healthfood desivideshi

Broccoli and cheese in a creamy soup...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:04:00 +0000

I have been feeling lucky this winter. Not just because I get this luscious green thing called broccoli in this season, someone has turned a broccoli friend this particular season. Earlier the husband was a reluctant broccoli eater but I am so glad to see him grabbing the salads or soups I make with a happy face. And polishes off the bowl earlier than me. Much to my delight, I can indulge in this kind of therapeutic cooking more and more. Green is a master healer as far as color therapy goes and cooking with greens has always been a therapy for me.

Cheese happens to be one instrument for an interesting change of mind. When I say 'Broccoli and cheese something' , it's an instant yes. May be it works for more broccoli haters. Just a broccoli soup will be turned down immediately but a cheesy broccoli soup would receive a bright nod when asked.

The recipe is simple, a little stir frying then liquidising the cooked vegetables and then thinning with milk and melting some cheese into it. ready to be enjoyed with a hearty bread. we had it with a freshly baked whole wheat bread with lots of flax seeds in it. A simple meal with great taste.

Interestingly, I cooked this meal after a heavy dose of cooking the previous day for about 20 people.Wanted to indulge in some therapeutic cooking and this bread was baked just for the fun of it. The soup was another potion of indulgence.

ingredients...
(for 2 servings)

broccoli with all the stems 300 gm ( I used 5 baby broccoli with lots of stems and much less florets)
red onion 100 gm (one medium large onion)
garlic 5 cloves (fat ones)
milk 300 ml approximately (skimmed will do)
salt n pepper to taste
dried rosemary 2 pinches
grated nutmeg just a pinch
processed cheese about 50 gm or more
butter and extra virgin olive oil 2 tsp each

procedure...

Dice the onion and chop the broccoli stems and florets in small bits. Chop the garlic too.

Heat the butter and EVOO together and chuck in the diced onions. Sprinkle some salt and let the onions caramelised till brownish.

Add the garlic and broccoli , salt n pepper to taste, and cook covered till almost done but not too mushy.

Transfer the ingredients to a blender and liquidise, saving a few florets of broccoli and a few pieces of caramelised onions for garnish. This garnish is to complement the real taste.

Pour the liquidised vegetables into the same pan, add milk to thin the soup. Add grated nutmeg and the rosemary and bring to a gentle boil.

Add the grated cheese and put off the flame, cover the pan for a minute to allow the cheese to melt , pour in mugs or bowls and garnish with the saved broccoli and caramelised onion.

Serve hot as desired.

How many broccoli haters you have seen around you? Do you see a ray of hope?

There is a news for all my reader friends here. I have made a facebook page for all of you who want to have discussions with me regarding healthy living and wellness. I get many queries regarding convenient ways of healthy cooking and the page will be a right place to discuss all that. Please like the page if you want to be a part of the discussions. The picture of this very Broccoli soup has been used as a profile picture of the page so it was mandatory to announce it on this post.

Thank you all.

Hungarian Chicken goulash...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:51:00 +0000

Sometimes we just see the ingredient list of a recipe and immediately know we would love the outcome. This recipe of Hungarian chicken goulash was one such experience when Michaela S. Samant shared this on Fb group Chef at large. I instantly knew this was a keeper recipe. Just for the bell pepper bit. The husband is allergic to capsicums/bell peppers and I find myself looking for other varieties of peppers which are milder or sweeter to be used in such stews so the Capsaicin flavor is there to enjoy without the use of bell peppers.

BTW, the group Chef at large is a happening place to be in. Go there and like the group as a few members had a nice discussion on authenticity of goulash and it's accompaniments. Bread is a normal accompaniment and we had it with home baked whole wheat bread.

The recipe is a minimal ingredients wonder. Very few ingredients are stewed in such a manner that it develops a complex flavor as a finished dish. To be mopped off with hearty pieces of bread. Chapatis will be great with it too.

I did one more change in the recipe to challenge the authenticity, I didn't use any potatoes as I didn't have any potatoes at home. I rarely use them anyways. The authentic recipe of Goulash uses potatoes as a gravy thickener. To thicken the gravy I just liquidised one of the blanched tomatoes being used with the garlic and the red peppers being used. The end product was something which has to be a regular on my table now on. Even with mutton or if I start cooking with beef.

A hot and flavorful stew cooked on low heat while you bake your bread fresh to go with it. A complex sounding recipe even the beginners can handle.

ingredients....

chicken 600 gms ( I used with skin, cut in large pieces: legs and breasts)
onion thinly sliced 150 gm ( I used one large)
tomatoes 220 gms ( I used 3 large red heirloom tomatoes)
bay leaves 3
fleshy mild variety of red peppers 3 (equivalent to one large bell pepper, as used originally)
garlic 5 pods
caraway seeds/syah jeera/shahi jeera 1.5 tsp
hot red chilly powder 1/2 tsp
paprika powder 1 tsp
marjoram to taste ( I used 3 fresh springs)
salt to taste
oil 2 tbsp (any flavorless oil)

procedure...

Blanch the tomatoes with a cross on the tip and peel them. Chop them into cubes.

Chop the sweet peppers in thin strips. I pulsed the red peppers and garlic cloves together with one of the blanched tomatoes to make the gravy thicker. You can add the strips of peppers and grated garlic when required.

Heat the oil and tip in the sliced onions. Fry them on low heat till they caremalise lightly. Add the caraway seeds and bay leaves, mix well and then add the salt and chilly powders.

Mix them all and immediately and add the chicken pieces to prevent the chilly and paprika from getting charred and bitter. Keep frying the chicken on medium flame turning frequently. Some of the onion slices would turn quite brown and the chicken should get 3/4th done.

Add the chopped tomatoes, mix well and cook for about 10 minutes more.

Add the paste of red peppers and garlic, and one of the blanched tomatoes if you want a thicker gravy without using potatoes. If using cubes or grated potatoes add them at the right time so they get cooked and mushed up.

Mix well, add marjoram and let it cook for about 10 minutes more, covered on low flame.

Serve hot.

I am sure you would like to repeat this recipe the very next week if not after two days.

Such simple recipe, scant ingredients and so hugely satiating flavors. The heat of the dish would suddenly be enjoyable to even those whose threshold to the Scoville scale ends quite low. I saw one red and watery nose and a pair flaming ears failing to deter the taste buds a couple of days back for dinner...

A hot goulash is normal !!!

Idli is a quick bread : gluten free and savory breakfast....

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:29:00 +0000

And it can be lower on carbs too...

I have always thought of Idli as a bread. The same puffy pillowy texture and the same mild yeasty smell. Oh wait the yeasty smell is a little different but is definitely yeasty. The capacity to mop a wet gooey chutney is just like a fluffy bread .

Only healthier.

A fermented batter with some rice or other gluten free flours and a nourishing lentil, this bread is not all carbs, a good amount of protein is there. The fermented batter helps the digestive enzymes and the gut flora to work better.

If served with a vegetable, lentil of nuts based chutney, this South Indian bread could be an ideal breakfast or a meal for someone who wants a meal involving minimal cooking.

Yes, if you have the batter ready, which keeps well in the fridge for about a week, you can steam a fresh n warm bread ( Idli that is) within 5 minutes and the chutney takes another 10 minutes maximum. I often use the sourdough method in making my idlies too. The leftover batter is used as a starter and some more lentil powder and millet flours or rice semolina (coarse rice powder) is added and is allowed to ferment.

Steamed fresh whenever required.

Do you think this Idli is not a regular shape?

This makes it easier. One serving is steamed in a porridge bowl and the chutney is served on top of it. Isn't it so convenient. Less utensils used and you eat hot Idlies right after steaming them. Mine is steamed in Microwave and it's a 3 minute affair for single serving.

It's a luxory if you can make two chutneys with it. I will post the recipes of the chutneys too in this post, steaming the Idli is more interesting for now.

So the Idli batter should be a non recipe for Indians but for those who are making it for the first time, I am giving the instructions to make the basic rice n lentil batter.

Skinned black lentil and brown rice is soaked separately in water overnight. I use equal quantities of both but normally a a ratio of 2 parts lentil and 3 parts rice is used or even more rice. More lentil to rice ensures lesser carbs in this idli. The soaked lentil is made into a smooth paste in whatever grinding machine you have. The rice is blended to a coarser paste, some semolina sized grains should be there in the paste, no bigger than that. Both the pastes are mixed together with salt to taste and are allowed to ferment naturally for 12-24 hours, depending on room temperature.

Some times, I add a little yeast to this batter and find great results. Some other times I use a leftover batter as a starter for the next batch and that works really well too. Something like sourdough Idli.

I also use rice and black lentil powders to make the Idli batter. A rice rawa or rice semolina(coarse rice powder) is available in South Indian markets and I get it whenever I visit those places. Rice rawa works better for a grainier texture of steamed Idli. Both the powders are mixed with water n salt to taste and are allowed to ferment naturally, with yeast or with a starter.

For Millet or multi grain Idlies I mix the lentil flour with equal amount of either Ragi flour or Bajra or jowar flours, or a mix of all these flours and ferment the batter as above.

Here is a picture of Ragi Idli for you.

Nice fluffy, soft and warm. What else a comforting bread would be. A gluten free bread at that. Serve it with your choice of chutney or even butter or eggs if you feel like.

The fermented batter is ladled into a ceramic bowl , preferably a porridge serving bowl so it makes one serving only. The single serving of this batter is Microwaved for 3 minutes, covered with a suitable lid.

If you steam a bigger Idli than this in the MW, it gets dry on the margins and stays uncooked in the middle so it's better to cook them individually.

Check with a pointed knife in the center of the Idli, like you check cakes, if the knife comes out clean the Idli is ready.

With my green coconut-spinach chutney and a bright red tomato-garlic chutney, this ragi Idli becomes a three minute breakfast if the chutneys are refrigerated for the week...oh.am I repeating this three minutes thingy too often?

Pardon me. I just want you to have a taste of a quick procedure.

The chutneys are next. I am sharing three wonderful chutneys today. All of them are healthy, very very flavorful and help you eat your one generous portion of vegetables in the beginning of the day.

