HD's mushroom, bell pepper and potato fry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.