, the flowers were added with you in mind...the nasturtiums have run amok in my garden this year with all the rain we've been having.

5 star zucchini bread

This zucchini bread recipe makes two large loaves or four mini loaves.

3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups granulated sugar (I use 11/2 c. as raisins add sweetness too)
2 cups peeled & grated zucchini ( use medium sized grater)
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
(I use 1 ½ cups all purpose and 1 ½ cups chapatti atta (whole wheat flour) from the Indian grocery store).
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup raisins

Beat eggs until light and foamy; add vegetable oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla. Mix lightly but blend thoroughly.

Mix together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices; mix lightly. Add dry ingredients to first mixture, stirring to blend. Stir in nuts and raisins.
Pour batter into two loaf pans, 9x5x3-inches in size. Bake at 325° for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near center of a loaf comes out clean.

I used foil mini loaf pans and it baked in 35-40 mins.

**********************************.

New Zucchini Bread Recipe

One box yellow cake mix.

(you could use the spice cake mix and omit the cinnamon, cloves and allspice).

2 cups peeled & grated zucchini. (I use the medium sized hand grater/Cuisinart medium grater).

½ cup raisins

2/3 cup walnuts (Chopped by hand).

1 level tablesppon ground cinnamon.

1 level teaspoon ground cloves

1 level teaspoon allspice

(Next time I'll use 1 cup walnuts, 2/3 cup raisins.)

Follow directions on cake mix box for other ingredients like oil and water.

ADD 1/3 cup oil and 1/3 cup water extra to mix.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

I substituted 3 Tbsps yogurt for the 3 eggs.

(In our home it's supposed to be buttermilk that's substituted for eggs, but I use yogurt and add a couple of tablespoon of water so it mixes up in the food processor.)

When the cake mix, oil, water and buttermilk is blended, add the raisins, walnuts and grated zucchini and ran the food processor for 30 seconds.

Do not over beat.

Check the consistency of the batter… we all know what the consistency of cake batter from a box should be…if too thick add a little water.

Pour into well-greased loaf pans or a baking dish. (I use mini foil pans as I have standing orders from friends for gifts of zucchini bread.)

Bake at 350 for 45-50 mins or till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Check after 30 mins.

Remember baking time depends on the kind of oven you have and this cake took a long time though it was in 4 mini loaf pans.

Enjoy…your friends and family will never guess this bread/cake has zucchini in it so you might want to play a 'guess the secret ingredient' game, before you tell them.

TRIFLE WITHOUT MILK

2011-03-12T10:16:00.000-08:00

A friend's comment that she was having adverse reaction to dairy foods (particularly milk), made me work out my favorite trifle without milk. I tried not to compromise the taste so it took three tries and many tastings (my favorite part), to get this right.

Trifle Without Milk

One box white cake mix (comes out the best and lightest).
One pound fresh strawberries, sliced. (You can used canned, frozen fruit).
4 cups water
4 Tbsps cornstarch
4 Tbsps splenda/sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch cardamom (optional)
1/2 cup strawberry jam.
Juice of one lemon...2 Tbsps
Sherry (optional)
1 small can pineapple juice or if you're using canned fruit then juice from can.
1 tub whipped non-dairy topping.
Hershey's chocolate syrup for decoration.

Bake cake according to package directions.
Allow to cool.
(I use about half of the cake baked in a 9 by 11 pan for a large bowl of trifle for 6-8 people and all the cake for 16-20 people).
If making it for 16-20 people double the custard recipe.
First set aside some strawberry slices for decoration.
In a small bowl mix cornstarch with cold water till smooth.
Bring rest of water to boil in a saucepan, add cornstarch, keep stirring till it boils for 2 mins.
Add Splenda/sugar, sliced fruit, vanilla essence, cardamom, jam and cook till fruit is soft.
Add lemon juice.
Taste. It should be sweet but not TOO sweet with just a hint of lemon.
Mix should be thick but not too thick...if it is, add some more water.
It should be like a custard at this stage or thick idli batter.

Arrange cake slices in one layer...I layer it with 2" cubes as I just have one layer...you can do slices if you want to repeat layers.
Pour sherry evenly over cake, add pineapple juice to wet cake but don't drown it.
Pour strawberry mix over it...this too will go into the cake but the rest will set as an even layer.
Refrigerate till cool.
Spread whipped topping in a layer.
Decorate with chocolate and strawberry slices.
Serve well chilled.

The last time I made it the trifle in ready-to-serve individual glass bowls and the layers showed up well. The friend who doesn't tolerate milk was thrilled and other friends I've made it for didn't miss the custard. Everyone agrees this is a scrumptious dessert.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2011-01-04T17:53:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to one and all.

May 2011 be filled with health, wealth and happiness, and if all that does not add up to prosperity, I don't know what does.

I have been busy since Thanksgiving, trying to clean out my freezer.

By that I mean, eat all the dishes, I had stored there.

That resolution made HD and me happy throughout December. When we weren't eating with friends or family, we had 'instant meals' to heat and eat! He loved the minimal washing up, and I loved the time to turn my attention to all the holiday fun.

To date, I still haven't met my goal of freezer emptying, so I abandoned that temporarily, and started making a few new dishes.

I've often wondered if everything we bloggers try comes out great...in my case that isn't so.

I've also often wondered about those people on cooking shows who take a bite of what they've made and say, "Ummm...so good...so delicious etc...."

Do they always get it right?

Anyway, to get back to my experiences, this recipe for corn fritters intrigued me, but also left me feeling it needed something more. I got the main idea for this recipe from 3 Thai cooking sites and I'm dubbing it a 'work in progress'.

Who can resist a fried dish in this cold weather? I'm posting this recipe now, instead of trying to perfect it, hoping for two things: 1. everyone will enjoy it now

2. some cooking genius will come up with some advice to help me make a good dish, great.

Tofu Corn Fritters

1 cup rice flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce (fish sauce can be used instead)

8 ozs firm tofu cut into small cubes

1 cup frozen corn kernels (you can use fresh kernels off the cob if you want to).

1/2 cup fresh chopped coriander

1/2 red bell pepper chopped

4 green onions sliced fine

Red chilli powder and crushed pepper to taste.

(HD would prefer plenty of sliced green chillies, which I will try next time.)

A pinch of turmeric.

1-2 kaffir lime leaves, available at Oriental grocery stores snipped into slivers...I omitted this as I couldn't find any. (wish I had added some lime juice or a tsp of vinegar instead).

Mix rice, baking powder and spices well.

Beat eggs with oyster and soy sauce.

Mix all ingredients together.

Deep fry by heating oil well, dropping mix by the teaspoonful into the oil.

Let the underside brown, turn over and remove when both sides are a deep golden brown.

Don't mess with it too soon or it will break up in the oil...it will also do this if the oil isn't hot enough.

I fried one alone first, for a taste test, and decided the needed just a pinch of salt.

Serve hot with sweet and sour chilli sauce.

Delicious, but I would have liked a little more crunch in it...maybe next time I'm going to add some chopped red onion.

Also, I'm going to mix the batter and fry straight away...I think letting the batter rest a while, softened the scallion and bell pepper, which otherwise might have given me the texture I'm looking for.

The tofu was an unexpected ingredient that tasted delicious.

lan, this one's for you.

STUFF IT!

2010-11-26T17:01:00.000-08:00

Most people stuffed with the Thanksgiving feast, are wondering what to do with leftovers.

When the kids were still at home, I would shred the remaining turkey and freeze it, using it later in turkey stir fried rice.

It's easy: take any stir fried rice recipe and substitute shredded turkey for the meat/chicken in the recipe.

I've even minced left over turkey in the food processor and frozen it for use in keema fry, koftas, kebabs and turkey burgers....the roasted turkey is lean and delicious.

My turkey burgers are made with finely chopped onion, cilantro,minced ginger, pepper and chilli powder. Fry half the chopped onion, add everything else including turkey mince, shape into patties and fry on non stick skillet using a little Pam spray on each side of the burger to brown it.

If the burger is too dry and falls apart...add a beaten egg to the mixture.

To lessen the carbs my 'burgers' go between two slices of bread instead of a bun.

These burgers, broken into little pieces are excellent used as a stuffing in tomatoes/bell peppers.

In fact, I decided some years ago, that I like turkey left overs better than the actual roast turkey, going so far as to roast a small turkey just to have enough to use in the dishes I like best.

Over the last month, I've been collecting other stuffed recipes and came up with this list:

Tomatoes stuffed with: pilaf, or biriyani, or tomato rice, or 'fried keema': a dish I make with turkey mince, garam masala and lots of fried, chopped onion.

Leftover roast turkey mince is great for this.

Stuffing must be dry when done and fairly cool before use.

Slice the top of the tomato carefully, saving the piece for a 'hat'.

Using a teaspoon or a grapefruit spoon, scoop out the inside carefully.

This pulp can be added to stuffing and cooked till dry, or saved for another dish.

Even the firmest tomatoes have a lot of moisture inside (picture 1) so I patted mine dry with a paper towel.

Stuff tomatoes, put 'hats' on, smear outside of tomatoes with olive oil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes...if you like your tomatoes cooked more/broiled...go for it.

I don't like my tomatoes squishy hence the short baking time.

I used tomatoes on the vine...and they looked great.

Capsicums/bell peppers do well with the above stuffings too.

My favorite stuffing for this is: potatoes.

For the potatoes: fry chopped onion, add one tomato, chilli powder and one chopped green chilli, chopped coriander, a little minced garlic and ginger, a pinch of turmeric, and cooked cubed potatoes.

Keep frying till all the moisture is absorbed.

Slice a 'hat' off the capsicum, de-seed, remove white membranes, stuff the potatoes into the peppers, put hats back on, smear outside of capsicum with olive oil and bake at 350 for 45 mins or longer.

Optional: When HD used to cook, he would leave hats off and top with a little butter.

These can also be left open, sprinkled with Italian breadcrumbs and dotted with butter before baking.

For capsicums I like the outside brown and well done.

The potatoes look so good in green or red capsicums/ bell peppers.

The yellow capsicums show off keema and biriyani well.

A tray of assorted bell peppers (some hatless), look great at a party.

In India, I've had small bell peppers stuffed with masala which were scrumptious.

Eggplant/brinjal/aubergine is another great veggie to stuff with keema/mince, or with fried prawns.

Slice the big American eggplant into half lengthwise, scoop out inside.

I broil the inside separately and make an eggplant 'bharta' with it (recipe below) to serve as a side dish or at another meal.

Use a knife to cube and then cut out inside of halved eggplants, leaving a half inch rim.

Stuff with spicy fried prawns.

Sprinkle Italian bread crumbs on top.

Dot with butter.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 45 mins. or till outer skin of eggplant is soft and shriveled.

Some people add the flesh of the eggplant to the mince and let it cook but I prefer to use it for this recipe given below.

Eggplant bharta: Broil eggplant, remove inside.

As in the above recipe, remove inside of eggplant and broil it.

Heat one tablespoon oil in a pan.

Put in rai, curry leaves, red chillies and one chopped onion.

When onion is almost browned add eggplant, chilli powder or chopped green chillies, and a pinch of turmeric. Simmer for a minute. Serve hot with chappattis.

Karela or bitter gourd stuffed with potatoes.

Banana peppers stuffed with potatoes.

Large mushrooms: My daughter makes this and I will get the recipe from her.

I've heard of stuffed pumpkins and gourds, and zucchinis, stuffed fish, even stuffed cabbage!

Stuffed cabbage: separate large leaves of cabbage.

Blanch i.e place in boiling water for 2 minutes.

Strain and allow to half dry.

Place a 'ball' of potato mixture/keema in center of cabbage.

Fold over edges to cover completely...use a toothpick to hold closed.

Dip the cabbage roll in a batter of gram flour, water, chilli powder and salt.

Deep fry.

Remove toothpick before eating.

A friend in Michigan, used to make a dish that I've never tried.

She took a whole large cabbage, separated the outer leaves carefully to 'open' the cabbage.

Between the leaves she spooned a stuffing of fried onions cooked with tomatoes, peas and spices.

Half this mix was cooked but kept in it's watery state.

When the other half of the filling was dry, she ran it in a food processor for a minute, to get a rough 'mash'.

After stuffing the outer leaves of the cabbage, she then tied up the whole with kitchen string like a 'belt'.

Placing the liquid half of the peas/tomato mix in a baking dish, the cabbage was placed on top and then baked in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees for an hour.

All I remember about this dish was that it was delicious!

Bread is excellent stuffed with potatoes.

Dip bread slices in a saucer of water, turning them very quickly so they absorb just a little water.

If the get soggy, press them on a plate to squeeze out excess water.

Place a spoon of potato or keema in the center and roll up, pressing all edges firmly.

Refrigerate till dry and then deep fry.

Serve hot with mint chutney.

I've also made a loaf using ready made bread dough, thawed, rolled out to double the loaf pan width, stuffed, folded up over the stuffing, allowed to rise in a loaf pan and then baked according to package instructions...yummy.

Stuffing is a great way to use leftovers .

One of the favorites at our house is Japanese eggplants stuffed with masala...named 'Eggplant and Potato' elsewhere in this blog!

Just think up your own combo and... not just during the holidays but all year long... and stuff it!

Cheenachatti's Besan Laddus

2010-10-22T08:34:00.001-07:00

With Diwali approaching, the mind is on which sweets to make for the festival.
As always, I'm on the lookout for easy but tasty.

A question from a friend triggered a memory...I had promised myself a while back, I would try besan laddus and Lan of Cheenachatti had dedicated her recipe for besan laddus to me.
I had procrastinated never thinking I was capable of turning out good besan laddus.
The part that scared me was the holding/shaping part...I've never been good at that.
Re-reading Lan's recipe I found one didn't have to shape them while hot and a discussion
with my friend resulted in another idea...I pressed the mix into an old ice cream scoop first, turned them out, waited for them to cool a bit and then shaped them with no problem at all.

They came out so good...thanks to Lan's accuracy for details. I love writers who can describe their recipes in so much detail, one doesn't have to guess at a single thing...and the outcome is exactly what it is supposed to be. If one can try out a recipe and the outcome is superior, not ordinary, then the credit goes to the writer/cook who shared it.
So now, thanks to Lan, I can add 'maker of besan laddus' to my cooking resume.
I had to post a picture to show you how the laddus turned out.

Here's the link to her recipe:
http://cheenachatti.blogspot.com/search/label/snacks
Scroll down the page to find the besan laddus.

The only thing I changed, (as I have eaten too many besan sweets where the taste is spoiled because the besan isn't fried properly) is that I fried the besan by itself, then the sooji, before adding ghee and sugar. Fry the besan slowly, keep stirring, to make sure you get the really good smell Lan mentions, without burning the besan.

Wait one hour before tasting as the flavors really improve with time...so I made mine at 7, tasted one at 8, and one at nine. After refrigerating them overnight, I tasted one in the morning. I liked the slightly hard texture refrigerating gave my laddus...and kept tasting!
The things I do in the name of research!!!

Thanks Lan for a GREAT keeper recipe.

Coconut macaroons

2010-10-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I haven't written up any recipes since June 15th.
Too many other projects, so little time...that's my reason.
The summer heat that came in very late this year, has finally abated and I'm hoping the cooler weather will give some relief to a diabetic's perennial health issues. I have different ones with different seasons now...and the challenge is coping with them to the best of one's ability.
The nutritionist I saw this summer, helped me so much that it renewed my belief that eating properly is one cornerstone of a healthy life.
Does it mean a diabetic has to be a gastronomic saint? Of course not. In fact, indulging once in a while results in a contended mind that is happy to get back on the ' food treadmill'.

As always, I've been collecting recipes and thinking of ones that fit the criteria of quick and easy without compromising taste, so here's one of them.
Each macaroon is tiny (about half an inch across). Two of them don't raise blood sugars, as long as you control the carbohydrates you eat during the meal...and my sweet tooth would gladly sacrifice carbs for a chance to have dessert.
As for everyone else, controlling sugar and carbs is just a wise health move that gives you balanced sugars and therefore more sustained energy.

My neighbor makes these macaroons often and shares them with me, so this recipe has it's own special title:

Aurora's Coconut Macaroons.

This amount makes 72 tiny macaroons. (Aurora needs that quantity as she is always going to large parties of a hundred or more people. When I am at one of her parties, there are a minimum of 10-12 desserts, so these delicious macaroon morsels fit right in).

14 oz pkt unsweetened coconut flakes.
1 can condensed milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter.

Butter flavored Pam cooking spray.
24 cup mini muffin pan (If you don't have 3 you will have to bake 3 batches).

Set oven to 300.
Melt butter in microwave.
Cool.
In a food processor or in a bowl, whisk two eggs.
Add cooled butter.
Mix well.
Add condensed milk.
Mix well.
Add coconut flakes and fold into mixture or pulse on low till well mixed.
Spray mini muffin pan with butter flavored Pam.
Place half a teaspoon of batter into each cup.
Bake at 300 degrees for 25 mins.
Watch carefully as bottom may burn.
Remove when toasty golden brown.

TIPS:
1. If the bottoms burn slightly, it tastes great... but that's a matter of preference.
2. I pulse the flakes in the food processor first to make them a little smaller. Aurora does not.
3. These macaroons freeze well...I just popped one straight from the freezer bag into my mouth while taking pictures and it was great.
4. These would make a great holiday gift on a pretty plate, or a glass jar, or as part of a selection of other goodies.

VARIATIONS:
1. Aurora sometimes puts a couple of chocolate chips into each cup of batter.
2. I melt dipping chocolate and dip the bottom of each baked, cooled macaroon into it. If you do this: heat dipping chocolate in microwave for one minute, dip macaroons and allow to cool so chocolate can set.

Make the macaroons larger if you want to.
Aurora says the smaller ones are crunchier, the larger ones are moister, so it's your choice.
I'm going to try them with grated, toasted coconut flakes and see how I like them.

Aurora and I both say: "Enjoy!"

14 .unsweetened coconut flakes.
1 can condensed milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter (1/2 of the small stick of butter when you get 4 quarters in a pkt.)

Melt butter in microwave safe bowl.
Beat two eggs...add cooled butter.
Mix well.
Add condensed milk.
Mix well.
(I do all this in a food processor)
Add coconut flakes,.. fold into mixture.
(I do this with a wooden spoon).
Pour into mini muffin pans .. sprayed with butter flavor Pam.
(If you put in half a teaspoon of the batter, you get crunchier macaroons. If you put in 3/4 of a tsp they become softer.)
Bake at 300 for .Watch carefully till you s how your oven does with these, as bottom my burn. Top should be toasty golden brown when you take them out.

TIPS:

1. When bottom does burn a bit, the taste is heavenly.

2. Before I begin, I pulse the flakes for a few seconds in the food processor to make them a little smaller.
My neighbor prefers them as is.

These macaroons freeze well. I just ate one straight from the freezer when i took a photo break!
They were delicious warmed in the microwave and dipped in the melted chocolate too.

Variation: 1. Aurora puts a couple of chocolate chips into each cup for a delicious chocolate-coconut flavor.
2. I melt some dipping chocolate carefully in the microwave (one minute) and then dip the bottom of each macaroon in for a color contrast and a delicious treat.
Allow to cool so chocolate can harden before packing.

Super easy badam/almond halwa

2010-06-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

When we were growing up, almonds were a luxury. They were mainly a product of the beautiful state of Kashmir and was sold in the ration/grocery shops or, as in Delhi, on the roadside.
I remember my mother telling me once that the price was 500 Rs. a kilo.
When I was growing up, that was an unaffordable price for us.
Almonds were thus not an item usually found in the home kitchen.

When my Dad took us kids out in a FORD V8 on Sundays for a treat, one of us invariably ordered badam halwa . We would sit at the old drive-up restaurant in Cubbon Park, Bangalore, and unwrap the banana leaf the badam halwa came packed in, trying not to get the dripping ghee on our clothes and then enjoy every bit of the delicacy. The piece we were served would be about one inch by two, one millimeter thick and so very rich.

When my mother got some almonds, it was an EVENT for her...just slightly less important than the black puttu rice I mentioned earlier in the blog.
We kids sat around the dining table and helped shell the almonds.
Then they were soaked overnight in hot water and the troops were again mustered in the morning to peel them...how hard it was to get those almonds out, yet no complaints were voiced by minds already contemplating the enjoyment of the dishes my mother would concoct for us.

Most people who did make it 'faked it' by using cashew nuts, a very few almonds and adding almond essence for the flavor.

The quintessential badam halwa was Mom's favorite dish. She would use milk and sugar instead of the condensed milk and milk powder I have substituted in her recipe. She would cook it to the setting stage and then pour it into a greased plate and cut it into diamonds.
Then there was her badam kheer/payasam which was super delicious.
Best loved by us kids and all guests, was Mom's almond ice cream, with my brothers or the servant churning the old wooden barrel. How much anticipation laced the air, while we waited for Mom to pronounce the ice cream ready to eat. We would line up eagerly for our bowls, then run into the garden to enjoy the treat. No amount of money can buy the memories of home a good mother creates for her children.

1 cup almonds/badam
1/2 cup milk (if you are using a blender to grind nuts).
1 14 oz can of condensed milk
2 cups milk powder
1/2 tsp cardamom powder.

Blanch almonds.
TIP: Place nuts in water in a microwave safe dish and zap for 2-3 minutes. Be sure the water bubbles.
Wait a few minutes before you remove the bowl from the microwave to avoid 'flash' burns.
Cool or rinse immediately in cold water and then peel. The almond sheds its skin so easily!

Blend almonds medium coarse aka slightly grainy.
In the food processor it does not need milk, but in a blender it will so that the blades don't get jammed up.
(we used to fry this almond paste in butter, but I skip this in the interest of our already clogged arteries.)
Place almond paste on stove on medium low with condensed milk and milk powder.
Stir continuously till almond halwa falls as a mass from the spoon.
This will burn quickly so keep stirring.
Mix in cardamom powder and remove halwa from stove.
Place in bowl...can be served hot or cold.

As this is a 'rich' sweet I serve about a rounded dessert spoon in a small bowl/dish, as the picture shows.

If you want the burfee, let the almond mixture cook to setting stage and then pour into a greased plate, cool and cut into diamonds. Stir constantly.
The old test for doneness with a burfee was if it left the bottom of the pan when a path was made by a spoon and stayed at the sides without running back to cover the bottom of the pan.
Another test was dropping a little bit of the mixture into a bowl of water and rolling it into a ball...if it rolled easily, it was ready.
Nowadays cooks use a candy thermometer for the setting stage which has soft set and hard set marked on it...go close to hard set before removing the mixture from the stove.
I just use the old eyeball and spoon method. If it doesn't set the way it should, I have two choices: return it to the stove and cook it some more thereby messing another pan or dig in with a spoon and a philosophical 'there's always a next time' shrug.
Guess which alternate I opt for?

Another way to serve is rolled into half inch balls.

Burfees/sweets cut best when just about to set.
Dip a knife in warm water to cut in neat lines.

SHORTCUT: This halwa can be made in the microwave too.
Mix all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl.
Mic for 2 mins, remove, stir and mic for another 2-3 mins. Stir.
Keep doing this till you get the halwa consistency.

I thought of this after following the stove top method and scrubbing the pot I made the halwa in...just like a tube light...flicker, flicker, flicker and then the brightness!

And yes, the petals around the plate are from one of the striped roses in my garden.

Super easy gulab jamuns

2010-04-23T16:36:00.000-07:00

A tea-time special, a great dessert, a festival sweet...the gulab jamun is a perennial favorite.

Here is a light version of this old sweet...years ago an American friend named them the brown 'thingummyjigs'...and whenever she came over she called ahead to give me ample warning that she wanted some.

The original version of this recipe was brought back by my sister's mother-in-law when she returned from the States in the 70's. I've adapted it to make it even more suitable for the calorie conscious and diabetics.

For the gulab jamuns:

1 cup pancake mix. (I use a complete pancake mix...the just add water kind...if I'm making this for a party. If it is for a puja/prayer offering then I get the kind that has no eggs in it.)
1/2 cup milk powder
2 tablespoons butter melted
A few tablespoons cold milk.

Mix the first two ingredients,then add melted butter and mix lightly.
Add milk, tablespoon by tablespoon till dough holds together.
TIP: Do not add all the milk at one time and do not knead like roti/bread dough...the dough should just hold together well. Roll in bowl to smoothen top.
You'll be surprised how quickly it becomes too sticky so be slow and careful with this 'adding the milk', stage.
TIP: If it gets too sticky add another tablespoon of pancake mix.
Cover the dough and let it rest five minutes.

For the syrup:

1 1/2 cup Splenda (use only sugar if making this for children and expectant mothers...read warning labels on Splenda package).
1/2 cup sugar.

2 cups water
1 level tsp cardamom powder.
1 pinch saffron.

Place all ingredients on stove top...bring to boil...reduce heat slightly and let it boil for 5 minutes by the clock.
This gives you a one string or one 'tar' consistency syrup, which is what you want for gj's.
Divide this quantity into half and place one half in a flat bottomed dish. The other half should be cooled and refrigerated in a separate container.

To fry gulab jamuns:

Heat one inch of oil on medium heat in a flat pan.
(corn oil or canola is good for frying this...olive oil is too dense).
While oil is heating, wet your hands.
Divide dough into quarters or thirds.
Take each section and roll between your hands into a caterpillar/snake, half inch thick.
Cut into half inch segments with a knife.
If necessary wet hands again and roll each segment into a ball as lightly as possible.
TIP: Do not use pressure while rolling...keep the balls light.
Wet hands will make for outer smoothness of gj's.

TIPS ABOUT FRYING

Oil has to be heated on medium high...fry six jamuns at a time.
If oil is too cold outside will start puffing too much...see the last few in picture have bulged on one side as the oil got cooler.
If oil is too hot, outside will burn and inside will remain uncooked.
Turn the gulab jamuns after twenty seconds with a spoon...almost like dribbling with a hockey stick...so that all sides brown evenly.

TIP: Frying needs attention so make all the balls before you start frying.
Cover with a damp paper towel so dough does not dry out.
Let it get one shade darker than golden brown, remove and drain on paper towel and then put into syrup in dish... for some reason the gj's get lighter in the syrup

After frying is complete and all gj's are in the dish...cover and leave on counter.
Turn gj's, after half an hour...again using a spoon carefully, so you don't break them up...to allow all sides to absorb syrup. If they have already become too soft...leave them alone!
Refrigerate if serving in a day or two...you will notice all the syrup is absorbed.
We like eating them this way but as most people like syrup with gj's...just before serving pour second half of syrup over gj's.
Enjoy.

This comes out superb and is easy. Once you get the hang of it...it takes about ten to twelve minutes. There's no hurry, so take your time with it.
Here's the plan I follow:
Make syrup.
While making syrup, mix dough.
Take a 5 min break while dough rests.
Place oil to heat on medium.
While it is heating, roll balls.
I do this dish solo, but if there is another pair of helping hands, one can roll and one can fry.

Preservation of food

2010-03-11T17:07:00.000-08:00

Preservation of food has always concerned the women of the household in the old days.
Now as women and men both cook, it is shared equally by everybody.

Remember the days without a refrigerator?
The food that went bad in summer was quickly categorized: milk, potatoes, lentil dishes especially sambar.
There was a way to deal with everything:
Potatoes were cooked for one meal, the remainder kept near an open window where a lot of air came through. Lentils got the same treatment.
Milk was boiled 3-4 times a day and the vessel it was boiled in washed thoroughly, inspected carefully and then water boiled in it and discarded before the milkman arrived.

Then came the first Frigidaires and Kelvinators and life changed. The freezer compartment was so small though that other than making ice and ice cream, it had no space for anything else.
It wasn't till I came to America that I realized how much could be and was frozen.
As life got busier, I too cooked in large batches and stored food in the freezer.
I used it for storing food that we grew in summer: chopped tomatoes, fried eggplant, blanched green beans.
Besides freezing,bottling, canning, drying and salting food also help extend it's life.
In India my mother used the summer months to make pickle with limes and mangoes.
I remember my surprise when my mother told me people from Rajasthan and Sindh pickled every vegetable imaginable. I later realized it was because they didn't get these things all year round like we did in the South.
How intelligent they all were.