Tomato garlic chutney...

This chutney I fell in love with when I was in Chennai last year. It was served daily in the breakfast buffet and I used to mop away almost the whole serving bowl. There is a rich taste of Sesame oil and the garlic accentuates the red juicy tomatoes well.

ingredients...
Tomatoes cubed in large chunks 500 gms (Use the best heirloom tomatoes you get)
Garlic peeled and chopped roughly 2 tbsp
Red chilly powder 2 tsp or more to taste
salt to taste
Sesame oil 2-3 tbsp

procedure...

Heat sesame oil in a pan and tip in the chopped garlic. Let it fry till aromatic but not brown.
Add the red chilly powder and mix , then immediately tip in the chopped tomatoes and salt.
Mix well and cook covered for 5 minutes on high flame.
Thrash the tomatoes when they start getting mushy. Keep stirring and cook without lid for another 5 minutes.
The finished chutney is thick and a nice sesame oil n garlic aroma is evident.

Coconut and spinach chutney..

This chutney is an experimental chutney, a nice change from the usual coriander greens and mint flavors in the coconut chutney. I used my garden greens so the chutney is really flavorful. use the freshest greens you can find for this.

ingredients...
chopped bits of fresh coconut 1 cup
baby spinach 400 gm (I used fresh baby spinach)
curry patta about 6 springs
2 garlic cloves
green chillies to taste
salt to taste
lime juice to taste
I used a salt preserved raw mango slices for this chutney and skipped salt, you can use fresh raw mango slivers to taste.

procedure...

Steam the baby spinach till the leaves wilt, I microwaved them for 2 minutes.
Grind with all the other ingredients till smooth.
Serve as desired.

I like my coconut chutneys a bit coarse so here is how it looks like...

A breakfast with bright colors could be a nice start of the day for you. I am all for this.

spring onion and fenugreek chutney...

This a spring onion and coconut-sesame chutney basically , accentuated with some fenugreek seeds. Keep the fenugreek seeds minimal if you do not like the bitterness they have. I used a dry chutney powder I make and have posted in the past to make it fortified with some greens.

ingredients...
spring onions chopped 2 cups(lower parts only)
fenugreek seeds 1 tsp ( optional, or use less)
broken dry red chillies 2
curry patta 2 springs
sesame oil 2 tbsp
sesame,peanut chutney powder 3-4 tbsp
salt to taste

procedure...

Heat the oil and tip in the fenugreek seeds and broken red chillies. Let them get pink and aromatic. Taking care not to char them.
Tip in the curry patta and chopped spring onions and saute till they get a bit softer.
Blend then to a paste with a little water and the sesame-peanut chutney powder.

Serve immediately with Idli or with anything else you like. It makes a nice side dish anyways.

The fenugreek seeds taste best when blended freshly in this chutney, the more the chutney rests the more they get butter when they soak up the juices. If you love the bitterness, you can let the chutney stand for some time. Otherwise the roasted earthy flavor of the fenugreek is all you get in the freshly blended concoction.

Served with Ragi Idli for myself one morning. It can be any meal of the day for me.

Is your bread this tasty?

The purists might be cringing at the thought of making the Idlis so convenient with yeast or a sourdough starter , and with millet flours. It works for me as I go for the soft textures and the yeasty aroma.

Not forgetting healthy ingredients made accessible and workable.

I never understood how the stone ground batter would result in better Idlies, simply because I never got the chance to try them :-) The batter made with powders works well for me as I want my Idlies on a whim sometimes and a two day long preparation time is just too long for me.

What about you?

Quicker practical solutions for everyday meals or the occasional treats of the traditional methods?

And do you think Idlis are breads essentially?

two salads with Radish...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:03:00 +0000

Radishes are not every one's favorites. The sharp pungent taste might not go well with many but if seasoned well or dressed well, I have seen known radish haters going for second and third helpings too.

I am the one who can chomp on a raw radish just as it is. Even the leaves. Try the finely chopped leaves on top of some steamed lentil dumplings , ala Delhi's famous Ram laddoo, you would be a convert.

There are a few flavors that work really well with radish. One of them is a winner, with yogurt and walnuts, made with Radish pods.

This recipe with Tricolor radish can be made with any variety of radish.

Others make this post. And I am sure there are many more. These are just the flavors I love and keep repeating.

Radishes love lemon juice. And I love some ginger with it too. This particular salad with long julienne of ginger is a favorite because of the lemon soaked ginger too.

ingredients for the ginger lemon radish salad...

lemon juice 1 tbsp
ginger julienne 2-3 tbsp or to taste ( if you don't like large pieces of ginger, grate it)
slices of a sweet variety of green chillies 2-3 tbsp (I used a variety called Bangalore torpedo or Bajji chilly)
roughly chopped coriander leaves 1/4 cup
salt to taste
slices of red or white radishes 2 cups

procedure to toss up...

soak everything except radish slices in the lemon juice for a while. An hour minimum. Then toss the radish slices in it , rest for 10 minutes and the salad is ready.

If you want to make the salad instant, grate everything from ginger to radishes and toss up to serve immediately.

I have used the red round radishes called Cherry belle here, but any variety can be used for these salads too. You may find some varieties sharp and some mild, sharp varieties go well with a lemon or yogurt dressing while the mild varieties work well with English mustard.

The salad makes a nice accompaniment to a heavy meal. But it can be a great detox meal after a heavy meal day. What about having a large bowl of this salad for lunch? With a few walnuts thrown in.

The other salad is devoid of ginger but another pungent condiment is thrown in to make the salad pack a punch. Seriously.

English mustard.

ingredients for the radish salad with mustard dressing...

English mustard 2 tsp
sliced green chillies of a sweet variety 2 tbsp
roughly chopped green coriander 1 cup
salt to taste
lemon juice 2 tsp
radish slices 2 cups

procedure to toss it up...

Mix the English mustard with lemon juice, salt and chopped green chillies. Let it rest for about 15 minutes or so. More the better.

Toss in the chopped coriander leaves and the sliced radishes.

Let the salad rest for about ten minutes after tossing it. Serve with a meal as this one packs a real punch. A pungent one. If you want to eat it as it is you can add some sliced carrots and cubed tomatoes to it .

Then it becomes a great stand alone lunch salad. For detox.

Both these salads keep well for the day, even in lunch boxes, even after mixing all up. It gets a bit watery but the taste becomes more intense in both the salads. Keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days.

There are more radish salad in my repertoire. Will be shared soon.

How do you like to eat your radish? Or you are a hater?

home made granola or choorma ke laddoo ?

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:29:00 +0000

Granola bars are easy convenient snacks and may become a breakfast when you can't cook something fresh and warm. I love baking these bars with assorted fruits, nuts and seeds. This one is an unconventional granola bar as it uses sweet potatoes and carrots instead of my regular apples and raisins. I never use any honey or brown sugar for my granola bars and the natural sweetness of the ingredients tastes great.

But I am not sharing the recipe yet. I wanted to introduce a more unusual granola treat, something made with leftovers.

I bake a lot of millet flour chapatis and serve them with curries , salads and lentil soups too. Sometimes I just mix the crumbled chapatis with some ghee and jaggery for a sweet treat called Bajre ka maleeda. And most of the times I make some extra chapatis so I would make the granola balls with it the next day. Or would make a crumbly nutty breakfast in a bowl.

You get the picture.

The Pearl millet or Finger millet flours are used to make these flat breads as shown here . The leftovers next morning or a couple of days later (refrigerated) become quite brittle. Break the bread in pieces and run them in a grinder for a few seconds. This makes a bread crumb like texture , and this will be used for the granola balls or crumble.

Heat the millet bread crumbs in the microwave for a couple of minutes so it gets freshened up.

Alternatively, you can roast the crumbs with 2 tbsp of butter or ghee on low flame.

Mix a cup of the crumbs with 1/4 cup of flax seeds powder, 1/4 cup of natural brown sugar or grated jaggery and 1/4 cup of copped almonds and some raisins. Pour 2 tbsp of melted ghee or 1/4 cup of fresh cream ( I use fresh malai) on top of it. No need to add ghee or cream if the crumbs have been roasted with ghee. Mix all of these together.

The mixture makes a warm comforting breakfast with some hot milk on the side, not poured into it...but hey, you can even pour hot milk over it I just realized....

In the form of a crumble it can be eaten as it is.

Or can be made into balls. These balls keep well for the day and can be packed in lunch boxes to be carried to the office or school.

One of these could satiate a snack hunger any time of the day in a healthy way.

Do you think the baked granola bars look more fancy? Which ones would you chose if having a choice?

steamed lentil dumplings with lots of greens, call them muthia or whatever you like...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:36:00 +0000

I would like to call them 'Crackling balls'. Coated with lightly fried white sesame they make the perfect tea time snack and a meal when accompanied with a salad on the side. A healthy gluten free meal or snack is ready within couple of minutes when you have the steamed balls in your fridge.

Yes, the balls can be steamed and refrigerated for a week or can be frozen for about 6 months. They make a versatile ingredient once you have them ready in your fridge, a kofta curry made quickly just using these balls would make a dinner easy when you would like to have a warming curry but feeling exhausted. Having some frozen bhuna masala would make it a breeze, just pour some water , bhuna masala and a few of these balls and microwave or cook in a pan till the balls soak the juices. I like these balls in my lentil soups too.

This time I made these balls using an unusual green. Chane ka saag or chickpea greens .

These are the growing tips of chickpea plant , very tasty even when eaten raw. They make nice salads on thier own and have a zingy savory taste. The leaves are not very soft and do not get mushy when cooked, so they make a nice ingredient for steamed pakodas (fritters) or dumplings. These dumplings are not muthias technically, the muthia (of Gujrati cuisine) have some wheat flour and millet flours added to it.

This one is made just with lentil flours or soaked lentil paste, the origin of these dumplings is Eastern UP as much as I know. These are called Bhaap ki pakodi (steamed fritters) , and many versions are there .

These steamed dumplings are normally served after deep frying the steamed balls, I used the Gujrati method of tempering to make them healthier, more so because I like the crackling sesame seeds this way...

With tea, they make a great snack to much on... we had it in the evening one day and it made a meal for us.

