Veg Bowl

Roasted Almond Biscotti

2013-05-19T16:13:00.001+05:30

Sometimes baking alone is solace. It’s so much fun because the kitchen is closed, daily chores wrapped up and the entire house is fast asleep enjoying their deep slumber. And then you creep tiny footsteps into your kitchen knowing you'll venture into your little space with absolutely no snooping. It’s all your time, your space and just the you that you know. I enjoy that little 'me' time I get when I am there, putting together flour, sugar and nuts amass into a sweet smelling dough that bakes into a heavenly bite, lifting my weary moods. So what if it means sacrificing a bit on sleep, in the end it’s all rewarding.

So when my past two weekends went chock-o-block with work at office taking priority, this is exactly what I did. With deadlines to meet, I carried home quite a lot of the load, lost track of time, almost to a sense I had no time to blog or surf the net, cater to personal time and space for family which I so much love to balance. These are times when mid night baking comes handy, even if that means baking simple cookies or a quick cake that helps me vent the fatigue off the mind with some physical activity like baking that I love doing. These almond biscotti were a result of one such midnight baking attempt.

In the past few days, despite the urge to bake, I’ve not really baked much. I realize I posted a recipe for an eggless chocolate cake hardly a fortnight ago, but yet seems like ages since I baked. So these almond biscotti were the perfect excuse. Inspired again by BBC GoodFood, these biscotti were tweaked to be eggless replacing the same with milk powder and milk. The resulting biscotti is delicious dunked in tea. If you know how Indian Rusk tastes like and are missing them, then these little treats can be your answer to them.

Roasted Almond Biscotti

INGREDIENTS

70 g whole almonds, toasted and chopped coarsely
1 tbsp. oil (optional)
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
Pinch of salt
130g all-purpose flour
75g granulated white sugar
35 g milk powder
35 ml milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. In a small bowl lightly beat the oil, milk and vanilla extract together and set aside. In another bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, milk powder and salt. Gradually add the milk vanilla mixture and beat until a dough begins to come together. Add in the almonds and knead the dough gently. Lightly flour the surface and roll the dough into a log 15 cm long and 5 - 6 cm wide. Transfer to a baking tray and bake for 30 mins. Remove from oven and cool for 10 mins. Cut into slices 1-1.5 cm thick diagonally and arrange evenly on baking tray. Bake on each side for 10 mins or until they are golden. Remove from oven and cool.

Notes:

* Using oil is optional, but recommended since this recipe is eggless.
* Baking soda helps the dough in rising and makes up for the lack of egg.

Lasooni Dal with Paanch Phoran

2013-05-12T16:58:00.000+05:30

Somewhere in the beginning of this year I made a silent resolution to post more savories than desserts as my collection of desserts in my content repertoire had shamefully grown than any other category. Time and again I kept reminding myself about readers being aghast about the paramount number of desserts I had on my blog, as if I had convinced them to believe that this is all we had daily. I had many mailing for basic recipes, as basic as making butter and ghee at home, more savouries for breakfast and tea time snacks, etc., while I had desserts brimming to my blog, something which was unintentional, but in course just unpremeditated.

One of my colleague recently insisted I post recipe on basics of homemade curd, ghee and paneer when it came as a surprise to her on learning that we could make them all at home. From the time I can remember, I grew up seeing my mom skim off the cream from milk and freezing them for days to churn them into a good batch of butter or make ghee, ferment liters of milk overnight to make curd every single day without fail and weigh down blocks of paneer on those odd days when the milk separated temperamentally. I never considered them to be recipes in the first place, forget the thought of even considering worth posting, since it came to me quite inherently by instincts and not something I ever learnt to make. I mean, did someone give you lessons on how to boil milk? It was as synonymous to that.

I don’t think I can come to a phase soon where I can post such basics here. Instead I would love to bring some of my favorite dishes on this table, those much appreciated recipes that are hearty and simple, and are regular in my kitchen. One such being this Lasooni Dal aka Garlic Dal that’s been my long time favorite. I keep it simple because it reminds me of my collage days when I lived single in a rented accommodation and cooked basic meals with simple ingredients and modest flavors for my sustenance. I managed to pull it through quite easily. A simple garlic dal, a quick stir fry of veggies made an utmost delicious Sunday meal along with the humble rice.

An east Indian twist to the dal here is with the tadka or tempering of Bengali spices. Paanch phoran is a blend of five (paanch) spices that is a unique Bengali spice mix made by mixing equal quantities of mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, nigella seeds and fenugreek seeds and storing it in an air tight container. I generally keep a ready mix of these spices in a container for my use on demand. Its used to season many dishes and lends a lovely aroma to a dish when tempered. Do hope you love it too.

Lasooni Dal with Paanch Phoran

INGREDIENTS

1 cup masoor dal
1 tbsp. channa dal
1 tsp. turmeric powder
2 tomatoes, chopped

For Paanch Phoran tadka:

1 tsp. oil
5-6 garlic cloves, crushed using mortar pestle
1 tsp. paanch phoran (a tsp. each of mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, nigella seeds and fenugreek seeds)
1 tsp. asafoetida / hing
1 tsp. red chilli powder
2-3 whole red chillies

DIRECTIONS

Wash one cup of masoor dal along with the channa dal with couple of changes of water. Pressure cook the washed dal along with turmeric powder, chopped tomatoes and 2 ½ cups of water. Cook on 3-4 whistles till the dal is mushy and soft. Transfer the cooked dal to a wide mouthed utensil and add sufficient water to bring it to a soupy consistency. The consistency depends on how thick or thin you prefer. Keep it thick if you want to pair it with rotis and breads, and thinner if served with rice. Add salt to taste and bring the dal to a rolling boil. Turn off the flame and prepare the tempering.

To temper, heat a wok with a spoonful of oil. As the oil heats up, add the crushed garlic and fry for a couple of seconds. As they turn translucent and fragrant, add in the paanch phoran mix and allow it to splutter briefly. Quickly add in the whole red chillies and fry for seconds. Turn off the flame and add in the red chilli powder, followed by asafoetida to the tempering. Add this to prepare dal and cover. Serve hot with rice or rotis.

Notes:

* I’ve used masoor dal with channa dal here. Channa dal gives texture while masoor dal gives volume to this dish.
* You may use the same recipe with tuvar dal or moong dal instead.
* Skip the red chilli powder to reduce the heat.
* Asafoetida / hing aids in digestion and has a unique heady flavor, hence highly recommended.

Basic Eggless Chocolate Cake

2013-05-06T23:02:00.000+05:30

I wonder what would have come of me if those several inspirational blogs (not food alone) around the web didn’t exist. Things wouldn’t have been so stimulating. Ideas novel and fresh, drawing verves to my relentless motivation and fueling enthusiasm to my ever fretful blogger’s mind. There are many I hop on, read through, admire and pass over. Then there are some that etch me to a point that I desire going back to them time and again. That element of ingenuity, a sense of magnetism, their charismatic aura draws me to them and leaves me awestruck every time I’m there. I applaud them for several aspects that speak uniquely for themselves; some for their splendid writing, others for their stupendous photography, some for their beautiful styling, some for being able to connect with common perceptions, many others for their superb repertoire of stories, food, recipes and travel. If I had to jot down the list of these influential blogs, I would end up running them in pages and not justify the right due to many unexplored too. So I stay put to that for now.

Apart from regular cooking and baking, these blogs that have paved way to my influences in photography too. Indeed, my foray into food photography came through this blog. Ever since I have been living the life of a food blogger, being behind a camera has become quite instinctive. Though being a creative person myself, exploring the depths of photography came to me only with time. I always loved styling and even on a personal level, looking neat and stylish is something I enjoy. I admire folks who carry off themselves well. My perspective for food is not any different.

I am no pro with photography and have come to terms with the fact that I can’t digest photoshop with ease. I love that I am still a home cook, do blogging and photography as a hobby, yet, I would love to master the intricacies and techniques involved in a good photography. My personal woes have been my limitations with time, while setting up a table for styling has been yet another constraint, so doing all of that and waiting for the perfect lighting to shoot photographs becomes one of my greatest challenge.