The main question about extending the shelf, refrigerator, or freezer life of any food is how long can we keep it after that.
Spices have been found beside the bodies of entombed Pharaohs that are still usable.
Pickles my cousins tell me are usable upto three years...these are the ones that are made the traditional way and stored in jars.
Once I got here, I had my own way of keeping things...I got all the spices, pickles and powders I could when I visited India and then kept them refrigerated till my next trip home. I still do that till someone brings me replacements or I buy them.
As far as I can remember nothing has spoiled.

How long should one keep things is the main question?
When the dals I bought started showing signs of insect infestation, I would throw them out. Then I got this tip: store the bags in the freezer for two weeks, then take out and all the eggs will be killed. I went two steps further: one I put every single item from the Indian grocery store into the freezer for two week, even flour and rice, two I store it all in my spare refrigerator. I have noticed that the two week freezer treatment prevents the spread of tiny insects which make all good cooks go UGH!
While veggies get moldy or change color or start smelling, dry ingredients don't have too many signs.
With dry ingredients, I'm careful to store properly and then check carefully before using. The slightest change in appearance or smell and the packet is off to the trash can.
With meat and fish in the freezer, the rule is now three months at the mo though I know people who buy and store their meat for a year or more.

Recently my niece sent me a link to a site which should help us all with this ongoing question.
Here's the link: http://stilltasty.com/

Here's to healthy eating!

KESARI

2010-03-11T09:38:00.000-08:00

KESARI is a delicacy that can be enjoyed by one and all. Traditionally, Hindus make and serve it as prasad (food that is eaten after being offered to God). In our home it was made on every full moon day for a special prayer, and we kids loved it. Efforts to duplicate the way my mother made it, come in at second best. (Can anyone duplicate a mother's dishes exactly?)
The name kesari comes from 'made with kesar' (saffron), which gives this dish it's light creamy color.

Rawa or Sooji is the main ingredient. For those who don't have an Indian store near them, cream of wheat is an adequate substitute.
For those of you buying rawa/sooji, please make sure it is the medium coarse variety.
The very fine one and the large kind make for a different taste, so as Goldilocks would say the rawa for this dish has to be medium coarse to be 'just right'.

Originally this dish had to be made with equal quantities of rawa, sugar, ghee and water.
It would be drowned in ghee.
Over the years I have adapted this dish to our health needs, and here's the final recipe I use now.

1 cup rawa/sooji
3/4 cup sugar (if you have a very, very sweet tooth use 1 cup).
(I have used Splenda instead of sugar, with great results too).
1/2 to 3/4 cup ghee (melted and strained butter).
(Ghee can be made at home or bought in an Indian grocery store).
1/2 cup water
1 cup milk.
1/4 cup raisins, (wash and soak 5 mins).
1/4 cup blanched sliced almonds
1/4 cup cashewnuts.
1 tsp cardamom powder.
One pinch (2-3 strands) saffron.

Mix milk and water. Put saffron in and boil two minutes.
In a small pan fry almonds, cashewnuts and raisins separately till light brown.
Raisins burn quickly so watch carefully, or omit this step.
This can be done in a bowl in the microwave as long as you watch and stir every thirty seconds till you get the right color.
Remove and keep aside.

Assemble all ingredients and keep by stove before you start this dish.
In a large pan, on medium heat, fry rawa with cardamom powder, stirring constantly for 5-7 mins.
It should not turn brown but just start smelling heavenly.
(Overfried rawa will have an overdone taste).
Add ghee and fry for 3 mins.
Add water, milk, and raisins, stirring constantly till done...there should be no lumps.
When all the liquid is absorbed, add sugar.
Mix and leave on medium low for 5-7 minutes.
Stir halfway through, as it will stick to the bottom of the pan otherwise...this crust is delicious too and some insist it belongs to those who offer to wash the pan!

Remove kesari from stove and transfer to a glass dish. Sprinkle with nuts or mix them in.
Heat before serving. Enjoy.

Note: This is a quick dessert to make.
Amount of ghee can be lessened further to suit your needs.
The raisins make the kesari sweet, so amount of sugar can be adjusted to taste.
Freezes and re-heats well.

TIPS: Roast rawa without ghee, cool and store the day before.
Fry nuts/raisins the day before too.
If you HAVE to use the fine rawa reduce milk and water so total liquid to rawa proportion is 1:1.
If you HAVE to use the coarse rawa/cream of wheat, liquid to rawa proportion should be 2:1 (liquid being 2)

Black Puttu Rice Halva

2010-02-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

Rice has been a part of the Indian food culture forever. Especially in South India, rice dishes are eaten at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
There are so many different varieties of rice; some specific to the success of a dish. Basmati for biriyani, jeeraga samba for vegetable pulao, parboiled for dosa, ponni rice for idlis, red rice for health, and black rice for desserts.
Besides Indians, black rice is used by Thai, Phillipinos, Chinese and Indonesians.
The Thai and Indonesian variety are different to the Chinese variety. The former two are thin, medium to long grain, a lighter purple with brown and white mixed in; the latter are small grained and plump and all a dark purplish black. The Thai version produces a more glutinous halva, while the Chinese variety gives me perfect results.
I get the best Chinese rice sold under the brand name Forbidden or Lotus Rice in American grocery stores. There are some available in the Chinese stores too but for some reason it is not the best kind. The rice is available through mail order too.

Chinese legend has it that black rice was actually known as Forbidden Rice because it was only eaten by the Emperors. It is very nutritious when eaten in small quantities. While I found recipes for the rice cooked whole, both as a staple and a dessert, I didn't find one for the kind of dessert given below, thus inspiring me to share something different.

My search for an unusual recipe to share took me through several family cookbooks, an Internet search and then satisfied with the need for this recipe I got the ingredients and made it and took the usual photographs to share.
An interesting tale goes with the history of this dish. We called it black puttu rice at home. I guess it got that name as originally people must have made puttu with the flour. (For those of you unfamiliar with puttu it is a dish where rice flour is steamed and then mixed with sugar or jaggery, ghee and grated coconut and served as a breakfast dish in South India).
My mother used to have the black rice ground and with the resulting light purplish powder she would make a wonderful halva. Black puttu rice halva was a top family favorite.
The problem was getting the rice. When we were young and rice was rationed, it was difficult to get black puttu rice anywhere. Sometimes the rice would be available in Madras, brought from China via Singapore, or so the story went! When a relative came from Madras we children would wait eagerly ...not so much for the relative, but to know if his luggage held a few cups of carefully concealed black rice. We discussed this in whispers with our mother who shushed us with 'the look' in her eyes. Our father would not tolerate any wrong doing and would throw both relative and black puttu rice out!
When the relative came out from the guest room with a newspaper wrapped bundle of two cups of black puttu rice, my mother would exclaim in surprise that she never thought it would get through. Inspectors used to board the train in those days and search luggage to make sure no rice was carried out of Madras State. We children couldn't have been happier and our love for the relative would increase on the spot!
The servant would be sent to the mill with strict admonitions that the rice had to be ground after white rice only, nothing else and the servant should not take his eyes off the miller who might quickly conceal a table spoon or two for his personal use!
We would wait impatiently till it was brought back and watch as the purple flour was sieved and spread on a sheet of newspaper to dry.
The next day my mother would sit down on a cane stool to make it, a small kerosene stove on the floor in front of her (she did this with all the dishes that took a long time). Soon there would be a heavenly aroma wafting around the house, driving our salivary glands crazy, flooding our mouths with anticipation of the taste no other sweet preparation had. Finally, finally it would be ready and we would each have a scoop of the halwa in a bowl. One of my brothers would always urge my mother not to scrape out too much from the cooking pot, but to leave him the bottom portion. For those of us who know about that part, it is common knowledge that it is the best. My brother would patiently scrape the vessel clean before he handed it over to the maid and disappeared with his 'loot'.
My father would eat the halva silently. He must have loved it too, because to everybody including the relative's relief, it was the one dish he never asked questions about! I think the first spoonful made my father decide it was too late to do anything but enjoy!
My mother would heat and re-heat the halwa each day and it's taste would improve.
Our Anglo-Indian friends made a cake with the rice at Christmas time called 'Dol-dol'.
Genetics pre-disposes us to love certain tastes more than others...the last time I made this halva I cautiously gave the 5 and 3 year old grandchildren a taste. They don't like most Indian sweets. They nibbled the first bite, looked at me and said, "More!"
I couldn't have been happier...the right genes have been passed on!

Here then is the recipe for the halva we loved and still do.
My American version includes the usual tips and short cuts.

1 cup black puttu rice flour

2 level tbsps cornstarch (or maida)

1 small can...5.6 ozs coconut milk plus 1 can water. (available in Chinese, Thai & Vietnamese supermarkets)
(At home this would be made with two extracts of milk from a freshly grated coconut).

¾ cup sugar

¾ cup Splenda sugar substitute

OR 1 1/2 cups sugar.

1 tbsp ghee

Almonds to decorate, elaichi powder.

Mix cornstarch with water in a blender or food processor.

Add black puttu rice flour,coconut milk and sugar and mix well.

The consistency should be that of smooth buttermilk (not too thin not too thick). Add a little more water if necessary. The mix should be lump free.

Place in a thick bottomed pan and bring to boil….reduce heat to make sure halva isn’t getting scorched.

This will splutter and if your pan isn't deep enough, put on a oven mitt while stirring to avoid getting burnt!

When it is thick (halva consistency) and begins to leave the bottom of the pan, add ghee.

What is halva consistency?

It is when the black puttu halva falls from the spoon like a mass.

Mix well and trasfer to a bowl.

Decorate with blanched, sliced almonds.
Store in refrigerate, re-heat every day and enjoy.

For those who want a shortcut, the shortest one I can think of for this recipe is: Find a Thai restaurant that has 'black rice pudding' or 'sticky rice pudding' on the menu and enjoy it there. Warning: call ahead to make sure your serving is available and reserve it as in our area it is usually 'sold out' by the time we get to the place.
Use the Chinese rice for best results, as whenever I've used the Thai rice, I get a different consistency in the end result.

A look back as we step forward into 2010

2010-01-07T09:27:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to one and all.

As we step into a week old 2010, we are all wondering what we will write on the blank pages of this year. Words often change the direction of our thoughts and this is what I'm hoping to do here. A look back into our roots might help us all make and hold on to our New Year resolutions with the recipe below.

The holidays got me started on a reflective phase, analyzing my experiences with people of different faiths/religions.
Growing up in post British India, Christianity was part of convent school education and we all celebrated Christmas with more emphasis on the religious aspect. We learned and sang carols, took part in Nativity plays if there weren't enough Christian girls to fill the spots,hoped Santa would visit us.
Now more and more people from every faith in America get caught up in the decorating of a tree and exchanging gifts at this time of year. I was four or five, when I had the first experience I can remember of Christmas at the Bangalore Club, India. Santa arrived in a sleigh and we children ran behind the sleigh, well versed in all the carols taught at school. When he finally stopped and handed out gifts our joy knew no bounds. It was years later I discovered my father had pre-paid for the gifts that came from Santa.
What a welcome we received in every Christian home during the season with 'goodies' and home made wine. (The latter unfortunately sent me into such a fit of giggles on one such visit when I was 16, my mother made me promise never 'to drink' as she put it!)

What a grand heritage we had growing up in India, a country that has accepted all religions over the years, and celebrated religious tolerance and respect for all people, as an inherent part of life. Instant acceptance of people made our lives richer. We weren't burdened with the hump of ignorance. People were judged on their action and behavior towards us and society, not on their religion. In today's world, to ensure peace,we need to hold on to this.

Besides Christmas, we took part in all other festivals.
ID meant dishes of Biriyani from our Muslim friends, Diwali meant my mother sending trays of goodies to all the neighbors, Guru Nanak's birthday was celebrated with a visit to the Gurudwara and plenty of the best halwa in the world.
While gastronomically we children rejoiced in these festivals, our mother taught us about the history of each religion. She always had something positive to say about every faith:
"Look at the Muslims," she would say in awe, "Just look at them. 5 times a day they think of God. Let us think of God often too."
"I love the kirtans the Sikhs sing," she would tell us. "How much devotion in those songs...I can listen to them for hours." The same went for Bhajans and Hindu devotional songs which she played on our gramophone at home, religiously re-winding the handle every few minutes.
"Look at the Christians," she would say in admiration. "What discpline they follow, going to church every Sunday."
All this, while every Hindu festival was celebrated at home with great ceremony. Her understanding and acceptance of all faiths did not detract from her being a Hindu in any way. Diwali had us taking trays of sweets,snacks, dosa and chicken curry to every neighbor early in the morning.
During her lifetime my mother read and discussed every religious book she could get, always searching for a connection with God in every Holy Book. Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism...she explored and discussed every faith with us kids.
The first prayer she taught me, sprang from her own convent education. It was,'Our Father Who Art in Heaven',followed by 'Now I lay me down to sleep'!
Any other Hindu girl learn that, not at school, but from her mother at the age of 3?

My father made sure that we learned respect for every religion and how to behave when we accompanied him to different places of worship. As commanding officer, at one station, he said he couldn't lead his men if he didn't share their personal lives with them, so we went with him once a month to the Gurudwara, our heads covered with hankies knotted at the corners, sitting quietly through the kirtans. Church was part of our lives in school, as was learning verses from the Bible and singing hymns every morning.
We never heard criticism of any religion. Bad customs, yes, misguided beliefs yes, but never of the basic good tenets of every faith.
More than anything I thank my parents for giving us children the incomparable legacy of tolerance and understanding and acceptance of the good in every religion.

So now I tell everyone who asks what religion we are, that we practice Hinduism but we are Universalists by belief.
"What are Universalists?" I'm asked.
"Universalists are people who believe that religion follow different paths that leads to one God, no matter what name He is called by: Heavenly Father, Wahe Guru, Allah, The Supreme Brahma. All these roads, were laid out different for people of different languages, customs, areas, by sending them different leaders. They all end at one destination, one God, though our paths are different."
Even now those who grew up in India, know this in their hearts and say it out loud.
I watched an Indian show recently and the young participants respected and acknowledged every faith and every festival as it came up, through the year. I felt proud of my Indian roots. No one felt the need to say theirs was the only way to reach God and non-believers would go to Hell. Religion isn't a team sport...it is a personal part of each life...the only way it is another's business is if misguided beliefs result in actions/speech that interfere with our rights.
Don't alienate the people of one faith by basing your opinion of all on what one radical, extremist group is doing, whether it is burning temples, mosques, churches,or fighting wars. Treat people as individuals who have the same feelings you do.

So, this is my first recipe for total well being in 2010: Equal parts of contentment, health, happiness, not wanting from others what you cannot give them in return, freedom from envy, and most important of all... enlightenment which translates into: tolerance and respect for all people/religions as long as their practices don't interfere with anyone's inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Keep a constant supply of these ingredients on hand and use daily.

Enchiladas Supremo

2009-12-23T12:54:00.000-08:00

I had a guest recently, whom I asked: "What's your favorite dish to make?"
"Enchiladas," was the prompt answer, followed by, "Want me to make them for you?"
That set us off on an adventure. Except for cheese quesadillas and burritos, I haven't tried much Mexican cooking and I was looking forward to doing something new.
She wrote down her list of ingredients and described the recipe...I suggested shortcuts. We both went shopping separately and cooked together. It took a while but everyone was pleased by the outcome!
Enchiladas have never been a favorite dish of mine but now I know why. I've never had them the way they should be made...and the best way to make them is to learn from someone whose native dish it is!
This isn't an easy recipe but worth the effort.
Wherever possible I've added tips and shortcuts.

Just Fried Tortillas

The finished product

Mayra's Chicken Enchiladas

(We made 24 with this recipe.)

Sauce (We made this the evening before.)

3 medium sized tomatoes
8 medium sized tomatillos
10 large CHILE CALIFORNIA (huge,dried red chillies)
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin powder.
1/2 large onion
Salt, pepper, chilli powder to taste.

(For green enchiladas use only tomatillos and green jalapeno chillies)

Remove 1/2 inch of the part of the tomatillos where the stalk is attached, with a sharp knife.
Slit and de-seed dried chillies. (Keep them if you want them spicier).

Fill a 4 qt stockpot with 2 qts water.
Add washed tomatoes, tomatillos, chillies and cook till tender (about 20 mins) and the color of the tomatoes changes.
Remove from water, blend with 1/2 large onion, salt, oregano, cumin, pepper and chilli powder (optional). We separated the sauce at this stage and I added chilli powder liberally in our half.

Sauce should be consistency of tomato sauce in a can.

Ingredients for filling

8-12 ozs of Mozarella cheese (either buy grated cheese or grate in food processor.

Shredded chicken

(Cook one chicken with 3 cloves of garlic, 1/2 onion and salt. Shred when cool into one inch pieces.
or
Shortcut: Buy one roasted chicken. Shred.

Enchiladas

(Buy the packet of 6" fresh corn tortillas from your local supermarket. We are lucky to have one that makes them fresh daily).

or

any pre-packaged 6" corn tortillas.

On a griddle/tawa/non stick pan, lightly cook each tortilla on both sides...must not get brown.
Heat one inch oil in frying pan.
Dip each tortilla in sauce, using tongs and then put into hot oil.
Fry both sides...30 seconds on each side.
TIP: Sauce and oil splash a lot so cover sides of fry pan and rest of stove with foil before frying.
I had to use 2 slotted spoons to remove each tortilla as they get very soft in the oil.
Drain in a colander.
If this method is too hard for you and it certainly is a challenge, read Method 2.
Fry all the tortillas first, unless you have someone helping you in which case you can do the following in tandem: one fry, one assemble.
On each tortilla, spread one large tablespoon each of chicken and cheese (adjust ratio to taste).
Roll up enchilada...place end side down in dish.
Optional: add chopped onion and tomato to chicken and cheese.
When all are done, sprinkle cheese on top.

Just before eating, heat in microwave till cheese melts on top.

CHEESE ENCHILADAS: Place cheese, chopped tomato, cilantro and onion inside.

Method 2: Low fat tortillas.
(Made this a couple of days ago and neither HD or I found a difference in taste. It is a much easier way as there is less clean up. I also double up on the sauce and froze a batch.)

Fry only the tortilla on both sides using half a tsp. of oil on each side,then dip in sauce, continue as above.
Mayra, the authority on enchiladas, insists it tastes better the traditional way (tortilla dipped in sauce then fried...so we did it her way) It did taste great!!!

Fill and roll as above. I add a cup of sauce over the enchiladas at this point and sprinkle with cheese.
Can be covered and frozen at this stage for a later date
or
Microwave/heat in 350 degree oven before eating and serve piping hot.

The votes were unanimous...this dish was great!!!
The secret, according to Mayra, is in the sauce.

The following dish is one use for left over sauce:

Chile with Chicken and Potatoes

Peel, cube and boil potatoes.
Shredded chicken
If using any other meat, fry in 3 Tbsps oil till well cooked.
Place in a dish.
Cover with above sauce.
Optional: add chopped onion and tomato.
Serve hot with tortillas.

AFTER THANKSGIVING

2009-11-29T18:11:00.000-08:00

After Thanksgiving families who celebrate with a turkey meal, are usually overwhelmed with a lot of leftovers. When my nest was full, and the kids were home they loved turkey leftovers the next day. HD and I did not. I used to remove all the meat from the bird right after the meal and freeze it, according to general instructions (leaving enough out for the kids to feast on).

Don't throw your leftovers away. They really make good dishes that will surprise your family and friends. I came up with dishes two, three and four for the leftovers;over the years. The stew was made the day after Thanksgiving, this year, by our son-in-law.

TURKEY STEW: Onions, carrots, celery, cubed left over turkey, potatoes,sliced zucchini, salt and pepper. After the vegetables cooked, egg noodles were added and simmered in the soup. Talk about a one pot meal! HD is vegetarian, so some soup was set aside for him before the turkey was added.
HD and I laced our soup with hot sauce... it was delicious. The rest had it as is. Sorry we didn't stop to take pictures!

TURKEY FRIED RICE: This was a family favorite when the kids were young.
Follow any fried rice recipe. I used leftover rice, stir fried scallions, grated ginger, garlic, 1 large tablespoon hoisin sauce and soy sauce to taste, stir fried left over turkey,snow peas.
Just before serving I would add Chinese bean sprouts and a couple of scrambled eggs.
I've even made this with half noodles, half rice and it always got rave reviews.
I used to do this over 15 years ago so no pictures here either!

TURKEY KEEMA/MINCE: Ever put your leftover turkey into the Cuisinart and minced it?
It tastes so great in cutlets, Shepherd's Pie, keema kababs.
There's something about that roast turkey that lends an additional flavor to any dish one would normally use mince in.

AND A NEW BRAINWAVE: STUFFING UPMA!

Stuffing upma you say? Never heard of such a thing! Well, just read on patiently.

If you buy the box of cornbread stuffing with herbs and spices for the stuffing, like we do, here's a new idea for you...
We've been making our stuffing outside the turkey for the sake of the vegetarians in our family; following package directions.
This year I froze the leftover stuffing and then took it out tonight. After thawing the stuffing in the microwave, I heated some olive oil, added sliced green onions, cubed tomato, green chillies, karipata (curry leaves), and fresh coriander to it. After sauteing it lightly, I added the stuffing and mixed everything gently.
It made great bread upma!
Now I'm planning on getting a couple of extra boxes of stuffing and keeping it on hand, just for this quick new dish.

Good luck with those leftovers! Frozen immediately, they are great for another meal.

THANKSGIVING

2009-11-26T08:46:00.001-08:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ONE AND ALL

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday, isn't it.
Besides the feasting, the gathering of family and friends, the shopping frenzy, think of the meaning of this holiday.
A day to give thanks for all we have.
If you want to be really thankful think of those less fortunate than us.

The things that have made me truly thankful in my life are:

1. Faith in God.
2. Friends and positive family relationships.
3. The acceptance and avoidance of people and things I cannot change.
4. Contentment
5. Freedom from envy.
6. Freedom to make choices and live in a democracy.
7. The ability to find joy in Nature.
8. The ability to stick to and follow basic, good principles of life.

Make your own list today and think about it.

MY HIGH TEA IS DONE!

2009-11-16T17:43:00.000-08:00

The greenhouse window made a good background to set the stage with my collection of cups and saucers n(the guest admired them while drinking tea out of disposable cups), and my collection of biscuit tins, tea tins and boxes from all over the world (most of which are now empty). It was a great chance to display stuff just lying in the cupboard.

Thanks to all of you who helped me with the recipes and ideas it was a great success.
Special thanks to Joan, Prabha, lan of Cheenachatti (http://cheenachatti.blogspot.com/), Mallu Girl of Malabar Spices (http://malluspice.blogspot.com/) and Cynthia Nelson of Tastes Like Home (http://www.tasteslikehome.org/).
The only bad part was I was so busy I didn't get to take too many pictures of the food to share! Can you believe that?

Last week I made Guava Tarts. Unfortunately I made them too early. The family tasted them, decided we all loved them and polished them off, accusing me of depriving them this far in their lives of such a delicious treat. I had to point out I had just discovered the recipe this year. I made them with really ripe guavas. The green one is just for effect in the picture. I did not ice them as I wanted to avoid the extra sugar.

Here's the link to the recipe, from Cynthia Nelson's wonderful website. The link comes with a warning from me: Hide them, if you want to serve them to guests.
http://www.tasteslikehome.org/search?q=guava+tarts

Tips for the tarts: I had very small guavas which were a nuisance to peel, de-seed and chop.
It took a couple of hours to get 4 cup fulls. Next time I'll wait for larger guavas before attempting this recipe. It was super delicious.

The next item I made, and you are all going to laugh at this, was murku/chakli.
I hid the box and guess what: when I put out all the other food I forgot to put this out!
I remembered it when only 3 couples were left here, and gave them a packet each.
So much for hiding things.

Murku

4 cups rice flour
1 cup gram flour (besan).
Besan is gram flour made by grinding channa dal (a variety of lentil).
1 small stick butter melted.
1 Tbsp brown til/sesame seed or cumin/jeera.
or
1 inch piece ginger ground.
Salt to taste.
Cracked pepper optional.
Oil for frying.

Mix flours, butter, sesame seed/ginger, salt with warm water to the consistency of cookie dough...NOT like chappatti dough or your murkus will be HARD.
Push through murku mold and deep fry to a golden brown in hot oil.

TIP: When I make it I use a large skillet and make the murku as big as the pan.
After it is fried and cooled, I break it into one to two inch pieces and serve.
This makes the frying process easier than shaping umpteen perfect little murkus, and helps us oldies with leg pain!

This is what the final menu was:

Sangria with red and white wine.
There are so many recipes for this on the Internet that I picked a few and then once I got the idea of how it is made, I picked the fruit I liked the best, chose to use sparkling cider as the base and made it with that.
I used a Cabernet Sauvignon for red and a dry white wine.
In the red I added sliced strawberries, orange, lemon and lime slices, with some of the juice too.
In the white I added frozen peaches and sliced kiwi with orange, lime and lemon slices and juice.
Both marinated in the refrigerator overnight.
HONEST TIP: It wasn't very easy to make at the last minute for every guest as ice had to be placed in each glass, then sparkling cider poured in, then topped off with sangria.
Luckily I had help serving but making it was crunch time.

The rest of the menu went like this: (recipes and pictures that i have are coming...having a problem uploading them today.)

Sweets:

Jam Tarts
Lemon drop biscuits
Pistachio cake
Almond thins (from Trader Joe's)
Fruit salad.
Rice kheer
A tray of sliced pineapple.
Brownies.
(The last two items were brought by friends).

Jam Tarts: Recipe given by someone very dear to us. Thanks Joan.
I didn't make the pie crust from scratch...just bought two pie sheets, which gave me such a hard time to unroll, I don't know why. They cracked , broke and stuck together....which according to Murphy's law always happen if you're in a hurry.
I re-rolled the sheets, cut with a circle mold, placed the circles in muffin pans, put a spoon of jam or marmalade in each, and baked for 15 minuted keeping a watch on them.
They came out scrumptious but not as good as Joan makes.
TIP: Do not make last minute unless you have nothing else to do. They store great when cooled in an airtight container, and taste just as great the next day!

Lemon drop biscuits.

These are buttery and melt in your mouth.
TIP: These are definitely another make again recipe but be careful about the 'room temperature butter'...my dough got a little too soft and my cookies came out as discs not balls. When you visit this site for the recipe read the other comments and watch out for that butter getting too soft! Also they are VERY buttery and melt in your mouth.
Wonder if they are called Lemon DROP cookies because you drop them into your mouth again and again!
Here's the site for the recipe:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Cookie/HighTeaCookies.htm

Pistachio Cake

Our daughter brought that and I'll have to get the recipe from here.
It's an old favorite of ours and was a big hit.
She made one big one in a castle mold and the others were five small bundt cakes like the one above.

Fruit Salad

A new variation of the old recipe contributed by my friend, Prabha.

Drain cans of fruit cocktail, pineapple pieces and mandarin oranges reserving juice.
I added lychees too as I had a can.
Cut apples and bananas...place in juice and then strain and add to other fruit.
Add half a packet of vanilla instant pudding mix and stir. Check for sweetness and then add more if needed. Chill and serve.

Variation 2: My neighbor has just been to a party where she saw a combination of condensed milk and whipped light creanm cheese added, which she liked.

TIP: I ran out of space in the refrigerator before the party and as I could not accomodate a large bowl of fruit salad, I just placed all the cans in the refrigerator till it was time to open and serve. The cans could go into nooks and crannies in the refrigerator.