The process is simpler than you would imagine, although it looks like a lot of work has gone into it. Cleaning and chopping of the greens can be done in advance to make the process a bit easier to execute.

ingredients....

1.5 cups of soaked split chickpeas (chane ki dal)
chipped ginger 1 tbsp or more
red chilly powder or green chillies chopped to taste
whole cumin seeds 2 tsp
whole pepper corns 2 tsp
turmeric powder 1 tsp
salt to taste
chane ka saag (chick pea greens) finely chopped 4 cups tightly packed
chopped fenugreek leaves or a mix of coriander and dill leaves works really well too...

procedure....

Blend the first 5 ingredients together in a mixie jar or food processor without adding any water to it.

In a bowl add the chopped greens and the lentil paste , add the turmeric powder and salt to taste..

Now mix together everything, using your fingers, making it a loose dough. You can add a little chick pea flour or any millet flours (like bajra or jowar or even corn meal)to make the dough to a workable consistency. I didn't need any.

Make small lemon sized balls with the mixture and keep them on a greased glass or ceramic plate.

Microwave these for 3-4 minutes in the microwave. Three minutes of covered and four if open. I do not have a large enough dome shaped cover for this plate so i cooked it for four minutes. But do cover it as soon as you take the plate out as microwave cooked things get dehydrated very fast when kept open....the rate of evaporation is really very high so covering helps in cooking the balls further too.

The cooked balls look like this, a bit darker in color. The condensed water can be seen in the plate.

These can be served hot with a green coriander chutney, or can be refrigerated for later use.

I like these balls with crackling fried sesame seeds so I temper them quickly with a spicy mix.

The tempering...
oil 1 tsp
asafoetida 1/8 tsp
whole red chilly broken in two parts
small variety mustard seeds (rai) 1 tsp
sesame seeds 2 tsp

Heat oil in a pan and add the remaining ingredients in the order of the list one by one. They crackle a lot so be careful for your eyes....as soon as the sesame is fried as it is added last, add the dumplings and toss them with the tempering mix. Just for a minute.

Serve hot. The fried broken red chilly can be eaten too if you like it hot...I do it sometimes.

I served it with kahva to my parents when they visited a couple of day back. It was loved by them. These dumplings are my grandmother's recipe and I have adapted it for Microwave cooking. My addition of Gujrati tempering over it was well received by the parents too.

Though it can be steamed in conventional steamers or even in idli steamers, even shaped like idlis if you like.

I love them made in the mini idli steamer too....Made it once at my mother's place and fried those mini idlis for every one...such small tidbit eats are most welcome with evening tea.

One more idea that I follow when I make this dumpling with spinach. I make it like a cake, in a large block, and then cut it in cubes to refrigerate them. The cubes can be deep fried in oil or tempered like this one for a healthy snack or meal.

Steaming is your call, either use a conventional steamer or microwave. The dumplings will be as tasty every time. The greens or other vegetables like grated carrots, cabbage and spring onion make a great combination for such dumplings.

Call it Muthia or Bhaap ke pakode , these crackling balls would be a favorite I bet.

What shape would you like it.

Baked oatmeal with pumpkin, the breakfast going quick and fruity ...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:06:00 +0000

Baked oatmeal is a great way to make the oatmeal breakfast tastier and easier to assemble. Even if you bake it fresh. Yes, this recipe takes 25 minutes to bake and if you mix everything in the night you can plonk the pan into the hot oven in the morning first thing in the morning while you fix your morning cuppa.

Many fruits can be used for this baked oatmeal like grated apples or applesauce, bananas make great baking accompaniments anyways for such dry bakes and oranges which have been my favorite flavors whenever some aromatherapy is required. I use carrots and sweet potatoes a lot for such healthy bakes. With pumpkin I mostly work with fresh grated pumpkin but his time I wanted to see if pureed baked pumpkin gives an improved taste. It was definitely better than grated pumpkin when used in the same recipe, improving the texture of the finished bake as well. Baking the pumpkin slices may be an extra work, a potential deterrent for many, so using grated pumpkin makes sense in case of time crunch.

I always like to add some dried fruits to such bakes as it enriches the final product taste wise and texture wise too. This time I added some chopped dried apples I had bought from an organic foods store Leh.

Such flavorful snack they make on their own too. I love chewing a few pieces whenever I need something just to chew on...

The dried apples taste was quite good in this oatmeal bake too...a little chewy and full of apple flavor.

I had baked and pureed about a kilo of pumpkin one day and kept it ready for some pumpkin soup and a quick cake if I plan something on the last moment.

Some 1.5 inch thick wedges of a rich yellow orange pumpkin with ripe brownish skin was brushed lightly with oil and baked for about 50 minutes or till the flesh becomes soft.

Scoop out the flesh and puree to store in refrigerator or to use immediately if required.

ingredients for the oatmeal pumpkin bake...

oatmeal 1 cup/100gm
pumpkin puree 1/2 cup/120 gm
chopped dry apples 1/2 cup/100 gm
fresh cream 1/2 cup (I used fresh malai)
whole milk 2 tbsp or more to adjust consistency
brown sugar lightly packed 1/2 cup (I used a natural unrefined sugar called shakkar or boora in this part of the world)
chopped golden raisins 3 tbsp
one large egg
a generous pinch of soda bi carb
a pinch of salt

About half a cup of chopped nuts can be added for convenience and to make them protein dense, but we like our nuts sprinkled over the oatmeal along with fruits, so I skipped adding nuts this time.

procedure...

Mix everything together in a mixing bowl, it makes a loose consistency mixture somewhere between a dough and a batter. The mixture can be kept in the fridge overnight and can be baked in the morning, even in individual serving bowls if using ceramic bowls.

Pre heat the oven, pour the mixture into a conveniently sized baking pan or a casserole dish, keeping the thickness of the batter about 1 inch. If the batter is spread thicker than this, it would take longer time to bake.

Bake for 25 minutes at 180 C. Do the skewer test before taking the pan out. it makes a rich brown bake and can be cut into pieces while still warm.

It tastes the best when it is warm. Although you can always keep the leftovers in the fridge or bake a larger amount for a week, It would be great to reheat in microwave before serving. The cake like pieces make a nice evening snack when you come home feeling ravenous.

If you make it for dry snacking, keep in mind to add the suggested amount of nuts too.

We love it warm in a hot cup of milk. With any fruit, we usually include bananas for breakfast so it's mostly these for us. With a generous sprinkling of almonds.

With just a bit of sweetening using the brown sugar, this baked oatmeal is a nice flavorful breakfast. I just love the way these ingredients lend a natural sweetness.

I sometimes bake it without any sugar, with some more raisins or some chopped sticky dates added to it. If we enjoy the natural sweetness of the food, there will be no need to add any more sugar to it. Fortunately we both like everything just lightly sweetened and add more sugar only when some guests are visiting.

Apart from bananas, I would like mangoes in this bowl of baked oatmeal with milk.

I would like to remind you all that even pumpkin is like any other fruit when the nutrition value is compared, minus the fructose which can be a concern for many. Many of my friends are pumpkin haters and I would like them to include this fruity vegetable as it packed with nutrients (quite a good amount of Vitamin A and zinc and many more, zinc is more in seeds though), is low on calories and high on soluble fibers.

What fruit you would like in this bowl?

One carrot, one bowl and just three minutes or so, for the 'gajar ka halwa' you love so much...and another sugar free recipe too...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:06:00 +0000

Gajar ka halwa takes a lot of time when made traditionally, slow cooked on gas stove, reducing milk while stirring the halwa all the time. Some 2 hours to be precise for about 10-12 servings. I have exercised my biceps a lot many times in the long past years, grating the carrots first with a manual graters, the husband used to help me in this exercise for the love of gajar ka halwa , and then it used to be my turn to cook with with lots of whole milk for hours together. I tried making in Microwave too but the time consumed and the number of pots and bowls used to be a hassle every time. Not to mention planning for days to peel and clean so many carrots and then sitting on the carpet while watching TV to grate those mounds of thin slivers of carrots. All that is ancient history now.

I have been making gajar ka halwa more frequently now since I tried this one carrot halwa in a jiffy to surprise my husband one day, some 5 years ago. I have told this recipe to many of my real life friends and this has become their quick fix gajar ka halwa recipe too, more so because no one can find out it has not been cooked on slow flame for hours.

It takes just some 5 minutes if you include the time to peel and clean the single large carrot you are handling and grating it on the microplane...

lets' start, I placed the bowl on my weighing scale so the quantities would be well documented.

135 gm of grated carrot ( I used one large 'red Asian carrot') and 60 gm of powder milk.

Adding the milk powder....

And then mixing it....No water to be added. One of the friends added water and it took a long time to reduce the water. I guess I do not tell the recipes more convincingly over the phone, or you don't listen carefully dear friend ;-)

Zap inside the microwave and cook for 2 minutes, it bubbles a bit and the moisture from the carrots helps the milk powder to get moist first and then cooked with the juices of carrot , as I like it. It looks like this when you take the bowl out.

Give it a quick mix. It already looks ready , isn't it? But it needs to dehydrate a bit more.

Taste a tiny amount so you would know how much sugar you need, depends on how sweet the carrot is , the milk powder has some lactose to sweeten it naturally already.
I thought of adding just a tsp of sugar, heaped :-)
And a few chopped almonds.

Again the bowl was zapped into the microwave for another minute, and this is how it looked.

Perfect.

It smells like a true blue gajar ka halwa just the aroma of ghee is missing. Go ahead and add 2 tsp of ghee along with sugar and almonds if you wish. It would smell like heavenly winters in a 'halwai' shop then :-)

I made this halwa today as IHM was remembering this and wanted to surprise her mother with a quick gajar ka halwa.

Another version of gajar ka halwa was waiting to see the lights of a 'blog's day', got a chance to glory today... This one is a naturally sweetened halwa which uses a few sticky dates for sweetening.

I made this version after a few trials for a diabetic friendly gajar ka halwa. After all we all crave such pleasures we grew up eating and enjoying. It might look quirky but damn tasty it is.