Well, it’s no excuse I know, neither it helps lamenting. But then blog hopping gives me a whole lot of inspiration. I dance happy feet when I come across sites where the photographs are moody, lighting imperfect, but the food shots as decadent as ever. This Sunday morning I spent time doing just that. I gazed at them, gawked in contemplation, soaked in every bit of their moody darkness. It’s time I kicked off my comfort zone of shooting bright buoyant shots and hover over to some dull moody snaps till I get over them. So here they come, at least for an attempt.

Although there isn’t much fancy to flaunt about this chocolate loaf, since it’s essentially a basic eggless chocolate cake that was baked in a loaf tin to break the monotony of a Saturday noon’s tea break, I will certainly emphasize on the couple of hours I slogged (read enjoyed) to get some lovely moody shots of these slices. On the bright sunny afternoon, before lunch I set this cake in my oven to be baked for our tea time snack. An hour later, our home smelt like heaven of heady chocolaty aromas gracing my kitchen. My daughter’s sharp wits sensed the cake being baked and we fed her some warm bites as she wailed for more of them. Not surprising enough, one among the first words that my daughter learnt to say was a cake! Yes, witty I said! The husband and daughter snapped away with their share of slices for the zillion photographs that followed of the remaining few, mostly underexposed to deliberation. I had no forethought to post the recipe here, after all its just a basic eggless chocolate cake. The clicks though made me happy and I thought this made a good beginning.

Basic Eggless Chocolate Cake

INGREDIENTS

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 cup thick Curd/yogurt
1 cup vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup butter

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 200 deg C for 10 mins. Grease a butter paper and layer it in the loaf pan.

Sieve all-purpose flour along with cocoa powder twice and keep aside. Cream the vanilla sugar and curd until sugar completely dissolves. Add baking powder, baking soda to the creamed mixture and mix well. Leave aside for 5 mins and till bubbles appear on the mixture. Now add in softened butter and beat well. Next slowly add all-purpose flour in portions at a time and blend with wet ingredients. Beat well till creamy and thick.

Pour the batter to the loaf tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for 10 minutes at 200 degrees. Then reduce the temperature to 180 deg. C and bake it further for 30-35 mins. Check using a fork inserted into the center of the cake. It should come out clean. Allow the cake to cool down for 10 mins, then invert and remove the butter paper. Slice them and enjoy with a cup of milk, tea or coffee.

Baby Spinach, Apple & Walnut Salad with Raw Mango Dressing

2013-04-21T01:06:00.000+05:30

The western world has been calling that the spring has sprung in, oh though finally. But for us here in Bangalore, even calling the beckoning summer as summertime is nothing short of an understatement. With the mercury touching an all high of 38-40 degrees C by the day, and not getting any better by the nights, adding the woes of humidity in air, our sweat glands at their mechanical best, what feels like is an hour’s workout at gym even in our fan-sped, well ventilated, curtain drawn indoors. The whirling fans do no good, neither the chill of cold icy water and ice creams right out of the fridge. The much esteemed task of domestic grind has taken a swift backseat and I rather enjoy the lethargy of laying lazily like a couch potato, gazing endlessly at the spinning fan, as and when time and my toddler permit. Honestly, I’ve never known what Bangalore summers are like, because of all those glorious 14 years spent here, Bangalore never had a summer, or the real scorching Indian summers that I am talking about. But finally, they come.

Heck this summer, the rising temperatures and its woes that creeps in several uncanny thoughts in fists of laziness.

Pleasant as the weathers used to be, once upon a time, the drastic weather change, the tangential increase in vehicular pollution, the infiltrating population, depleting water tables, the perpetually increasing carbon footprint and the reducing green covers that we’ve always been famous for (well, some day that may remain just a history) have been a few direct promoters to the current state of weather affairs. I am cynical to the educated crowd in craze of the luring mall culture, the fast food takeaways amounting to corpus non degradable wastes, the lazy bums who need a car for singles and the little consideration they care for the exhausting fossil fuels, those loosers who fail to carry a bag along because they can do away with the plastic ones at dirt cheap price of few rupees, all at the cost of our environment. Equally pathetic have been our rainwater harvesting and waste management techniques, a rare to find garbage segregation, or may I say none at all. I am not against these odd commons, but urge being responsibly mindful.

My husband and me have been making constant attempts to create an awareness, more often being ridiculed to be annoying than anything. Like, we plunge into awkward situations when a guest visits us and looks around for a waste bin to discard rubbish. We persuade them to hand it over to us, so we can discard them appropriately. We don’t blurt out why, but will be more than glad if they handed it over to us for disposal. Then there are some smart chaps who insist they’ll throw, because they’ve been taught to be mannered. So we accompany them, fingering them to the right bin. Amused to a point we don’t get it, they often burst into fits of laughter on learning we do effective 'waste management'. Many can’t see why, because they assert that in the end all goes to a single landfill, which isn’t entirely true. It gets hard on us to explain, but we try. We’ve come to a point where we’ve stopped giving answers to many, because they deliberately argue. So we silently follow the practice between ourselves.

Then on another anecdote, we were on an overnight train along with big group of families travelling collectively, our co-passengers for this journey. The head of that group, a physics professor to a college picked up casual conversations with us as we exchanged smiles, little talks and shared food with him and his family. And like it usually happens with most Indian families on a train journey, exchange of home cooked food becomes the pot-boilers to fuel conversations and controversies, this journey wasn’t any different. What although was nastily upsetting was that all through the course of this journey, this learned gentleman, his wife and their grown up teens, callously flung stuffs off the train window; the food, peels, plastics and all that at regular intervals. In midst of our talks, deliberating them to refrain from doing so, and giving them a dose of science behind the whys in idioms that the professor’s nasty brain could understand, couple of more garbage flew out in seconds! At the heights of it, well at the end of our meal, we pulled out our home-brought reusable polythene covers to pump in the wastes and dispose off sensibly later. As we were about to shove them into our bags, this smart gentleman in his wrecked wits grabbed our wastes and flung them off the windows, leaving us painfully distressed! Between his naughty grins, the supposedly science professor told us bluntly that all we had spoken were noble to preach and not to follow in reality. So we were in loss of words.

Awareness is elementary. But then, that’s not where the issue is. Most of us know consciously the value of nature and the repercussions we may face if we continue to exploit the resources this way. My uneducated house help is equally aware that wasting water is sinful since she purchases tankers of them for her survival. I wonder if she’s cautious at her place to care for every little drop that she pays for. Yet, when at work, it seems easier to let the tap flowing while cleaning vessels, because it saves her time and energy, and it costs no penny. Likewise, despite our several attempts to convey waste segregation messages within our apartment association, we’ve been least successful in getting most of the cultured folks in our vicinity to even make a beginning.

I second the fact that the reckless rate at which we are speeding up technologically is alarming. I feel like a perpetrator myself on several occasions. The cell phone era that we can’t do without, every ring, every call I make alarms me of their signal posts towering sky high at couple of foot steps and their carcinogenic radiations that we have to live with. Those Bluetooth, wireless, infra-reds and microwaves have become an indispensable part of our lives that we’ll be severely hampered without. The humongous bore wells being dug every single day, the failing rains and battling water problems in city that have made the bare essentials a commodity of sale, a free right the nature gave us, but with a responsibility that we’ve failed severely at.

The truth is I feel so unprepared for the future I see for my daughter. I see myself swinging on odd ends of balances. Blame it on motherhood, aging or the PMS, but I’ve been thinking a lot for a long time, of the ugly carbon footprint, my daughter, her future and all of that. I am left with cold nerves and numb feet of what holds in couple of decades from now. And if our Hindu discourses said we are in the kali yuga, I can’t help but reflect how right they were in their predictions. They did foresee what devastation human intelligence and greed could do. It’s only a hope we came together collectively and did our bit. For the environment. To save the future. And to let the future generation live. For our children and for theirs to come. And for our own old age.

All said with heavy thoughts, I wouldn’t want to leave you without a recipe of this salad that's apt for this summer, a recipe that’s simple and least complicated as my contemplations are. I leave you with a hope that you’ll ponder. And be the one who’ll resort to a positive change that will prolong the deleterious impact, hopefully. Hope you have a great weekend!