Rice Kheer

I cooked a cup of rice in the rice cooker and then transferred it to the crockpot and added milk and let it simmer for hours. Halfway through I added, blanched, sliced almonds and raisins (1/2 a cup each), 1/2 a tsp of saffron, 1 level tsp of elaichi/cardamom powder, 1 tsp of vanilla essence, one tiny speck of edible green camphor. I should have added 1/2 a tsp of nutmeg too.
Ten minutes to the end I added 1 1/2 cups of Splenda.
Taste and add more or substitue sugar...our friends watch their sugar so this was a good dessert with all the other sweets. Also there were no kids or expectant mothers coming so I could use Splenda.
It was creamy and thick and I put it in the freezer for an hour for a quick chill.
Had it been a cold day, I would have served it hot from the crockpot.

Pazham Pori: Fried Ripe Plantains

3 plantains repose on my counter eying me reproachfully.
I had no time to make this favorite at the end but I promised the plantains they would be relished by me!
Here's the site for this delicious recipe: http://cheenachatti.blogspot.com/search/label/banana.

TIP: Avoid too many last minute dishes.

Snacks/savories:

Chicken pie
Baked Salmon
Egg salad
Bean dip with a variety of crackers.
Coconuty corn
Chole samosas
Red ghatia (which is a kind of thick spicy sev... this was store bought.)
Khandvi (brought by a friend and yummy).
Cucumber sandwiches.

You'll have to do a Google search for 'ghatia', and 'khandvi' to get recipes and pictures of what these dishes are like, if you are not familiar with them. They are both made with gram/lentil flour and are popular snacks in India.

It was quite a spread at the end and we were happy that we could serve it up!
Finally a friend made Indian tea with ginger as that's what everyone wanted.

Chicken Puffs

Got two rotisserie chicken and took the meat off and shredded it into little pieces.
Fried 3 really large onion and added chilli powder, and garam masala to it.
Mixed chicken with the onion. and put it into baking pans.
Took puff pastry squares (from our local Lebanese store...they are like Pepperidge farm sheets but are square), and laid them on top.
Baked it in a 375 oven till pastry was golden brown and then cut into two inch squares.

TIP: Don't bake in a too hot oven or chicken will become too crisp.
Next time I'm going to try to bake just the puff pastry squares alone and then place on the chicken and cut.
I didn't wrap the chicken in the squares or place a layer underneath to avoid too many carbs which are a big no-no for diabetics.

Egg Salad

Boil 10 eggs...peel...mash with hand.
Add salt and pepper to taste with one cup mayonnaise and one tablespoon of dill chopped really fine.
This was really yummy.
I meant to serve this with focaccia bread but forgot to take it out of the oven and after the party discovered the focaccia was toast!

I need to take a course of Gingko biloba tablets...it is supposed to help improve memory.

7 Layer Bean Dip
Another recipe from my friend, Prabha.

First layer...vegetarian refried beans...I heated this and added one pkt of Fajita mix to it,
some chilli powder and some salsa as our Indian friends need something spicy.
Second layer...on top of the hot bean I put a mix of Monterey and Cheddar cheese so that part of it would be melted into the beans.
Third layer...Guacamole dip from the local Mexican supermarket which was HOT with onions, tomato and what had to have been jalapeno peppers.
Fourth layer...sour cream.
Fifth...green onions...just a thin layer.
Sixth...olives...I don't like them so I left his layer out.
Seven...tomatoes finely chopped with another dollop of sour cream in the middle for decorative purposes.
I tried to take this picture transversely so the layers would be visible.
I served this with a variety of crackers, small toast and multi colored tortilla chips.

Coconuty Corn

Here's Cynthia Nelson's site for this delicious recipe.
http://www.tasteslikehome.org/

Chole Samosas

Recipe given in this blog under 'Puffs'.

HIGH TEA PREP

2009-11-03T08:10:00.000-08:00

PREPARING FOR THE DESI HIGH TEA

Thanks to my friends and neighbor for the recipes and tips for make ahead dishes.
More on that when I make them and have pics to show everyone.

This week has been intense prep week...I can't tell you how much stuff we have lying around that needs putting away and how much needs taking out before company comes!
The grandchildren (5&3) have their art gallery in place, to be admired by the guests. The two little ones also listen seriously to my tales of party etiquette and are trying to pick up their cups with their 'pinkies in the air', and giggling a lot. Grand kids are so much fun.
Our daughter, who will be away that weekend, has offered one of her best make ahead dishes (recipe later) and has also lent all her best crystal. She's worrying she won't be around to help me on that day and her busy schedule and my needs make it hard for us to find a free weekend together. Besides, it's good for me to see how much I can manage to do myself.

HD who HATES to put a nail in any wall, deplores the idea that after ten years I want to move some of my pictures around. In some place, our walls need special screws and I distinctly remember him asking all that time ago, "Is this place permanent?" before he put in the screws. I said yes at the time. What other choice did i have?
Now there's lots of rebellion from the bitter half on discovering it is not so.
The only reason I ask him to help is he hangs pictures perfectly. I eyeball the wall space and go bang, bang bang...then discover it's not straight...then go bang bang bang a little to the left. Oops that;s no good, so try again. In the end I have to hang the picture to cover the five other holes I've made in the wall...so now you know why I ask HD and endure the disapproval! He doesn't like parties and this one is making him nervous as usual.
Can anyone tell me why someone who just has to show up and smile and talk to people would get stressed about a party? I'm inviting friends whom I like not throwing a gala official dinner for diplomats where everything has to be 'just so'.

I'm using a set of Corelle plates I got for my grandson's Namakarna (christening). They will lend a touch of elegance as they are white with tiny red and pink roses in three places.
I'll have to use paper for glasses and cups as we are having over thirty guests.
I've planned the table covers and centerpieces trying to come up with the High Tea ambiance. I'm planning to have a good 'desi' (Indian) High Tea which will fill up my guests.
Good food and plenty of it is always the main thing at an Indian gathering.
I am getting stuff from outside too, but the fun for me is making items that we haven't had for a long while... thus breaking up the monotony of all the meals we attend at restaurants that have the same, repetitive menu.
I do have an alternative menu in case I don't feel well or come down with something, as happens often with diabetics...but perish that thought. I'm visualizing a healthy, happy me, able to do all I want to.

Researching dishes, getting ideas from my foodie friends, and a day to day discussion with my neighbor as we walk, is all helping me come up with a party. By the way, my neighbor is from the Phillipines and yous hould see the spreads they have at their party. She has a large family here and everyone brings their BEST dish to the party and there's so much food there's no place to set the dishes down. She cannot imagine the way I work solo, which is what I like to do when I entertain.

Back to the fun I'm having...some people call it work...have to taste the dish I just made and add or drop it from my list.

Do your prep at least two weeks before the party: clean dishes, wash crystal, polish brassware (if like other Indians you have a lot), move pictures, clean cobwebs. cover everything you've washed with a clean cloth so it doesn't get dusty. I do one thing a day to ensure I'm not wearing myself out.
Sit like your guest would and look around critically and you'll be surprised at the things that catch your eye that need doing.
Final cleaning will be done the day before the party by a cleaner, (floors, bathroom, dusting, kitchen), but all this attention to detail, helps ensure success finally. It's confidence building too, to know you have all this under control.

All about the dishes after the party mid-November. Lan, thanks for all the continuous help and support..it's like having another daughter. Prabha, you're my ace in the hole....thanks for all your help too.

HIGH TEA

2009-10-23T10:09:00.001-07:00

Entertaining is part of life growing up in an Army family.
Add to that, having a Dad who was in the British Army before it became the Indian Army, and you have a plethora of rich experiences related to entertaining.
As far as entertaining and being entertained is concerned: as a child I didn't enjoy the fact my parents were out almost every evening. As an adult and married to a civilian, I entertained and went out on a moderate scale, keeping in mind that I didn't want the kids to be alone at home all the time.
Now as a senior with diabetes, it isn't easy to entertain. However, we really want to repay all the hospitality extended to us throughout this year. The summer heat makes me dizzy and the winter cold makes me stiff. I have a small wedge of time in the Fall to do the things I want to, so I decided to do something quickly.
I've come up with the idea of having a HIGH TEA, and am looking forward it.

But our High Tea is going to be easy on us (I hope) with make ahead dishes and one last minute standing-by-the-stove fried item.
It is going to be in the comfort of our home and though I plan on using Corelle plates, I will concede to using paper cups and disposable glasses. The plates will go in the dishwasher with the dishes, and I have helped the environment by using them.

Planning this High Tea brings back memories of my varied experiences with them.
I've always loved High Teas, and have enjoyed them in Singapore at Raffles, in London at Claridges, in Victoria BC at The Empress, besides a lot of places in the USA.
Of all these places, The Empress wins hands down for the best tea.
The incredible quality of the high tea at the Empress though expensive, has to be experienced to be believed. Each and every dish was fresh and superb in taste and presentation.
The quantity filled us up and there was a mix of dishes for vegetarians and non-veggies.
An excellent tea selection was served with each cup freshly made not over stewed.
The attentiveness of our waiter throughout the meal topped it off perfectly.

The usual High Tea is made up of scones with clotted cream and a variety of jams, an assortment of sandwiches (I hate the ones made with chicken paste, salmon paste, preferring the actual fresh meat instead), miniature cakes and biscuits and of course a selection of different teas.
Raffles in Singapore with the most extensive menu I have seen of any High Tea, combining tastes and flavors of East and West with huge tables groaning under the weight of the food.
The curried chicken puffs stand out in my memory.

This is what I intend to do for my High Tea: combine Indian sweets and snacks with the cakes and sandwiches to please the palates of all my guests and fill them up as this was what High Teas were originally intended for.

A brief history of High Tea: Low tea was the normal tea served with dainty treats, whereas High Tea was what the farmers and working class wanted when they came in from work. It was filling, it took the place of dinner, and there was nothing 'dainty' about it. High Tea was also known as Meat Tea in early England.

Here I've gone out for High Tea at 10 a.m, noon, mid-afternoon, evening and dinner time!
For mine this year, I'm inviting my guests at 3 o'clock, knowing most of them will show up at 4 (Indians have their own standard time). My High Tea menu is going to be a mix of the menus of low and high teas, so it fills up my guests. That's what a good party is all about, to me: good food, good people, good conversation and nowadays a good chair to sit in!

If you have any easy make ahead sweet or savory suggestions, please send them to me.
I really would appreciate time-saving recipes with great results and I will give you full credit here.

In the meantime while I invite you to stick with me while I plan this event, I'll give you my tentative menu. The recipes will follow when I make the dishes.

Sweet dishes:

1. Scones with lemon curd.
2. Cake
3. Biscuits/cookies/tarts.
4. Fruit salad
5. Brownies (a friend is bringing them)
6. An Indian mithai (sweetmeat)/dessert.

Savoury dishes:

1. Chicken and vegetable puffs
2. Sandwiches
3. Matri/chakli/kodbilla (make ahead dish)
4. Salmon dish (my neighbor is bringing that)
5. Chips/crackers/dip (bought and set up).
6. My last minute fried dish...tikkis/vades/?

Beverages/Drinks: Tea, coffee, soda, punch.

Let me know what you think of the menu and especially if you have GREAT suggestions for easy dishes.
I look forward to hearing from you with anything from sweet, snack, drink recipes and I will be haunting the cooking blogs for ideas too.

12 dishes with an assortment of tea, coffee and soft drinks/punch should make 30-35 people happy. I had a list of 20 but that was too much and I cut back. As a foodie, I want each dish to taste it's best, be really fresh and make my High Tea a 'moment on the lips but forever in their memory' type party.

5 star Dahi Vada

2009-08-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

Why does the temperature have to catapult to over one hundred suddenly, for days on end? Just when we thought we were over the worst for this year. Well, the heat sent my mind off in a desperate search for cool foods and I came up with dahi vades. Having loved these for years, I have to share this recipe as it comes out great.
For those who have never heard of them...
What are dahi vadas/vades?
Deep fried lentil balls, soaked in seasoned yogurt. Served cold as an accompaniment to a spicy meal or alone as a snack, these are mouth wateringly satisfying.

Ingredients:

1 cup urad dal (white lentils from the Indian grocery store).
( This quantity makes about forty vades of one inch diameter).
2 quarts yogurt.
For seasoning: mustard seeds, red chillies, curry leaves and hing (asafoetedia).
1 small carton buttermilk.
Ginger, green chillies, jeera and chilli powder, chaat masala.
Green and sweet chutney.
Store bought, very fine sev. (Sev is a crunchy mix made by deep frying a lentil mixture pressed through a fine lentil press).
Oil for deep frying. (I use a mixture of corn oil and olive oil).

Wash and soak these for 3-4 hours. Grind till smooth but do not add too much water.
Dough should be a little thicker than idli batter...dropping consistency.
Add 1/3 tsp baking soda to dough and blend another minute to mix well.
Allow dough to rise for 2-3 hours. (I leave it in the blender to rise.)

Season 2 quarts yogurt/curd: Heat one tsp oil. Add 1 tbsp rai, 4 red chillies, twenty curry leaves and 1/3 tsp hing. Add salt and one tsp sugar to yogurt. Mix and refrigerate.

Grind 2 green chillies, 3/4 inch ginger. Mix into vada dough. If you're making this for kids or people who can't eat spicy food, remove some batter for them and add masala to the rest.
Mix well with salt.

Heat four cups water in a saucepan and keep on simmer on a back burner.

Heat oil in a wok/frying pan/kadai. When you put in a drop of dough and it rises to the top immediately, oil is ready. Drop vades in by the teaspoonful and fry six at a time. Vades flatten out in oil. If oil is smoking turn it down as only outside will fry. If oil is too cool, the vades are going to absorb the oil. Fry golden brown on both sides, then pick up with slotted spoon and slide into hot water on back burner. Leave for a minute or two...this strips the layer of oil on the vades.
Drop next batch of vades into the oil and while they fry, use a different spoon, remove the vades from the hot water and place them in a flat dish. Turn the vades that are frying over in the oil.
When you have them all in a single layer in a flat dish, pour buttermilk to cover them. If buttermilk is too thick, dilute it with a little water. I get the store bought buttermilk and some brands are too thick. The idea here is for the vades to soak up the buttermilk.
If you are freezing the vades, this would be the stage to do it.
I refrigerate them after adding the buttermilk and half an hour before serving, I add the thick seasoned yogurt in a layer on top, gently making room (with a small spoon) for yogurt to settle between the vades.
People use less yoghurt and water it down, but this dish is el supremo when thickest yoghurt is added at the end. These dahi vades just melt in your mouth and once you make them, you will never be able to eat those hard in the center vades some people serve.
On top sprinkle some chopped coriander leaves, chilli powder, jeera powder and chaat masala. When I can get it, I add some fine sev on top. A drizzle of hot chutney (made with green chillies, coriander, salt and lime) and sweet chutney (blend dates with a little tamarind, jaggery, chilli, jeera and ginger powders) makes this even better.
I usually save the chutney when we order samosas and then use those on the dahi vades...if there's a shortcut you can trust me to find it.
Beat the heat with this cool treat.

PUFFS, SAMOSAS, TURNOVERS

2009-08-30T12:07:00.000-07:00

The Puff Digest.

This really is a Digest as it contains a compilation of all I know, have learned and researched in cookbooks, on television and the Internet about Puffs.
I've found enough shortcuts with this to ensure original taste without the labor, time and energy originally involved in the recipe.
Puffs are also called turnovers in some countries, samosas in others...by whatever name you know it, a puff still is really amazing. In our house it's a meal in one and I wanted to share all the shortcuts I know with you. The history of my experience with puff making is recorded for those who love reading 'the real version'.

Before I married HD, I had only made puff pastry taught in my high school cooking class by Sister Rita Mary.
This was the American/English version with cold butter, flour, water and `cool' hands.
Again, in those days this was a very long version and done only under compulsion in class.

When I got married, to my surprise I found, HD's family made the best puffs with a labor intense version of home made puff pastry, and their own unique filling.
They made a dough out of maida (all purpose flour), water, salt and a little ghee. After letting the dough rest for a couple of hours, they rolled it out to a big circle, then spread a mixture called `saatta', made of equal quantities of ghee and maida. This was spread on the circle, the circle rolled up into a cylinder, starting with a 3/4 inch fold. This large roll was then cut into 1 inch pieces, then each piece rolled out in one direction only, keeping the cut pieces at the ends. This small circle was filled, sealed with a mix of flour and water and then deep fried. The layers were amazing, the taste incredible and the work mind boggling.
The whole process from start to finish took quite a few hours and more than one pair of hands. which in a large family there was no shortage of.

Here abroad, where there is only one person to make your favorite dishes...you...I soon found a shortcut that was pleasing to the palate without compromising taste.
I have made these puffs many times over the years, keeping the original filling but using my healthier shorter version.
Originally, Pepperidge Farm sheets provided the puff pastry. I cut each sheet into three rectangles along the creases lengthwise, and then each rectangle into three squares. I rolled out each square further then cut into two lengthwise, stuffed each portion, sealed it with a mix of flour and water.
So here's the Math: from each rectangle I got six puffs and from each sheet eighteen puffs in total.
Even with the rolling out, there were enough layers in the final puff to impress everyone.
I baked the puffs following package instructions, switching the baking tray from top to bottom rack half through to ensure even baking.
If you don't roll out the dough squares a bit, you'll end up with a cover that's too thick.

Older and wiser now, I have switched to the five by five inch squares (or four by four, depending which brand you pick) of Puff Pastry sold in packets at my local Lebanese store. I roll out the squares and make two large puffs out of each...four would be better and smaller, but I'm not that patient.
I bake them in a 425 degree oven, in the middle rack. They come out great.

On a search for other covers, I came across mention of all these wrappers on different websites and television shows: wonton wrappers, phyllo dough sheets, phyllo dough cups, egg roll wrappers, empanada wrappers, pie crust sheets, puff pastry.

Recently, much to my delight, after reading a recipe for baked empanadas, I discovered frozen empanada wraps in the Mexican Supermarket.
I fill each circle, put water on half the semi-circle, fold over, and press the edge with the tines of a fork.
I was a little disappointed with how dry the baked empanadas were, so I broke my rule of very little fried foods and fried one just to see the difference.
The results overwhelmed me. Though the crust was a little bubbly for some reason, it was a perfect samosa crust....all one could ask for, dream of and enjoy tremendously.

Then I came across a recipe for samosas stuffed with chole (garbanzo beans/chick peas cooked with spices...recipe below). I've looked for the site repeatedly to give them credit here, but I cannot find it. This idea of chole in a samosa, caught my attention and tantalized my tastebuds. Which clever person had thought the recipe up and why was I never that clever person?
For a picnic, I made them with the empanada wrappers. It was just like eating puris and chole in a neat package...so I made them again for a friend to take on a long flight, and stuffed two of them with shrimp from my shrimp curry and four with chole. She loved them and I loved her enjoyment of them.
I use the whole circle of dough, which is each empanada wrapper and make them as crescent samosas. (picture one, top right.)
My daughter came over to help me make the samosas last year, to take on a picnic with her friends and all their tiny tots. She cut the empanada crescents in half and made little triangular samosas so we could differentiate between the non-spicy and the spicy. So if you want triangular ones, there's your method. (picture three top left).

A few days later after we made the samosas for the picnic, I saw Robin Miller making empanadas rolling out a ready made circle of pie crust dough (they come two big sheets in a pack). After rolling it a little, she cut out circles using a round cookie cutter, stuffed and baked them. That's a good baked empanada cover as it comes out flaky and delicious.
Her recipe is on The Food Network.

As for phyllo dough, it's a challenge to work with in small quantities because of the way it dries out, but I do love the Greek spanakopitas (spinach puffs), when someone else makes them.

I tried egg roll wrappers as covers and they do crisp up nicely when deep fried, but really the winners are the puffs made from the puff pastry squares (baked), and empanada covers for the fried ones.

I have done this over and over so I know the best covers when I eat them!

Now on to the fillings.

Filling 1.

HD's family filling. (This is a unique mix of ingredients that makes strange reading but once made and eaten is addictive).

Boil 2 Tablespoons channa dal...mash half of it.
Boil 2 potatoes...mash them.
Combine potatoes and channa dal.
Cook the following together, if all veggies are fresh. If some are frozen, add when the fresh veggies are two thirds done.
1/2 cup peas.
1/2 medium finely chopped nukol (kohlrabi).
1 bunch dill, washed and finely chopped.
1/2 cup carrots. (I use grated carrots ).
1/2 cup beans, finely chopped.
When done add 1 large finely chopped onion.

Masala: Grind 1 bunch coriander, washed and cleaned. 1/4 coconut, 1/2 inch piece ginger, 2 cloves garlic, green chillies to taste, 1 tablespoon khus khus (Indian poppy seed), 2 cloves (the spice).

Assemble all veggies in a pot, add masala and salt to taste and let it cook for a few minutes more till mix is dry. Cool before filling.

Filling 2.

The usual mix of potatoes, peas and spices. You'll find this recipe on a number of websites/cookbooks.

Filling 3. (Middle picture, 2nd row).

Keema (Mince): I use lean turkey minced/ground meat for this.
Fry chopped onions brown, add garam masala (ground cloves, cinnamon and cardamom), chilli powder, salt, chopped coriander and washed & drained ground turkey.
Cook till dry.

Filling 4.

Chicken: Cook chicken well and chop fine.
Fry a lot of onions, add finely chopped coriander, ground ginger and garlic, 1 tsp garam masala, chilli powder and salt to taste.
Add to chicken. Fry till dry.

Filling 5.

Shrimp/Fish: I use leftover shrimp and fish for this from a curry or a fry.
Remember the filling has to be dry as possible, so drain well if using from a curry.
Spicy Salmon makes a really good filling.

Filling 6

Chole/Garbanzo Beans/Chick Peas: Fry 1 finely chopped onion. When brown add 2 tomatoes, finely chopped coriander, 2 cloves grated garlic, channa masala, chilli powder,1/2 tsp amchur powder or 1/4 tsp tamarind paste, and drained chole from one can. Cook till thick.

Any leftover tasty vegetable makes a good filling the next day.

Filling 7 (First picture, 2nd row).

And then for dessert there is the sweet filling given with the Rawa Puffs recipe in this blog.

lan of Cheenachatti http://cheenachatti.blogspot.com/, thanks for getting my batteries re-started.

Eggplant and Potato

2009-07-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

Some travel, some health challenges, something or other to do, have all kept me away from this blog for a while. Now the summer heat forces me to rest, so I spend time at the computer playing 'catch up' in a number of areas.

Recently a relative who is a good cook asked us for this recipe.
We both tried to help him with it, shocked that we hadn't made it ourselves in eighteen months or more, and even more surprised that we had forgotten parts of the recipe!
When we got home, we tried it out, forgot parts of it even then, and realized it was time to write it down! A few days ago our daughter reminded me that I had said I would write this recipe down, so here goes.

This is not an easy, quick dish but it is a family classic developed by HD (Hubby Dearest). In the early years of our marriage, we were both impressed by a lady from Andhra who grew her own Japanese eggplant each summer, stuffed them with masala and froze them. Whenever we were invited for dinner, she served a delicious eggplant dish.
At one party HD heard me asking for the recipe of the masala. The next day he got all the info from me, wrote it down and then proceeded to concoct this dish. It turned out so different from our friend's recipe, but so outstanding, that it shot to the group of Family Favorites immediately!
It really made me understand why the kids sometimes used to tell me, "You rest Mom. Let Dad cook!"

Of course HD is aka The Maharaja of Butter, so the amount he used to put into each dish made it `delicious on the lips but forever on the hips!'
Now we know it is `forever in the arteries' too.
Now that he can't cook much, I use the best olive oil in the dish and no one (except HD) can tell the difference.

This is not one my quick recipes...in fact when HD used to make it, he took the whole day to prepare it and then two hours to clean the kitchen!
I do it in three hours but am so exhausted that I make it only once a year when I get his help with it!
As i write this I am reminded of the old biriyani recipes that the cooks would take a whole day to prepare.
Your investment in time making this masala from scratch, will be fully re-paid by the number of times you can make this dish quickly in the future, using the stored masala.

EGGPLANT AND POTATO

MAIN INGREDIENTS

6 Japanese eggplants (six inch dark purple eggplants.)
3 red potatoes (yellow/brown is fine too, but cooking time is longer.)
Olive oil for frying.
Ingredients for masala 1 and masala 2 listed below.

Masala 1

1 cup rai (mustard seed)
1 cup jeera (whole cumin)
3/4 cup split urad
3/4 cup channa dal
1/2 cup toor dal
1 tsp whole methi (fenugreek seeds).
1/2 cup whole pepper
2 Tbsps whole dhania (coriander seeds).

Fry each separately in a skillet on medium heat.
Rai, methi, jeera and dhania need a few minutes only
Urad and dals take a little longer and will be light brown and smell good.

Shortcut: I do rai,methi, dhania and jeera in microwave for 10 seconds each while frying the dals stovetop.
If dhania and jeera are not done in ten seconds, I put them in for another 5 seconds.
Watch carefully as whole spices will start burning in the middle of the plate first.

Let everything cool, grind everything in a blender till really fine, cool again and store in an airtight container.
We made it after two years. I might refrigerate it this time to make it last a long time.

Masala 2

1 medium large onion
2 Tbsps fresh grated coconut.

1/2 tsp tamarind (this adds the required tang to the masala).

Broil one medium onion till outside is charred.
(30 to 40 mins on top shelf).
Peel black, outer layers and put inside in a blender jar.
Roast 1-2 Tbsps fresh grated coconut in oven or stove top till golden brown.
Watch carefully as it burns quickly in the oven.
Blend to a smooth paste. (the onion will release water so don't add any).

(I double this quantity too and freeze half of it for the next time).

The masala mix:

To the onion and coconut paste, add 1 heaping tablespoon of masala 1, along with red chilli powder and salt to taste.
Mix well.
Wash and let eggplant and potatoes dry on a paper towel.
Slit eggplant upto one inch of where the green sepals of the stalk begin.
Stuff masala between slits of eggplant taking care to keep it whole.

Halve potatoes.
Heat one inch of oil in a 10-12 inch wide skillet.
Put in potatoes, face down and let it fry till cut surface is golden brown.
Turn and fry for a minute or two on the other side.
(Potato does not have to be fully cooked...3/4 done is fine).
Remove and place in 9 by 12 baking dish. Sprinkle with a little salt when hot.

Remove extra oil carefully to another pan, leaving about 1/4 inch in skillet.
Heat.
Put eggplant into hot oil, only one layer at a time, taking care to sear every side (brown lightly).
If needed, add a little more oil to pan with each set you sear.

Remove and place in dish.

Add garlic cloves to hot oil and let them soften on stove.
Add to dish.

Make sure eggplant and potatoes are in a single layer.

If there is masala remaining, and there usually is; put it on top of potatoes and eggplant.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 mins.

This dish comes out looking and tasting superb...decorate with green coriander if you want to but the colors look so great, the dish needs no garnishes.

Enjoy with garlic bread or naan or rice and dal.

The eggplant can be frozen, but the potatoes can't so I use less potato and more eggplant.
This dish can be refrigerated for a day (two at the most), but not longer.

When I had a veggie garden, I too prepared the eggplants, stuffed them, fried and froze them as I got so many eggplants from each plant. Now, I'm content just to do this blog.

Three great finds

2009-05-14T18:23:00.000-07:00

Three friends, three great recipes...

I met two of them through their blogs and one of them while researching a recipe.
I started out trying out their recipes and the results made me appreciate what they share through their blogs...their taste buds and mine get on like peas in a pod.
Their recipes and the stories that go with them not only entertain me; they inspire me to get into the kitchen and start cooking...so when I'm suffering from 'the cooking blues', I just go to all 3 blogs and read till I have compiled a list of dishes to try. Sometimes I just go through them and get inspired to make my own dish!

A personal message to these great cooks:
I'm so glad I know you three through your blogs. Thank you for the enjoyment I get reading your stories and making your recipes. You've earned my trust.

I made one recipe from each site and here they are, with my shortcuts and tips.

Orange Marmalade from Cynthia Nelson's Tastes Like Home.

Click on the above link for the original recipe.