Yes it does look different as I used some sweet potatoes too along with carrots. The bright orange colored sweet potatoes of the western world would make a stunning brightly colored gajar ka halwa with this recipe.

The addition of sweet potatoes adds a lot of creaminess to the gajar ka halwa , so much so that it tastes like rabdi . Rabdi is made after reducing the whole milk for hours and has a slightly grainy texture when cooked slowly. Sweet potatoes provide this version of gajar ka halwa with the same rabdiness...

Although the Indian sweet potatoes make the color dull and insipid, the taste of the halwa, as I said is very very rich. You can always add a tsp of sugar for two servings , believe me that is quite enough. Especially with sweet potatoes in it.

I found it good enough even without the one tsp of sugar or without the added dates. Sweet potatoes have a natural sweetness, as do the carrots.

One large carrot, one medium sized sweet potato (both equal in weight) and the same amount of milk powder as used for the above recipe. In this case it was 100 gm as the weight of both carrots and sweet potatoes was 250 gm combined. The amount of milk powder and even the sweetening agent can be adjusted to taste for obvious reasons.

I added two tablespoon of finely chopped sticky dates to this carrots and sweet potatoes halwa and it was a really great halwa to enjoy. The husband gave it a ranking of 8/10 while for me it was 9/10...

The one carrot, one bowl halwa gets 10/10 doubtlessly , especially if you add the ghee. Ghee provides a nice glaze and a nutty taste to the carrot slivers. This is our winter mush :-)

The ingredients list...For 2 servings....
Double the recipe or multiply any number of times, remember to use a bigger bowl if you multiply the recipe.

135 gm grated carrots ( or an equal mix of carrots and sweet potatoes, some beets also taste great)
60 gm milk powder
1 tsp sugar ( or up to 1 tbsp of finely chopped sticky dates)
slivered almonds as much as you want
ghee is optional and as much as you like

Preparation of the sweet potato and carrots halwa...

Grate the carrots and sweet potatoes first.

Place them together with milk powder in a suitably sized bowl and microwave for 2 minutes if using about 200 gm mixture of powdered milk and grated roots. Keep a one inch margin above the level of this mixture. If making this halwa with larger quantity, just watch the mixture bubble a bit and then wilt and get compact in the middle. It might take 4-6 minutes or even more if you are cooking a bigger quantity.

Stir to see how much moisture is there. Taste the mixture if you need it sweeter. Add sugar or chopped dates to suit your taste, and cook in the microwave for some more time , usually half the time it took the first time. The sweet potato version may take lesser time as the sweet potatoes absorb a lot of moisture.

Take the bowl out, mix and stir and add nuts if you haven't added them already. The halwa dries up some more when cooled as water keeps on evaporating after microwave cooking.

* Sometimes you get a little dehydrated sweet potatoes in Indian markets, as they have longer shelf life. In that case you should boil the whole sweet potato first as it may take longer than carrots to cook if used raw and might need some more moisture than the carrots have.

Which one are you making first ?

[ Edited to add the recipe of sweet potato version in detail as some questions made me realise that this recipe was not very clear in the post. Thank you. ]

A salad for lunch, garden fresh baby spinach,sweet lime,tofu and pistachios in a tangy sweet medley ...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:39:00 +0000

No one eats cold salads for lunch in winters. But if you pluck perfect soft baby spinach from your garden in a winter noon, you would like to eat them then and there. I took some time to chop some sweet lime, cube some tofu and even fry them for a better textural experience. The foodie I am, the salad should be perfectly matching to my mood.

I was on phone, talking to a friend , and made this salad while talking, took pictures and even finished eating while still talking to her. She knows how tasty this salad is :-)

ingredients for one lunch serving ...
baby spinach 200 gm
tofu cut in cubes 50 gm
chopped pistachios 2 tbsp
peeled and chopped wedges of one sweet lime

one fat clove of garlic
6-7 sweet basil leaves
juice of half a lime (nimbu)
salt n pepper to taste
a generous slug of EVOO (Extra virgin olive oil)
some more oil for shallow frying the tofu cubes (I used peanut oil)

preparation...

Shallow fry the tofu cubes till they turn crisp, drain on tissue towels.

Now smash the garlic and basil leaves together in a mortar n pestle, empty into a mixing bowl and then add the juice of lime, EVOO, and salt and pepper. More pepper the better as the sweet lime and the sour lime as well, kill some of it's heat.

Add the fried tofu to this dressing and proceed to wash the spinach and cut the sweet lime.

Add the rest of the ingredients and toss them together. All the tidbits will settle down into the deep bowl but not to worry, they are soaking the juices of the dressing . Flavorful is the word.

Empty the ingredients into a plate or eat right out of the bowl , no one is watching :-)

Since I had to show you the pictures it was emptied into a plate and then a few clicks later I realised I should have chosen a white plate for this. The colors look so dull in this dark colored plate, but then the salad was wilting fast and I could not resist eating it.

The salad is wonderfully flavored as the sharpness of garlic is complemented hugely by the sweet lime. The textures you can see , the crisp turned spongy tofu and nutty crisp pistachios with those juicy bits of sweet lime . You would want to fork everything together for a mouthful of goodness.

Some basil could be used whole too I guess and may be some other greens in this salad. This would be a favorite for both of us till the spinach lasts in my garden. I don't make raw salads with the store bought spinach fearing contamination. But I think I would get rid of this fear too very soon.Especially if I get some organic spinach.

What greens would you like for this salad?

Thinner Dinner : a book review

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:58:00 +0000

I am a big eater and a foodie soul. My food philosophy revolves around macrobiotic principles. Macrobiotic because I need a lot to eat , I am the most happy when my tummy is gratified. It's a fact of life for me. For many others too I know.

My cooking is more based on Ayurvedic principles, combining ingredients mostly according to the food groups which make healthier combinations of nutrients and help in absorption of the nutrients by the body. The process of cooking is an important way to enhance taste as well as nutrient value in whatever we eat. The food for me, is a nourishing-healing factor in our life. Not just the body and physiology, the mood and the psychological well being too. This philosophy, for me, is to attain optimum health goals. Be it weight loss goals or stabilising blood sugar or managing blood cholesterol, choosing ingredients wisely and working on them in a way they provide desired benefits for the mind, body and soul. That is my way to my food.

A foodie who loves her ingredients and wants to know more about them, always curious about everything food. This was the reason I got curious when I saw this book called Thinner Dinner by Shubhra Krishan, put up for review under Blogadda's book review program, and wanted to see what this book is all about.

The introduction says, Shubhra Krishan is not a nutritionist. She is just ravenous. Now this ringed a bell as I am the same...not a nutritionist but keep working on nutrients ...and ravenous when it comes to good food. The introduction of the book says that she serves dinner everyday in a way that it doesn't get to your waist... I wanted to know if the food is actually real food.

Yes the food is real. Real whole food which I believe is the only way to get healthy. The book talks about how home cooked simple meals can be satisfying and healthy and can be tweaked to stay slim and fit and even loose weight while eating normal food. Normal food , by the way, has gone into the category of exotic food because for many of us, food comes out of packets and tetra packs. This book talks about the good old simple home cooked food.

And I loved the book for this reason....for propagating the philosophy of real whole old fashioned food to be healthy and worthy. She talks about food with such romanticism in her tone it feels like reading a memoir. Full of nostalgia about a meal shared with a farmer family near Pataudi, the home of former cricketer Nawab Pataudi and Sharmila tagore, and another meal she had in a fancy restaurant in New York and many more such meals. Her cooking incorporates what she likes eating outside too. That is what many of do, we all want to tweak the recipes to a healthier version without compromising on the taste. I just wish she had substantiated this idea of healthy eating in a better way. The approach is week.

She has shared some recipes too.

That is what exactly it is. Some recipes too. This is not a recipe book if you want to get recipes for healthy cooking for weight loss. Yes, there are recipes but not written in a way one can effectively follow them. While one reads the book with a smile and feels good that the journey from fat to fit can be enjoyed. The books is written in a very casual way like we share some experiences with friends, it is engaging too as it makes you believe it can be fun to loose weight. And that can be a good message for many out there.

But the book does not make you to learn cooking fat burning food. The recipes are written in a casual way too , ingredient list is mostly printed in a reference card style format and could have been very helpful but the names of the ingredients are in Hindi sometimes. Actually the whole book uses Hindi terms and phrases like haath ki roti or chulhe ka swad which I enjoyed as a Hindi speaking person myself, but could be difficult for many other people to understand. Moreover some ingredient lists and recipes are hastily written without proper instructions, a novice cook would find it difficult to follow.

Pictures are a big letdown too. The kind of pictures we used to see in the magazines of the 80s. It is disappointing to see such poor quality pictures on good quality glossy paper. With good paper and good printing you expect good pictures too , especially if it is about food.

So I feel it's not a book which can motivate someone to cook and enjoy home cooked food. Moreover, some ingredients like maida (all purpose flour) and corn flour are used freely in many recipes that is another let down for me for sure.

But if the romanticism in the conversational tone of the book touches you, you would feel good about the long forgotten real old fashioned food on your tables. Having said that, I doubt the book has that appeal to motivate someone to cook healthy every day.

This review is a part of the book reviews program by Blogadda , participate now to get free books!

fruit yogurt with chikoo and dried prunes....

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:41:00 +0000

I never liked the taste of store bought fruit yogurts and it makes me cringe whenever I check the labels. Have you seen how much added sugar it has or how much actual fruit pulp it has? Coloring agents and conditioners do not make a yogurt healthy either.

I find my own homemade fruit yogurt great for between the meals snacking or for a rich dessert too. I keep advising people to carry home made fruit yogurt to work in nice sealed glasses The flavor of some fruit combinations develops really good when kept for 2-4 hours or even overnight . This chikoo and dried prunes is one of those combinations. Chikoo is Sapota , an astringent fruit , with medium sweet and malty taste...

Just chop some prunes, sticky dates and chikoo, 3 prunes, 3 dates and 3 small chikoo for 2 servings ..

Mix with 200 gm of fresh yogurt and a handful of chopped almonds, or any other nuts of your choice.

No additional sweetening is required.