Baby Spinach, Apple & Walnut Salad with Raw Mango Dressing

INGREDIENTS

A bunch of baby spinach (from our home garden)
1 cucumber, cut to thin slices
1 Apple sliced to thin wedges
Couple of walnuts

For the Raw Mango Dressing:

1/2 cup grated raw mango
1 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1 tsp. turmeric powder
1 tsp. red chilli powder
Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

Layer the cucumbers, followed by the apple slices and the baby spinach. Strew a couple of walnuts.

In a pan, heat the vegetable oil along with the mustard seeds. As the seeds begin to splutter, add the grated raw mango along with turmeric powder and sauté till it wilts and cooks through. This will take a couple of minutes. Add the red chilli powder and salt to taste. If you plan to store this dressing for a couple of days, then use more oil to cook mangoes. The oil needs to coat and cover them well. This simple mango chutney goes very well with rice and rotis.

Toss the salad with this prepared mango dressing or serve as a side along with this relish.

Mum’s Cheat Vegetable Huli

2013-04-15T12:01:00.000+05:30

In the small town where I grew up majorly, life was simple, time had a hold and things were slow. I had a blissful childhood in safe shelter of love, care and freedom. It was indeed the small town charm that made life simple and modest in a community replete of love and affection from all in the neighbourhood. Life there had an advantage and as kids, we majorly enjoyed the proximity of our school to home, which brought us the perks of walking down home during the lunch time. As the clock stuck 12:30 PM, the school bells would ring for lunch time that spanned over an hour, which meant we had ample time to walk home, relish hot, home cooked food, watch our favourite comedy series that we were hooked to (oh yes, we were hooked to Hum Paanch back them, to an extent that I could have given exams on it and topped them!) and get back to school on time for the noon classes.

Every afternoon as the school bell rang for lunch time, we would walk back home midst the humid summer heat, soaking sweat in the navy blue pinafores that we wore for our uniform. Plonking ourselves under the comfort of fans and beating the blazing heat with tall glasses of chilled water, mum in all ears would serve us steaming hot rice, topped with either tove, saaru or huli and dollops of ghee on some days or tamblis with stir fried vegetables on other days. Happalas (paapads) and salivating homemade uppinakais (pickles) were a ritualistic part of our menu and always stayed on the table. And then there were spicy sandiges for days when tamblis featured on her menu. Mum was a strict believer in healthy, nutritious food and she ensured that the food she cooked with love balanced in taste, health and nutrition very well.

Our meals always ended with fruits for desserts. She would coax us to eat lots of vegetables and fruits as she does even today. She had a reasoning for what was cooked and she believed in them firmly. Like when green are cooked, she would top them with freshly squeezed lime, because the vitamin C in lime aids in the digestion of iron in greens. Similarly, if a gravy was cooked with red chillies for the heat, the stir fry would then be cooked with green chillies, or vice versa to kill the monotony of flavours. Fresh vegetables and greens were a part of our daily diet, either in form of stir fries, or in huli, else in tamblis. And she loved organic food. Rustic vegetables like banana stems and flowers, drumsticks, raw jackfruits, gujje, basale soppu and doddapatre (brahmi) leaves that grow abundantly in wild during monsoons, produces that do not require intensive care, manure or added pesticides made up her favourites. On several other days, she broke the regime of traditional South Indian cooking with her delightful North Indian delicacies. On odd occasions, dessert during mid-week was in treat for us too. I was fortunate to have enjoyed the liberty of coming home to relish fresh home cooked meals for my lunches. It meant a lot – fresh, healthy, clean and nutritious. That was probably why I enjoyed food thoroughly even as a child, because it was simple, fresh and tasty.

With time as I grew up to being a mother myself, I realized that care and affection towards healthy food comes by instinct for your family. It means nurturing the tradition of cooking healthy, wholesome meals that can balance in taste and nutrition. Someone reading this blog may probably think that the recipes, mainly desserts shared here are all what we eat. But truth to be told, we do not eat banana breads every day, nor do we have tea cakes every evening. There’s a lot more healthier we eat than I can share here. But I don’t feature them here, least I dread this space would become tad boring.

Like I said, we grew up eating huli, that is quite traditional to our cuisine. I don’t make huli often because I never attempted to make a good one that tastes like what my mum or grandmom make. While in my teens, mum would often chuckle saying “A good Havyaka bride is known by the Huli she makes!” If I had to go by that saying, I would never fit that bill! One of the reasons why I featured this recipe here is because the version I share today is much simpler, the cheat kinds as taught by my mum.

Huli is a traditional Havyaka dish from the famed Mangalore-Udupi region, made from lentils, cooked often with vegetables, roasted spices and ground liberally with coconut and tamarind, balancing off the tang with a hint of jaggery. It’s the balance of spices, coconut and tamarind that make up a good huli, an art that takes years to master. While there are several names (also called Kodhel) and different versions of it, this particular version of huli tastes so close to the traditional one I've grown up eating, that my dad, an avid huli lover and a good cook by himself, believed that I went through the laborious task of roasting and grinding all the spices, while mum and me chuckle on sheepishly. Devoid of all that hassle, hence quicker and easier too, it’s flavoursome and delicious served fresh with steaming hot rice.

Mum’s Cheat Vegetable Huli

Recipe adapted by mum

INGREDIENTS

1 cup mixed vegetables (raw bananas, brinjals, pumpkin, mangalore cucumber)
½ cup split pigeon peas / tuvar dal ( togari bele as in kannada)
1 tsp. turmeric powder
Salt to taste

For the Huli arpa, grind to paste:

½ cup grated fresh coconut
½ cup tamarind pulp / lime sized tamarind ball
1 tbsp. sāmbhar powder
1 tbsp. jaggery

To temper:

1 tsp. mustard seeds
2-3 whole red chillies
1 tsp. asafoetida
1 sprig of curry leaves
1 tsp. coconut oil

DIRECTIONS

Wash thoroughly and pressure cook the split pigeon peas / togari bele along with turmeric and 2 cups of water on 4-5 whistles. For 1 measure of the dal I use approximately 3 measures of water. In a separate pan, cook the vegetables with 1 cup of water and salt to taste till they are cooked and just tender. While the vegetables are getting cooked and the pressure cooker is cooling down, prepare the masala paste (called as huli arpa in kannada) by grinding fresh grated coconut with tamarind pulp (lime sized tamarind kernel cleaned and soaked in ½ cup warm water for 10-15 minutes), sāmbhar powder and jaggery, adding water little by little, if required, till its smooth and comes to chutney consistency.

Using a wooden ladle, mash the cooked split pigeon peas / togari bele to a paste. To this add the ground masala paste / huli arpa along with vegetables, and their broth and bring it to a rolling boil. Add sufficient water to bring it to a consistency of your preference. Adjust salt to taste.

Temper by heating some oil in a small wok. As it heats up, add mustard seeds, followed by whole red chillies, torn curry leaves and asafoetida / hing. Fry for a minute, turn off the flame and quickly add it to the prepare huli while hot. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Notes:

Tempering with coconut oil is optional, but highly recommended as it gives an authentic and traditional taste to this dish. You may use vegetable oil instead of coconut oil. Alternatively, use clarified butter / ghee for a richer taste.

I’ve used mixed vegetables here. However you may use these vegetables individually. Traditionally, for weddings and festive meals, mangalore cucumber is the most common vegetable used in this kind of kai huli.

Vegetables that go well with huli are raw bananas, brinjals, pumpkin, mangalore cucumber, yam, bottle gourd.

The colour of this dish hugely depends on the kind of chillies being used in the sāmbhar powder. Typically, byaadgi chillies will give you deep reddish brown hints while guntur chillies render more spice and less colour.

While we call this as huli in Havyaka cuisine, it is also popular by the name of kodhel in some of the sects/communities of coastal Karnataka, especially among the Tulu speaking Brahmins.