I always loved orange marmalade as a kid. Even now a piece of toast with a little butter, a teaspoon of marmalade and a hot cup of tea is a near perfect breakfast. To my surprise I couldn't find any marmalade in the States, with that slight tinge of bitterness that makes it perfect for me.
When I saw Cynthia's write-up, I had to ask for the recipe and try it. It really has that slight tinge of bitterness I expect in a good marmalade.
Success at last... and this was truly spoon licking good.

My shortcuts: I grated the orange peel in a food processor using a large hole grater and the pieces (top right) came out like matchstick pieces.
Then when I read 'cook for two hours', I got out my trusty old crockpot and let it cook down there...if you go this route, stir every half hour.
The smell of this marmalade cooking was out of this world and the end result was as shiny as Cynthia's recipe said it should be.

What a great find this recipe is...

Beetroot Thoran from Malabar Spices.

Click on the above link for the original recipe.

My variation: I fried some of the chopped beetroot leave I got with my beets in a tsp of ghee with the masala and added it to the beetroot.
I pre-cooked beetroot in the microwave and then let it slow cook on stove for ten mins on very low heat.

I love the masala used for this dish and the flavor it lends the beetroot.

Excellent, scrumpilicious recipe.

Pazham Pori (Fried Ripe Plantains) from Cheenachatti

Click on the above link for the original recipe.

Don't laugh at my brown bits and the bubbles on the fritters...think the oil got too hot.
I made no changes to this recipe; just made my batter like the thicker version stated in the recipe.

Absabloominglutely delish.
Couldn't stop eating them...can't wait to have them again.

Again, thanks to you amazing trio of great cooks.

PEDAS, PEDHAS, PEDOS.

2009-04-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

Pedas (pronounced PAYDAAS) or Pedhas, hold an important place in the hierarchy of Indian sweets. I think they come in second, right after laddus. In my book of favorites, they are right on top of course.

There is a custom in India...at the birth of a boy, laddus were distributed to family and friends, at the birth of girl, pedas.
Pedas are also known as Doodh Pedas (doodh=milk, which is the main ingredient).
North India is proud of it's Mathura pedas also called Gokul ke peda, while South India has the delicious Dharwar Peda, which is a dark brown ball rolled in fine, granulated sugar.

There are some sweets that are made at home in India and some that are just bought at the halwaii or sweetmeat shop. The latter need a degree of expertise, originally handed down from father to son. Pedas are one of the sweets we bought in India.

As a child I remember clutching my mother's hand with excitement as we walked towards the Tunnel Shop in Commercial Street, Bangalore's well known shopping area. The Tunnel Shop was so named because from the street there was a dark dingy corridor with a low roof, that we had to traverse carefully to get to the shop. There was often water seeping out of the sides of the tunnel, coming from places it was better not to know about. The Tunnel opened up into Ali Baba's cave of sweetmeats. There sat Bhagatram the owner and magician, making his delicious sweets on a wood fire over which he balanced a huge kadai full of hot milk being boiled down to make khoa.

Of all the multitude of sweets in there, we always got pedas. He placed them in a cup of leaves, wrapped in newspaper and tied with string. Nothing tasted as delicious as those 'bundles' of fresh pedas!

Bhagatram passed away some years ago. His sons have built the place into a huge modern cafe and sweet shop where they do flourishing business, BUT the pedas don't taste the same...much to my disappointment. They are in fancy boxes and we are served from a glass case by smiling salesmen, but the pedas are different.
I gave them three tries on my last visit and all three times had to acknowledge a sense of deep disappointment that the sons haven't stuck to the original recipe.

After returning from India last January, I decided to work on a good peda recipe here.
The peda odyssey led to research on the Internet and looking at old cookbooks because I was looking for a recipe that would give me the taste of the old pedas.

Trials were not so hard as both grandkids love pedas (they have my Indian sweet tooth DNA). HD (Hubby Dearest) didn't mind tasting them and giving his opinion. ('Remember, all the things I do for you!' he said nobly, devouring the fourth peda in the spirit of true suffering). As he likes only a very few sweets, maybe it was noble of him.

Here is my collection of peda recipes garnered from the web. In the case of finding the same recipe on many sites with the same recipe, I have given credit to the first site I got the recipe from.
I tried 3 recipes,keeping in mind time and effort involved. The recipes that are quick and easy are the ones you'll find here. Please don't try a recipe till you read my tips at the bottom of each recipe.

So after months of experimentation, I was able to finish this piece on Pedas.

And the winner is...

PEDAs,TAKE 1

http://showmethecurry.com/2007/11/05/peda-indian-sweet/ was the first of seven sites this recipe was on.

Ingredients:

Instant Dry Milk (Milk Powder) - 2 cups (150gm)
Sweetened Condensed Milk - 1, 14oz can (396gm)
Unsalted Butter - 1, 4oz stick (113gm)

Method:

1. In a microwave safe dish, melt the butter.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
3. Cook in the microwave for 3 minutes, stirring very well after every minute.
4. After the 3 minutes, mix well again and leave aside for the mixture to cool down enough to handle.
5. Once the mixture has cooled down, grease your hands and make balls.
6. Gently press the balls and flatten them to shape…round and flat.
7. Decorate them with chopped pistachios.
8. Let the pedas set and cool down.
9. Store in refrigerator
Tips:

1. Try half the amount listed in this recipe. I did and got 18 pedas
2. Add 1/4 tsp cardamom powder to the mixture.
3. I microwaved the mix for only 2 mins...3 mins makes it too grainy and crumbly. Though it looks soft it shapes well when cool.
4. After microwaving it for 2 mins I mixed it in a food processor to get the mixture smooth.
Look at the picture...the pedas on the right are grainy after being cooked for 3 mins and shaped...on the left are the pedas which I kneaded for smoothness.
5. Wet your hands to shape the pedas...when the mixture is hot, I press it down in the small spoon in the picture, turn it out of the spoon then pick it up, roll it and flatten it...it just seems an easy way to get them more or less the same size.
I tried this recipe twice as I forgot to take pictures the first time...next time I will add a tablespoon of sugar to the butter when I melt it just to see if it's going to change the consistency and taste of the peda.

HD says it's perfect the way it is (which, in husbandspeak means 'don't try to fix it and ruin the recipe!')
My photograph may not show perfect pedas in shape and texture but the taste was great...not yet like Bhagatram's, though.

****************************************************************************************

PEDAS, TAKE TWO.

Doodh Peda Recipe

http://www.recipes.keralaz.info/ganesh-chathurthi-recipes/DoodhPeda.shtm#

Ingredients

2 cups of Milk Powder
3 tbsp of unsalted butter
1/2 cup milk - sufficient enough to make a soft dough
1/2 cup sugar + 1/2 cup water
3 or 4 cardamom (powdered or crushed)
1 tbsp pista crushed

Method

Mix butter and milk powder, and add milk to make a soft dough.
Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Take out the dough after 15 minutes and crumble it with your finger breaking all the
lumps.
Make sugar syrup of one strand and put the crumbled dough and keep stirring till it
starts leaving the pan.
Remove it when it starts leaving the pan and cool it lightly.
Make small balls and flatten it into a shape of Peda and decorate it with cardamom
and pista powder on the top.

TIPS: Be sure the sugar syrup is well done and the mixture leaves the side and bottom of the pan and stays in a mass, before you remove it from the heat.

I liked these pedas too, but the family voted on Pedas Take One.

****************************************************************************************

PEDAS, TAKE 3

http://www.awesomecuisine.com/recipes/1380/1/Festive-Pedas/Page1.html

Ingredients
1/2 kg. soft white khoya
2-1/2 cups (approx.300gms) sugar powdered
1/2 tsp. cardamom powder
1 tsp. cardamom seeds semi crushed
1 tbsp. slivered or crushed pistachios

Method
Grate khoya with a steel (not iron) grater. Add powdered sugar and mix well.
Put mixture in a large heavy or nonstick pan. Heat first on high for few minutes.
The on slow till done. Make sure to stir continuously, while on heat.
When mixture thick and gooey, add cardamom. Mix well, and take off fire.
Allow to cool, gently turning occasionally. Use cookie moulds, or shape pedas with palms into patty rounds.
Mix pistachios and cardamom seeds and press a bit on top of each. If using moulds, first sprinkle some at bottom.
Take some mixture and press into mould. When set well, invert and carefully, unmould.

Note: Above is the basic recipe.
Any colour ( yellow, orange, green, cochineal), essence (pineapple, orange, pista, chocolate), topping (almonds, walnuts, cashews), can be added. To above recipe add any of following for varied flavours: cashew powder 1/2 cup, cocoa 2 tbsp.(then increase sugar by 1/2 cup), walnuts powdered 1/2 cup, etc. Add when the mixture is half cooked.

TIPS: This took longer and I was not happy with my results as my khoya was not the soft, white kind. I should give this another try. When I do I will report back here.

****************************************************************************************

PEDAS, TAKE FOUR (I haven't tried this out yet).

http://www.dgreetings.com/gifts-to-india/diwali-gifts/diwali-recipes3.html

Doodh peda is easy to prepare and even a novice cook can whip up one in a very short time. And it has a great taste. To prepare it you will require 2 kg khoya(very easily available in any Indian sweetmeat shop), milk (250 gms), grounded sugar(250 gms), rose water, 2 tbsp each of slivered almonds and pistachios, 1 tsp cardamom powder.

Add sugar to the khoya and knead it into a smooth lump. Heat the khoya over medium fire and a few tbsps of milk at a time and mix well. Repeat it over and over till all the milk is utilized and a smooth paste is derived. Now add the cardamom powder and rose water and mix well. Let the mixture cool down a little. Now make small balls of the mixture and flatten them a bit to give them the shape of pedas. Sprinkle some slivered pistachios and almonds over the pedas. Let them cool till they are solid and serve.

This really reads like a recipe worth trying.

***************************************************************************************

PEDAS, TAKE FIVE

http://www.daawat.com/recipes/indian/sweets/malaipeda.htm

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups milk
1 tin sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp corn flour
1/4 tsp citric acid
4-5 cardamoms powder
1 tbsp ghee or butter
A few drops of yellow color

Method:

1. Heat ghee in a pan, add condensed milk, milk and citric acid dissolved in a little water.
2. Continue heating and allow it to curdle.
3. Make a paste of corn flour with 2 tbsp water. Add to the milk mixture after it curdles.
4. Continue cooking on slow/medium heat till the mixture leaves the sides of the pan.
5. Add the yellow color and mix well.
6. Empty the contents onto a dish and shape into pedas. Decorate with cardamom powder.
Makes: 20 Pedas
Preparation time: 20 minutes

Bhagatram's pedas were a chalky white not yellow, but this recipe sounds like a good one too. I should try this recipe too.
*****************************************************************************************

There are many other recipes on the Internet for pedas including the famous one with ricotta cheese.
If I find other easy ones, I will add them to this peda compilation, or keep updating my results after further trials. .

****************************************************************************************

MAWA COPRA PAK

2009-04-02T17:24:00.000-07:00

The following recipe is from my high school cookery book.
I made it first when I was sixteen, under the guidance of my cooking teacher.
This is the original name she gave us for the dish, so I'm keeping it.
Since then I make it on very special occasions as it does take time and patience.
It's well worth the effort though, as it gives a new taste to the classic coconut burfi.
Pak, pronounced paak, is another name for an Indian sweet that is served, cut into squares.

1 lb. mawa/khoa (see my notes on Khoa below for help with this ingredient).
1/2 cup water
6 ozs dried coconut/copra grated fine.
1 oz chopped/sliced almonds
1/2 lb sugar
Vanilla and cochineal (red food color).
1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder (it's theonly change I've made).

For copra/dried coconut in the US, we break a coconut and leave one half uncovered in the refrigerator. It dries out and starts to separate from the shell.
Is tore it like that till needed.
Then I remove the coconut meat from the shell and grate it in the food processor.
If you have a fine grater, good, or grate it twice in the food processor to get the right fineness. This burfi requires finely grated copra.

I grate the khoa I buy in the Indian store too.

Mix khoa and coconut.
Make a thick syrup with the sugar and water.
Remove pot from fire and add khoa and coconut.
Cook stirring continuously.
When it get thick, it will start 'spitting' at you...it's time to don a cooking mitt and then stir from that point on.
When mixture is thick and leaves base of pan, add vanilla and a few drops of cochineal.
(I omit the food color these days).
Pour onto a greased plate and be sure to scrape the bottom of the vessel for the slightly burnt part at the bottom and pile it on the plate...it tastes great.
Decorate with almonds.
Cut into squares when cool.
Enjoy.

KHOA Shortcuts

2009-04-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

One of the things I inherited from my mother is my sweet tooth.
It's the one that craves a little sweet after lunch and dinner.
My mother had many reasons for making sweets: we had to have something sweet at tea time each day, there were festivals where special sweets were made on special days,on birthdays one got the sweet of one's choice and so on.
I can't remember a time when there wasn't something sweet to eat at home.

Here's my short list of favorite sweets:
Chocolate of course has no substitute...I must have been one of the happiest women in the world when they brought out the fact that a piece of dark chocolate eaten every day boosts the immune system. My sweet tooth could have told them that but they had to go and spend millions on research to learn that.
Next to chocolate, and sometimes more than, I like our Indian burfis especially almond and kaju.
When I'm able to, I make the sweets at home now and treat myself to a little piece at a time.
The other time I was very very happy was when my diabetic counsellor said, "If you don't drink (two drinks a day are the allowance), you can have the equivalent of a normal piece of pie or two cookies. To my sweet tooth that translates into a piece of burfi/chocolate after lunch and dinner AS LONG AS I CONTROL THE CARBS AT EACH MEAL AND MY BLOOD SUGARS ARE NORMAL.
It's all the inspiration and encouragement I need.

Back to my burfi making ...

Khoa is a base for 90% of all Indian sweets/burfis. Khoa is milk that has been reduced to the consistency of butter/cream cheese by boiling.

Khoa has many aliases: KOVA/KHOYA/MAWA.

Once you get the hang of how to make/where to get khoa, you can make sweets at home as if you are a halwaii! (sweet maker).

I buy the khoa ready made in the Indian grocery stores, or in my more inspired moments use my crockpot to reduce the milk to khoa consistency. In the crockpot khoa does not need constant stirring...I check on it once an hour, stirring with a wooden spoon if required.

There are many shortcuts/substitutes to get the desired results for khoa. I have compiled those I have found on the web, and those I have been told about here:

1. Just buy it from your local Indian grocer.

2. CROCKPOT RECIPE: Fill crockpot two thirds with whole milk. Set on HIGH till it boils. IF you're not sticking around, lower it and leave for two hours or leave on high and check every half hour, stirring with a wooden spoon if necessary. It reduces to a mass without scorching though milk will stick to sides of crockpot and turn reddish brown if not stirred at all. After twenty five years in the US this easy way of making khoa is unbelievable.
The impatient have been known to add a little milk powder at the end to hasten the solidifying process.

3. A quick khoa substitute steaming a mix of milk powder, ghee and water can be found at:
http://happyburp.blogspot.com/2006/08/make-khawa-khoya-mawa-at-home.html

4. Another quick recipe freezing a combination of evaporated milk and milk powder: http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Make-Khoya-Or-Mawa-At-Home-(Khoya-Is-A-Main-Ingredients-In-Many-Indian-Sweets)&id=428083

5. A khoya recipe using ricotta cheese can be found here: http://www.cuisinecuisine.com/Khoya.htm

6. A recipe from a source I cannot find on the web now using paneer is given below:

400g condensed milk (or 1 tin),
300g grated cottage cheese (paneer)

Method:
Mix condensed milk and cottage cheese in a pan and cook on a medium flame stirring continuously.When the mixture starts thickening, reduce the flame. When it leaves the sides of the pan and is semi-solid, it is ready.

So, after reading all these, take your pick, and get on to the sweet making bandwagon.

Some folk take khoa, cook it with sugar (if there isn't any sugar or condensed milk added in the khoya already) and cardamom powder till it leaves the bottom of the pan, sprinkle almond/pistachio on top and voila! there's a simple burfee that's ready to it.

Others take the khoa made with sugar/condensed milk roll it into small balls, flatten it, add pieces of chopped pistachio on top and you have pedas.

Most people make unsweetened khoa and use it as a base for other burfis.

Now you've completed required reading for making burfis and have a virtual degree in
khoa making, add anything to your khoa to make it into a delicious gastronomic delight.

For starters, try my recipe for MAWA COPRA PAK.

Sooji Rawa Laddu for Beginners

2009-02-25T09:06:00.001-08:00

My cousin's recipe for sooji laddus, that I shared a few days ago, is for graduate cooks with hands that can stand the heat and mold those mouth wateringly delicious laddus.

The following is my mother's recipe and one for those who want to venture out in the world of laddu making and whose hands, like mine, aren't able to handle very hot stuff.
I've made these many times with very good results.
Lan, this one's for you...not that you are in any way a beginner...but just because you are in laddu making mode.

Sooji/Rawa Laddu

4 cups fine rawa/sooji
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1/4 cup ghee (original recipe says 3/4 cup).
1/2 cup raisins, soaked in water and dried on a paper towel.
1/2 cup cashewnuts, halved and chopped.
1/2 level tsp. cardamom powder

Heat ghee.
Fry cashews, when 3/4 done add raisins and fry. Drain and reserve ghee.
Cut down the quantity of cashews and raisins if you like less...I like my laddus chock full of them.
Dry roast sooji with cardamom powder over medium flame for 3 minutes...use a kadai/wok for this if you have one (aluminum or non-stick). They heat up quickly so keep stirring the suji.
Add ghee and keep roasting for another 2 mins BUT do not let it brown.

Heat the water and sugar. When it has dissolved, let it simmer 1 minute on medium and remove.
The syrup has to be pre-one string stage so do not let it simmer too long or you will have rock laddus!
Add sooji, cashews, raisins and mix.
Let it cool and when it is lukewarm, shape into laddus.
This is done by picking up a handful, squeezing it to compress the mixture and then rolling it with both hands to get a good, round shape.
Wet your hands if they get too sticky or mixture sticks to them.
These laddus were always made smaller than other laddus...less than one inch diameter.
They get a little harder after they cool.

TIP: If your mixture does get too hard...heat very slightly with 1/5 of a cup of water or milk to soften it.

OPTIONAL: Add one tablespoon of dry roasted, golden brown, grated coconut to the sooji after it is fried.

Sooji/Rawa Laddu

2009-02-21T16:40:00.000-08:00

Rawa or sooji is made from the endosperm of wheat through the process of milling/grinding.
When we first came to the States I would have to use it's coarser cousin and US by- product, Cream of Wheat as a substitute if I ran out of sooji before our annual trip to the Indian grocery store. Farina, another name for sooji, was one I often came across in English cookbooks, as a teenager.

Sooji comes in three varieties as far as I can see in the Indian stores here: the coarse kind, the medium coarse and the very fine variety. The latter is known to South Indians as peni (paynee) rawa or chiroti rawa. It's the kind used in the following recipe.

The author of the recipe is my cousin who gave me the murku recipe. When they heard of my blog, my cousin's daughter insisted her mother give me this, her best recipe.

On my second visit to their place, I got to taste these melt in the mouth laddus. After I had eaten one so quickly...before I could even say, "Scrumptious!" I wrote down the recipe to share with everybody. I have to point out here that I nobly refrained from eating more though my cousin urged me to.
My cousin, who's in her seventies, is tickled pink that her recipe would be on my blog.

She says till a few years ago she would 'hold' these laddus with both hands and it took one hour to make seventy five. I'll take her word for it as holding/molding/shaping anything hot is not one of my talents.

RAWA LADDUS

1 kg. (2.2 lbs) fine sooji.
2/3 kg.(1.47 lbs) sugar.
4 cardamoms
350 gms (12.35 ozs) ghee
100 gms (3.53 ozs) each cashews and raisins.

Roast sooji on medium but do not let it brown.
Powder sugar and cardamoms in mixie/blender, remove and throw cardamom peel.
Heat ghee on medium.
Fry cashews, when almost done add raisins.
Add roasted sooji and sugar powder.
Mix till warm but do not let it brown.
Remove from stove, let it cool slightly, and hold/shape into laddus.

Laddus are held by picking up a handful and compressing them in one hand.
Then place it in the palm of one hand and shape it with pressing with all the fingers of the other hand and using a slight squeezing motion by the hand cupping the laddu.
It is an acquired art and one I can accomplish with cooler mixtures but my cousin insisted these had to be held while warm.

Her tip was if this was too difficult to hold: Add a little...just a little, milk to the mixture. But, my cousin warned, that would alter the taste.

Her daughter who can set up dishes for photographs better than I can, and who should be a food artist set up the shot for this. I nodded while my cousin went over the recipe again, I wrote, and gave in to my cousin's request and took another laddu.
Who knows when I will get to taste this delicious version again? Tasted and true, definitely or do I mean, tested and true?

Murku

2009-01-30T08:53:00.000-08:00

The winter sun is finally up after a week of rain and chilly days, urging me to share yet another special recipe on my blog. This one is a great snack on a cold day.

Murku in South India is different from the chakli of Maharashtra.
Our murku is made through the thinner smoother mold and the final shape is like a many layered twisted pretzel while the chakli is the thicker spiky mold and the ultimate shape is either one circle or a concentric circle with a two inch diameter.
In Tamil Nadu, where my my mother and cousin grew up,this was also called 'tayn koyil murku.'

One of the highlights of my trip to India was the chance to meet family I had not met since my mother's passing and collect all the family history stories they knew.
I met my oldest cousin sister who generously gave me this recipe as one of her best.
The two visits to her daughter's house, to meet her, were really great.
Not being able to switch to the cooking and cleaning gear from the 'just having fun' mode, I am posting this recipe as 'tasted and true' one. The older I get the more this category appeals to me vs. the make it before you write it up one.
Here's to more 'tasted and true' recipes.

SAROJA AKKA'S MURKU RECIPE
(Akka is the term of address for older sister in Telugu).
Note how the recipe was given in kg's and grams...I have lbs and ozs in brackets.
The oil is given in US fluid ozs.

1 kg (2.2 lbs) raw rice powder (rice flour)
200 gms (7.05 ozs) urad.
1 Tbsp whole cumin (jeera).
1 Tbsp white sesame seed (til)
75-100 gms (3.52 ozs) butter (melted but not hot).
Salt to taste.

1/2 litre (33.8 fluid ozs) oil. (for frying).

Roast urad over medium flame till you get a good aroma, but do not brown it.
Powder fine in blender. (I would use a coffee mill).
Mix all without water.
Put into murku mold.
Heat oil and squeeze out like pretzels and deep fry, turning once, till cream colored.
(do not fry golden brown like chaklis).

Cool and stored in airtight tin/plastic bag for a month.

OPT: You can add coconut milk while mixing but the storage time will be less. In India you get this by soaking fresh grated coconut in warm water and then squeezing out the 'milk'.
Here I would just use the canned coconut milk from the Chinese store.

Below are three types of presses used for making murkus (among other dishes).
The tayn koil mold is in the latest aluminum press.

Mysore Eggplant/Mysore Badnekayi

2009-01-24T10:31:00.000-08:00

Eulogy to a special Eggplant

Eggplant of any kind cooks into a tasty veggie. The varieties are many.
Here in the States, the Japanese eggplant is my favorite.
In India, this last visit, I fell in love all over again with this slim, light green variety known as Mysore Badnekayi or Mysore Eggplant.
It deserves a special mention as the taste it adds to any dish it is cooked up in, is unique.
I used it in the Vankayi Munkayi Talimpu/Fried Eggplant and Drumstick mentioned below.

Vankayi Munkayi Talimpu/ Fried Drumsticks & Eggplant.

2009-01-24T08:25:00.000-08:00

For those of you who've never heard of drumsticks here's a picture of the vegetable (which are actually the fruit pods of the tree).

The botanical name is Moringa Oleifera (Tamil:Murengakai, Kannada: Noogekai, Marathi: Moongi shenga, Telugu: Munkayi).
The green pods are the ones used in this recipe. The leaves considered highly nutritious and flowers are also cooked, the former usually with lentils in Tamil homes.
There are various medicinal values attributed to the drumstick plant with a lot of information available on Wikipedia.

The pods grow on trees and when harvested at the right time and cooked well, provide a succulent interior with a unique flavor. The outside is ridged and slightly hard. If you're buying drumstick for the first time, make sure the seeds are not bulging out...this denotes an old pod. The pods shouldn't be too thin either as you won't be able to enjoy the fleshy interior.

PREP: Cut half inch tips of drumsticks, leaving one end attached and pull down like stringing beans. Do this with both ends. Next cut pod into two to three inch slices...continue stringing but leave outer shell intact.
I usually soak the fresh pods in water for 5 minutes before cooking.
I have sen drumstick trees in Hawaii and Florida, but in places where fresh drumstick is not available, packets of frozen drumsticks can be used with the same results.

Growing up in India, we had a drumstick tree. It was a Mysore drumstick tree that produces even longer, better quality drumsticks than the norm.
Put this together with a cook who loved making this dish and would have liked to make it every day when drumsticks were in season and you will be correct in guessing we ate this dish often. He made it so well, even my mother acknowledged he had the best way with this dish.

On a recent visit to India, I made this dish often, as it is one of my husband's favorites and we were lucky enough to find a few drumsticks in December. The name of the dish is in Telugu, one of the main languages of Southern India.
Here in the States I use the frozen packet of drumsticks available in the Indian grocery stores.

VANKAYI MUNKAYI TALIMPU/FRIED EGGPLANT AND DRUMSTICK.

2 Tbsps oil
1 tsp mustard seed/rai.
3 red chillies
3 drumsticks
2 brinjals/eggplant (Japanese/Chinese/ 1/2 large American or the thin green Indian kind).
1 onion, chopped.
8-10 cloves garlic, peeled.
Salt and chilli powder to taste.

Heat oil, put in mustard seeds, cover pan.
When mustard seeds splutter, add red chillies and after half a minute add garlic cloves. When garlic cloves turn translucent add onion.
Fry till onions are brown then add drained drumstick, chopped eggplant and chilli powder and keep frying till done on medium heat.
Cover pan and stir occasionally.
Halfway through, add salt and mix well.
Eggplants will look soft and mushy when done and for those who want to be sure drumsticks are ready poke one with a sharp knife. If it goes in easily, drumsticks are done.
Drumstick and eggplant is a happy marriage as each complements the other superbly.

TO EAT DRUMSTICKS: Open pieces with fork and knife or by inserting a finger into one side while holding the other end with your thumb.
It usually breaks open into two to three pieces...pick each one up and drag against teeth to get the pulp out (like artichokes), or use edge of fork or tips of fingers to scrape the pulp off.

Drumsticks are also wonderful in sambar (a curry made with lentils).

TIP: Easiest way to peel garlic cloves is to microwave cloves for 10 seconds. The inner pod slips out easily.

This vegetable tastes best when eaten with hot chappattis/tortillas or rice and sambar or rasam.

MYSORE DRUMSTICKS READY FOR THE PICKING

HAPPY 2009

2009-01-22T17:55:00.000-08:00

Wishing all of you out there a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.
The long 'quiet' on the blogging front was due to a trip to India.
The year started with meeting family and friends, honing our coping skills in traffic that has tripled since our last visit, marveling at the progress and changes in India since our last visit...and enjoying all that great food both at home and in the restaurants.
It seems like every home we visited had an expert cook...the variety of Indian food is amazing...and the taste incredible.
I make some of the same recipes here but the taste is different.
Here's to more discoveries, helpful tips, shortcuts and sharing innovative ideas on the food journey in 2009.

HD's mushroom, bell pepper and potato fry.

2008-11-04T16:15:00.000-08:00

5 star mushroom, bell pepper and potato fry.