The naturally sweetened fruit yogurt tastes quite rich with the flavors of fruit getting enhanced by natural sweetness of dates and prunes.

Eat fresh for a healthy dessert or pack for healthy snacking during the day. This way you are not too hungry at meal time and can eat sensibly. I use a jar of nutella for this sometimes, perfect for such packed snacks to carry. Very convenient to eat too...

The prunes and dates get soaked and become luscious after a couple of hours. This is how it looked the next day when I had it... This particular combination of fruit and dried fruits works well for the next day ...

Use any fruits , dried fruits and nuts of your own choice, it is so easy to whip up and so very tasty. You would never pick up that brightly colored pack of fruit yogurt again. Make your own and enjoy good taste and good health together.

Chopped strawberries, bananas and oranges work really well with yogurt and keep well too.

A bowl of mango yogurt is such a treat in summer days...

How many of you like fruit desserts which do not need cooking ?

What if it makes a perfectly balanced healthy snack?

pearl barley and green peas soup in a coconut milk broth...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:13:00 +0000

Sometimes I am in a fix when I want a warming bowl of soup for dinners and the husband wants something more filling. Almost all my dinner soups are quite filling but the husband is happy with a soup only when it is a tomato or sweet corn soup and is accompanied with a buttery garlic bread. I thought of cooking his favorite ingredients this time so he would like it as it is. Aloo and matar (potatoes and peas) are his all time favorite ingredients and I decided to bring them into a light soup. It was wonderful.

Whenever I use pearl barley for soup it is either boiled in a pressure cooker right before making the soup or use it ready from my fridge. There is some boiled pearl barley almost always in my fridge as I like it with my red lentil soups too. Luckily the husband likes the soft glutinous texture of boiled pearl barley. A blessing .

To boil pearl barley you just have to pick and wash them, then cook with double the volume of water and salt to taste. I do that in pressure cooker as said, but it can be cooked in an open pan too, the cooking time reduces if the pearl barley is soaked overnight. It will be useful to know that the soaked barley cooks really fast in microwave. Just 5 minutes for a cup of soaked pearl barley on high with just a tbsp of water. The texture of the barley cooked using these methods is different though, pressure cooker makes them burst and open up which I like in such a soup.

ingredients...
(for two large servings)
boiled pearl barley 1 cup
cubed potatoes 2 medium sized (100 gm)
fresh green peas 2 cups
2 bay leaves
salt to taste and lots of freshly milled pepper
you might like using white pepper powder
coconut milk 200 ml ( I used from a tetra)
chopped coriander leaves 1/2 cup

procedure...

Place the cubes of potatoes and the peas in a pan with two cups of water, add salt to taste, the bay leaves and simmer covered till cooked. Add a little more water if you feel like. Add soaked pearl barley if using along with potatoes and peas so they cook simultaneously.

Add the pressure cooked pearl barley, pressure cooking can be done on the other stove when the potatoes and peas are boiling. and mixed when both get cooked.

Now add the coconut milk and freshly milled pepper. Simmer for about 5 minutes till the flavors blend well.

Add chopped coriander to finish and serve hot. Remove the bay leaves before serving.

The soup comes out quite aromatic and is mildly spiced. The potatoes get mushy and absorb the flavors of coconut milk well. The fresh coriander leaves make it fresh and add another dimension of taste , being used in such good quantity....so do not reduce the quantity of coriander greens here..

A very comforting tasty dinner it makes. I made this soup after we had a tiff regarding his dislike for soups and he said after the dinner that we can have this soup some 3-4 day a week this winter. Green peas are so fresh was his reason. I know his reason was an almost sweetish taste of this soup which comes from coconut milk and really fresh green peas. Undisturbed by any chilly that I use in most soups of mine and the pungency of garlic that is such a favorite of mine. The truth is, I liked the soup too. Very much.

Chamomile tea ...to get relief from migraines,anxiety, IBS and cramps...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:18:00 +0000

Winters demand something warm to sip all day and some herb teas are the best. Chamomile is one of my favorites and i love the way it looks. Those beautiful flowers...

Just place a spoonful of these beautiful dried flowers in a pitcher, or a kettle....

And pour hot water over it....

And watch the flowers getting mildly aromatic , and the color being developed in the tea...

Wait for some 5-8 minutes and see how the color becomes a nice sunshine.....warmth and healing is on the way....pour yourself a mug and get set with a book.....or tap your finger where you are sitting right now...with a mug on the table next to you...

With all it's medicinal properties, Chamomile makes a nice soothing tea in winter days to keep sipping on. If you are not sipping the spice infused kahva for that matter. Chamomile is an antimicrobial, anti inflammatory, anti irritant and antispasmodic too. The active ingredient in Chamomile essential oil is Bisabolol , the aroma of the tea is very mild and pleasant, not a heady thing like some of the orange flavored teas...The only way i do not like orange, is on my tea. I love all the spices and other herbs but never could develop a taste for anything orange in a cuppa...

This site provides detailed information about all the things Chamomile can relieve. It makes a soothing compress for some skin ailments, a cold compress for mild burns and scalds too.

Save some of the dried flowers to make a cold compress if you need it. Or sprinkle some of them in a flower bed ....and grow your own Chamomile....

What other herb teas you like apart from the Ooolong, Darjeeling and the Green tea you are so obsessed with? I personally do not consider our Chai as tea. Do you agree with me ?

Radish pods, Mungrey, Singrey or Dingri whatever you call it...bring it to your table anyways...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:07:00 +0000

So this is a Salad or a Raita depending on the way you treat it. The way you top it with a thick Greek yogurt or hung curd or a runny yogurt. It is great with some mustard sauce too if you like the piquancy.

Just about a cup of chopped radish pods, 2 tbsp of chopped red onions and some toasted sunflower seeds and some more nuts...chopped walnuts...as much as you like.

It is an indulgence for me and has replaced a lunch many times this winter. All in the name of good taste, good fats from the nuts and some raw green crunch.

A sprinkling of salt n freshly milled pepper, a dash of hot red chilly powder...use paprika if you can't handle the heat on your palate...

Give it all a gentle stir and start chomping it.

I just can't control myself when I toss it up. I so love winters for all this bounty. Of course there are fried foods on our table many a times, and there are some peanut chikki going to dangerous levels sometimes. A generous bowl of such a salad for lunch makes me free to snack on some hot kachori some other times. Or may be a ghee laden Bajre ka maleeda for breakfast leads to a salad like this for lunch .....and it happens a lot in winters. My own ways to work towards moderation....

How do you detox?

Radish fruits, Mungrey or Singrey and a nice quick stir fry with them...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:37:00 +0000

There are a few winter special green vegetables which can be seen only for these 2-3 months, Radish fruits(technically called siliqua) are one such variety. There are a few varieties available, one is abut 10 inches long and green , another the same length but a beautiful purple red colored. This purple red colored one is called Rat tailed radish too.

Rat tailed radish is an awful name I think. But this is one vegetables the mooli haters can turn to owing to it's crisp texture, just the right piquancy and subdued smell, not to forget the detox qualities and some great nutritional assets. Know more about this wonderful green here ...

The global community of Kitchen gardeners have posted an interesting account of this vegetable named offensively as Rat tailed radish , a beautiful picture and some nice recipes in the end of the post are worth trying.
A food history blog writes how this heirloom vegetable was pickled in Europe and some aristocrats valued is so much that there were special silver pots with beautiful carving of this plant over the lid to serve pickle made from these pods.

My recipe for this post is more like a salad or a crunchy stir fry served as a part of a detox meal.

I found a smaller variety one day which is tastier, fresh and rich green about 3-4 inches in length. This particular variety is very tasty when used raw in salads and does not need to be cooked till mushy, a half cooked crunchy texture works best with it. I make a stir fry with this vegetable using boiled potatoes too and was trying to find a few pictures I have from last year or the year before that.

This time I wanted to enhance the texture of Singrey with coconut to make a quick stir fry as I like it just half cooked as I said. The stir fry was so good I ended up cooking it some 5 times this winter. I buy about a kilo of this vegetable for the two of us and keep making either a salad, raita , or this stir fry many times. For this stir fry you can use the slightly stale radish pods too as they have to be cooked a bit. Having said that, these pods keep well in the fridge cling wrapped for about 2 weeks. For raw salads they need to be absolutely fresh looking.

Not just a quick recipe, it requires minimal ingredients too. If you have some frozen bits of coconut in your freezer, you can rustle up the recipe in just five minutes. Minus the chopping time that is. Chopping takes about 5 more minutes.

Ingredients...

chopped radish pods 1.5 cups
chopped onions 1/4 cup
chopped ginger 1 tbsp or a bit more
chopped green chillies 2 tsp or to taste
bits of coconut 3 tbsp or to taste
salt and lots of freshly milled pepper
mustard or sesame oil to cook 1 tsp

Chopping both the onions and radish pods in similar size is good as they cook almost together. I prefer about 1-1.4 cm bits. Irregularly chopped is fine.

The coconut bits, ginger and green chillies have to be pulsed without water in a grinder so they become shredded or coarsely ground. There should not be any coconut milk extracted nor it should make a paste.You can add some black pepper corns into this grinder if you don't want to mill them freshly.

Cooking procedure...

Once the chopping and grinding is done , cooking is a breeze for this and should be reserved for the last moment if you want it warm and fresh, the way I like it. Although this recipe reheats well too.

Heat the oil in a pan, add the chopped vegetables at once with salt and stir fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the ground/shredded coconut-ginger mixture over it and mix well while cooking it for another couple of minutes. The onions turn just translucent and the radish pods become shiny and half cooked. Just the time to take it off heat and serve immediately.

Such quick tasty recipes get repeated easily till you get the vegetable in he season. Don't miss the chance of getting it fresh. A raita made with this vegetables is coming next so stay tuned.

A rich brown cake with spicy flavors .... and some alternate flours...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:57:00 +0000

Gluten free , low fat and low sugar. That too a natural brown sugar.