Masala Shavige Uppittu

2013-04-10T00:43:00.000+05:30

Delhi was fun! A whole lot of fun! We are back after having a fabulous time there and it’s taken a week to unpack and settled down to routine like usual. I stayed away from blogging on Veg bowl for a while, didn’t blog hop either, nor did I check my mails. I did no business with my laptop, since I needed an intentional short break away from home chores and the daily grind at work, and this family function was just the perfect excuse. The engagement ceremonies went off smoothly and we had a real good time meeting family and friends, chatting, partying through nights, hitting the paranthewali gallis, shop-till-drop on Delhi streets, city sightseeing and needless to say, a hell lot of indulgence in food! We fit in a day’s trip to Agra and Fatehpur Sikri and loved going back to live history with the city. Beautiful indeed.

We came back with lovely memories and tons of photographs to be cherished. I am yet to sort them out, and while they run in thousands, I am clueless where to make a beginning!

Although being away was exciting to break the monotony of the day-to-day routine, it’s a warm, comforting feeling to be back home, and tuck ourselves into the bliss of home cooked food. We dined out mostly while in Delhi and Agra, on the oh-so-common butter parathas and cream laden heavy North Indian delicacies, that were delicious and sinfully good for our occasional indulgences, but far from the simple home cooked meals that we began craving at the end of our trip.

Back home this shavige uppittu was a humble, yet delightful breakfast dish we relished. Nothing fancy, but a simple upma that’s dotted with vegetables and flavoured with green chillies, lime and coriander herbs for the garnish. Served with milk and fruits by the side for the morning, this was the perfect way to revive the comfort of our home-made breakfast.

Well, this makes a great tea-time snack too.

Masala Shavige Uppittu / Masala Semiya Upma

INGREDIENTS

100 g rice semiya (called shavige, as in kannada)
2 tsp. oil
1 tsp. mustard seeds
5-6 curry leaves, torn
8-10 cashew halves (can also substitute peanuts)
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, diced to small pieces
3-4 beans, finely sliced
2 green chillies, chopped
A pinch of turmeric
Juice from ½ lime
1 tsp. sugar (optional, but highly recommended)
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves to garnish

DIRECTIONS

Cook the rice shavige in plenty of boiling water. When it’s al dente, switch off the flame and drain off the water completely. Shock the cooked shavige by running it under cold/tap water for a few seconds. Drain the water off completely and add a tsp. of oil, salt to taste, sugar, turmeric powder to the prepared shavige, toss lightly and keep aside.

In a wok / kadhai, heat a tsp. of oil and add in the mustard seeds. As they begin to pop, add the cashew-nuts and fry them till they brown lightly. Next add the chopped onions and fry till they turn translucent. Add the chopped carrots and beans and fry till they are just done. Add in the green chillies and curry leaves and fry further for a minute. Toss in the cooked shavige to this and stir well. Cook further for another 4-5 minutes. Adjust salt to taste. Turn off the heat and add in a dash of lime juice. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot as is or with a chutney of your choice.

Garlic Spaghetti in Basil Almond Pesto

2013-03-30T07:36:00.000+05:30

I’ll be silent for a week or so. We are off to Delhi for a short vacation. My dear brother in law is soon getting hitched for a lifetime. He'll be getting engaged in a couple of days, so we’ll have big fat engagement ceremonies to be a part of, several families to meet and great, some partying, rasta shopping too and, of course lots of good food to relish.

We've been eagerly looking forward to the roka ceremony, followed by a series of colourful and interesting occasions like shagan and chunni chadhana, so you can imagine how excited the entire family is. After weeks of crazy wardrobe shopping, we have our bags ready, all filled to brim, begging space for more to accommodate. It’s been a crazy week as you can see!

But before I leave, I have this simple recipe for Spaghetti Aglio e Olio, aka Garlic Spaghetti along with a dozen photographs for you to feast. I'll have this auto-post while I'm away enjoying the ceremonies, so I hope that makes up for my absence.

The recipe is so simple that even a novice cook cannot go wrong with this one. I stirred in some homemade Basil Almond Pesto and these were delicious! My little one scraped the bowl clean, licking every bit of the pasta and the sauce. The husband loved the simple, yet fiercely spiced garlicky spaghetti and considered to be made too often. In all the recipe was a clean winner.

Garlic Spaghetti - Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

250 gms spaghetti
4-5 cloves chopped garlic
1-2 tsp. crushed red chilli flakes
1/4 cup olive oil
A bunch of freshly chopped basil
Grated parmesan cheese

In a large pot with boiling salted water cook the spaghetti pasta until al dente. Drain and drizzle a quick dash of olive oil. Meanwhile, place a large skillet over low heat and sauté chopped garlic, basil, and red chilli flakes with olive oil. I used dried whole red chillies and chopped them finely. Sauté till the garlic turns golden in colour. Toss pasta with garlic mixture and butter. Top it with a generous grating of parmesan cheese. Serve hot with a pesto of your choice.

The Garlic Spaghetti is delicious as is, but makes for a great meal if served with a salad and fresh pesto sauce of your choice. Simply toss the prepared Garlic Spaghetti in Basil Almond Pesto and serve warm or at room temperature.

Fresh Basil and Cucumber Sandwich

2013-03-25T08:25:00.000+05:30

Sunday morning we made a picnic to the nearby animal farm. The little one had been excited about it all through the Saturday as she played and constantly babbled the names of the animals she was supposed to pay visit to. Frisking through her set of animal toys, she managed to identify most of them by names, and we bribed her to take her out for that feat.

We left early on Sunday. The morning I woke up and quickly toasted these sandwiches for the munch. A slather of butter for the richness, few onions and cucumber slices for the base, some fresh basil that I plucked off from the budding plant for flavour, some grated cheese to top it and some herbs paired with fresh crackled pepper to finish, as simple and quick it can be. Shouldn't that how a picnic be? Quick and stress free.

We shoved the picnic basket with these sandwiches and fruits, the rug, paper plates, sauce sachets, napkins and water bottles into the back-seat of the car, put on our sunglasses and drove off to the farm.

It was fun as we saw her enjoy the company of turkeys, rabbits, donkeys, horse, goats and hens. She fed the goats some fresh peas and beans and loved the company of emus. As we munched on these fresh basil and cucumber sandwiches, she fed and shared her little bites to the rabbits too. I’m sure they loved it. In turn she devoured these happily, animating the little bunnies and teaching them how to eat. By the end, she made several babbling conversations and had almost made best friends with them.

Incidentally, on our drive back home, she managed to identify a faded white plastic rabbit thrash bin along a road side and she screamed in joy pronouncing “mama, labbit, labbit!”. Almost like she was united with her long lost friend! A day worthy that was ought to be.

Fresh Basil and Cucumber Sandwich

INGREDIENTS

Couple of slices of whole wheat bread
Butter, to slather over
Couple of leaves of fresh basil, torn
Thin slices of cucumber
Thin rings of onions
Grated cheddar cheese
Fresh crackled pepper
A dash of Italian dried herbs

DIRECTIONS

Pre-heat the toaster / grill / sandwich maker for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, place 2 slices of bread on a chopping board. Trim the edges and slather butter generously on either sides of these slices. On one of the bread slice, place couple of onion rings, followed by torn basil leaves. Top them with 2-3 cucumber slices, placing them side by side. Top them with more torn basil leaves, some freshly grated cheddar cheese and freshly crackled pepper. Sprinkle a dash of Italian dried herbs. Top it with the second slice. Press down gently and place it in the toaster / sandwich maker. Prepare the following sandwiches the similar way. Toast till they are golden brown and serve hot with tomato ketchup or chutney of your choice.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2013-03-20T23:39:00.004+05:30

I am not giving up baking with dark chocolate, but certainly you’ll see them reducing a bit in this space. You know well that all this while I have been using Morde Dark Chocolate in my bakes. While I have nothing against them and do love the fact that they are cheap (say 200 bucks for 500 gms), I’m increasingly aware that it comes at a cost that’s detrimental to our health. Stripped of all the cocoa butter and replaced with hydrogenated vegetable fats, including trans fats, it took me some determination for my daughter’s sake to give up on Morde or Selbourne and move to a better brand.

A while ago I asked my Bangalore buddies on FB if there was an alternative to it, since Cadbury’s Bournville was way too expensive for baking, but I got no satisfactory answers. What if there was a baking disaster? I would care not to lose night’s sleep over wasting couple of bars of bournville in my failed baking attempts! Does anyone have an answer please???