I was in the doldrums one day and just not feeling like facing the task of cooking dinner.
Doldrums for a diabetic can be caused by anything: unbalanced sugars, muscle fatigue, joint pain...you name it, we have it.
While the challenge of life is to control the sugar and be as normal as possible, there are still days when one just has to let everything go and rest.
One such day, HD (Hubby Dearest) looked at me, went out and returned with a bag of groceries. An hour later, I woke from my nap to the best aromas coaxing me to go to the family room.
From there I have a good view of the kitchen...long long ago HD and I decided we would not trespass on each other's kitchen time...so I just peered in that direction while my salivary glands did a tango.
HD immediately positioned his back to block my view of the dish and said sternly, "Not ready yet!"
I sat down on the couch and opened up my computer...Who was I to worry about a little delay in dinner time when I was going to eat something that smelled so good.
Finally he heated up a tortilla , put some veggie on the side and said, "Here you go. It's not great but it's something."
He always says that every time he cooks. I don't know why.
Over and over these 30 years I have told him the greatness of the dish is not just the taste (though his are great...read on..you'll see why), it's the thought, the effort AND...the greatest part, the fact he leaves the kitchen spotless when he's done! The sad part is that this is the second or third time he's cooked this year, because he gets so exhausted?
Anyway I felt so much better after I ate, that I wrote the recipe down before either of us forgot it. HD says he made it once 20 years ago. I say he has never made anything like this...

Mushroom, Bell pepper,Potato Fry.

I pkt (8 oz) mushrooms, washed, chopped in half and dried on a paper towel.
1 medium onion chopped (our medium onions are equal to 2 large Indian onions)
1 large tomato, chopped
1 medium red potato cubed. (wish he'd put in 2).
1/2 large capsicum/bell pepper chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander/cilantro.
1 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp turmeric
Chilli powder and salt to taste.
2 Tbsps olive oil
Optional: 2 Tbsps butter (He puts in more, but this is the quantity he says he puts in. Now you know why he blocks my view of the dish. I just go to the fridge and check the block of butter there and know how much he's used).

Heat oil. Fry onion.
When half done add capsicum and fry till onions turn brown.
Microwave cubed potato 4 mins without any water and add to pan.
Add tomato, mushroom, coriander and spices.
Turn your back so dish is hidden from your other half/children and add butter.

Fry everything well till done.

Eat hot with chappattis or rice. I opted for the former.

Baked matri

2008-11-04T15:44:00.001-08:00

Whenever I get sick/feel under the weather, which is very often for a diabetic,I am challenged to come up with quicker and easier recipes... because no matter how sick the rest of me is, these taste buds; reared by a mother who loved to cook the best food and a father who insisted on the best food being served at every meal AND honed by my own work and eating skills...are something to be reckoned with.

My mouth has been watering reading all the recipes for matri BUT as explained before there is a huge gap between 'WANT TO' and 'CAN'.
It took two weeks to remember to get the omum/ajwain/carom seed,then another week to think about making matri.
Inspiration hit when I got some ready made pie crust for another recipes...look for it by the frozen biscuits etc. Two large sheets come in a box.
So here's the recipe, not written up in the traditional manner as it is too simple for that...
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
I rolled one sheet out to 1 mm thickness...next time I'll do it thinner.
I grabbed a round lid, cut out circles.
Then on top of each circle I sprinkled a very little omum...be careful as omum has a STRONG flavor and less is more.
Using my fingertips, I pressed the seed lightly into each round.
(next time I'll add cracked pepper too).
Do NOT add salt as the pie crust has enough for this dish.
I lined a tray with foil, placed my matris on it and baked it for 7 mins, till golden brown..
Watch carefully the first time and note your own right temp down as matris bake/brown quickly and everything depends on your oven.
These were flaky and absolutely delicious...the taste buds reminded me if only I'd had some Punjabi mango pickle made with somph to go with it, things would really have been great but I was too happy to care!!!

This is a healthy conversion of an old time favorite.
Though not deep fried, like the original recipe,there was no loss of taste.
PLUS, the final bonus, HD (Hubby Dearest) looked surprised and then very pleased when he tasted the new matris. He doesn't get enough savory snacks around here.

Sweet Apam

2008-11-04T15:15:00.000-08:00

This is one of the nicest things my mother used to make for tea-time, when we had emptied the contents of her tins and she needed a quick sweet at tea-time!
I love the blend of jaggery and now I use whole wheat flour, as the kind we get in the Indian grocery stores are as fine as the maida (all purpose flour) we used in India.
The whole wheat flour is more nutritious, the jaggery does not send my blood sugar soaring as long as I eat one apam only, so this is an all around winner for a diabetic.

1 cup whole wheat flour.
1/2 cup jaggery, broken into small pieces or shaved off the jaggery 'block' with a knife.
(Brown sugar might work here too but I haven't tried it with brown sugar yet).
1/4 cup water.
1/2 tsp cardamom powder.
1 Tbsp raw cashewnuts (quartered if they are whole, halved if they are in two pieces)
1 Tbsp golden raisins (soaked in water for 5 mins to plump them up, and strained).

Melt jaggery in water and strain through a fine strainer. (I always do this with any dish I'm using jaggery for as there are always some impurities in the jaggery).
Watch carefully so jaggery just melts and does not harden...if needed add little more warm water to dilute quickly.
Cool and then add to flour with all other ingredients.
Mix like dosa pouring consistency...for those of you who do not make dosas mix like pancake batter, adding more water if necessary.
Spray a non-stick pan, heat on medium high, pour one spoon of batter to make a 2-4 inch circle...my mother painstakingly did 3 inch circles...with me size depends on how quickly I want the job finished.
Flip apam over and brown other side.
Eat hot, eat cold...delicious both ways.

Tips: If your jaggery is very hard, soften it in the microwave for a minute but be very careful handling it as it starts to melt from the inside out.
Do not make batter too watery.
Do not pour too thick as inside will not cook well...1/4 cm comes out great.
Do not cook crisp.
Apam should be golden reddish brown and soft.
Outer edge just get a little crisp but the rest should be soft.

An unexpected award

2008-10-17T06:38:00.000-07:00

Never having thought of awards, I'm overwhelmed by this one.
Just doing the blog is reward enough for me, as it has always made me happy to share what I know. This summer it has given me something to do that I enjoy and helped alleviate the problems the heat causes diabetics.
Most of all, it's like opening a new gift every day to visit a blog...old or new and read a new recipe that I can't wait to try.

I am now an award winning blogger! Thanks Viki of Viki's Kitchen for the very first award I have received for this site...and for the very kind words.
The rules of the award are: Put the logo on your blog. Add a link to the person who awarded you. Nominate 10 other blogs. Add links to those blogs on yours, and leave a message for your nominees on their blogs. I am happy to pass on this award to my fellow blogger friends.

Tastes Like Home
Malabar Spices
Cheenachatti
Art of Cooking Indian Food (Let Us All Cook)
Ahaar
Aayi's Recipes
Paajaka Recipes
...and a little bit more...
For The Love Of Food
Zaiqa, Modern Hyderabadi Cuisine

Indian Sweets: RAWA PUFFS

2008-10-11T15:47:00.000-07:00

Indian sweets aren't the candy of America or the toffees of England...they are the 'sweets' made for tea each day,and at religious festival times. Hindus have specific sweet dishes to be made for each festival...and of course each part of India has different sweets to make and offer...all delicious and infinitely varied.
To get back to the important ritual of 'tea-time',one sweet and one spicy/kara/savoury item was the norm in our house. My mother had two Britannia biscuit tins which she filled routinely with goodies for tea time. For those of you not familiar with them, these tins were made of aluminum, rectangular in shape about eighteen inches high and ten inches wide and deep. We got them from the station canteen manager who saved them for my mother, after the biscuits were sold.
After lunch or in the evenings my mother and the servant would make enough sweet and spicy things to fill these tins and then for ten days we would all work on emptying the tins and her job would begin all over again.
When guests came visiting, these snacks would be served to them with tea, coffee or that famous Indian drink, Orange Squash.
Most of the items for tea in India were deep fried. In Britain, where the custom originated, these goodies were usually baked.
For the spicy/kara/savoury part of the tea, we would have one of these: murku, papubilla,kodbilla,salty biscuits, bajjis, pakodas...the last two being made fresh of course.
For the 'sweet' part we would have one of these: some kind of halwa, kesari, mithai/barfi, rawa puffs, duckies and dollies...the name taking it's shape from the cutters my Mom used on the jaggery and flour biscuits that were deep fried...there were teddy bears too but they were not included in the name somehow.
The Rawa Puffs were one of my favorite tea time snack and at Diwali they were made in huge quantities. On the day of the festival each neighbor was sent a tray with all the sweets my Mom had worked diligently on for the last two weeks. The neighbors reciprocated on their special festival days...a tiffin carrier of biriyani on Eid came from one, Christmas trays of plum cakes and baked delicacies from another and so on. How rich this sharing made our lives and no matter which religious holiday it was, all the children felt the keen joy of anticipation for the goodies that filled every home.

Now as Diwali approaches and I am filled with memories of home, I decided to try out the Rawa Puffs for myself as I have found a shortcut that is doable in spite of the weakness that is a part of the Diabetes.
In addition, the summer heat has finally relented and the cooler weather has given me some of my energy back.

RAWA PUFFS

This is my entry for Paajaka Recipes 'Deep fried or steamed sweets' event.

(got the dates mixed up so I guess it's not in the event.)

This is also my entry for All Thingz Yummy' Yummy Festival Sweet: Diwali event

Filling

1 cup rawa/sooji/cream of wheat.
(If you are buying this from an Indian store buy the medium coarse not the fine variety).
2/3 cup sugar.
(this seemed a little extra sweet to me but that may have been because I have become used to cutting back on my sugar intake. You could use half a cup, taste and then add a little more if needed.)
1 level tsp powdered cardamom.
1/3 cup chopped cashewnuts.
(Halve each cashew and then halve it again)
1/3 cup raisins. (I'll increase this next time).

Heat pan, roast rawa with cardamom powder for three -five minutes...do not brown or burn.
Remove rawa from pan.
Heat one Tbsp ghee or oil.
Fry cashewnuts, when half done add raisins and fry till raisins plump up.
Add rawa and fry for another minute or two.
By this time the kitchen should be filled with a heavenly aroma.
Remove from stove, add sugar and mix well.
(our sugar is really fine here so if you have granulated sugar, powder a little but not completely).
Cool filling.

For the cover: (Here's the shortcut).

From your local Mexican supermarket buy the frozen empanada covers.
If you don't have a Mexican supermarket in your area, here are my sympathies and the recipe for the cover.

1 1/2 cups flour
(I use the chappatti atta/whole wheat flour from the Indian store is ground really fine. Some people use only all purpose flour but I feel this combination is more nutritious.)
1/2 cup all purpose flour.
1 Tbsp olive oil.
1 tsp salt.

For frying: I mix half olive oil and half corn oil for frying as it works better than just olive oil.

Mix all the ingredients. Knead with slightly lukewarm water to poori dough consistency.
Roll out either into into one big round, cut out circles using four inch cookie cutter (you can make smaller circles depending on the time you have to spend on them),or roll out as individual small pooris/circles.
(For newbies trying this recipe for the first time, poori dough consistency is like pizza dough and when rolled out this should be as thin as tortillas).
Fill each 4 inch circle with one Tbsp filling, wet edge of circle with water and fold half the circle over to meet the other half.
Using your fingers and then the tip of a fork, press down edges very firmly.
(If puffs open while frying, the filling will leak into the oil and burn...in that case switch off stove, allow oil to cool, strain and then resume your work...it is easier to make very sure puffs are well sealed in the first place).

Heat oil in frying pan. Deep fry puffs till golden brown.
Do not overheat oil as these puffs come out better when they fry at just the right temperature. Is this a riddle to see if you know what that is? No, it's not. The right temperature is when you put in a tiny piece of dough into the heated oil and it rises to the surface immediately.

Last instruction:
Eat one hot...they are so.o.o good this way then eat one cold later on...can't make up my mind which way they taste better. I made three, which is all the time I could stand in the kitchen for...meant to be fair and share fifty-fifty with HD (Hubby Dearest) but he wasn't home, and two were sacrificed to the noble task of tasting.
Hope he returns before the third goes in search of the first two!

TIPS:
1. One to two Tbsps grated coconut can also be roasted and added to filling.
2. Empanada covers can be filled and baked to cut down on the fat but this recipe comes out better when fried.
3. Fat is not absorbed by these puffs or any other dish, if oil is heated to the correct temperature before anything is fried using the small test given above.

5 star badam halwa for Navratri

2008-10-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

Navratri literally means nine nights. This festival honors Devi/the Indian Goddess who fought against demons who wanted to conquer heaven and earth.
Devi was created by the light that emanated from the Gods and she was endowed with the special power of each of the Gods.
They sang her praises in special hymns, recorded in the Devi Mahatmyan when they needed her and she appeared and rescued them from the scourge of the demons.
These nine days are celebrated all over India, in different ways...Gujratis hold 'garbha sessions' which convene at 8 or 9 at night in which they celebrate with song and dance till mid-night when the 'arti' is performed, Bengalis perform Durga Puja for these nine days, South Indians perform pujas at home,some set up a display of dolls and grow fresh grains in a plate for nine days. People visit each others homes to see the dolls and eat the 'goodies'.
For those who cannot make elaborate dishes, fruits and milk are offering enough when served with devotion. I also mix nuts and dried fruit and serve this.
The tenth day Vijaya Dashmi is the day of Victory.
The simplest explanation of Navratri is it is the fight of good versus evil and eventual victory by all that is good. By celebrating the festival, we affirm this.
The simplest worship is to follow all that is good every day of our lives in thought, action and deed. The light of goodness will always dissolve the darkness of evil.

Here's an easy dish that is a great offering, a great dessert and simply a great sweet.

5 star badam/almond halwa

1 can condensed milk
1 cup blanched almonds, powdered coarse.
(If you do not have a food processor, then do this in a blender with a little milk)
1/2 cup milk powder.
1 tsp Elaichi/ cardamom

Put all ingredients in a pan on medium heat.
Stir till thick and halwa falls from spoon like a mass.
Remove and transfer to a serving dish.
Serve small portions as this is a rich dish.
No one will believe you haven't spent hours making it!
Picture coming soon!!!

DALIA/BROKEN WHEAT UPMA

2008-09-28T12:30:00.000-07:00

ABOUT WHEAT:

Dalia is the Indian name for cracked/broken whole wheat.
I was first introduced to dalia as a porridge, in North India.
The porridge took a long time to cook but tasted nutty and delicious.
Seeing dalia in my local Indian grocery store after my return to the US from that trip, gave me the idea for this recipe.
This dish is nutritious and super for any meal: breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Wheat is to North India what rice is to South India...a staple food.

Nutritional Values of Wheat.
Wheat is rich in protein and fibre.
It contains Manganese, Phosphorus, Magnesium and Selenium in very large quantities. Rich in Zinc, Copper, Iron and Potassium. However, Calcium is also present in small amounts.
It is rich in Vitamin B6, Niacin, Thiamin, Folate, Riboflavin and Pantothenic Acid. Vitamin E and Vitamin K are also present in small but considerable amounts.
Wheat has a calorific value of 339.0 per 100 gm.

Health Benefits of Wheat:
Consumption of whole wheat is necessary for a healthy metabolism, as it prevents Breast Cancer, Gallstones, childhood Asthma and heart risks. Definitely an essential food to intake for women for gastro-intestinal health, also reduces risk of high blood pressure, Diabetes and high cholesterol. To add up to it all, it has phytonutrients which promotes better health through maintaining high blood levels.

Source ORGANIC FOODS

Dalia Upma

This is my entry for Eat Healthy: Fight Diabetes ( Sangeeth of Let us all Cook has organized this event.)
Two hours after eating this I find my blood sugar perfectly normal...which is a meal by meal challenge for a diabetic like me till one masters the art of managing a chronic disease to have a shot at a healthy life.
Diabetes is now a national problem in the USA and prevention is better than waiting till one is diagnosed with the disease so please be aware and cut back on huge quantities of white rice, white flour sugar and generally overeating.
If you have diabetes in your family start a healthy diet today.

This is my entry for WBB 'Grains in My Breakfast' event, hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen.
WBB, Weekend Breakfast Blogging is an event started by Nandita of Saffron Trail.

This is also my entry for Tasty Palettes,'Whole Grains'event.

1 cup dalia
1/2 onion, chopped.
1 tomato, chopped.
1/2 cup cauliflower, chopped to 1 " pieces
1/2 cup soy beans (frozen)/peas.
1/2 cup cubed potatoes
2 Tbsp chopped cilantro
2 green chillies (optional)
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp pepper powder
Salt to taste.
2 Tbsps olive oil.
1/2 a lime

Note: The last time I bought dalia, it was like grains of wheat broken into two pieces,and needed pressure cooking. I like this kind best.
Today the package I opened is like coarse cornmeal/sooji so I cooked it stove top.

Pressure cook 1 cup dalia with 1 cup water OR cook dalia with 2 cups water and salt to taste, on stove top.
(Bring dalia and water to a boil, reduce heat and cook till water is evaporated...about 5-7 mins.)
While dalia is cooking on one burner I go ahead with the rest of the recipe on another, keeping an eye on the dalia.

Fry chopped onion.
Add green chillies, chilli and pepper powder and fry for 3 mins.
Add tomato, cauliflower, soy beans, potatoes and fry for 5 mins.
(If the soy beans are frozen and the caulflower and potatoes are fresh, then I zap the last two items in the microwave for 4 mins first, drain them and add them to the dish so all the veggies will cook at the same rate).
Add 1 cup water, cover, and let everything cook on medium heat till done and liquid is reduced.
There should be just enough water left to make a very thick sauce (about 1/2 a cup).

Mix with cooked dalia. Leave on low heat for 5 mins so that flavors incorporate and dalia absorbs the extra liquid.
Add a squeeze of lime juice to bring out the best flavors in this dish.
Serve hot...excellent for breakfast, brunch, lunch, munch or dinner.

Potatoes with fennel, parsley and cheese

2008-09-24T14:55:00.000-07:00

Potatoes with fennel, parsley and cheese.

This is my entry for the October Royal Food Joust.
If you need more information on this site or want to join the Foodie Blog Roll, click here.

Two medium potatoes (I used Yukon Gold), about 2 cups, cubed.
1/2 cup non-fat milk (use any milk).
1 cup grated cheddarella cheese (a mix of cheddar and mozzarella).
1 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsps ground fennel seed (roast a Tbsp of fennel seed in the microwave for ten seconds. Grind fine in spice grinder.)
2-3 cloves garlic, grated.
2 Tbsp parsley,chopped.
1/2 onion, chopped.
Salt, chilli powder, pepper powder to taste.

Cook potatoes in just enough water to cover them.
As soon as they are soft, drain them.
Return pot to stove, add milk and let potatoes absorb the milk on lo heat.
In a skillet fry onions on medium heat.
When brown add butter and then grated garlic.
Fry for 1 minute.
Add chilli powder, pepper powder, fennel seed powder.
Fry for another two minutes.
Add potatoes, parsley and salt to taste and mix well, mashing just a little.
Potatoes should still be lumpy... not like mashed potato.
(Don't over do the salt as the cheese is salty too).
Fry for three minutes.
Put in an oven proof dish, sprinkle grated cheese on top and broil for 2-3 minutes watching carefully.

The cheese forms a crust and makes this dish yummy-licious.

Have left overs? Lucky you...here's a couple of ideas of what to do with them.

1. Make a plain omelet, heat up and use the potato as a filling.
A few drops of hot sauce on top mixed with a Tbsp of ketchup, on the side, makes it perfect.

2. Put the left over potato between two slices of bread and grill it. Makes a great sandwich.

Pros of owning a cockpot

2008-09-22T15:14:00.000-07:00

My crock pot Curry In A Hurry recipe (see below) led to this post

What is a crock pot?

A crock pot is a slow cooker. It's an electrical appliance that can be plugged in and left to make super stews/curries.
Similar to a rice cooker it contains an outer chamber and...here's where it differs from a rice cooker... an inner, removable porcelain chamber.

Pros of owning/buying a crock pot.

1. Easy cleaning: the porcelain interior rarely gets food stuck to the bottom.
2. Hands free cooking...once you put stuff in there correctly.
3. A meal is waiting for you when you come back from work/an outing...the aroma of curry filling the house reminds me of India where we always come home to something smelling yummy-licious from the kitchen.
4. It's inexpensive...approximately 11 dollars on sale for a one quart crockpot.
5. For a party, it gets the curry ready and keeps it hot, while you work on other dishes...you can place the crock pot directly on the table, as the exteriors are pretty.
6. Besides the kurma at the bottom, they are great for stews,soups or curries that need long, slow cooking.
7. You can season everything/fry onions on the stove top, then transfer to the crock-pot and put in lentils or meat or veggies or a combo and leave it to simmer till done...I get the best flavors this way.
8. I have made khoa in the crock pot, leaving milk to boil in it for eight hours, stirring occasionally. This needs a little attention when milk gets very thick but it prevents that stirring, stirring, stirring...and arm ache.
9. It's great for Rabdi...the North Indian/Mughal thickened sweetened milk dish and kheers/rice payasam...again, anything with liquid that needs long, slow cooking.
10. Chakkrapongal, a traditional South Indian sweet dish, made with rice, mung dal, jaggery and milk comes out great in the crock pot.

I'm not just a recorder of recipes. My crock pot adventures made me feel like a proud pioneer in shortcuts. I love nothing more than finding ways to cut down the work while KEEPING the same age old wonderful flavors and taste.

Do follow manufacturer's instructions for safety while using a crock pot.
Never let your dish run dry while cooking or it WILL burn.
Test every new recipe for the first time when you are around to observe results.

Crockpot Curry in a Hurry

2008-09-20T14:18:00.000-07:00

Crockpot: Curry in a Hurry.

A few years ago, my sister was visiting me and I wanted to spend time with her and my brother-in-law and NOT in the kitchen.
Yet, here was the dilemma of wanting to provide a good meal as well. Making as much as I could before they arrived, in desperation I recalled a talk I had given to an American group of friends re., 'Curry in a Hurry'. Whisking out my crockpot I put all the ingredients that I had listed for them into the crockpot, turned it on, said a prayer and left the kitchen.
Four hours later I served lunch, with another prayer. Amazingly the first comment came from my brother in law who has a very well developed palate. "This curry is delicious."
I couldn't have been more pleased. Coming from him, it was high praise. This was followed by my sister's ever loyal and supportive words, "Geeta is such a great cook," and to me, "How do you do all this?" I treasure those words of appreciation. Though we lost her to cancer her memory is in my heart, interwoven in my life and a very important thread of my being.

While researching calcium rich foods for Sangeeth's Eat Healthy: Calcium Rich event, I found the USDA's database list on which Tofu was second. Tofu is made from soybeans which were fifth on the list. Some years ago I encountered soy beans in their shell in an Oriental restaurant when a bowl of soybeans, dipped in hot salted water was placed in front of us.
'Edmame', said the waitress. I peeled one and found the bean reminded me of mocche/avaraykai/averaychi shenga. Just like mocche, I could peel the outer skin from the bean and reveal a tender inner bean. In India, the averaykai are peeled, the beans are soaked in water overnight (pidakka pappu) and then the outer skin is removed. Though the inner beans make for a more delicate flavored curry the whole bean has more fiber. The averakai season in India (winter in Bangalore) is looked forward to.
In the US, packets of soy beans are inexpensive in the Oriental stores, and I use these protein and calcium packed veggies in curries just as if they were avaraykai. Of course the original avaraykai is the greatest in taste, but we have to make do with what is available here.

So here's my fifth entry for Sangeeth Raghunathan's EAT HEALTHY: CALCIUM RICH event.

CROCKPOT CURRY IN A HURRY

No crock pot? No worries. Just put it on the stove and it will be done quicker than in a crock pot.
The former is when you have no time to watch a dish and still need it ready.

Calcium content per 100 gms of soy beans (by weight)or 3.53 ozs, is 277 mg.

A group
2 cups cauliflower florets
1 cup cubed, red skinned potato (approximately 2 medium)
1 cup frozen soy beans (rinsed in hot water).
1 tomato chopped.
2 whole green chillies.
2 Tbsps chopped cilantro
1/2 onion, sliced and fried. (I have large batches of onion fried and frozen, so I use that).
One pinch turmeric.
1/2 spoon ground pepper.
1 spoon garam masala/Everest Biriyani pulao masala.
1 Bay leaf
1" piece cinnamon
3 cloves or 1/3 tsp clove powder.
1 Tbsp ginger and garlic paste.
1 1/2 cup water

To taste
Red chilli powder.
Salt

B group

1 Tbsp cashewnut powder
3 ozs coconut milk
1 Tbsp khus khus powder (khus khus is poppy seed found in the Indian groceries. I roast a pkt at a time in the microwave, blend and what else? freeze it of course!)

Put all the A group ingredients into a crock pot and turn it on High for the first hour...if you're around.
If you're going to be out/away for 4-6 hours just leave it on medium.
Ten minutes before serving add B group ingredients and let it continue simmering...you can omit group B.

TIPS: This is delicious with peas too if you can't find the soy beans in your area.
Try cauliflower, potato and half a pkt frozen spinach for a great flavor.
In a crock pot, you need ingredients that will cook at the same rate...red skinned potatoes frozen soy beans and cauliflower are a perfect combo.
You don't have to fry and freeze large batches of onion like I do...that's just because I'm not well enough to cook from scratch every day.
Instead when chopping onion for one dish, chop another onion, fry both together, remove half and store in the refrigerator/freezer for another day/dish.
Time and motion study proves this is economical both in time and energy.
Do not add too much water to the crock pot and check the curry after four hours...if you're leaving it all day leave it on lo.
It's better to stick around the first time you try this recipe so you get an idea of what it's like in four hours/six hours etc.

No one will guess your kurma/curry wasn't made on the stove with you sweating an hour over it.
(My mother always insisted that the masala had to be fried for fifteen minutes and then the veggies put in and fried for another fifteen)
Add any ingredients you would normally add to your kurma to make it great.
I have done it without onions, garlic/ginger too and it has come out great.
I cannot recommend this dish highly enough.
Crock pots wash up easily in the dishwasher. Food rarely burns in it.

For those really in a hurry, this curry can be done in ten-fifteen minutes stove top if you zap the vegetables in very little water in the microwave for five minutes and then add all the ingredients to a pot and simmer till done...remember not to overdo the water or it will take longer to thicken.

HD (Hubby Dearest)says this curry/kurma tastes best with chappattis and I swear by the rice 'n curry combo. You be the judge.

Curry Leaf Chicken Fry

2008-09-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

A friend I hadn't met for 30 years called this year and as we renewed our friendship, I invited them to visit. They finally fit in a short visit to our place. I was just starting this blog and as soon as my friend Mary, and her husband Neethi, heard what I was doing, they generously shared their best recipes with me. They are both good cooks but I didn't know how good till I recently tried this recipe they gave me.
Thanks Mary and Neethi...hope the picture looks like the finished dish is meant to look like.

Curry leaf (Karipatha) Chicken Fry

1 lb boneless chicken
Ginger 1 Tbsp
Garlic ½ Tbsp
Red chilli powder, haldi, salt
½ cup curry leaves
3 Tbsps olive oil
One oz. butter

Heat oil and butter.
Fry curry leaves then ginger, garlic, red chilli powder and haldi nicely, then chicken. Add salt to taste.
Cover and keep till done adding little water if necessary.
Towards end add little more curry leaves.
Opt: squeeze ½ lime.

Truly simple and delicious.

Shammi Koftas

2008-09-15T17:26:00.000-07:00

Shammi koftas (pronounced Shummi).

My father had a good friend and fellow officer, who was from Hyderabad. When the latter's daughter got married, we were invited to Hyderabad for the wedding.
Till then I'd thought every wedding was grand, but this one outdid all the others I had been to with it's pomp and pageantry.
Add to this, the wonderful, thoughtful, old-world courtly treatment we received in the Bride's home and you'll know why we felt like Royalty.
Hyderabadis are famous for their courtly manners and wonderful hospitality.
Never had I seen so many meat dishes served at every meal, starting with breakfast (3), lunch (4) and dinner which was just a feast each of the four nights the ceremonies went on for.
This recipe, was one my Mom got then, and we have made this dish part of our family's recipe collection.