Does that sound like a dampener in cake spirits? In fact with all the healthy ingredients the cake still tastes rich. Ragi millet flour is used instead of cake flour and the fruits are replaced by grated carrots and grated sweet potatoes. At a time when heavily decorated fruit cakes are raining left, right and center, in the blog world and in the markets all around, this cake might look like a tad boring but you would know when you have taken a bite. You would keep on munching on this cake and yet not worry about the muffin top your waist is going to get during the festive season.

A filling breakfast daily with these slices and milk will keep you away from hunger pangs in the mid morning and the rich taste would make it sure you don't grab the next muffin or piece of fruit cake you see around. A lot of cakes and muffins are doing the rounds in offices and homes alike. Don't be cake deprived if you are gluten intolerant or just wanting to have some healthy options.

Ragi millet or Finger millet is a tough grain and the flour is quite grainy too. It gets quite dry after cooking and results in a brittle and crumbly texture if you do not take care to moisten it in some or the other way..

I used a lot of grated carrots and sweet potatoes to make it moist and to bring down the amount of sugar being used. It resulted into a nice rich texture and the sweetness is very very delicate, almost like laced with molasses and spices, just right for the season. My mom and grandmother used to make Ragi laddoo with almost the same ingredients and I turned them into a cake so everybody like to eat them...as kids those Ragi laddoos were forced on us. The cake would make a much favored daily fix of calcium, iron and omega 3s...

I took all the measurements and weights for my blog readers so the recipe would not sound tough to handle. Otherwise I bake with approximate measurements using any of the spoons and cups around. Usually i make a loaf of this cake, this time I baked it in a tray so the browned crust is more for each piece, the crust is tastier so i planned to get more crust per piece...the recipe makes 42 squares of cake,35-40 gm each.

ingredients....
Ragi flour (can be substituted with flours of other millets too) 2 Cup or 280 gm
brown natural sugar(shakkar or boora or grated jaggery) 1 cup or 130 gm
grated carrots (I used red winter carrots) 2 cups packed or 160 gm
grated sweet potatoes (I used Indian white flesh variety) 2 cups packed or 190 gm
walnuts 1 cup or 120 gm or you can use more (chopped in small bits)
fine grated ginger 2 tbsp
baking powder 1.5 tsp
baking soda 1 tsp
dry ginger powder 2 tsp
cinnamon powder 1 tsp
clove powder 1/2 tsp
nutmeg grated 1/2 tsp
red chilly powder 1/2 tsp (optional)
grated orange zest 2 tbsp
ghee (clarified butter) 3/4 cup
yogurt 100 gm (I used a packet of Amul masti dahi)
eggs 5

procedure...
Mix the ragi flour, baking powder, baking soda, walnuts, dry ginger powder and other spice powders in a dry bowl.

In another large bowl mix the eggs, yogurt, melted ghee, and brown sugar. Whisk together till well blended. There is no need to make it all fluffy and airy. The cake results quite spongy without any hard work here.

Now add the dry mixed ingredients in to the egg-yogurt mix and fold in nicely. It's a gooey mixture of very very dark color. Night time pictures make the situation worse :-)

Now is the time to fold in the grated carrots and sweet potatoes, take care to fluff this up while adding to the batter to prevent them sticking in lumps together.

The mixture turns heavier to fold and the consistency remains like a muffin batter. Add some more yogurt or milk if you feel the batter is dry.

Pour on a greased baking tray , spread evenly with the help of a spatula as the batter is quite thick.

Bake in preheated oven for an hour at 190 C . Do the skewer test before taking the cake out . Cool the cake inside the baking tray and then cut pieces of desirable size. This cake keeps well in the fridge and can be served warm or straight out of the fridge. I like it warm with a huge mug of hot milk.

I cut a strip of this cake right in the midnight when it was ready and this is the picture of the warm temptation.

Eating the cake straight out of the baking pan when the aroma of the baked cake is still in the air is a treat actually. Something really greedy and wicked. The warmth of spices alive and kicking in the air. Late night snacking is never more tempting than this. I usually bake my cakes and breads in the night as that is the time when there are no phone calls, no visitors and no disturbances.

There is something very crucial with cakes baked using Ragi flour. As i said, the flour results in a very dry texture when baked or cooked and there is a grainy bite to it that many people find repulsive.

Even i used to hate those Ragi ladoos in my childhood just because of this reason.

Adding the sweet potatoes along with carrots solves this problem in a way that it's almost unbelievable. The two ingredients are not visible in the baked cake and become melded with the hearty flour in such a manner that the very character of the flour is modified. The texture is provided just by the walnuts , a pleasant nutty taste and you can add more walnuts or other nuts if you like.

The use of ghee is also a personal choice and you can always use butter, just take care to increase the amount by a tablespoon , or may be more if you wish. it will definitely make the cake more moist. I prefer the sweet potato and yogurt trick to make this Ragi cake moist and soft.

The cake is quite hearty if you are having it for breakfast. Two to three of those slices and a hot mugful of milk is enough to keep you full till lunch. I usually eat a fruit in the mid morning and just 2 small pieces are good enough for me. Just warmed in the microwave, both the cake and the milk and the breakfast is an easy task to accomplish. Festival season or otherwise.

You can use other millet flours and the cake turns out great every time. I have used whole wheat and Jowar (Sorghum) flour and a mixture of flours that i often use for my chapatis. Just take care to add the required amount of grated carrots and sweet potatoes for softer cakes every time. This cake is mildly sweet as the natural brown sugar i used has lesser sweetness, you can add a little more sugar if you wish.

Bake muffins with the same batter if you are feeling fancy or a loaf if a loaf pan is handy. It will be the same yummy hearty cake every time. Satisfying to the hilt.

What flour are you using for this cake ??

aloo saag ...spinach and new potatoes cooked to a mushy scramble...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:58:00 +0000

This is a winter curry as the new potatoes and the best of the spinach is available during this time. This new potatoes and spinach stir fry can be made in many versions, you choose depending on what spice mood you are in and of course how much time on hand you have. Each one tastes really good considering most people like potatoes and spinach too, there are some people who like spinach only with potatoes.

This one is for all tastes. A mushy scramble like dish where the potatoes are cooked in such a way that they acquire the green color of the spinach. Slow cooked together and then thrashed lightly so the cooked potatoes get mixed with the spinach. Spicing is minimal so the spinach flavors shine through. Just the ginger-garlic-green chilly trio in whatever ratio you like them and want them with this combination. There is one more subtle addition to this aloo saag and that is dill greens. This herbs combines very well with spinach and fenugreek too, separately though. So your aloo paalak or aloo methi can include some dill greens too to make them a little more fragrant , the taste gets enhanced too.

ingredients...
(3-4 servings as a side dish)
one large new potato (150 gm) peeled and cubed
chopped spinach with stem and all 4 cups packed (400 gm)
chopped dill leaves 1/2 cup (50 gm)
minced or finely chopped ginger 1 tbsp or a bit more
minced or finely chopped garlic 1 tbsp
cumin seeds 1 tsp
mustard oil 1 tbsp
salt to taste

procedure...

Heat oil in a iron or cast iron pan/kadai and tip in the cumin seeds and wait till they crackle.

Add the garlic and then ginger and let them brown lightly before adding the cubed potatoes. Stir and cook the potatoes adding salt to taste . Add the chopped spinach just when the potatoes start getting shiny , about 1/4th done. Mix well and cover the pan and cook on low flame , stirring occasionally. This way the potatoes slowly absorb all the flavors and color from the spinach and garlic also gets nicely infused with everything.

After about 8-10 minutes of slow cooking, the spinach will get dried up and potatoes completely cooked and soft. Now add the chopped dill greens and mix well.Let it cook covered for another couple of minutes.

Lastly, thrash the potatoes a little so it gets mushy. You may leave them as it is if you do not like mushed up stir fries , but this aloo saag ill be a different experience when mushed up.

I love the tiny bits of ginger in it too. The garlic flavors taste really well with such mushy spinach. Dill greens need just 2-3 minutes of cooking to prevent the aromatic oils from evaporating completely, hence it is added in the final stage of cooking and makes the aloo saag very aromatic.

The first picture is the same recipe without dill leaves and the second picture with dill leaves. I got to know some people do not like dill much but I add a lot of dill leaves whenever I get them. It tastes great in combination with spinach and fenugreek greens...

I have posted a dill and dried fenugreek greens pilaf with broken wheat earlier and that is a superbly aromatic recipe.

This sesame and fenugreek greens fried rice tasted great with addition of dill greens ...

This fenugreek and dill greens curried rice with sweet corn kernels has become a favorite in many homes now...I personally like it with green peas too..

A dill and spinach pulao with some vegetables we call hari tahiri is another winter favorite.

This season i have planted a lot of dill in my garden and i am waiting to harvest them for my salads, soups and curries...and i have planted two varieties of spinach too...

Do you detest any of the known herbs ?

I have never come across a herb i do not like.... It just takes to pair them well with other ingredients so they agree with your kind of constitution...this is what i believe.

Another meal under 30 minutes...mixed sprouts and fenugreek tahiri/biryani and a vegetable raita...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:42:00 +0000

Sprouts are a good source of proteins , Vitamin C , Folate and fiber . We generally like our sprouts in salads . Mixed salads or just salt n pepper . Always raw .

Sprouts are best consumed raw and making them and keeping them for a few days is a task in summers because they get smelly due to bacterial contamination.Someone inquired me regarding this who is experiencing the same kind of problem in the coastal area even in winters. I fished out this recipe from my drafts for S who finds eating sprouts difficult as sprouting and keeping the sprouts contamination free is difficult for her.

Hot and humid weather can always cause the sprouts to get contaminated. The best way to sprout any lentil is to soak them first overnight, drain well and keep them in a porous bowl till the sprouting begins . Wash them once under running water and then keep them refrigerated . It stays well for about a 2 weeks if washed again under running water after 4-5 days.

What when the sprouts are not consumed on time ... I had such leftover mixed sprouts once and decided to make a nice biryani with it . After cooking the sprouts will be free from live bacteria (or fungal spores or mycelia) . These were mung , red lentil , horsegram and chickpea sprouts and the biryani turned out to be a great recipe to look forward to again and again . Now i do not measure when i soak the lentils for sprouting as i know i will be making them into a nice one pot meal at the end of it all...