I love dark chocolates and biting into them makes me sensational. It evokes my happy moods.

I gambled into some cookie cravings this week while the weather wasn't so nice and chill as I would have loved it to be. For the first time I experimented with a bar of Cadbury’s Bournville dark chocolate and used them in baking like this Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies, least they fail, the less guiltier I feel about my failing attempt or the expensive bars. They are still too expensive for baking, but till I look for an alternative I may go with these. I baked these cookies for our evening tea and they turned out delicious our evening bites.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Adapted from the Big Book of Baking

INGREDIENTS

88 gm plain flour
62 gm soft salted butter
42 gm brown sugar
28 gm white sugar
1/2 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking powder
62 gm chocolate chunks

DIRECTIONS

Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C. Lightly grease the baking trays.

Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat them till well combined. Please a teaspoonful of the dough on the prepared tray, giving sufficient space between them to allow spreading while cooking.

Bake in a pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes, or till the cookies are golden brown. Once done, transfer the cookies carefully to a cooling rack and cool them completely.

Notes:

* To adapt to a vegan version, replace egg with equal amount of flax meal paste. Use vegan dark chocolate and replace salted butter with a vegan butter substitute.

Whole Wheat Banana Bran Loaf

2013-03-15T12:25:00.001+05:30

Four years up with blogging on Veg Bowl and it almost feels unreal. Why? Because I admit I never thought I would take up blogging seriously. I began blogging more than five years ago. Before writing on Veg bowl, I blogged privately on a personal space which was limited to few of my family and friends. The huge inspiration came when I accidently stepped on a couple of family blogs and took hours to read through them. I was awestruck, and almost felt one with them. I thought it was a great idea to maintain a diary of memories that could be cherished later in life. I jotted down reminiscences of our travel, our family gatherings, weekly happenings, musings, and a bit more. But my blogging on it was quite temperamental. I spent a year on that, though not so passionately and unfolded Veg Bowl in parallel to jot down recipes I created eagerly in my little kitchen, penning down the recipes that were appreciated by my family and friends and posting pictures of dishes that came out of my kitchen.

Much before I got into mainstream blogging on Veg Bowl, I hadn’t explored my skills in food photography. I realized where my passions lay as I gained more readers and many friends through VB, and that was even before I existed on Facebook. My blogging on Veg bowl got more consistent than my personal blog and I lost interest in the other space with time. Somehow I wondered if VB would see the same fate soon, but it didn’t. There was a joy to learn, to connect with like-minded bloggers, to explore and do a lot in cooking and photography. Somewhere I believe that my interest in this blog was linked to this urge to learn photography.

Down the lane 4 years now, I still feel there’s a scope to learn and explore. I still enjoy the art of blogging that’s so creative and therapeutic. I have grown older and matured to better from where I started. On the flip side, I am not a social networking bee yet, and that explains why I am never so active on Facebook. But I love your emails and genuinely go through your comments. I am not on twitter yet, neither on instagram or googleplus or any other networking sites and pardon me on that. After a lot of persuasion, I finally have a VB like page on FB, but I’m not serious about it. Clichéd I know, but I don’t fit well into the whole concept of social networking well. Somehow it leads me to believe that social networking has become a wide spread web syndrome, with most of us hooking our precious time into the web mesh. We are so busy socializing and connecting on FB that we will miss out on living those beautiful moments of our life that can be cherished later. There are times I feel guilty while I’m busy blogging, because I should probably use that time to cater to my daughter and not miss watching her grow.

Yet with all that said, I do not intend to give up blogging in the near future. Because this space has given me a lot more than I expected. Like it keeps me active and thinking all the time. What began with just a food and photography site has grown to share a lot on my personal front apart from just recipes. VB was not meant to be a commercial blog, that’s why I choose to keep it clutter free, clean and minimal as possible. I vent out here, I speak a lot of my mind, share fond memories close to my heart, unleash the joy of cooking and creativity, and I love to part away with my most loved recipes and photographs with you all. That means a lot to me since it keeps me going, and connects with you all.

For the joy of completing 4 successful years of blogging and for more to come, I am celebrating this day with this Whole Wheat Banana Bran Loaf. Coincidently, it’s my daughter’s birthday today. What can be a greater joy than this? As I see her geared up to celebrate her big day this evening, I baked this easy and delicious, yet an all healthy loaf last evening so that we could wake up to treat her with a quick bite of this loaf and wish her good luck, the best of health and bounty happiness in life she deserves. Time is fleeting by unbelievably fast. From a new born baby to infancy and now a swift intelligent toddler that she is, she turned two today. Happy Birthday to both my sweethearts! Life cannot be better without you!

Whole Wheat Banana Bran Loaf

INGREDIENTS

1 ½ cup whole wheat flour (150 gm.)
1 tbsp. wheat bran
1/3rd cup vegetable oil (35 gm.)
2 very ripe bananas (60 gm.)
½ cup milk (40 ml.) {replace with vegan milk of your choice for a vegan version}
2/3rd cup organic dark jaggery (60 gm.)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cardamom powder

DIRECTIONS

Prepare a 8 inch pan by greasing and lining it with baking paper. Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees C.

Pulse the bananas along with milk and jaggery in a food processor. Next add in the vegetable oil and blitz again. In a separate clean bowl, sift the whole wheat flour twice. Add baking soda, wheat bran and cardamom powder to this. Make a well and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir well till combined. The batter will be thicker than regular cake batter, but not stiff. At this stage you may add in nuts if preferred. Finally pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C.

Note:

* Jaggery has a typical rustic and earthy sweet flavour that’s customary to South Indian cooking. Hence pairing it with bananas and cardamom powder brings out a traditional aroma to this cake.
* I’ve used high quality organic jaggery here. The local jaggery available generally contains high amounts of impurities. Hence to remove the sediments, soak the jaggery in milk, dissolve it and strain it through. Alternatively, use brown sugar if jaggery is not available.
* To make a vegan version, replace milk with any vegan milk of your choice.
* Wheat flour and wheat bran bring out a nutty flavor to this cake, although you may replace them with plain flour altogether.

Tomato Kharabath

2013-03-08T19:02:00.005+05:30

Couple of years ago I got an Aloe sapling handed over to me by my mom so that I could plant them in a lone pot that sat empty for a while in my backyard. My Aloe grew beautifully even with unattended attention. She stood strong in the worst of weather, rains, dust, pollution and draught, grew stout by days and bred couple of more saplings till the pot could hold it no longer. Later when we moved into our own little nest, one of the first things I had on my mind was to do a bit of kitchen gardening. For a long while I attempted to do some kitchen gardening, but all in vain. I hardly attended the Aloe, yet even today she adorns that pot I planted years ago. My kitchen gardening went for a toss as my coriander and fenugreek seeds never sprouted, the mint saplings I planted never took off, the leaves withered, the brahmi, sambharballi, amruthaballi and insulin plants went fungal till they broke down to die. It pained me as I saw their end. Every time I went to a nursery, I asked for tips and they would hand over some fertilizers that promised to help my plants grow, but they didn’t. Something went terribly wrong. I blamed the pot, the soil, the seeds, the vaastu and gave up on home gardening.

Things on gardening seemed brighter last month. The changes of water I use to wash the rice, the dal, the greens and other vegetables in are used efficiently to water my aloe and other pots. In quest to save water and not let go into drains, I drain them down to the aloe plants and the extra ones to the empty pots too so that they evaporate to the nature. A month ago though I was taken by surprise. A sapling that I thought to be weed sprout through my pot. I let it grow naturally till it shot up to 2 feet tall and flowered tiny white buds. I was elated but had less known it would fruit too. Last week, couple of the white flowers withered and beneath them shot tiny buds of green chillies. Somewhere in the process of draining the washed water into the pots, the green chilli seeds must have made their way and sprouted. Sometime ago, I had a tomato plant sprout the same way. It bore 3 cherry tomatoes that I used in my cooking, but later wilted away. This triggered my love for gardening all over again.

Last Sunday, we drove down to the nursery. I got a pot of basil and couple of seeds too. I almost went crazy and could have picked up the whole nursery, but I settled with basil, spinach, fenugreek, dill and parsley. I potted the fenugreek seeds again in a hope that they will sprout. I speak to them daily. I care for them just like my baby. I try to bond and hope they will reciprocate. I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hope they will shoot soon.