It has two versions after the first part of the recipe to make it possible for both the advanced and beginner/intermediate cook to try.
This also my entry for: Announcing RCI: Authentic Hyderabadi Cuisine.

2 lbs kima/lean ground lamb (I use lean ground turkey here in the US.)
1/2 cup channa dal/ Bengal gram lentils.
1/2 large onion chopped.
1" piece ginger,peeled and chopped.
1" piece cinnamon.
3 cloves
3 red chillies
3 green chillies.
1 Tbsp peppercorn (for my American friends and son-in-law, I omit the green and red chillies and use very little peppercorns)
1/2 cup cilantro,washed, finely chopped and dried on a paper towel.
Salt to taste.
2 eggs.

Wash and cook the channa dal with just enough water to cover it.
When done add the washed, drained meat, onion, ginger, garlic, red and green chillies and peppercorns to it and let it cook till meat is done and water has evaporated.
Cool. Blend in food processor till it is just a little coarse.
Add eggs and salt and mix in food processor.
Remove, put in bowl and place in refrigerator for at least half an hour.

For the beginner cook:

Additional ingredients: 1 onion, cooking spray.

Put oven on BROIL
Add 1 chopped onion and cilantro to the mix.
Mix well, shape into small oval patties. 1" wide and 2-3 "long.
Place on baking tray lined with foil.
Spray with cooking spray and broil till well browned.
Watch carefully...this takes 2-3 minutes only.
Turn and spray other side and brown it.

I use this method to control our fat intake. Formerly these were shallow fried in a skillet.
These are Shammi kebabs.
Serve hot with mint chutney.

For the intermediate/advanced cook, there are two ways of finishing this recipe:

Additional ingredients: Oil for frying, chicken tenders/boneless chicken and/or eggs.

Method One
1. Add cilantro and shape cooked, cooled mixture into balls/koftas.
2. Heat oil in a deep fryer till very hot but not smoking. Oil should only be one-third of the way up the side of the fryer.
3. Very carefully, put in five koftas.
4. Oil will start bubbling and huge bubbles will come to the top...be careful oil does not boil over...if it comes too close to the top, switch off stove immediately.
5. Watch carefully till edges of each kofta start showing brown before turning over...if you touch them earlier koftas will disintegrate.
6. Remove in a minute or two. Koftas should be reddish brown.
Serve hot. Makes a great appetizer, main dish.

Method Two

Cook chicken tenders/boneless chicken with salt and chilli powder in a little water till done. Drain on paper towels. Cut into 1-2 inch pieces.
Hard boil eggs. Shell and cut in half lengthwise.
Add cilantro to meat mixture and cover chicken pieces completely with it.
Take a two inch ball of mixture, flatten it, place chicken or egg in center, cover completely, using more meat on top if necessary.
When well covered, press between your hands so meat is well compacted around filling.
Fry as above BEING very careful to only fry two egg halves at a time or four chicken filled koftas.
Enjoy hot as a main dish or as an out of this world appetizer with mint chutney.

In the olden days, entire drumsticks and thighs would be covered with this mixture and fried. Hurrah for boneless chicken.
Originally the meat mixture would be stuffed with a mixture of khoa mixed with raisins and nuts! We never did this.

When stuffed with egg, or chicken, these are called Nargisi koftas...the original recipe called for putting them in a gravy/sauce (given below), but we prefer them just fried. My mother would put half the plain fried koftas (no stuffing) in a gravy and serve half just fried.

WARNING: Don't stand close to frying pan/kadai as these have been known to burst a little in the oil if there is any water content in the filling.
Watch oil carefully...I cannot stress this often enough.
If first batch breaks up in oil, remove pieces, let oil cool, strain it and return it to frying pan. Add another beaten egg to mix and 1/4 cup seasoned breadcrumbs.
I try not to do this as it works in a pinch but it changes the taste of the koftas.
Click on above pictures to see each stage of the process of these egg and chicken koftas...the ones where the egg is showing through is where it burst while frying!
I have the marks to prove it!!!

This is the MOST trying thing to deep fry till you get the hang of it and the MOST wonderful thing to eat. I didn't realize till reading a book of Hyderabadi cooking that very few people do deep fry it. (I guess that's because of the difficulty.)

Gravy for koftas.
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
1 bay leaf
1" stick cinnamon
4 cloves.
1 onion,sliced
4 tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped cilantro.
1 tsp jeera powder
1 tsp dhania powder
1 tsp garma masala powder.
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp white pepper powder
1 can(3 ozs)coconut milk.
1 Tbsp cashewnuts, ground to a paste in a little coconut milk.
Salt to taste.

Heat oil and butter.
Put in bay leaf, cinnamon stick and whole cloves (bud removed or it will burst in oil).
When bay leaf turns brown,add sliced onion. Fry brown.
Add all powders and fry for three minutes.
Add tomatoes and cilantro...fry till they get pulpy.
Add salt to taste.
Add 2 cups water and cook for five minutes.
Add cashewnut paste and coconut milk and simmer for 3 mins.
(Some folk use yogurt here instead).
Gravy is done..it should be thick.
Add well drained koftas just before serving...if you let it sit too long koftas will become mushy.

Jiffy Eggplant

2008-09-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

1. Japanese Eggplant. 2. Chopped up. 3. Fried. 4. The complete dish.

Jiffy Eggplant

Eggplant/Vankai/Baingan/Aubergine/Badnekai/Vangi

This is my entry for the The Saas, Bahu aur Sensex contest, hosted by Edible Garden.
Saas, Bahu aur Sensex is a movie released by Warner Brothers on October 19th, 2008 "to celebrate the spirit and individuality of Indian women everywhere".

Eggplants originated in India somewhere in the Assam Burma region and are only known to the rest of the world for the last 1500 years.

As the end of summer rolls around, eggplant is in abundance in the market. We get four main kinds here...Japanese eggplant, Chinese eggplant, the regular large eggplant and in our ethnic grocery stores, the small round eggplant. Seeing a really fresh vegetable revs up the cooking engine so when I saw a heap of eggplant, their skin shiny purple, I knew I had to make this dish for: Eating With the Season: September Roundup.
I used the Japanese eggplant for this recipe as they are the best variety with a tender skin that cooks up quickly.

3 eggplants, cut into very thin pieces about 1/4" by 1"
1 onion, chopped.
1/2 inch piece Ginger (about 1/2 Tbsp grated)
4 cloves Garlic (about 1 Tbsp grated).
2 Tbsps chopped fresh cilantro/green coriander.
3 Tbsps olive oil
Chilli powder, haldi/turmeric, salt.

Seasoning:
1 tsp rai/mustard
3 red chillies
1 sprig curry leaves.

Eggplant usually takes a lot of oil but I just discovered this new method of frying it which satisfies my need to watch our fat intake.
This works well if you slice the eggplant thin.
Put washed/drained/sliced eggplant in pan with no oil.
Heat on medium tossing eggplant from time to time.
It will turn light brown quickly. Then add 2 Tbsp olive oil and mix.
Eggplant will brown well and evenly.
Remove from pan when soft.
Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in pan. Add rai, when it splutters add red chillies and curry leaves.
Add chopped onion and fry till light brown.
Add grated ginger and garlic, chilli powder and haldi and fry 2 mins.
Add eggplant and cilantro, salt to taste and mix everything.
Cover and let flavors incorporate on medium-lo heat for 2-3 mins.
The shine on the top upper right corner is half a lime on the plate...some drops of lime juice improved everything.

Delicious with hot chappattis/tortillas/in a pita sandwich or rice and dal/sambar.

Potato and Methi Leaves

2008-09-13T20:45:00.000-07:00

This is my entry for Red Chillies' Herb Mania: Fenugreek event.

Potato and Methi Leaves.

Methi alias fenugreek, is a major spice in Indian cooking.
Methi seeds are frequently used in spice powders and as a seasoning ingredient.
Fresh Methi leaves are used as a vegetable.
Now dried methi leaves (Kasoori Methi) is sold in the Indian Grocery stores.
As with any herb, unless you are familiar with the herb, less is more.
Methi is bitter when used in excess and delicious when just the right amount goes into a dish.
As we get methi only in the winter months here, I get 6 of the best bunches, pluck the leaves, wash three times and...guess what...if you are a frequent visitor to this blog you know...freeze them in baggies so I have them year around. My son loves methi and this way I ensure I have it when he announces a sudden visit.

3 red skinned potatoes cubed. (3 cups).
1 cup fresh frozen methi leaves.
Chilli powder, haldi/turmeric and salt to taste.

Cook cubed potatoes with 1/2 cup water, covered, in microwave for five minutes.
It's okay if it's not completely done.
Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and 1 Tbsp butter in a pan.
Add methi leaves, and fry 2 mins on medium.
Add chilli powder. let it fry with methi for half a min.
Add potatoes and salt, mix well, cover and cook for a few minutes till potatoes are done.

This is delicious with chappattis/rice and rasam (pepper water).

TIP: This dish is good with half cauliflower, half potato and the methi too .

5 minute Fried Cauliflower with Dill

2008-09-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

Some vegetables go together like love and marriage.
Such is the case with Cauliflower and Dill.
Dill, called oosi kurak (needle spinach)in Telugu and Soychi/Soy Bhaji in Marathi, is a herb. Indians use the leaves and tender stems chopped up. Dill seed is also used in cooking and so is dried dill.
HD Hubby Dearest)'s family used a lot of dill in their cooking and though I knew about the herb I didn't start using it frequently till I got married.
The freshest, hugest bunches I find are at a Lebanese store, second best are the ones in the Chinese supermarket. I buy a huge bunch, chop it wash it, strain it through a fine strainer and...of course...freeze it, so it's always on hand.
When using dill, especially if for the first time, less is more till you are sure you like the flavor it imparts to dishes.

Fried Cauliflower with Dill.

(This is how a diabetic manages to place food on the table when she is not well. I call this my 'Some Assembly Required' dish. For those of you who want to do everything from scratch when you make this dish that works well too.)

1/2 Onion (I had this chopped and frozen too).
3 cups Fried or fresh cauliflower (see the fried cauliflower recipe below for the former).
Dill (2 Tbsps frozen chopped dill leaves and tender stems from freezer).
Chilli powder
Haldi/Turmeric
Salt
Optional: green chillies whole or sliced.
TIP: Leaving a green chilli whole imparts left heat to the dish and yet allows someone who wants more spice in this dish to eat it with the cauliflower.
The jalapeno you see in this picture was left out in the counter and turned red. HD loves chillies with his food and he said this was one of the hottest he had eaten.

Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in pan.
Fry 1/2 fried/fresh chopped onion.
Add dill and fry for 1 min.
Add 3 cups fried/fresh cauliflower, chilli powder, haldi and salt.
Mix well.
Cover and keep on medium heat for 3-5 mins.

This is yummy with chappattis (ours are store bought) or rice and dal or rasam.
It took 5 minutes to assemble and paid off my earlier investments of time and energy in my FOOD BANK 500%.

Freezer Bank: Cauliflower

2008-09-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

We have so many vegetables in our supermarkets in the States; yet visiting our son in London years ago I went to the Bangladeshi area and saw a fresh abundance there like I have never seen. The owner's daughter who heard me remarking on every thing and my delight at the plethora said, "We get vegetables from 50 different countries by nine each morning!" When I don't know what to make and the freezer is empty I go to the supermarket looking for something that will incite me back to the kitchen.
I walked in once and saw Cauliflower so fresh that it looked like it had just been picked. It was a good day for the Diabetes too with my sugars and pain factors in abeyance...a gift of time to enjoy whatever I feel like doing.
HD (Hubby Dearest) was amazed when I came home with 4 giant cauliflowers and expounded on their freshness. That afternoon, exhausted with the morning's shopping, I took a nap to re-charge. That evening I put on my favorite show on television (work goes quickly with the Sound of Music), broke the cauliflower florets off with half inch stems, chopped up the big florets and some additional stems and started frying them.
It took two big skillets and two batches in each to get the work done.
When they were 3/4 done, I cooled them and put them into freezer baggies.
It helps me on days when I am not well to make a cauliflower dish in a jiffy. It's a shortcut to cooking and t helps me get the finest ingredients, preserve their quality by immediately cooking and freezing them...the main hallmark of good freezing.
The next day I was tired and took it easy, indulging the diabetics need for rest after my cauliflower marathon. The halo around my head was redolent of the smell of frying cauliflower.
I did this in the Spring and my supply of cauliflower lasted me all through the summer, when it was too hot for me to stand by the stove for more than 10-15 minutes a day.

TIPS FOR THE BEST FRIED CAULIFLOWER.

Wash florets well and drain.
Heat pan and put the cauliflower in...no oil at this stage.
Do NOT cover pan. Do NOT leave unattended as the cauliflower will scorch quickly.
As the water starts evaporating (all veggies retain some water though washed and drained)the cauliflower will start getting light brown. Turn so all sides get light brown evenly. When almost done (you will see the small stems attached to the florets change color), remove some at this stage and cool for curries.
To the rest, I add just enough olive oil to coat them. Toss lightly and they will brown beautifully...I take them out 3/4 done so I can finish cooking them when I make something with them.
Cool immediately and freeze in freezer baggies.

TIP: When I'm freezing a big batch, I use the inexpensive baggies for each amount then put the whole lot into very good Freezer bags and label them.
This way I can save on the Freezer bags too and CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP is a good tune playing in my head on the way to the Freezer.

Help Akshaya Patra win funding for hungry children in India

2008-09-09T16:26:00.000-07:00

Raising money to feed the hungry was the reason I started this blog.
This news item caught my attention...please help by voting.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation, an organization that provides a free hot daily lunch for malnourished/poor children, to try to get them to go to school, is hoping to get 1.5 million in funding from American Express Members Project. AP has 1623 nominations and needs 2500.
Won't you please log on to American Express and vote for AP?
The nomination process ends Sept 29th. Top five voting begins Sept.30th.
Click on the above link and vote.
You don't have to enroll in anything, or have an American Express card, or donate money. Just vote on the site by Sept 29, 2008.

Oven Fried Tofu

2008-09-06T18:36:00.001-07:00

Ever had to cook for vegetarians and non-vegetarians before for the same party?
I have...often. I do this frequently since HD (Hubby Dearest) turned vegetarian some years ago.
No biggie as growing up our household had both veg and non-veg dishes at every meal, for my mother who was the former and my father a confirmed die-hard meat eater.
The oven fried tofu was a new discovery. I'd bought the tofu, made the fish masala and decided to experiment with it.
It wasn't for HD as he won't try tofu, but I was pleased with the result.
The bland tofu and the spicy masala would have won the old 'Made for each other' contests we had in India.

Second on the USDA list for vegetarian foods rich in calcium is tofu with calcium sulfate.
So here is my fourth entry for Sangeeth Raghunathan's Eat Healthy CALCIUM Rich contest

1 pkt firm Tofu with calcium sulfate.
(I used three slices, drained...1/8 inch thick)
Fish masala (recipe given below).

Smear fish masala on tofu slices and marinate 10 mins.
Broil on baking tray...five minutes on each side in middle rack.
(I did this in the toaster oven on the broil setting).
Watch carefully so it doesn't burn but does turn dark brown.

Remove, cool and eat. I loved it.

THE HINDU VEGETARIAN

2008-09-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

THE HINDU VEGETARIAN

In Indian history the caste system defined who ate meat and who did not. The Brahmins...the highest on the scale, and those who dedicated their lives to learning of the Vedas and Sanskrit prayers and the practice of religious rituals and ceremonies were the only ones allowed into the inner sanctuary of the temples. They didn't eat meat,fish,eggs, onions and garlic.
They maintained great cleanliness and believed that even the shadow of an untouchable defiled them and they had to bathe again at the very least, to get rid of the taint.
They were vegetarians.
The Hindu vegetarian has always included milk and milk products in their diet. Milk is used in temples to bathe the deities, from time immemorial.
Cows were worshipped as sacred for the milk they gave.
The other three castes: the Kshatriyas or warrior class, the Vaishyas or business class and the Sudras or untouchables, all ate meat,fish, eggs...but not beef.
These were the non-vegetarians.
The last three classes all observed special festival days, dedicated to the various Gods, when only vegetarian food was eaten. Most families also had one day a week, when they did not eat meat.
30 years ago when I came to the States as a bride, we were among those who did not eat meat on Saturday.
The first time America friends invited us to dinner was on a Saturday. As it is the responsibility of the invited to mention any special dietary needs, I told our American hostess we didn't eat meat on Saturday for religious reasons. My statement was followed by a shocked silence.
Then she said in an anguished voice, "If I make four salads will that be okay? I don't cook vegetables."
I persuaded her that one salad would be more than enough but she wasn't happy about it till I offered to bring a vegetable dish.
In those days, those who did cook vegetables, often poured in chicken/meat stock to do so. Salads were sprinkled with bacon and if we didn't ask what the base of our vegetable soup was in a restaurant, we often had beef stock.
We met many happy Hindus who had started eating beef when they came here as they wanted to fit in. As one friend told me very seriously, "These are American cows we are eating...only the Hindu cows are sacred." It took me a whole week to stop laughing over that one.
Another American told me, "You don't have to eat the chicken. If you eat the curry...that's vegetarian, isn't it?"
While we changed almost every other thing, including being non-vegetarian on Saturdays;America's party night, we still don't eat beef...
Not knowingly that is...
We didn't know that McDonald's French Fries were fried in beef/animal fat and heartily ate those for years every chance we got...in our ignorance we offered them to all the strictest vegetarians who visited us from India. They enjoyed them tremendously. Later when the fat controversy made this fact public, we mentally apologized to everyone over and over again for this MAJOR religious affront. Of course we dared not do it in person as it would have made the spiritual load for all these good relatives very heavy.
For years we made and offered everyone gulab jamuns made of Bisquick...it wasn't till my mother came here at 75 and started reading the fine print on every container and can that we realized our delicious gulab jamuns had beef fat in the Bisquick. even today many cans that claim to be Vegetarian Refried beans have beef fat in them.

People are much more aware of what a vegetarian is these days in the USA. Now there are vegans, ovo-lacto vegetarians and many other kinds.
Growing up in India in an Army family, we automatically provided for vegetarians and non-vegetarians at every dinner party. At official Mess parties there would be separate tables for these two categories. Chicken and lamb and eggs were what was served most commonly. Pork was unclean for the Muslims and beef for the Hindus so these two were not served on these occasions.
At first, here in the US, I was a little taken aback at first by the lack of vegetarian fare on restaurant menus...that has changed in the last five years.
On the personal front every one seems to have one kind of vegetarian in the family.
There is less fuss if a vegetarian is coming to dinner, but I still get comments like, "But I don't do vegetables", or when I say I do eat meat and fish, "But aren't all Indians vegetarians?"
If you get the former remark, just offer to take a dish along. If you are the latter group who don't do vegetables (and I don't think there are many who are in that category these days), just remember a vegetable pizza or lasagna with a salad is great meal for a vegetarian not a vegan. If you are still perplexed , suggest a restaurant where everyone can get their own food. The main thing is to enjoy the get together without fussing that makes the guest feel guilty about their lifestyle choices.
If all else fails, ask them over for dessert and coffee...most vegetarians do eat desserts that have eggs in them now.

The main thing about a Hindu vegetarian is to remember that for religious reasons it is important and courteous not to mix the food you are making for them with any non vegetarian food.
I cringe when I see a pizza maker using his hand to place a meat topping on a pizza and then the same hand, unwashed, picks up the vegetables for a vegetarian.
We have some ways to go to understanding the Hindu vegetarian better but we've come a long way from French Fries done in beef fat.

Subhash stopped by the blog to leave a comment and remind me of GELATIN...another thing we didn't understand the composition of, for a number of years.
According to Wikipedia: 'Gelatin is a protein produced by partial hydrolysis of collagen extracted from the bones, connective tissues, organs, and some intestines of animals such as the domesticated cattle, and horses.'
According to the Vegetarian Resource Group: "Kosher gelatin can be made with fish bones, and/or beef skins. Contrary to assumptions, it is also considered kosher to use it with dairy products. Kosher law is very complex and the bones and hides used in gelatin production are considered pareve. The general meaning of pareve refers to foods that are neither milk nor meat, and many people assume this means that the product is vegetarian. However, OU pareve certified ingredients can have animal products, such as fish, eggs, and gelatin, in them."
Unfortunately some yogurts, Skittles, Starburst and Milky Way Bars also contain gelatin so the Hindu Vegetarian would need to read labels carefully!
Vegetarian gelatin is made from agar-agar. China Grass can also be used as a setting agent similar to gelatin. It is derived from seaweed.

Thanks to Subhash's reminder, I added Gelatin to this topic.

5 star fish masala/marinade

2008-09-04T19:54:00.000-07:00

For you fish lovers out there, try this version of spicy fish masala.For those of you wondering about the word 'masala', it is a mixture of spices; in this case used as a marinade.
I have started making it and freezing it so it is on hand when I need it.
Mercury poisoning makes it difficult to eat just any fish these days but catfish, salmon, herring, sardines and tuna among others are considered safe.
The other fish are okay too as long as they aren't eaten too frequently i.e. not more than once in 7-10 days.
For more about which fish to eat and which to avoid, visit the USFDA site: Mercury in Fish: Cause for Concern?

Anyway here's a recipe that my favorite aunty gave me when I was about to leave India. Her family lived by the sea and fish was served in various dishes every day. Nobody made fish like she did. I have used this recipe often and cherish her generosity in sharing it with me.
Now it's time to pass it on. As I said before I make a large amount and store some so it's hard to tell how much masala is required for how much fish. It's the old eyeball thing again and I feel my age when I just look at the fish and know how much masala to make.
Try this amount and store the unused portion in a baggie in the freezer for future use.

1 medium onion (USA)
1 teaspoon rai (mustard seed).
2 tsp jeera (whole cumin)
1 teaspoon whole black pepper
1/4 tsp methi seeds (whole fenugreek)
1 medium sized pod garlic (In the US this is big too).
2 Tbsp oil (I use olive oil)

Peel the garlic cloves using above tip.
Peel and slice or chop the onion into one inch cubes.
Heat oil, add rai, when it splutters (cover pan if you're not used to rai and listen for the sound of it spluttering).
Reduce heat and add jeera, pepper, methi seeds.
When jeera becomes light brown (happens quickly), add onion and garlic.
Fry till light brown.

Remove and cool.
Add tamarind paste and blend till smooth. Store in freezer.
I add salt as and when I take out the amount I'm going to use each time.
I apply the masala and allow cleaned fish to marinate for a few hours (in the refrigerator).
Sometimes I get a batch of fish, apply the masala and freeze immediately in baggies.
Then i take out one at a time broil and eat.
Other times I just broil a big batch, then freeze in baggies and take out a piece as needed, heat and eat.
Either way works great.

Oven fried fish.

I prefer to oven fry my fish these days.
To do this set oven on Broil.
Line a pan with two sheets of foil (saves on scrubbing later).
Spray with cooking spray, place marinated fish, broil till done (depends on thickness, type of fish but check every three minutes if unsure). When broiled dark brown (like pan fried fish), turn and apply a little more masala if needed, spray other side and broil. If you get the color right, no one can tell it's oven fried.

Doneness test: If you're trying this for the first time, knife should go in smoothly. When cut there should be no pink areas in an Indian fried fish dish. If there are, slice into fish and turn pink slices face up and return to broiler for a couple of minutes.
If you like your fish spicy, sprinkle chilli powder on both sides before broiling.
This way of frying the fish eliminates the odor of fish in the house.

Varieties of fish for frying: salmon, pomfret (pompano), halibut.

For fish curry:

Take two level Tbsps of this masala, add to one can whole peeled tomatoes. Blend.
In a pan, heat one tsp oil, season 1/2 tsp rai. When rai splutters add 4 red chillies and one sprig curry leaves.
After a minute, add masala, tomato mix and let it come to the boil.
Let it boil for three to five minutes.
Add washed and well-drained fish or shrimp to this mixture, salt to taste and cook.
I add a little extra chilli powder at this stage. If you're trying this for the first time, remember fish cooks quickly.

Varieties of fish for curries: catfish, a salmon fillet cut up into two inch cubes, sliced whole halibut, sliced whole pomfret, shrimp. I usually ask for the whole pomfret to be cleaned and cut into half inch slices.

Tip for peeling garlic

2008-09-04T19:51:00.000-07:00

Shortcut Tip: Peeling garlic cloves.

HD discovered this 10 years ago when he wanted to peel quite a few pods for a recipe he'd thought of. Necessity really is the mother of invention isn't it?
Peeling garlic the traditional can be difficult and time consuming.
This shortcut helps people who use large quantities of garlic, often.
Separate cloves, put them on a microwave safe plate or a paper towel...microwave for 10 seconds.
Take them out. If they are not easy to peel, put them in for another 5 seconds.
This is the quickest way to peel garlic.
Control the cooking time to control the kind of garlic you want...firm to very soft.

Kale and Lentils

2008-08-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

Kale and calcium 3

Remember the kale I chopped up for fried kale, South Indian version?
Well, that one bunch chopped up was too much for just the fried spinach...there's only HD (Hubby Dearest) and me at home now so I had to do something with the last four cups. (Didn't know I would get so much from one bunch of kale that cost 78 cents).
Though I've been making spinach dishes with it,and saying it reminds me of spinach, it belongs to the cabbage family.

So, here's my third kale dish (similar to our pappu kurak, dal bhaji shaak or parrupu keera), and it's my fourth entry for Sangeeth Raghunathan's Eat Healthy-Calcium Rich contest.

4 cups chopped kale
1/2 cup toor dal.
1 medium tomato
1/2 medium onion, chopped and dried.
Haldi, chilli powder, salt to taste.

Kale needs to be cooked well so I cooked it in the pressure cooker with the haldi, tomato and toor dal.
After the pressure cooker cooled and I opened it I let it simmer for a while on the stove.
After it had thickened to stew like consistency, I added the chilli powder and fried onion.
This was HD's favorite of all 3 kale dishes.

TIL/ SESAME SEED LADDU

2008-08-24T18:13:00.000-07:00

Til is the ingredient listed as the highest source of Calcium by the USDA. 3.53 ozs or 100 gms by weight contains 975 mg of calcium!
As soon as I read that, I started a search for recipes using a lot of til.
The ones I found on the Net were for til chikki.
Then I thought of the festivals and my mother's recipes and came across this easy, 'quick as you can grind' one.
So this is my third entry for Sangeeth's Eat Healthy: Calcium Rich contest.
(anyone guessed by now I'm trying to win the cash prize for my 'end world hunger program', that this blog was started for?).
This is the old entry in my cookbook in 1978, word for word.

Clean, wash and dry 1 cup til.
Fry till it splutters.
Grind coarse.
Add 3/4 cup jaggery.
Mix well.
Shape into balls

What can be easier than this?
It is so easy it got me heading for the kitchen.

Here are my notes to add to the old recipe.

(I used black but please use brown til).
Fry stirring constantly till you will see little bits of til literally start jumping in the pan.
Grind coarse.
Add 3/4 cup grated jaggery...I had to heat the lumps of jaggery to get them warm and then slice with a knife.
Remember jaggery in the microwave heats from the inside out so do not overheat.
(I know they used to pound everything in India,and that made it come together, but the warm jaggery shaved off the lumps is fine and pliable. If it isn't heat very slightly.
Mix well the ground til mixture and shape immediately.
I liked the one I made with a little ground cardamom added to it but HD (Hubby Dearest) liked the traditional one better.
It tastes good.