When i posted the sesame and fenugreek rice , someone said fresh fenugreek will not be available in the season , this recipe requires dry kasoori methi leaves , so we can have this version of fenugreek flavored rice in the summers.

ingredients...

mixed sprouts 2 cups
raw basmati rice 1/2 cup
cubed potatoes 2/3 cup
diced onions 2/3 cup
dry fenugreek leaves(kasoori methi) 1/2 cup
OR fresh fenugreek leaves 3 cups packed
bay leaves 2 nos.
dry red chillies 2-3 nos.
cumin seeds 2 tsp
crushed peppercorns 2 tsp
garam masala 1/2 tsp or as desired
(i used my special garam masala)
finely chopped ginger 1 tbsp
salt to taste
lime juice 1 tbsp
ghee 1 tbsp

procedure...

Cook the rice separately in a pan or in the microwave till it is 90% done . In the mean time cook the potatoes and sprouts together so that everything can be mixed at the right time. The whole process takes under 20 minutes and you can chop the onion and tomatoes for the raita in the last step of cooking the rice covered for 5 minutes.

Heat ghee in a deep pan and throw in the cumin seeds, bay leave, dry red chillies and crushed peppercorns in that order....immediately add the cubed potatoes and diced onions, fry till a little pinkish.

Add the dry fenugreek leaves (crushed) and chopped ginger , mix well to coat the potato cubes . Add the garam masala and salt and cover to cook at low flame.

Add the mixed sprouts and toss and stir so that everything is mixed up nicely...we do not want to cook the sprouts too much.

Add the cooked rice and mix lightly . Sprinkle lime juice over it , cover and cook on low heat for about 5 minutes.

Prepare the raita in the meantime...

Serve hot with any vegetable based raita...

This was a chopped tomatoes , diced onions and green chillies raita , seasoned with roasted cumin powder, black pepper powder and salt......

I need loads of raita with such rice dishes ...this one is some chopped onions, tomatoes and green chillies to give it an extra kick.

This biryani is another recipe to make white rice more nutritious . Whenever i make such a tahiri or biryani , it is always with white rice . One reason is , that the white rice absorbs flavors more and this is one super flavorful rice biryani...a vegetarian biryani made with sprouts...

Another reason for using white rice in such recipes is that the rice is getting all the nutritive additives anyways . Whatever the rice lost during polishing and refining , is added back to it and some more .

Why not enjoy the white rice with all the flavors and health....occasionally when you absolutely detest brown rice. It happens sometimes. Make the white better for those times.

30 minute meals....a red lentil and mushroom soup, a cabbage stir fry and chapatis...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:06:00 +0000

Making everyday meals tasty and interesting and still spending less time with the stove is a challenge for many of us. Especially when we want healthy meals. So when Rekha Kakkar was discussing ways to make the meals quicker i wanted to self check if i can go scurry the fridge for a 30 minute meal for the two of us. I did and made a simple unpretentious meal within 30 minutes including few minutes spent of photography....the food was good , tasty and satisfying , the photography was hurried and just about demonstrative enough to convey the idea of quick healthy meals.

The soup is a more yellow less brown in reality and the cabbage stir fry is a nice green and yellow color, wanted to let you all know these are not some spicy looking dark brown things in those bowls :-) thanks to hurried photography...

I chose two vegetables which need no peeling to save time but mushrooms need thorough washing and cabbage needs a skillful chopping if you wish to save time on this front. Peeling the onion-garlic and ginger i did during cooking as well as kneading the chapati dough, and that gives an idea how you can coordinate your cooking and peeling/chopping on the side. I will include the steps so it is more clear how you proceed with the steps to save time.

Before moving on to this 30 minute frugal yet healthy and tasty meal, i would like to discuss some pointers towards quicker way of daily cooking.

Keeping some spice and herb powders ready to use , home made spice powders are always better to get great taste with convenience.

A good set of knives, scissors and chopping board so the chopping is smooth and quick, otherwise a machine which does it like a charm for you and doesn't take much time to clean.

An uncluttered kitchen platform and a clear idea what you want to cook.

Smart shopping of vegetables so you can plan the extra peeling only when you have time, otherwise brinjals, mushrooms, cauliflowers, cabbage and turnips do not need peeling or stringing and save time. Including all types of vegetables is great and buy the cumbersome ones only when you have some extra time, keep those vegetables frozen once prepared . Frozen spinach and other greens make life easier.

Using microwave and pressure cooker saves a lot of time.

Most of the times we take more time to decide what to cook and then waste time in doing one dish at a time and do not use the stove cooking time of one dish for doing preparation for the side dish etc. Simple every day food can be made two-three dishes at a time , it's only complicated and elaborate dishes which demand undivided attention.

Let's see how i do my everyday cooking ...

Place the red lentils to cook in a pressure cooker first and then proceed to chop the vegetables.Cutting the head of cabbage in two and then chopping one half on the board takes 2-3 minutes.

Heat the pan with oil and put in the chopped ginger and scissor cut red chilly bits, done till the pan gets hot, wait till fragrant and then tip in the chopped cabbage. Sprinkle salt and turmeric powder and keep stirring once in a while till you chop the mushrooms and onions.

Keeping the flame on medium high, stir the cabbage subzi a few times and chop the mushrrooms , peel the onion and garlic n chop them too.

Red lentil takes about 8-10 minutes total to cook. By this time the cabbage would be done, the lentils cooked and now you can empty the pan of cabbage and proceed to cook the mushrooms in the same.

Heat some ghee , add asafoetida, cumin and chopped garlic , let it brown and then add sliced onions. Add mushrooms when the onions are pinkish brown.

Fry the mushroom mix till it wilts,Takes total 5 minutes. Add red chilly powder and then pour in the cooked lentil to it and let it boil. Meanwhile knead the dough for chapatis.

Slice the radish for salad and proceed to make the chapatis after you have emptied everything in serving bowls. Chapati making takes one chapati per minute by a practiced hand. I cook 5 for lunch, so 5 minutes plus one minute to heat the tawa/griddle.

Freshly cooked hot meals are easier to execute than many of us think. And everyday food can be tasty too.

The ingredients...
red lentil soup with mushrooms..
red lentil 2 tbsp
mushrooms 100 gm
one small onion sliced
3-4 garlic cloves chopped
red chilly powder 1 tsp or to taste
asafoetida one pinch
cumin seeds 1 tsp
ghee or butter 2 tsp
salt to taste

cabbage stir fry ...
dry whole red chillies scissor cut
an inch of ginger chopped
half a head of cabbage
turmeric powder 1 tsp
salt to taste
mustard oil 2 tsp

Believe me, the typing and uploading pictures of this post took way more time than cooking his meal. Our everyday meals are simple and frugal like this but we do not compromise on taste and nutrition.

Local, seasonal vegetables, whole grains and freshly prepared meals are our way of eating. Cooking a non fussy meal and serving it simply for the two of us is what i enjoy everyday. We all need to enjoy the cooking process as well, so bring in the optimum convenience for yourself and watch yourself enjoying the process. I keep working on my skills to chop the vegetables one way or the other to make it quicker and better, to freeze some of them to make my work easier on busier days, to prepare some bhuna masala or a tomato concasse to make a curry or a pizza smarter and keep loving my food in general.

What about you?

a special milk shake with dates...Irani Datteri dates...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:09:00 +0000

We get to see and sample many food products from different places at the India International Trade Fair and we make the most of it. A local foodist otherwise, I go and inquire almost every pavilion that sells food in that huge place. This Datteri dates was discovered at Iran pavilion, the salesman offered a date to taste and i was hooked. It is the season of harvest he informed and that is why we were getting these fresh luscious dates at the fair. Fresh they really were, almost like a jelly inside and sweetness that only a date can provide. The pictures are no good as my camera doesn't seem to be clicking any dark objects nicely. These dates were dark, soft and with a tout skin.

The salesman at the counter told me a recipe to good health seeing my excitement, 2 dates soaked overnight in a glass of boiled milk and blended in the morning to make a shake. We make a dates milk with dried dates , boiling the milk with dried dates for a while and then having it like a desert but I tried this recipe anyways.

Four dates seeded and soaked in 400 ml of boiling hot milk, cooled down and kept in the fridge overnight. I soaked in the same pitcher used to boil the milk in microwave. Blended in the morning using a stick blender in the same pitcher and the milk shake is ready. A really unique taste as i had never tasted this fresh dates in my life. No sugar is required as the shake is mildly sweet bursting with flavors of the dark dates.

The skin of the dates settles down in the pitcher , and feels like parchment when sipped. You can discard the sedimented skin bits , i don't mind chewing on them in the last. Good fiber with some antioxidant packed pigments for sure.

Some cooked oats in this milk will make a nice smoothie for breakfast. I would love some almonds soaked into it if it becomes a lone breakfast in a glass. I seldom like breakfast smoothies but as a day time snack they are most welcome.

How do you like your dates? Or smoothies for that matter....please do not tell me about the green monsters ....I would rather make a thick creamy soup for breakfast.

guava salad ... chaat style..

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:24:00 +0000

As simple as it can get. Chop the guava in cubes , small cubes work best and sprinkle with some powders and you salad is ready. A chaat style salad we love during guava season...it's an almost daily salad for the whole guava season in my home. The reason being simple, guava is one fruit which packs a whole lot of nourishment for you and is cheap when in season.

This chaat salad is great with slightly softened guava, the ones which get ripened in the fruit basket till you finish the best crisp ones. After one or two days some guavas loose the crisp bite and turn a bit soft. That is the time to chop them up for a chaat salad.

The same recipe is great for the very ripe and soft yellow skinned guavas which starts filling your home with a distinct guava aroma. That is the time when no one wants to have them as a whole fruit. Just stake care to chop the very ripe ones into very fine bits and then mix with the seasonings. I has started making this salad to use up all the leftover ripened guavas in season but now i do it with half ripe ones too, just the chopping gets different....and it tastes a lot different.

The seasoning is .... a tsp of sugar per cup of chopped guava, a bit more or less depending on how sweet or tangy the guava is. Some black rock salt, some freshly milled black pepper and a hint of hot red chilly powder. Just these four ingredients bring about a magical make over of the guavas.