Meanwhile the budding green chilies have been making me happy. I watch them for hours. I tender them affectionately. Today morning, I couldn’t resist and plucked the longest one for this South Indian breakfast delicacy, Tomato Kharabath, which my husband loves for its tang and spices. The chilies rendered a fresh, bold and spicy taste to this dish. Beyond all, they were organically grown in my own garden. That’s the beauty.

Tomato Kharabath

INGREDIENTS

1 cup pre-roasted semolina / rava
1 onion, chopped
2 green chillies, finely chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped
3 tbsp. ghee / clarified butter (use regular vegetable oil for a vegan version)
½ tsp. mustard seeds
½ tsp. cumin seeds
½ tsp. turmeric powder
1 tsp. sambhar powder
A sprig of curry leaves
Salt to taste
A dash of lime juice
Fresh coriander leaves to garnish

DIRECTIONS

Heat oil / ghee in a thick bottom pan. Add mustard seeds and allow them to splutter. As they splutter, add the curry leaves, chopped onions. Fry them till they golden brown. Next add the green chillies, the chopped tomatoes, turmeric powder, sambhar powder and salt and fry them for another 2-3 minutes. Now add the roasted semolina / rava and fry for few minutes. Pour 3 cups of hot water into the mixture and bring it to rolling boil on low heat for couple of minutes. The water should be absorbed by the semolina / rava and cooked. Turn off the heat and add a dash of lime juice. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot.

Notes:

* Clarified butter / ghee makes this dish rich and delicious. However avoid it and replace with vegetable oil if you want a vegan option
* I've used only a tsp. of sambhar powder for a hint of added flavour. You may skip it altogether.

Coconut cream, Vanilla Bean & Roasted Almond Ice cream

2013-03-02T13:20:00.000+05:30

Do you have any specific flavour of ice cream you love and always prefer to go back to?

More than a decade ago, before several flavours in unusual range flooded Indian markets, I remember each of us in our family had ice cream flavor of choice. As a kid, I was addicted to classic vanilla or occasionally the vanilla-chocolate combo (a scoop of each) just the way my little sister was. Dad’s huge fetish for dry fruits and nuts in his scoop of ice cream always left us amused, while for mom it was undoubtedly the butterscotch that made it to her plate.

Dining out on Sunday nights wasn't a rule on the book, but whenever we did, which was often once a month, it was followed for sure by an ice cream for our dessert. As we tucked ourselves comfortably onto the chairs waiting for the orders, dad would head over to the ice cream kiosk, crane his neck to take a peek over the glass counter displaying their varieties in vivid colours and flavours to order the scoops speckled with roasted nuts and dry fruits. I guess his choice was often pistachio or badam pista ice cream. Of sheer joy each of us would proclaim our choice of ice cream and happily dig into them as they were served. Choices in terms of flavourings were limited to vanilla, chocolate, butterscotch, pista badam that ruled the roost. For the more exotic ones, there was anjeer, shahi kulfi, casatta… but then that’s about it.

Back in 80s and early 90s, ice cream came served in small paper cups with a tiny wooden spoon to scoop them from. We would fish out scoops of ice cream much larger than the spoon, only to fill our mouthfuls, more often spilling out the melting ice cream. The candid moments of the ice cream dripping off the tiny spoon on to our pretty frilled frocks, followed by mom’s howl deliberating the pain she took to rub the stains off while washing still taunt my memories! We had personal choices of flavours. And we always stuck by those choices. By 90s, chocolate coated vanilla ice candies, aka the Choco-bars entered Indian market a huge way and made way into our preferences too. I still admire Choco-bars.

The boom in Western market and their brands in early 2000 have brought out huge assortment and today, and as I walk into a Baskin Robin’s or Swensen's outlet, I am astounded by the variety they have to offer. I am elated by the choices, but at times I step back thinking there is too much to choose from, fearing the ones across the counter may be more delicious than the one on my plate, that I am unable to make a convincing choice. The guys over the counter are often generous enough to help me with a few scoops of flavors to try from, but by the end of test tasting session I run in to flurry of complete confusion. Somehow the test tasting session seems more stimulating exercise than the choice of ice cream itself. My taste buds can’t relate to a winning choice. Mint, Oreo, Chocolate chip, Berry, Cookie dough, Peanut butter, Belgium chocolate and so much more… I am spoilt for choice and that confusion happens way too often!

Honey and Roasted Almond Ice cream stands out of all. My love for Honey and Roasted Almond Ice cream dates back a few years ago when I tasted its first scoop from a BR outlet at namma Bengaluru airport. While waiting at the lounge, my husband made a random pick on my behalf and got me a waffle cone loaded with a big dollop of this BR’s Honey and Roasted Almond Ice cream. It was an instant love since that first bite. It’s brilliant taste still lingers strong.

Remember I made some Honey ice cream a while ago with flavours so similar to the BR one? That was a small batch good enough for two servings, so I promised I would make them again, not to disappoint anyone who requested a second or third helping. In a bid to experiment a little more, this time around, I played a slight variation using Coconut cream instead of milk or cream and the resulting ice cream was extremely creamy and delicious with a hint of coconut flavour. This is one of those ice creams that is simple to make and uses barely few ingredients and for sure needs no ice cream maker because the fat in coconut cream will help in whipping it to soft peaks, making the ice cream light and creamy. Honey will further curb freezing the ice cream into a rock solid stage.

Coconut cream, Vanilla Bean and Roasted Almond Ice cream

INGREDIENTS

200 ml coconut cream* (I used 1 pack of first pressed Dabur Homemade coconut milk)
1 pod vanilla, split and seeds scraped
½ cup roasted chopped almonds
80 gm / ¾ cup vanilla honey* (replace with vanilla sugar for a vegan version of this ice cream)

DIRECTIONS

Roast ½ cup almonds on a medium low heat till they begin to change their color and turn aromatic. Switch off the flame and keep aside. Once they cool down, chop them roughly.

Chill the coconut cream along with the bowl and beaters overnight or at least for 6-8 hours. To prepare the ice cream, take the chilled coconut cream in a chilled bowl. Connect the beaters and whip the cream till it fluffs up and holds soft peaks. Add in vanilla honey and whip further till it's all well combined. Split a vanilla bean and scrape the seeds off them into the prepared ice cream. You can skip this, however I used it for an intense vanilla flavor. It’s optional.

Whip the cold cream till it begins to form soft peaks. Taste your ice-cream at this stage. Commercially available honey tends to be sweeter and thicker as compared to the organic fetch. Hence I suggest you taste the ice cream batter and add more honey if preferred. Transfer to a freezer proof bowl/loaf and freeze it for an hour till it just begins to set. Once it's almost set on the edges, remove and churn it briefly. Repeat a couple of times. This helps ice-cream to be creamy. After the final churn, add in the roasted almonds (or almond pralines) and freeze till it's completely set. Remove from the freezer and place the ice cream in the refrigerator compartment for 15-20 minutes before serving. This way the ice cream should have softened a tad bit and will make it easier to scoop out.

Notes:

*For a vegan version replace the honey with regular sugar
*You can skip using vanilla honey / sugar and use regular honey / sugar, however I used it for the love of vanilla flavor. It’s optional. Similarly, you can skip using vanilla beans as well. I used it for an intense vanilla flavor and for that million-dollar speckled look. Again, it’s optional.
*If coconut cream is not your flavor of choice, replace it with regular milk cream. It works fabulous!

That's my little toddler's tiny fingers sneaking in to grab some more scoops of ice cream!

Basil Almond Pesto

2013-02-26T22:30:00.000+05:30

Pesto, need I say what it means to me? Having been a lover for Italian food, I'm sure there should be no second thought that I love pesto. But strangely that wasn't how it started a few years ago when we first tasted it. Well, it was a love hate relationship that we started with. We did not really give into liking it till recently we acquired a taste for the famed pesto.