Janmashtami/Krishna Jayanthi in my mother's house

2008-08-24T10:36:00.000-07:00

Before I came to the States , under my mother's direction, I noted all the festivals we celebrated and the food that was made for each. Up to then, I had only been interested in eating all that great food but suddenly the responsibility was shifting to my shoulders. I had to know what to do, my mother said. How grateful I am to her that she gave me all that information. I look at those notes and think of her life, lived in devotion to God and after that, to cooking. My father's family could trace their ancestry back to Lord Krishna and in his hometown of Krishnagiri there is a temple to Lord Krishna, purported to be there since the conception of the village. Janmashtami was celebrated as the day before Krishna's birth as he was born at mid-night...the day after was Krishna Jayanthi. On Krishna Jayanthi, we had things with til, which was favored by Krishna. Besides the til/sesame seed dishes: laddus, murku, jeera laddu, hing laddu (yes hing), a plate would be placed in the puja room with Krishna's favorites: curd, milk, butter, ghee, buttermilk, cream. The one item not to be forgotten on this day was beaten rice (atakalu or pohe), as this was what Krishna's poor friend Sudama brought to him as a gift and what was enjoyed tremendously by Krishna. Now I see recipes for pohe kheer etc on the Internet, but we soaked it, mixed it with curd and salt and offered it that way. Lord Vishnu in his avatar of Krishna gave us the Bhagavad Gita which contains all the wisdom we need to live good lives. When I left home for the first time, my mother gave me a small copy of the Bhagavad Gita and said, "Even if you don't pray, it is okay. Just read this daily."
I did and slowly the wisdom of the words penetrated my modern mind and sank in. So, on this Krishna Jayanthi day, in the midst of our modern lives, I wish that all of us would have an attitude of appreciation for even the smallest gift and the humility to express thanks even if it something we don't want/need. While this is the duty of the recipient, it is also the duty of the giver not to give something inappropriate just to get rid of it.
“A gift is pure when it is given from the heart to the right person at the right time and at the right place, and when we expect nothing in return” Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita.

Fried kale, South Indian version

2008-08-23T17:47:00.000-07:00

Kale and Calcium 2

This is my second entry for Sangeeth Raghunathan's Eat Healthy.Calcium Rich contest.

Remember the last kale dish in which I only used the smallest leaves.
Well, here's what I did with the rest of the great big, calcium-rich bunch I had.
I washed them thoroughly, following my mother's rule of, 'wash everything thrice'. I removed a few stalks/spines from the largest leaves. I placed the leaves one on top of the other and rolled them up like a very large cigar and chopped them finely and then chopped them the other way pretending for a few minutes I was one of those big chefs on a cooking show. Later I felt I should have chopped the kale even finer.
Four sites I visited researching kale stated the spine of each leaf had to be removed, but my leaves were fresh and the stem reminded me of Indian dantu kuraku/dantachey bhaji ( spinach witha thick stalk;similar to the kale spine) that we cook with the stalks, so I just chopped the stems into half inch pieces.
Here's the rest to the recipe.

4 cups finely chopped kale and stalks.
1 large onion finely chopped.
4 large garlic cloves chopped or sliced (I put in about 10 whole cloves.)
1/2 tsp rai (mustard seed)
1 1/2 tsp split urad dal (white lentil)
3 red chillies
1 tsp red chilli powder (to taste)
Salt to tast.
2 Tbsp olive oil.

Heat oil. Add rai, when it splutters add urad dal. Let it brown and add red chillies
Fry for one minute.
Add chopped onion and garlic and fry till onion is light brown.
Add chilli powder and fry for another minute.
Remove all this and place in a bowl.
Put spinach into pan and let it fry on medium...don't add any water.
You can do this step in the microwave...put spinach in a bowl and mic. for three minutes...stir and microwave for another three.
When soft (kale takes a little longer to cook than normal spinach and hence the fine chop), add salt.
Like spinach, kale becomes one third the amount.
Add seasoning/onion mixture and mix well.
Serve hot.
The kale gave this spinach dish a great flavor and it's a great way to get the calcium we all need.

Oven Roasted Kale

2008-08-21T16:18:00.000-07:00

KALE AND CALCIUM 1

I have never made anything with kale much less given any thought to this frilly cousin of cabbage. Sangeeth Raghunathan's e-mail informing us of her Eat Healthy: Calcium contest led to research on the Internet on calcium rich foods and turned up the fact that kale is a rich source of calcium. Here's my first entry.

This is also my entry for SnackoRama's Sunday Snacks Event.
Don't have kale in your area? No worries. Use baby spinach leaves. I have used the whole small leaves for this picture but you can chop up the whole bunch of kale and use it. This is a delicious and nutritious snack/appetizer/starter.

This is also my entry for Easycraft of Simple Indian Food's, 'WYF: Salads/Starters/Soups event'.

A new ingredient is a challenge and fires up my slow engine. so I decided to get to know kale better. According to the USDA database 3.53 ozs of kale (100 gms by weight) has 135 mg of calcium which is high, as 3.53 ozs is 1/2 cup packed kale by volume.

Further research turned up lots of recipes with kale (who knew so many people cooked with kale...one learns something new everyday). I finally picked one American recipe and came up with two of my own.

I set off for the local grocery store hoping to find kale...the store not only had kale but I got the freshest, hugest bunch and fell in love with the fragrance from it. Can't think what it reminded me of, though.

The frilly, light green leaves, free of yellow edges and no holes are obviously the best kind to get...I picked medium sized and small leaves as the best bunch because reading all those recipes had told me kale can be pretty tough.

Home again I couldn't resist, putting my kale into water (above picture) and going back to the computer to refresh my mind about the recipe I had picked to try.

It is Stepahanie Gallagher's recipe with my adaptations from the site About.com:cooking for kids.

Heat the oven to 350...make sure one rack is on the lowest level.

Take the smallest leaves, wash and dry them.

(I just used six leaves for the experiment).

In a bowl, mix one Tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, salt and chill powder.

(Stephanie's recipe said to sprinkle with coarse salt before serving, but I had none).

Toss the leaves to coat them and placed them on a baking tray.

Bake them for 10 mins.

Take them out, turn them over and bake for another five.

The leaves have to crisp, like chips to the touch.

Remove, cool a few seconds and dig in...it is so.o.o.o good.

Proof of how good it was, came when HD (Hubby Dearest), who approaches new dishes as warily as a mongoose approaches a cobra, said, "What's this?"

"Try it," I coaxed.

He picked one leaf up with that...'I'm in trouble if I do and I'm in trouble if I don't', look he gets, took a bite of it and then said in surprise, "This is good!"

(As if all my experiments end in disaster...some do, not all).

The cherry on my sundae of happiness came a few minutes later...I took a picture, put the camera away and turned...the last three leaves were gone!!! High praise indeed!

This is an excellent appetizer or just a side dish that adds crunch to a meal and as Gallagher who created it said, excellent for kids (without the chilli powder).

She took the leaves apart, tore then into bite size pieces, then tossed them in the mix. I liked my way better, stem and all but I wouldn't do this with the big leaves.

Try it...you'll be amazed at the taste and result.

New recipe for celebrating India's 61st Independence Day.

2008-08-15T07:43:00.000-07:00

New Recipe for celebrating India's 61st Independence Day Celebrations.

Take three parts sacrifice...what parents do to raise their children, what soldiers do for their country.

Add three parts purity...in thought, action, words.

Layer with three parts growth...create a garden of beauty, support farmers, preserve the environment.

To all this add the essence of the 24 spokes of the blue Ashoka Chakra.

The following is quoted from the site oneindia.com The Chakra signifies that there is a life in 'Movement' and 'Death' in stagnation.

Wonderful Qualities of the Twenty Four Spokes :

1. Love 2.Courage 3.Patience 4.Peacefulness 5.Magnanimity 6.Goodness 7.Faithfulness 8.Gentleness 9.Selflessness 10.Self-control 11.Self sacrifice 12.Truthfulness 13.Righteousness 14.Justice 15.Mercy 16.Gracefulness 17.Humility 18.Empathy 19.Sympathy 20.Spiritual knowledge 21.Moral Values 22.Spiritual Wisdom 23.The fear of God (Live as if you know there is a higher power than you). 24.Faith or Belief or Hope

Take one helping each day.

Let this recipe be part of our internal make up and let change begin with you...one individual and watch it spread in ripples. This is my recipe for Independence Day and my wish that everyone understand what the Indian flag represents.

This is also my submission for Pooja’s My Creative Ideas.

BEST OF BLOGS...AUGUST 2008

2008-08-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

My two cents worth...again.
Last month, I spent a couple of hours each day exploring cooking blogs.
It is addictive, and before I know it I visit anywhere between five to ten, and become lost in reading recipes, forgetting the original one I'm looking for.
I click on leads and interesting recipes, always taking a minute or two to pause for a first impression. I reiterate though I'm not an expert on how to set up great blogs, I do know what looks attractive, and information presented accurately and informatively with ease of access.
So by the time, I'm ready to post this, I'm sure of the blog I wish to name..

This month's choice for best of cooking blogs is Cynthia Nelson's TASTES LIKE HOME.
Her site is attractive, with excellent layouts, her photographs outstanding, and her archived album slide shows with detailed how-to instructions on recipes, a very nice touch for someone trying to figure out a new recipe with unknown ingredients. Cynthia e-mails her recipes promptly upon request. Overall, she exemplifies my ideals of an outstanding and generous fellow blogger reminding me of an old, favorite saying,
"It is not what you do but how you do it that counts."

Cruel Cooks

2008-07-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

What cruelty we are capable of as cooks:

We beat eggs, pound garlic, whip the cream, pummel the dough, dig out the eyes of potatoes, crush spices.
We drop food into hot oil, boil, bake, blanch, broil, freeze.
We also cut, dice, squeeze,scrape, grate, julienne, mince, puree, reduce, scald, sear, shred, skewer, toast and toss.
We de-bone, fillet, gut, shuck and I don't know what else.
Finally we bite and chew it all up and consign our food to the digestive system to continue the process of being broken down.

This protest is being registered on behalf of the BE KIND TO YOUR FOOD society, which currently has a membership of one.

JIFFY VEGETABLES: BHENDI

2008-07-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

Bhendi, Bhindi, okra, bendakai, vendakay, lady's finger (why not lady's fingers?).

One evening last week, HD (Hubby Dearest) looked at my face and could tell I wasn't feeling up to par in the heat.
"Let me cook something," he said.
I nodded happily tamping down on my reluctance to refuse his offer and defrost something for dinner. These days he rarely offers, because his own energy level isn't great. (We both know, growing old isn't for cissies).
He said, "Bhendi?'
I nodded. He has recipe is quick and easy and definitely part of our five star recipe collection.

1 16 oz pkt. frozen, chopped bhendi.
1/2 large onion chopped (3/4 cup or 6 ozs chopped).
Salt, chilli powder, haldi/turmeric.
2 Tbsps olive oil.

Heat oil, fry chopped onion.
While onion is frying, place frozen bhendi in a microwave safe dish and nuke for 5 mins. Take out, stir and nuke again for 3 mins.
If it looks uncooked, nuke for two more.
Add chilli powder to onions in pan. Fry for a min.
Add bhendi, salt and turmeric, mix lightly or bhedi will become a mash and remove from stove after 2 mins.
Eat with hot chappattis...ours are whole wheat tortillas from the store that heat up in a minute.
HD swears he doesn't put butter on this dish, but I KNOW he does as soon as my back is turned and I stop talking about clogged arteries.

How else can a simple veggie be so finger licking good?

Thursday, 30th July, 2008.

Another JIFFY BHENDI recipe.

This is my recipe from a Punjabi friend and HD loves it.

Fresh bhendi...I chooses the kind that is fresh and tender, checking by pressing firmly in the middle...the old days when my mother used to test for freshness by breaking the tip are in the past.
Salt, chilli powder, turmeric and oil to fry.

Wash the bhendi, top and tail it with a knife (remove tip and other end), and leave it on a paper towel or kitchen towel to dry. This ensures your bhendi will NOT be sticky. Sometimes I make a slit on the side, sometimes I don't.
This recipe is rather vague re. quantities as it is an 'eyeball' recipe...first you eyeball the fresh bhendi, then you eyeball the pan and put in enough oil (eye balled of course), to coat the bottom of the pan plus one extra Tbsp.
When oil is hot put in chilli powder and haldi, let it sizzle while you eyeball it (twenty seconds or so)then put in bhendi. Stir fry on high for three minutes, then lower heat to medium, cover and let it cook for five minutes more.
Lift lid, test for doneness by poking the fattest bhendi with a sharp knife, then add salt...eyeballing the bhendi of course...mix, leave for another minute.
Eat hot or cold...it is delicious and so easy.

Talking about eyeballing, our parents and grandparents gave us recipes like this. As a teenager I used to wonder how I would ever get anything right if all my Mum's recipes were: Salt is added 'after looking at the vegetables' or 'dittanga', meaning 'correctly for the dish'. I wanted it in spoons and look at me now...daring to give a recipe just like my mother.

She used to make a bhendi dish with chopped bhendi, seasoned with mustard seeds, and fried almost crisp, theonly other ingredients being salt and chilli powder.

As children, we also had bhendi sambar and bhendi pulsu...curry in a hot, sour tamarind sauce.

Cassava, Yuca, Tapioca...and Sardines

2008-07-20T16:04:00.000-07:00

My Hunt for Cassava

It started when I finally persuaded an old friend, to visit. We’ve known each other since 1971, so when I say old friend I don’t mean defined by age, I mean by time.
She lives in the States now and we met ten years ago at her place…getting her to come to mine was like pulling a tooth bare handed, but she finally agreed when I told her another teacher and her husband from India were coming to visit.
As soon as she agreed, my mind flew to what I could do to make her visit special. She worked long hours, had had a rotten winter and spring with a spell of bad health, work, rain and tornadoes, and deserved a real holiday. A real holiday to me is good food, people you enjoy being with and interesting things to do.
The good food part was my department so I addressed myself seriously to it.
I remember her saying, (after a visit to India), that she had eaten cassava again, after ages, and that she loved it so much. A phone call to her aunt, revealed my friend had another great love: sardines.
Cassava and sardines made a perfect meal together, Aunty assured me.
First things first:
I started trying to find cassava in any form and couldn’t at the local grocery stores. At the rate of one store a day, which is all I could do, time was soon running out.
In desperation, I turned to my friend and ally: the Internet.
I searched for Kerala cooking sites (my friend had eaten cassava in Kerala) and recipes for cassava.
An e-mail to two blogs: Malabar Spices and Let Us All Cook, led to two prompt replies from Mallu Girl and Sangeeth Raghunathan. Sangeeth forwarded my mail to Cynthia Nelson, who is a great ally in this new world of blogging. Mallu Girl gave me a tip that led the way to enlightenment on the subject of cassava with one question: Did I mean yucca/tapioca? I followed her lead and discovered that’s what I meant, and googling those words finally opened up the world of cassava.
In the meantime, my daily walks had led me through grocery stores where I had finally found one a packet of frozen, grated cassava. There were no recipes for grated cassava anywhere. Another Internet search led to a site that gave me one recipe that I banked just in case…
Searching for yucca on the Internet (the name given by Mallu Girl) led to the fact it is available in Mexican supermarkets, and I hurried to the one close by, overjoyed to find they actually had the product…cleaned and frozen (the easiest way to use it).
That was a lot of work, my friend protested later.
“That wasn’t work! That was research and discovery. Nothing equals the triumph of discovering a new ingredient and a shot at making a new dish!”
My friend looked at me cautiously, “And you enjoy this?”
“For some people, I do.” I clarified, making it clear that I wasn’t insanely rushing around trying to find new ingredients and new recipes for anybody and everybody.
Finding the sardines was just as challenging, but I finally found frozen sardines at a Vietnamese store.
An then, after I had logged all those miles to the delight of my endocrinologist, who says diabetics MUST walk every day (I mean had she known she would have been delighted), I found my favorite neighbor, who is from the Philippines and lives across the street knows all about cassava, where to get it, the best kind to use, etc. Had I but asked!!!.
She said the brown tubers which had been lying under my nose, in every Oriental grocery store, were not easy to clean and sometimes rotten in the center, so I had done well by picking the frozen product.

I finally turned out these cassava and sardine dishes during my friend’s stay. Her true enjoyment of the food I made, was all I needed to encourage me.

Welcome dinner:

Cassava with spices. (made following Aunty’s instructions and reading three recipes.)
I cooked the frozen cassava pieces for ten minutes (not thirty, like the packet said) with turmeric in the water till a knife inserted into it came out clean.
I mashed it roughly and added salt to taste
Then I added a paste of coconut and green chillies.
Finally I seasoned it with red chillies, curry leaves in a little coconut oil.
It looked like potatoes/palya.

SARDINES
After a call or two to Aunty I realized she meant fresh sardines, not canned as I had thought. It was back to the hunt.
A search of Oriental groceries finally led to finding sardines in a Vietnamese Supermarket. Who knew there could be so many varieties of small fish that looked like sardines but were not sardines?
Wash and dry frozen sardines (mine were cleaned).
Heat four tablespoons of olive oil in a flat frying pan.
Place sardines in a row, sprinkle with salt and pepper, turn after one min.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Remove after one minute.
A little longer makes the outside crunchier but the frozen sardines start falling apart very quickly.
Later during my friends’ visit, we found fresh sardines which could be fried longer and came out crunchier.

Cassava Pancakes (remember the grated cassava that was my first find? I had to finish that while the friend-who-loved-cassava was with me).
(I got the basic recipe from the FAO Corporate Document Repository originated by Agriculture and Consumer Protection.)
Put cassava flour, in a clean dry bowl and add a pinch of salt and mix.
Make a well in the flour. Break eggs into the welt one at a time and mix together.
Add some water gradually. Mix well to a dropping consistency and leave to stand for 20 minutes.
I put 8 ozs of frozen, grated cassava in the blender jar with two eggs, salt, pepper and chilli powder and mixed it all for 2 mins.
Heat 1 tablespoonful oil in a clean frying pan.
Heat the frying pan with sufficient oil to prevent the mixture from sticking when cooking.
(I used a spray and a non-stick pan).
Pour mixture into the pan about two tablespoonfuls at a time. Make sure the mixture covers the base of the pan. Cook over a low heat until done.
Put a little fish mixture into the middle of each cassava cake and fold gently to look like an envelope.
(I made a spicy salmon curry and used that as an accompaniment)

And finally, buoyed by my friend’s enthusiastic reception and approval of these dishes, the fourth and final recipe was served for breakfast one day :

Spicy Cassava Pancakes
(This goes into my 5 star cookbook as the results exceeded expectations.)

8 ozs grated cassava.
1 tsp jeera (whole cumin)
1 sprig curry leaves.
2 green chillies.
½ finely chopped onion
1 Tbsp chopped haridhania (coriander leaves).
Salt, chilli powder, pepper powder (to taste).
1 pinch asafoetedia (hing).
1 egg.

Heat 1 Tbsp oil. Put in hing and jeera. When jeera browns add chopped onion and curry leaves and chopped green chillies. Fry till onion is light brown. Add salt, pepper powder and chilli powder. Mix. Remove from stove. Add haridhania. Cool.
Beat egg and mix everything with cassava into thick pancake like batter.
(This looks like peserhettu mix...a South Indian, moong dal dosa).
Spray non-stick pan with cooking spray, heat, and put in one round spoon of batter (1/2 cup).
Spread like a thick pancake and let it cook. When browned on one side, flip over and brown the other.
Tastes excellent with coconut chutney…or sardines (of course!)

It was fun discovering cassava and experimenting with it. Of course the whole thing was made easier by my pal’s amazement and appreciation.
I’m sharing this in case you need to make stuff with cassava…and also because I like to record rare/uncommon recipes.

FREE RICE.com: FEED THE HUNGRY

2008-07-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

Feeding the hungry has been an age old Indian tradition. Those of us who grew up in India, will not forget the cries of, "Amma! Taayi!" at the gate. It was my mother who always sent the servant or one of us children to the gate with a few paisa or some food for the beggar who stood there.
I also remember the lines of poor lining the road on either side of every religious place: temples,churches,gurudwaras, etc. waiting for the devout to come out and give them something.
Some housewives had a charity container on the kitchen counter and when they started cooking, they put a handful of rice into this container to be donated for feeding the poor.
No matter what your physical ability level or time constraints or reluctance to write yet another check for charity, you can contribute today to a wold effort to gather food for the hungry. Just go to FREERICE.com and play the word game there...you will improve your vocabulary and for every word you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated to the UN World Food Program to end world hunger.
Just a few minutes of your time each day, donates a bowl of rice...what a wonderful, easy way to carry on the tradition of ANNADAANAM (giving of food).

Mango Trifle

2008-07-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

This is my entry for Mango Mingle, organized by Meeta of What's For Lunch, Honey?
An easy dessert, anyone can make.

The Kent mangoes from Mexico, which are the closest to the Indian Badami, and my favorite, are just coming out and not ripe enough, so I had to settle for Manila Mangoes from the Phillipines for this event.

I first learned to make Pineapple Trifle in my high school cooking class. It was an instant hit at home and my mother encouraged me to make it for parties. One mango season when the house was filled with the heady aroma of ripe mangoes, I substituted mangoes for canned pineapple in the trifle and that was so delicious.

Here's the recipe:

1 store bought angel food cake (Mine was in a big bundt pan so I used some and froze the rest).
6 really ripe sweet mangoes, peeled, cut and cubed.
1 cup mango,or pineapple juice. (any juice you think goes with mango is fine here).
1 6 oz container fat-free whipped cream.

For the custard I used my blancmange recipe below, using 5 cups milk, 5 dessert spoons sugar (I used sugar instead of Splenda here, as kids were going to have the trifle too), 5 rounded dessertspoons cornstarch and BOTH almond and vanilla essence.
Shortuct: Use instant pudding mix.
I remove the custard from the stove, before it gets too thick.
I do this for trifle only as I want to pour the custard and let the cake soak in it.

Slice cake and layer a glass bowl or individual dessert bowls with it.
Some people melt jam and spread it over the cake at this stage...I don't.
Pour just enough juice to soak the cake...don't drown the cake in juice.
For the juice: If I have really good ripe mangoes I squeeze one or two into pulp and use that. If the mangoes are not that juicy I just use canned/bottled juice.
Place fruit over cake in a single layer.
Pour custard over cake.
Here again some people use a layer of whipped cream...I don't.
My home made custard is still warm when I pour it on so it would melt the whipped cream layer and...
As a diabetic I make all my desserts as light as possible.
Repeat layers: cake, juice, fruit, custard.
If this is your last layer, set the bowl in the refrigerator for 4-6 hours, to chill the trifle thoroughly.
If you're in a hurry, use the instant pudding which is mixed with cold milk, pre-chill your fruit and your juice, and you can omit the chilling step.
Put a layer of whipped cream on top of the final layer and decorate with a few pieces of reserved mango and some nuts or cherries...let your imagination be your guide.
I drizzled half a tsp of melted strawberry jam for color contrast on top.

Using Splenda and non-fat milk in the custard, and fat free whipped cream, and limiting myself to one serving of the trifle, makes it a perfectly satisfying diabetic dessert. Mangoes are high in sugar, so I made myself a little bowl (above)
with less of everything and still got to enjoy it.

Optional: sometimes I use a cap full of sherry/cointreau/liquer over the cake layer.
British trifles, served at Army dinners in India,long after Independence, always had a hint of alcohol in them...I guess that was the reason I always felt so happy after trifle and it is still one of my favorite desserts.

MOST CHALLENGING RECIPES OUTLINED PERFECTLY...

2008-07-07T09:45:00.000-07:00

This is the two cents corner again(two cents being what my opinion is worth, as I'm a self proclaimed judge), with my vote for MOST CHALLENGING RECIPES OUTLINED PERFECTLY.
I did thing of calling it the Drool Award but changed my mind as my more sober side reminded me that 60 is only two years away (a year and a half actually, but who's counting?), and aunties who are 58 do not go around giving DROOL awards though their overactive salivary glands may wish they lived close to these folk, so they could taste these dishes under cover of the excuse of judging in person.
As a diabetic, my energy level is not up to making these dishes, but it is up to writing this in admiration of others' efforts.

(Drum roll, please...4 year old grandson bangs on drum while his two year old sister shouts I DO IT, I DO IT...good help is so hard to find.)

And the winners are...

The first award goes to Cynthia Nelson (Tastes Like Home). Watch her slideshow of the dish PARATHA ROTI, on her site, under ALBUMS for clear, concise, step by step directions to make perfect parathas, her way. They look so.o.o.o good.

The next award goes to Shilpa of Aayi's Recipes, for her DANISH BRAID PASTRY.

The way to a man's heart...

2008-07-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

"The way to a man's heart is through his stomach."
John Adams Richard Ford, Miss Mulock and Fanny Fern have all contributed to this quote. The last three changed it. Whoever the source, it was one of my mother's favorite saying but her adaptation was: "You may get his attention with your looks but you will keep him with the way you cook." and "A man wants a good meal on the table when he comes home tired."
Alas, where was the romance in her words? Nowhere, but though at fifteen I didn't want to hear things like that, I know a shared love of good food provides part of the glue that holds a marriage together.
I dared not say anything like that to my daughter, who's reply would probably be: "We share everything fifty fifty." Luckily, she married a young man who though he had never cooked a thing before he was married, took to cooking like a duck to water and is now a chef in the kitchen. My daughter for her fifty percent shops for the food, preps it for him and washes up, plus takes care of a two year old and a four year old.
Our son in law takes after his parents, who are both GREAT at whatever they cook.
HD (Hubby Dearest) who had lived abroad for a good many years before we were married and a good cook himself showed me the ropes initially. He was relieved I liked cooking.
I had come equipped with a cookbook of family recipes and those copied from the blackboard at cooking school for four years, and some practical experience. In my mind's eye, I still see my first cooking mentors: my mother getting me to help the cook in the kitchen at home and setting the greatest example by throwing her energy into the making of consistently wonderful dishes,, Sister Rita Mary with her blue eyes twinkling when we did things right in cooking class, Miss Rane, the teacher who came after Sister Rita Mary, urging us on to becoming better cooks, my sister giving me her recipes, and a favorite aunt who's hands worked magic in the kitchen while she labored over a wood stove. The list isn't done without one more great example and inspiration: Joan, an English lady, married my brother in law's brother, a South Indian. They met in England while in college and after they married they lived in India for some time and then came to the States. By the time I came out Joan had learned to cook every single Indian dish possible. She made them like a pro, planning her meals so work and raising her family, didn't come in the way of the full meal she produced every night: rice,chappattis, two veggies, a non-veg dish, rasam and curd. She's kept this tradition up for years, making it seem like such an easy feat. More remarkable than all this: At festivals, she makes the appropriate Indian sweets for each festival, while I place fruits and an apology in front of the Gods. Her husband, Prabhakar Bawa has inspired her with his love for, appreciation of and interest in good food. I can discuss any recipe with him and he will try to trace it for me on the Internet/through his records. Together they collect and record her recipes and share them generously with all of us.
Joan showed me how to cook one day a week for the rest of the week so she's the originator of the idea for my Food Bank too. She rushed out and bought me my first tawa (flat iron pan) and kadai (frying pan), when she heard HD had told my mother we get EVERYTHING here and not to send anything with me. She was the first one who told me the truth...there wouldn't be much available in the way of Indian ingredients in the small town I was going to.
Joan and Prabhakar Bawa...you've certainly helped me on this road.

During my early years here I honed my basic skills with daily practice. Urgent letters were sent home with requests for recipes. Frequent references were made to my cookbook till I became more confident. A sister-in-law's visit, during which time she and I cooked all HD (Hubby Dearest's) family recipes, gave me an idea of the dishes he had grown up with.
Nowadays,my interest is fed by friends, cooking shows and these blogs I love where I can find any recipe I want or could possibly think of and more. I cannot make as many as I would like to, but I still love collecting them.

Lauki in pita pockets

2008-07-03T17:05:00.000-07:00

Lauki In Pita Pockets
A quick nutritious recipe anyone can make. Don't have lauki/bottle gourd? Substitute zucchini. It's a low-fat, quick and healthy meal, with a nutritive mix of paneer/cheese and veggies. The whole wheat pita pocket, makes it low-cal and satisfyingly filling.

My entry for http://creativepooja.blogspot.com
This is also my entry for http://funnfud.blogspot.com. Fun and Food/Healthy Eating.

1 cup grated lauki/bottle gourd
1/2 cup grated paneer OR cheddarella cheese.
½ cup chopped tomatoes (I used a mix of orange heirloom tomatoes from my garden and red tomatoes)
½ cup chopped bell pepper
2 chopped green chillies (to taste)
½ medium red onion sliced.
Salt, pepper, chilli powder to taste.