This is the salad we eat when we want to eat a lot of guavas , this is something you don't stop when you start eating ....I make it in a really large bowl and we start eating from the same. A really large serving of this salad is great for a late weekend lunch or a small serving for the after lunch fruity treat any day.

Many guava vendors in the north Indian cities make deep slits in the fruit crosswise and fill black rock salt or a tasty mix of chaat masala in the slits before handing them to you. The best way to enjoy a crisp green sweet n sour guava. But whenever the guavas are a little soft and sweeter, you can always turn them to such salads or this kind of a desi fruit chaat...

How do you like your guava?

wild Indian figs...goolar, anjeer or dumur...I am so happy that so many people could recognize it !!!

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:10:00 +0000

There are some fruits and vegetables long forgotten by urban junta. You don't see them anymore in the markets although you spot some old trees here and there. No one bothers to pluck the fruits because there is no interest. There is a lot of public interest in the jamun and mango trees of our colony but I keep an eye on the single goolar tree near the park. The tiny fruits grow along the stem but there is no way i can pluck them myself. And i never get them. End of story. No cooking with gooler.

Sounds unusual? It actually is. Many people have not heard about this fruit being used for cooking but those who have tasted it would buy it immediately when they see it in the market.

I was in my hometown Varanasi 2 months ago and my dad bought some goolar from an old quaint subzi mandi (vegetables n fruits market). He is very fond of such desi things and somehow this interest for all things desi has ingrained in me too. I took pictures of the fruit and the curry my mom made so i can share it here with you all. We make a mashed goolar too with this fruit and a spicy kabab ...i so wish i could get some gooler to make some crumbly gooler ke kabab this winter.

I would talk about the spicy curry till then :-)

These fruits are tiny and a pain to clean and chop. Many of the varieties have small insects inside. Remember i told in the last post that it is an inflorescence (a false fruit called syconium) so the insects go inside to help pollination. The smaller variety has a tightly packed inflorescence inside and there are no insects to be seen(microscopic one are supposed to be edible ;-))

So the fruit has to be halved or quartered and the seeds and insects cleaned. I did it all by myself as i was seeing gooler after so long. Once the cleaning is done the pieces are parboiled. Just dunked in boiling water for 5 minutes on stove and then drained. Now it is ready to made a curry.

The curry is a normal north Indian masala gravy, although i guess a south Indian version with curry patta and lots of coconut would do wonders with it.

This version is the one made in my family and the taste has remained the same for at least two generations. That is to declare that i did not get many chances of experimenting with gooler much. Whenever i got , i made the kababs and the chokha(a mash made with boiled vegetables with ginger garlic and a mustrad oil drizzle)..

ingredients....
cleaned gooler(wild Indian figs) 500 gm
diced onions 1 cup
ginger garlic paste 1 tbsp
whole cumin seeds 2 tsp
coriander power 1 tbsp
cumin powder 1 tbsp
black pepper powder 1 tbsp
red chilly powder 2 tsp or more
turmeric powder 2 tsp
one green and black cardamom each, 5cloves and an inch long cinnamon pounded together freshly
mustard oil 1/4 cup
Curds 1/2 cup
salt to taste

procedure...

heat the oil in a kadai (pan) and tip in the cumin and wait till they splutter. Add the onion and fry till golden brown. Add salt to hasten the browning.

Add the ginger garlic paste and fry till the oil separates.

Make a paste using the curds with the powders of coriander,cumin,black pepper,turmeric and red chilly, add a little water if required. Add this paste to the fried mixture and cook while stirring it..till oil separates again.

Add the freshly pounded spices , mix well and now tip in the boiled and drained wild figs into the cooking mixture. Mix well , add about a cup of water and cook on very low flame for about 20-25 minutes. Check after 10 minutes and add a little more water if required.

The finished curry is a thick gravy of a coating consistency. The masala is well seeped into the gooler because of slow cooking. The taste of this curry cannot be compared to anything but it is definitely a meaty curry. Sometimes compared to smaller varieties of jackfruit but for me it is very different from that too.

Many of my dear readers have recognized it correctly and i guess many of you have tasted it too. So you would agree with the uniqueness of it's taste.

Now tell me if you want to cook with this vegetable/fruit. I know your answer is yes if you have tasted it before. Why not start demanding our local subziwala (vegetable vendors) for such forgotten desi things so they think of sourcing these...or may be they pluck it from the wild growing trees and bring them to the markets. Long time back my maid used to be embarrassed to admit that they eat these wild growing fruits...thinking this is the sign of poverty. I assured her it is actually a delicacy and we should be proud of such bounties of nature.

December 10 is being celebrated as Terra Madre day as i got to know after reading it at A Perfect Bite . For me every day is such as i enjoy my real , unprocessed and unspoiled food every single day. I would like to link this desi ingredient to the wonderful article written by Rushina, celebrating local, whole unprocessed food.

Every day. Be it gooler, millets, local greens or local seeds like cannabis seeds flax seeds or black or white sesame. Using them for better sustainable health for myself and sustainable agriculture for the farmers and small scale marketers.

What do you think?

Is that a berry??

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:41:00 +0000

Or an inflorescence??

Looks like a berry but encloses a whole lot of flowers inside.

What is it?

The size ranges from .75 cm to 1.5 cm ....

Now you have to guess what fruit , vegetable of flower/inflorescence it is. I gave you a lot of hints and many of you might have seen it i am sure.

Another variety if it you might have had in desserts or ice creams , or may be your smoothies.

Want any more hints?

A recipe coming next :-)

It's a radish...

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:57:00 +0000

Mooli in hindi and Daikon in Japanese , the pictures in the last post are actually not of a fruit and Bikramjit was pretty close with answers like turnip or shalgam. Radishes are not some boring white vegetables as i had seen them growing up. The cherry belle, the red rounded one appeared much later in the scene, and were much loved for the flash of color they provide to the salads. Cherry belle is easier to grow in the garden too and i have had them in the past years. But this one was a teaser for me when i saw it at the IARI sales counter where we get our organic vegetables and fruits sometimes. The round radishes are common but a green upper part was unusual so i bought it immediately thinking it would be easier to grate for mooli parathas...i never imagined i am to be surprised in a spectacular way.

This picture shows the Cherry belles and the Red flesh tricolors.

Cutting the first slice of this Red flesh tricolor was a teaser , my smile widened as i went on to cut more slices and then i had to look for it on the internet...got to know about Mantanghong radish which is even more brightly colored. This one is 'Red flesh' mild tricolor radish, check out this place for more varieties of radishes, there is one with purple black skin and white flesh called 'Hilds blauer herbst' and a black skin and white flesh called 'Black Spanish round' . Amazing.

Apart from this i have seen some giant radishes too, can you imagine a radish 3-4 Ft long and about about 10 inches in diameter? Here are some more radishes you can grow in your garden if you like.

Nutrition wise we all know radishes are tonic food for liver disorders and they have a lot of vitamin C . A trace mineral molybdenum is found in radish globes and they are a good source of potassium and folic acid too.Daikons have some copper and all radishes are rich in calcium too , the leaves have much more calcium than the roots though. Easily absorbed by the human gut as it has vitamin C to facilitate this. Like all crucifers, radishes also have cancer fighting properties. The sulfer based constituents help increase the flow of bile in the body, helping to maintain a healthy gall bladder, liver and digestive functions. Radishes are great food for constipation. One thing to take care is that the radish greens have more nutrition (about 6 times the calcium, protien, Vit C etc.) than the roots and fresh roots and leaves have more available Vit C than the cooked roots or leaves.

And now the recipe i made using the gorgeous Red flesh tricolors....

This is a spread or dip made with hung curd and radish. I had it over a home baked whole wheat bread with lots of flax seed powder in it. It was a yummy meal for me over warm slices of bread.

Whip 3/4 cup of thick fresh yogurt , fine chop or grate one tennis ball sized 'red flesh tricolor' radish , or any other variety of radish for that matter, and chop some walnuts . That is all you have to do for this creamy tangy nutty bread spread or dip . Season with salt and pepper , i added a pinch of red chilly powder too.

What lovely colors ... this variety of radish is sweeter than the more peppery varieties. So if you are using some other variety of radish, use it accordingly. The red Cherry belles are perfect for this spread too. You can grate the radish if you like finer texture and increase the amount of yogurt if the radish is more peppery.
Chopping the walnuts in small sizes would ensure it's even distribution in the spread and would give you a nutty bite in every morsel. I loved my lunch today...yes i made it today and am uploading the pictures in record time..... just too much for a lazy bug :)

A creamy consistency of this spread with chunks of radish was just perfect. I used yogurt hung for only half an hour. You can use Greek yogurt if that is available in your part of the world or use home made hung curd or just a thick curd out of a tub. I have read a lot of good things about labneh too and this spread should be great with that i guess...

I like my bread warm and not toasted. You can have a toasted bread for this moist spread and consume it immediately. It is a great dip for crackers and corn chips.You would know how you would like it once you taste it . One thing is sure you would like it if you like radish....for radish haters i have seen at least one who had polished off his bowl with a raita made with regular curds (the same recipe otherwise) a couple of years ago. Radish gets a makeover once it is mixed with yogurt and added with walnuts...i would not use any other nuts for his recipe. For other recipes i am not very particular about nuts ...any mixed nuts go for many of my cakes but not for this.

It has to be just the yogurt, radish and walnuts ...three ingredients in total and salt n pepper for seasoning.. red chilly powder if you like some heat.

Parting with a splash of color...and rich textures. Oh i can have it as it is...

Enjoy...

is that a cousin of kiwi?

noreply@blogger.com (sangeeta) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:58:00 +0000

I had never seen it before. And even when i bought it out of curiosity and because i love to munch on other varieties of it, i never thought the slices would be so spectacular.

I sliced this one whole thing and couldn't stop myself from clicking some pictures... Have you even seen something like this?

I love the riot of colors here...the green periphery and the white and pink interiors ....
Such a great designer nature is... amazes you every now and then...

Have you really seen something like this before?
Tell me as i want to know how dumb i have been not to have seen this before :)