For a while we despised pesto or even the word of it. Probably, because I never made it the authentic way. My experiments with dill, coriander and other greens, except basil were not received well. I gave up for a while, feeling incredibly guilty about not tackling it and getting such a simple straight forward recipe right. So I stuck by other pasta recipes that were appealing our palate. Then recently we had it at our coveted Italian restaurant, Toscano and that's really when we took liking to it. The pesto sauce served with an assortment of breads had us a convert. It's chunky texture, mild flavour, fresh and oh-so-delicious when we smeared it on bread and even paired them with spaghetti had us love it thoroughly.

The core ingredients that make up a good pesto sauce are basil, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil. These days, getting basil in a supermarket here is not a worry, but then they are not always fresh. Hence the basil I used here are home grown in a pot, so that makes this recipe fresh and all the more appealing. Pine nuts are something I have never seen or tasted. A quick google search said walnuts or almonds make an equally good substitute. Far from fetching pine nuts here, I settled for almonds as an alternative, something that I always have a stock of. So, these were made, we relished it with simple garlic spaghetti and they tasted close to the original stuff we had the week earlier.

Basil Almond Pesto

Inspired by BBC GoodFood Magazine

INGREDIENTS

50g roasted almonds
A large bunch of basil
50g Parmesan (I used mozarella instead)
150 ml olive oil, plus extra if storing
2 garlic cloves

METHOD

Put all the above mentioned ingredients into a food processor and process until slightly chunky. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Pour the pesto into a jar and cover with a little extra oil, then seal and store in the fridge. It's known that the pesto will keep well in fridge for up to two weeks, although I recommend using them fresh.

Vegan version:

To make the recipe vegan, use vegan cheese or skip cheese altogether.

Cranberry Dark Chocolate Brownies

2013-02-21T18:10:00.000+05:30

2nd February 2013: It was quite a relaxed Sunday. I plonked myself on my deep brown and black shaded sofa, threw my legs up on the aged teak coffee table that adorns my living and sat there gazing at a bunch of my favourite magazine collection from BBC GoodFood. The past one year has seen me as an ardent lover of their series and my subscription was due for closure. In the morning the courier guy had just hand delivered my last copy and I kept pondering if I should renew them or stick on to the 12 magazines I had at hand. They lay there in absolute desire to be flipped over again and again and as I made myself comfortable with a cup of coffee, I couldn't hold my fondness for them any longer and I flipped them all over again. I was lost and in love again.

And like it often happens, as I read through them, admire the photographs and get critical, flipping recipes over, I do not realize how I have lost on time. Admit, I spend a lot of my time, often quite futile over these cookbooks. Because it happens frequently that I take more than hours to pin down a recipe that I actually wish to recreate in my kitchen. Again I'm lost. I simply don’t feel guilty either.

So this Sunday wasn't any different. I dreamt of making a savoury, flipped over a couple of recipes and couple of magazines too. Pulao was done, the vegetable stew busy brewing up on the stove, so cooking was almost over. How about a salad I think. I flip over pages. I scan my pantry for those cheeses and herbs. I realize soon I need to stock them. I hunt for desserts instead to make my Sunday worthy. I flip over to the last page and there the beautiful raspberry brownies hold my utmost attention. I know what I have been looking for. Finally! I rush to my kitchen, pull my kitchen scales out, do a quick melt of butter in the microwave and stir all things good to bake these dark beauties.

So these brownies were made, ditto the way the magazine said, measuring out ingredients carefully by their weight, replacing the raspberries for some dried cranberries. I suggest you make them and you’ll know yourself how good they are. They are deep, fudgy and chocolatey with beautiful fruity bites from cranberries. A bit of cheating in your diet is all okay. So forget your fears, pick up a slice and devour them happily to your hearts content.

Cranberry Dark Chocolate Brownies

Inspired by Best-ever Chocolate & Raspberry Brownies from BBC GoodFood magazine

150 gm dark chocolate broken into chunks
125 gm salted butter
200 gm soft brown sugar
2 large eggs
70 gm plain flour
25 gm cocoa powder
100 gm cranberries (I’ve used Ocean Spray here)

Heat the oven to 180 deg C. Line a baking dish with baking paper. Put the chocolate, sugar and butter in a pan and gently melt, stirring well with a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat.

Stir in the eggs one by one, into the chocolate mixture. Sieve the flour and the cocoa and stir in. add in half the cranberries and scape the batter into the tray. Then scatter the remaining cranberries over the top of the batter. Bake for 30 minutes or 5 more minutes if you prefer a firmer texture. Cool before slicing and store in air tight containers for up to 3 days.

Ginger Lime Pops

2013-02-17T00:17:00.001+05:30

Tucked into our mom’s saree pallu, our little hands twirled into hers, carrying jute bags that we could fit ourselves in, we would often accompany our mom to do the weekly grocery shopping. Tip toeing into the busy streets of the weekly vegetable market, the lookout was always for the freshest of the produce they had to offer. The street side vendors, some on carts and others lining the pavements would sit with heaps of greens, fruits, vegetables and other kitchen staples, often calling us out loudly in the best of their voices, inviting the passing buyers with their heaps of sale. Quite a chaotic scene if I had to recall, where the street vendors would literally pull us into bargaining till we gave in, and even as one got busy perusing the vegetables and fruits, the neighbouring vegetable vendor would try to drag the buyer into his attention. Negotiating for a handful of free curry leaves or a bunch of coriander leaves was a common affair and that brought profound happiness to our hearts. And in odd occasions where the vendor refused to be considerate, mom would grump on her way back, complaining she would never go back to him again.

Those memories of market hopping and raasta shopping will stay with us for long. Shopping was quite a stimulating affair we loved. Yet it came with its rules of pros and cons. Bargaining was the tool and while it brought some joy, somewhere it would leave us dissatisfied with a sinking feeling that probably the vendor down the street sold better produce at lower prices than we bought. Then there were ploys with the traditional weighing scales, with the vegetables often weighing lesser than they should. While most of the fruits and vegetables were picked from the weekly vegetable market, we would heavily depend on the nearby kiraana shops for other kitchen staples, which meant another trip to the kiraana store.

For long now, since the supermarket culture and online shopping trends kicked in, I moved out to a more comfortable zone of shopping in a supermarket where I get my entire pantry staples at a single place. For the modern day working woman like me, it saves me time, energy and more importantly the hassle of weighing and bargaining. I ensure I pick my vegetables and pantry staples, but at times get the luxury of home deliveries too and that’s a bonus. I get to know their manufacturing date, their expiries and the ingredients. More importantly I like to return the product if I am dissatisfied.

Some time ago, I got hooked to online shopping. My first camera was bought online more than 10 years ago. Ever since then I bought several things online and got hooked to it. I browse online shopping websites very often, sometimes out of seriousness to buy, at times out of curiosity, or even to kill boredom. My husband and net savvy dad too appreciate this culture. They’ve bought electronics, tees, books, gifts, sports gears and many other stuffs online. I like the fact you save on time and effort when you need things on demand and its home delivered for free. Then there are sites like Cuponation that give crazy discounts on the products you would buy in market at higher rates and that’s really a bargain.

I wonder how many of you know, but I thought this would interest many. Cuponation has a broad collection of coupon codes with deals and offers from top online retailers like Flipkart, eBay.in, FabFurnish, Future bazaar, Jabong, Naaptol, Myntra, Home shop 18, Pepperfry and many more. I have bought several items from these retailers in the past, however ever since I got to know of Cuponation, I like using their coupons to get those added discounts on my purchases. I am eyeing at some kitchen cutleries and bakewares and these discount coupons will just be perfect. I am excited and hope you’ll too!

For times while you spend surfing the net, buying online or just couching in front of the television, these ginger lime pops will give you a perfect company. Tart, tangy, a spicy gingery twist with hint of cardamom, does that ring bells to you? Yes, its our very own nimbu sherbet in pops.

Ginger Lime Pops

INGREDIENTS

2 large limes
3 cups of water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. cardamom powder
1 tsp. ginger paste

DIRECTIONS

Squeeze lime juice out of the 2 limes. Snip off the lime zest for some intense lemony flavor.

Stir the sugar in water till completely dissolved. Extract juice from ginger. Alternatively, you may also use ginger powder. Add in ginger, cardamom powder, lime zest along with the freshly squeezed lime
juice to the prepared sugary water and stir well.