Grate paneer and lauki in food processor.
Heat 2 Tbsps olive oil.
Fry sliced onion one minute, add bell pepper and fry one minute, add chopped green chillies and lauki and fry 2-3 minutes.
Add chilli powder, salt and pepper. Mix.
Add grated paneer, mix well and remove from stove after one minute.
Add chopped tomatoes.
Heat non-stick pan.
Heat pita bread on both sides. (This step is optional)
Cut in half…open each half and stuff with lauki mixture.
Eat/serve immediately.
The crunch of the stir fried onions and bell pepper is a perfect complement to the soft lauki and paneer. I cut extra tomatoes, onions and bell pepper, stir fry the latter two, mix with tomatoes and serve on the side.

MY PERSONAL FOOD BANK

2008-07-03T08:49:00.000-07:00

THINK SMART, BE SMART.
One of the first things HD (Hubby Dearest) said to me after we first met in India was, "There are no servants in America."
It was a remark made after he saw the servants we had. Growing up in an Army household there were always servants around us: the cook, the bearer, the ayah (nanny), the maid who swept and mopped the floors, the dhobi who washed and ironed the clothes, the army valet who took care of my Dad's uniforms, the driver, the gardener, the sweeper who cleaned the bathrooms; to name a few.
By the time HD and I met we were down to two...the cook and the maid.
In America, things are totally different. Once you realize you are the only one who is going to help you is you, your wishbone starts changing into a 'do'bone.
I was lucky that HD is of the variety that also helps around the house and has always been better at cleaning than me. Also, very thankfully, I realized he had not been ingrained with the stigma attached to so called 'woman's work'.
The smartest women I know, make the art of running a home into a science of experiments that lead to shortcuts in time and labor without sacrificing taste and quality. The result...balancing a lifestyle that accommodates personal, present day needs of working outside the home, having interests and hobbies that require time, raising children, while gratifying the inborn 'duty' ingrained in us that we should put the best food possible on the table. The latter was my mother's only job and her career...for me it is one of many jobs.
When I was diagnosed with diabetes, I had no idea the toll the medicines would take off my general health while controlling my blood sugar. The endocrinologist kept telling me that I had to put myself and my needs first now; to manage my illness.
The needs she said were diet, exercise and rest and that came before anything else I felt I had to do for my family and others. It took months of her repeating this at every visit (she still does), for me to get the message.
The changes took time as I had to battle and subdue the age old instinct in every traditionally raised woman to serve and do for others first...even now there are times when it takes over. But for me, I realized that diabetes is like a donkey...get in the wrong position by ignoring the three main rules...diet rest and exercise and the hefty kick you'll get (blood sugar out of sync, energy level zero, aches and pains, fatigue), isn't worth it. So, like a juggler every day, I practice the art of managing all the balls I have up in the air.
Managing the diabetes right, gives me the freedom to do the things I want, so foregoing food cravings and overcoming the temptation not to walk each day is easy.
Food...making it, having the kind I want each day is one of the challenges.
Since the kids left home, dinner is always Indian food. The older we get, the more we want Indian food and without planning and determination it is getting harder to make it. So, I started a food bank in my freezer for days I cannot/don't want to cook.
The Food Bank is stocked with heat and serve dishes. I cook double at every meal, immediately cool the food I'm freezing and then put it away.
In the case of curries, and sambar, I make a plain base for four times and then when I need it I take out the base add the veggie of the day and hey presto! a new curry in minutes. Guess who's smiling all the way to the table now?
The Food Bank allows me to get the best produce at the best price, when it is in season. I clean, wash and freeze and then I have things like methi (fenugreek leaves) all year round.
Rising Prices Eating into your Budget? Not if you're as sharp as your kitchen knife!
This year I did something new. I found fresh ginger at 69 cents a pound ( a price I haven't seen for ages) and I bought ten pounds. It was top quality ginger with thick stems. I peeled, washed, and grated them in my faithful food processor, froze them in ice cube trays, and a steel plate; cut the latter into squares like burfee and froze them. A few hours later I put all the frozen ginger into freezer bags and they reside happily in my freezer now, awaiting their call to duty.

As luck would have it just before Cinco De Mayo, our local Mexican supermarket had garlic for an unbelievable price too. I go on quality as well as price and these pods looked healthy, white and bursting at the seams with freshness.
I got a large quantity, separated the cloves and let them dry or a couple of days then peeled, grated in the food processor and froze in the ice cube tray.
I have trays that freeze like three inch logs and these frozen logs are easy to break up into one inch pieces before storing.
Have I heard of store bought ginger garlic paste? Of course I have, but nothing like the fresh stuff...when I open up my garlic bag I still smell fresh garlic and my ginger cubes still have the fresh ginger juice they were frozen with. Nothing beats that in our do-it-yourself society. Plus, I make the time to put in what I want out.
Everyone does this with things that are important to them.
Other daily use items in my food bank: methi, coriander leaves, fried onions, chopped tomatoes (when the garden produces a lot, or the price and quality is GREAT).
Just like with money, it is an investment of time and labor but then who's the queen of instant cooking with all the best ingredients on hand?
When guests come to stay I make a few masalas ahead and freeze those too.
. I bag my onions in sandwich baggies, approximating one use per bag, then put all the baggies into a large freezer bag or a big plastic container...saving on using too many freezer bags.
Well fried onion release extra oil which I drain and re-use for cooking other dishes.
To protect my food against electric outages...thank God these are rare here, I have bottles of water frozen in each compartment/drawer of the freezer to act as ice bags.
Should we have an outage, the stuff will be good for eight hours or more, as long as the freezer door isn't opened.

TIPS
1. Don't let food you're freezing for another meal sit out all day long and then freeze it.
2. Freeze leftovers too, instead of keeping it in the fridge and eating it two days running and take it out on one of those 'don't feel like cooking days'.
3. For your food bank, buy the best produce at the best price.
Luckily for me I now live in an area where I'm in the vicinity of a plethora of grocery stores of every ethnic group. They provide an infinite variety of choice and price. I haven't forgotten though, the days, when I lived in a small town, when my best friend would rush to the only local supermarket at the crack of dawn on Saturdays, grab the only two packets of fresh coriander (tired and wilting already), buy one and hide the other one for me. Back home she would call me, go tut tut tut over the fact I was sleeping in, and say, "Look behind the potatoes!"
Every week it was a different place, naturally, and thanks to my friend I would have fresh coriander.
4. I soak and sprout mung and other beans, cook and freeze half for another time.
The list goes on and on, but except for potatoes, you get the idea.

Remember, with me, I do this because of my health constraints...if you have the time and energy to cook fresh every time, go for it.
If you are worried about freezing food and losing vitamins and minerals, remember most of our food comes to us frozen or semi-frozen.
Take a vitamin/mineral supplement.
Eat something frozen,with something fresh at every meal. If you don't like salads, and some Indians don't, eat sliced cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, zucchini etc. at each meal.
Eat fresh fruits, nuts and include milk, cheese and yogurt, to help balance your diet.

BEST OF BLOGS...JULY 2008

2008-07-02T08:26:00.000-07:00

My two cents worth:
This month's choice for 5 star cooking blogs is MALABAR SPICES.
I stumbled on it while looking for a recipe for a little known ingredient...yucca.

I like the blog for it's great design and set up, ease of use/amount of recipes and great little web genius tricks that I know nothing of but make me very happy to use.

Now, please don't take this as meaning this was picked over other blogs...it wasn't as
I haven't been to all the cooking blogs and this isn't a competition anyway. It's just that while researching, I came across a blog worth mentioning.
So, MALABAR SPICES, you have 5 stars from me, for July 2008

Blancmange and blueberries

2008-06-29T10:37:00.000-07:00

BLANCMANGE (pronounced bluhmaange)
This is my entry for CLICK: Yellow for Bri hosted by Jugalbandi.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary: old Middle English had the word blankmanger: a dish made with almond milk, and from Old French blanc mangier : blanc, white + mangier, to eat.

In simple words it is a custard made with cornstarch, milk and sugar.
The end result is no longer white, thanks to the advent of food coloring.
Blancmange was a dessert that graced the Sunday table in my mother's house, set in an aluminum rabbit mold. When unmolded, my mother would decorate it with fresh cream that she got from boiling the morning milk. The light dessert was the perfect end to her rich Sunday lunch.
What I'm doing here is recording an old recipe...I know the younger generation in the kitchen prefer the shortcut of instant puddings, but there are some who are curious about, "How were things done back then?" This is for them.
Also, no matter what, the childhood taste and memory of blancmange is revived by this recipe...so much love attached to those memories.
This dessert is the mother of all the instant puddings on the market these days.
Growing up, we used the British Brown and Polson's flavored cornflour, that came in packets of 5 different colors and flavors to a box, so do experiment with those. Now in lieu of the B&P packets, later replaced by Weikfield's, I use cornstarch and follow this recipe:

2 cups non-fat milk, 2 rounded dessert spoons cornstarch, 2 level dessert spoons sugar (I use Splenda), and 1 tsp vanilla. Food coloring.
Add 1/2 to 1 Tbsp more sugar if you have a sweet tooth.

In a saucepan bring 1 1/2 cups milk to a boil.
In half a cup cold milk mix cornstarch till smooth. (If using Splenda increase cornstarch by 1/3 dessert spoon)
Add food coloring of choice.
Pour mix into boiling milk stirring constantly for 2 minutes till milk thickens to custard consistency.
Remove from stove top and add vanilla.
Mix and pour into mold. Refrigerate, but it also sets without refrigeration.
I used a small mold today, as I made this only for two people and HD (Hubby Dearest) does not like desserts. (More for me, I say)

Unmold and decorate with fresh cream made at home by boiling milk, Crema Fresca, or fruit, or eat as is. I used blueberries as that's what was on hand.
A perfect diabetic dessert, and also great for children/anyone who dislikes drinking milk. It is a fat-free dessert too as I ignore some manufacturer's instructions to add a Tbsp of margarine to the pudding.
Now, Brown and Polson's custard powder is available in some US grocery stores in a tin.
Do not use Splenda if serving this to children or expectant mothers.

5 star Idlis, July 2008

2008-06-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

This recipe is for the Beginner and Intermediate Indian cook.

The idli is a perfect food for everybody: from active adults and children to seniors on a light diet. A protein, because of the urad dal and rice combo, it has no fat...unless you drown it in ghee, of course. It is a very popular breakfast dish in South India and usually accompanied with chutney and sambar. Some serve it with palya/potatoes too, and others with kurma (a mix of vegetables cooked in a sauce).
Breakfast for dinner.
We eat idlis for dinner here in the States, as HD (Hubby Dearest) and I have bagels/toast for breakfast, with pancakes on Sunday. Lunch for him is fruits and nuts and for me it is whatever I can find in the fridge. This leaves me the mornings free for my morning walk and working on my laptop. Exercise is of paramount importance for a diabetic...and everybody else. I start making dinner around four and we eat it at five and then have a snack before bedtime.
Since the kids left home, dinner is always Indian food. The older we get, the more we want Indian food and without planning and determination it is getting harder to make it. So, I have a food bank in my freezer for days I cannot/don't want to cook.
The Food Bank is stocked with heat and serve dishes. I cook double at every meal, immediately cool the food I'm freezing and then put it away. Don't let food you're freezing for another meal sit out all day long and then freeze it.
For my food bank
For idlis I pick a week when I am feeling well and then make a large batch, cool immediately and freeze. Nowadays I freeze four idlis and a sandwich bag of chutney...instant dinner for HD on nights I am too tired or too full to cook.
Idlis freeze perfectly and re-heat excellently when steamed over a pan of water or in the microwave. I prefer the steaming method for re-heating, as it is as good as fresh but don't over steam them, or your idlis will fall apart. I freeze larger batches if I can, when Indian guests are arriving, so at least once they can have a breakfast of hot idlis, and hopefully be impressed.
Before they arrive I also make 2-3 different chutneys and freeze them (remember the legs that can't stand for too long now?), so all this helps me to give them good, food when they are here. In my younger days I have made 400 idlis and frozen them for parties, so guests could start with idli sambar! They used to enjoy them and drowned in a bowl of sambar no one realized my idlis weren't as soft as they could be.
Anyway HD's family always made the best idlis: huge, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth kind, and though idlis are not my favorite food, I decided I was going to try and find the best recipe. My Idli Diary goes back to 1984 and shows persistence and comments on a lot of idlis I have eaten in other people's homes and made in my own. Going through a lot of recipes online in May and June, I finally had to decide the one I've concocted by putting two recipes together and used for the last five years, was the winner in the end. Here it is:

1 c urad (using rice cooker cup)
2 3/4 c. ponni rice)
½ cup cooked Jasmine rice or any other regular rice, but not Basmati.
½ tsp Arm & Hammer baking soda.
Salt to taste.

Soak urad dal and rice separately for 6 hours or overnight.
Grind urad first, with one cup water.
I want it really soft and fluffy so I use my electric stone grinder for this, though for 25 years I’ve done it in a blender.
To save time, I grind rice (slightly coarse) in a blender wit half a cup water, while the other grinder is doing the urad.
Remove rice mixture and grind cooked rice and baking soda in blender with a little water, till fine.
Mix 20 strokes after mixing urad, rice and cooked rice mixture to incorporate air in mixture.
Let it ferment in a warm place.
Just before steaming, add salt and ¾ Tbsp Clabber Girl baking powder and mix well.
Pour into greased cups of idli stand and steam for 10 mins.

NOTES

I make idlis on a hot day for ease of fermentation.
I discovered Ponni rice in 2006. Since then my idlis have achieved five star status.
Ponni rice is a short fat rice, ideal for idlis...and I had never heard of it or seen it before 2006...that's the fun of cooking research...you discover something new all the time.
If Ponni rice is not available use par boiled rice. If your blender can't handle par boiled rice, or you can't get it, use any rice except Basmati.
Most people in a hurry just use idli rawa (sold in Indian grocery stores) and urad and are happy with the results.

TIPS

Idli batter has to ferment well for best results. (Seema Bhat of Recipe Junction suggested a pinch of yeast in cold weather...I have to try that).
Overfermented batter will get a yellow top and have to be thrown out.
Grease idli stand with non-stick spray using a little squirt and spread oil around the cup with fingers, paying attention to rim of each cup where idlis stick…can be done with cooking oil too.
Too much spray will result in yellow idlis.
Put idli stand into boiling water for better results.
I use a ten quart pot to steam my idlis in..
Water must be below the lowest idli plate, not touching it, or that plate will have ‘drowned idlis’.
Do not open lid for ten minutes.
Dip a finger in water and touch surface of top idli…if nothing sticks to it, it’s done.
Turn off stove, close pot and leave for another two minutes.
Remove stand and let it cool for five minutes before removing idlis.
Use point of sharp knife to go around rim and then idlis come out clean.
Serve with coconut chutney (recipe on this site). Chutney powder with oil also makes a good accompaniment as does sambar, palya or kurma.

For diabetic me: 2 idlis are the right amount to eat. I control the amount by treating myself to the second idli spread with 1/2 tsp ghee and sprinkled with 1/4 tsp sugar or make smaller idlis (like the picture above) and eat three! The mind 'eats' too and has to be content/controlled for good health.

LEARN SOMETHING NEW: THE HISTORY OF IDLI

I love research and the latest direction this interest has taken is researching Indian Food. Imagine my delight to discover the great scientist KT Achaya's book: Indian Food, A Historical Companion. HD does not know it, but the book's a gift from him to me...like most of the 'gifts' he give me, he will know it's from him when he sees the bill...
Anway this is what Mr. Achaya says about the history of idlis: "While Dosai and Vadai have a hoary two-thousand-year history in Tamil country, Idli is a foreign import. The earliest reference to something of a precursor to Idli occurs in the Kannada writing of Sivakotyacharya in 920 AD, and in the subsequent Sanskrit Manasollasa (1130 AD). But the three elements of modern Idli making are missing in these references: use of rice grits along with urad dal, the long fermentation of the mix, and steaming the batter to fluffiness".

Indeed, the Chinese chronicler Xuang Zang (7th century AD) categorically stated that there were no steaming vessels in India. Achaya writes that the cooks who accompanied the Hindu Kings of Indonesia between 800-1200 AD, brought fermentation and steaming methods and their dish Kedli to South India (Thirai Kadal Odiyum Tinpandam Thedu!).

While writing this article two friends came to mind, whom I'd like to mention here: Savitri Nair, who's idlis and recipe impressed and inspired me as a young bride and Nacha Subbramaniam, who made the best idlis for me every week for months,when I was laid up after an accident in 1986..and shared her secret of adding cooked rice and Clabber Girl with me. My thanks to both of you.

5 star Dosa

2008-06-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

Pouring an oval large dosa: Pour two spoons of batter in a straight line and then shape into an oval. Pan must not be too hot. When done on both sides, smear red chutney inside, then place palya/potato in center.

This recipe is for the intermediate cook, familiar with Indian cooking.
DOSAS are thin crepes made with a fermented batter of rice and white lentils plus other ingredients. Pouring them is tricky so if you are a beginner pay attention to my notes, use a non-stick pan, a non-stick spray, and control the heat of your range.
Don't give up if the first dosa sticks, breaks up...the first dosa is considered a sacrifice, even for well experienced cooks.

May 2008 was Dosa recipe search month. Tired of eating my own average to good dosas for 30 years, I determined to find one GREAT dosa recipe.
Every other morning, the grinder would churn out different proportions of urad and rice and every night, the dosas would be poured with the comment pad next to the stove recording every move as I poured, ate, thought, ate some more. In my laptop I have a Dosa Diary that starts in June 2001 and has recorded all my experiments with dosa since.
Finally three weeks into this trial and error period, when HD (Hubby Dearest) started getting a glazed look in his eyes as he looked at yet another dosa on his dinner plate and faint rebellious murmurs of `high cholesterol' and `my heart' reached me over the sizzle of dosas on the pan, I found the perfect recipe.
It is from Seema Bhat's site Recipe Junction.
Kudos to you Seema for sharing this GREAT recipe.
Seema has posted it on her site as Paper Dosa with many other great recipes.

Here's Seema Bhat's (Recipe Junction)recipe, with my pictures, for those of you want to try it.
Read my notes for translation of Indian words and further explanations of how I got the best results.
On the health front, one of these dynamic dosas is plenty for diabetic me with a tablespoon of potato/palya, a little chutney and plenty of restraint. This dish did not raise my blood sugar. Remember, our traditional Indian combinations of rice and dal are a high protein with very little fat but too much potato is adding to the carbs.

SEEMA BHAT'S DOSA RECIPE (From Recipe Junction...with her notes.)

INGREDIENTS:
1 Cup Rice.
1/2 cup Urad Dal
1/2 cup Rice Powder
2 tsp Methi seeds
2 Tbsp Besan Powder
Salt as per taste

METHOD:
• Wash and soak rice, dal and methi seeds for about 4 hours in warm water (I soaked overnight in cold water)
• Grind all together into a smooth and thick batter along with salt, rice and besan powder.
• Set it in a warm place for 8 to 12 hours and let it ferment nicely.
• Heat up the griddle. Pour enough batter and spread it around in a quick clockwise motion from the center going outwards. Tip: keep the flame on low when pouring the batter and once you roll it immediately turn the flame on high to let it roast well.
• Pour some Ghee/Oil and allow it to cook on high heat until nicely roasted on one side.
• Serve hot with chutney of your choice.
• Tip: addition of besan powder here gives a nice orange/brown color to the dosa when roasted well

Geeta Aunty's added notes:

Shortcuts:
As my legs ache when I stand for a long time I only make dosas for the two of us now. As HD gets tired of washing up, I minimize that work by soaking the dosa and urad in the blender jar with methi seeds. I divide Seema's recipe by half.
I substituted par boiled rice for regular rice as I prefer the flavor of par boiled rice.
Urad Dal is a white split lentil, available at an Indian Grocer's.
Rice powder is rice flour also available at an Indian Grocer's.
Methi seeds are whole fenugreek seeds..I used half a tsp only as I was afraid the batter would get bitter.
Besan Atta is chick pea flour, available at the Indian Grocer's; the package is marked Besan and the flour is yellow in color.
After blending the mixture, I let it ferment in the blender jar in a warm place.
While pouring I spray the skillet with a non-stick spray and then sprinkle a few drops of water on the skillet each time I pour a dosa. (I hold my hand cupped under the water tap, get a little water in it and then sprinkle it on the pan. This trick I learned watching the cook at Woody's on Commercial Street, Bangalore, pour their wonderful dosas.
As my mother always told me, pour on medium heat and then raise the heat. (Raise it to medium high not high as I get better results that way). My mother cut the top off an onion and used either that or half a potato to create a non-stick surface. She would dip it in a little oil and the smear the dosa pan with it.
Seema's recipe is perfect for masala dosas too as my pictures will show you. You can use a slightly thicker batter and remove the dosa earlier from the pan to get it a little softer, or as in my case, leave it a little longer to get it really crisp.
I use 1/2 tsp of olive oil around each dosa but less is fine. The dosa does not absorb the oil poured around it on a non-stick pan.
I cannot resist putting a thin sliver of butter on each dosa to eat at the end with a little sugar in memory of the ghee and sugar we would eat with our dosas as children.
One last mouthful of this makes a great dessert bite to end the meal with.
Dosas have to be eaten hot, preferably right after they are made.
I make the long masala dosa so I only have to make one each for HD and me, on a non-stick 18 by 10 skillet used over two burners of my gas range.

For masala dosa, I smear the red chutney inside before I put the palya and tri-fold the dosa.

Red chutney: Grind 6 red chillies, three pods garlic, half an onion with salt and a little tamarind paste.
Smear inside of dosa with one tablespoon before adding palya/potato.

5 star palya/potato filling.

4 medium Idaho/brown potatoes.
1/2 chopped onion
1 sprig Curry leaves/karipata
1 Tbsp chopped coriander/kothimiri.
1 tsp Rai/mustard seed.
1 tsp whole jeera/cumin.
1-2 jalapeno or any other green chillies, chopped.
(If you do not want the palya to be too spicy, put the chillies in whole)
1/4 tsp haldi/turmeric.
1/2 tsp pav bhaji masala. (I use Everest Pav Bhaji).
1 tsp salt to taste
1/2 lime

Peel and chop potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes. Boil with haldi in just enough water to cover them.
When done, drain excess water.
Peel and chop onion. Fry in 1 tbsp oil. Remove from pan.
In same oil, season rai. When it splutters add jeera. When jeera gets light brown add karipata,kothimiri and green chillies. Fry for two minutes.
Add pav bhaji masala and fry for two minutes.
Add potato and salt and mix well...potato will get slightly mashed at this point.
Finally add fried onions and squeeze the juice of half a lime on potatoes. Mix and remove from stove.

OPTIONAL: Add grated garlic with green chillies.
Leftover palya makes great aloo bondas the next day or is great used with cheese for a grilled cheese and potato recipe.

From my mother's house with my own changes:
5 star chutney.
(In our younger days we would serve three chutneys with dosa...brown dal chutney, green coriander chutney and this white one. The white has turned light brown due to the tamarind paste we use here and it is the only one I make now.)

Ingredients

2 tsps oil
1 Tbsp rai/mustard seed.
1/2 Tbsp urad dal/split white lentil.
1/2 Tbsp jeera/whole cumin.
1/2 tsp methi seeds/whole fenugreek seeds.
One pinch hing/asafoetedia.
5-6 dried red chillies.
One tsp tamarind paste.
One green chilli.
1/2 cup grated coconut.
1/4 cup fried channa/pottu kadle
Salt to taste.
1 sprig curry leaves/karipata

Heat oil in a frying pan. Put in rai and cover pan. When it splutters, add urad dal. When urad turns light brown add jeera, methi seeds, one pinch asafoetedia/hing,red chillies, and green chilli. (Quantity of the last two ingredients depends on your taste). Fry till jeera turns brown. Be careful as jeera scorches quickly. Remove half this mix and place in blender with 5 of the 6 red chillies and the green chilly. Add karipata (curry leaves) to the mix in pan and fry for 1 min. Set aside.
Add grated coconut, pottu kadle/fried channa to mix in blender with tamarind and salt.
Blend till slightly coarse adding 1/4 cup water.
Taste and adjust salt, tamarind and chillies if necessary.
OPT: Garlic or a little ginger can be added to this chutney.
Pour into bowl. Add mix from frying pan on top.
Serve with idli or dosa.
Delicious eaten with hot rice and 1/2 tsp ghee too.

The really capable serve sambar with masala dosa too but for me the buck stops here.
My sambar recipe is good but not great, so I will put it up when I'm satisfied it has attained five star status.

Payt Pooja: INDIAN COOKING ABROAD

2008-06-08T19:42:00.000-07:00

google081482e7e75bd47a.html.

I don't know any country other than India where so much work, thought and effort goes into Payt Pooja. The variety of Indian dishes never runs out, with each state contributing it's own infinite choices. For those of you who don’t know what the words mean, Payt is stomach and Pooja is worship. When I was in school we would jokingly say: It is time for Payt Pooja, which meant ‘Time to Eat’.
Now we are all aware that what we put into our stomachs pays us back in health and quality of life...no one knows that better than me, now a diabetic balancing diet, exercise and rest every day to lead a healthy life. So Payt Pooja is not a joke any more…focus and serious attention to what goes into our stomachs, makes life good or otherwise.

Cooking has always been a great interest with me since I watched my mother in the kitchen, supervising the cook, or cooking herself. AS a child, like so many others,I rolled small chappattis for my dolls on a tiny rolling board and played 'cooking' with my small utensils. My interest grew when I started taking cooking as a subject at 14, in St. Mary's School, Pune, India. Under the watchful eye of Sister Rita Mary, I learned to bake, grill and cook English dishes,and study nutrition. The dishes I took home were praised by my father and loved by my younger brother. Their support raised my confidence level. At home my mother tried to get me to help the cook with breakfast so I could learn more. I started a cookbook in which I diligently wrote down my mother's recipes.

Cooking didn't become top priority with me till I got to the States, 30 years ago. I realized the only way we would have the wonderful food I had taken for granted as a child, young adult and pre-marriage, was if I made it. Once that shock wore off (and it was a shock, believe me), I found another in store for me: lack of Indian ingredients. I still haven't forgiven HD (Hubby Dearest) for the comment he made in India to my mother: "We get EVERYTHING in America". My darling mother believed him and I came out with nothing but a packet of her amazing sambar powder. Fortunately, for him and for me, HD knew enough to show me substitutes for ingredients, and I soon worked in some tricks of my own. I discovered my mother, an army wife, had passed on the trait of managing with what was on hand, to me. Once a year HD took me to Chicago and we loaded up on dals, beans, rice, flour, sooji, masalas, oil and everything else we might need for the next twelve months.
Now, luckily for us, we live in an area where we get 99% of all that is available in India.

The children have grown and flown, proof that I was cooking for them... not using them as guinea pigs (they thought that at one time). HD too is well, all things considered, though he's never lost the habit of looking at anything new I make with suspicion and saying, "What IS that?"

Diabetes now limits my ability to do a lot in the kitchen, but I still love trying out new dishes and improving old ones. Suddenly it seems very important to learn the BEST way of making the same old stuff. What I want to do on this site is, first: join this wonderful group of talented cooks from whom I'm learning so much, second: in an effort to give back and help others, test recipes from different online sites,cookbooks,shows etc. like I do now, and publish the best one, giving the author and originator of the recipe full credit, third: share my tried and true family recipes.
The best recipe will be the one with the most concise directions to understand and follow, and the one that produces the best results where taste is concerned...those overdeveloped taste buds we of Indian origin cultivate since early childhood, will settle for nothing less. I will also let you know if I change the recipe in any way. Besides all this, I will also mention here other blogs that catch my eye for set up, layout, design, content…there are some outstanding ones that deserve mention.
And I will keep on with my funny stories, so stop by for a visit often.

With good thoughts from me to you…happy cooking…

Geeta Aunty