Pour into pop moulds and freeze overnight or for at least 5-6 hours till set. Enjoy!

Note:

Check for sugar and adjust according to your taste. You may replace with honey if you like. These lime pops are a little tart, so reduce if you like a milder taste.

Pan Roasted Fiery Balsamic Carrots

2013-02-12T22:54:00.002+05:30

I studied much in an all girls’ high school, so I don’t remember knowing Valentine’s day then. There was no excitement but life as usual like any other day. College life although had a different story to say. Valentine day was about the excitement to dress smart, an anxiety to get sneaky looks from boys, may be a couple of roses, candies and teddies too. Red was a too bold colour to wear, so it stayed away for the day. All were dressed their best for the day, yet they made it look modest, atleast not to be dragged into peppy conversations by friends. There were hopes for those red roses, seeking male attention, for chits of proposals that came through those less known common friends, an ice-breaker conversation, probably a plea to join for a coffee in a coffee shop, and like I said it was an odd anxiety and hushed excitement. Those were the days in college.

Later, life at workplace was a much serious affair. There was a spirit to celebrate the love day, but in a festive way. The fun committee organized entertaining events to promote healthy relationship among peers. There were red roses on every bay, floating balloon hearts across cubicles and team building activities to build rapport. We were encouraged to dress in red, but essentially it did not really mean about love or being in love. It was about anyone whom you cared for and could be your Valentine. I loved that spirit. I respected it and enjoyed it through.

My husband and me hardly got time to celebrate the Valentine’s day ever. We never went out for candle lit dinners, throw parties or the big bashes. We dream about it, but then we are working couples with little time at hand. We exchange no gifts, just hugs and kisses. Instead we sit down and enjoy a home cooked meal together. He cares for me, so he lets me to dig into my favourite dessert for the dinner just that evening, and we relish it together. Over the years, my meaning for love and lust has changed by leaps. Today, it’s about trust and support, of care and affection, of expressing less by words and more in actions, of being faithful and sympathetic. My considerations have changed, because it’s about being selfless and sensitive. It’s a beautiful feeling, and is meaningful by nature. Love is magical. The greatest joy comes from our little daughter, who is a gift of God given to us by the virtue of that bonding and togetherness. She brings life into us, she paints it vivid, makes it worthy to live, and she ties our bonds for a lifetime. Life is short, I like to live it sweet. So why waste even a day that’s dedicated for a purpose?

My menu is sketched. I’ll have some Ginger Lime Pops for my daughter to bite into, that will keep her busy. These Pan Roasted Fiery Balsamic Carrots will make it quick and perfect for the weekday dinner table. And I’ll serve them with some fresh spaghettis and some homemade pesto. I am still dreaming of what dessert I can make. But certainly I would love to pair it with a dollop of Classic Vanilla Ice cream. I think this will make it perfect.

Lay your table, set your glasses, pour the wine, don your apron and get set to whirl up your kitchen this Valentine day. Have a fabulous day with your loved ones and don’t forget to express that you care for them.

Pan Roasted Fiery Balsamic Carrots

INGREDIENTS

3 Carrots, medium sized
1 tsp. Olive oil
2-3 cloves Garlic chopped
2 tbsp. Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp. Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Red chilli flakes
Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

Wash the carrots thoroughly and chop them to ½ inch fingers. Blanch them in boiling hot water for 2 minutes. Remove them and shock them in cold water.

Heat oil in a pan and sauté the chopped garlic till they sweat. Next add in the balsamic vinegar and sauté till it reduces to half. Add the blanched carrots, followed by the brown sugar and red chilli flakes. Stir fry for a couple of minutes on medium high flame till the balsamic sauce glazes all the carrots well. I like to smoke the carrots a bit by tilting the pan close to the fire and letting them burn tad bit. They almost taste like grilled. Finally season with salt and herbs, if preferred.

Homemade Sun-Dried Tomatoes (Off the Sun, in a Microwave!)

2013-02-06T23:19:00.000+05:30

I hold high esteem for the old school thought of sun-drying vegetables and fruits for prolonged life. I do consider its fabulous, no doubts. After all we Indians aren't novice to this technique. We've done it for ages. Our grandmas did it and our moms took over. The art of making crisp happalas (papads) and sandiges came down to us through traditions and we've enjoyed them endlessly on several occasions, meals and dinners. But, heck this technology is luring. Like, I've never thought of making sun-dried tomatoes at home, and if you ask, I would probably never give it a try. Slaving over them for weeks, what if that only means keeping a keen check on the tomatoes as they slowly get kissed by the sun to age into crisp-crimson-red tart, all that seems enticing, but is quite an effort I like to rule out for now.

So, I headed over for the alternatives. The oven called out to me. Replicating the same stuff in my oven resonated my thoughts. But again, that meant couple of hours of drying in the oven too. Back while in college, my semester project work had seen me working on ‘Drying Characteristics of Garlic’ where I did a study on ‘Industrial analysis of Tray Drying and Microwave Drying methods’ using some scientific laws, exponential terms and thermodynamics, none of which I can recall now. That study however told us that up to 88-90% energy, power and time could be saved with microwave drying and that was interesting. Back then too, beyond all those calculations, I enjoyed peeling the cloves, chopping and inhaling the pungent aromas of the drying cloves, their analysis, textures and tastes. See, how I had a foodie blood running in me, that had me food associated with my project work too! As an engineering student, I was no way associated to home science, yet I managed to fit that in! :)

On the same lines, I went ahead and made a really small batch with just 3 tomatoes, just for trial, least I may not have to discard the whole lot in fits of a disaster. Glad I gave this a try. They may not be the best, not exactly the sun-kissed kinds, but pretty much close. You dunk them in the goodness of garlicky olive oil, herbs and spices and they just resonate the original stuff.

One of the mistakes I did probably was to chop them to fine rounds. They seeped out a lot of water and once dehydrated they thinned down a lot and got glued to the plate. Instead, I suggest you chop to halves and place them on the chopped side down. Microwave them one side for couple of minutes and then turn them around and microwave further till dehydrated. That way they will remain firm pieces, unlike mine that ended in strands. Nevertheless, for a trial they were good. These tart beauties are instant and can add that concentrated sweet sour flavor to your salads, pizza, dips or even breads and last long.

Homemade Sun-Dried Tomatoes (Off the Sun, in a microwave)

INGREDIENTS

3 large tomatoes
A few pinches salt & pepper
Couple of pinches of oregano seasoning
1 clove garlic, crushed (optional)
1/2 cup olive oil (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Wash and clean the tomatoes and chop them into halves. Scoop out the flesh using a slotted spoon and place them in a microwave proof flat dish, cut side down. Brush each cut piece with some olive oil and microwave on high for about 3-4 on one side. Flip the tomatoes over and microwave again for another 3-4 minutes. The tomatoes will leave out a lot of water. Take care and keep a keen eye so that they do not burn. Continue to microwave each side till the tomatoes wilt and become dry.

In a small pan, heat some olive oil and fry the garlic till they leave out flavors to the oil. Once they are brown, remove them from the oil and discard. Add in the oregano seasoning, salt and pepper to taste. In a bowl, place the dried tomato flakes and pour the garlicky olive oil. Season further if required. Use in dips, sauces, salads and pizzas as preferred.

Rava Idli with Vegetable Sagu

2013-02-01T16:28:00.000+05:30

Traversing through my old posts recently, which in a way I don’t do too often, strangely it felt odd for me to read of what I had written. Some made me laugh, some made me feel stupid, some errors I fixed, some I felt proud of, I suppose it’s an anomalous sensation to read your own stuff. Some photographs made me think I should change, like the Marshmallows and S’mores, especially the ones I shot at night. Then as I dug deeper to my old, unheeded posts of 2009s, I thought they needed a makeover. Maybe sometime in future, when I recreate the same recipe and shoot again, I shall update them here. Or probably I’ll leave them that way and they’ll remind me how much I have evolved over the years in blogging.

You know I should hold on to penning down too much. Over the past couple of weeks, my posts, the write ups per se, have been spanning too long. I promise it’s not intentional. I like to write, to put my thoughts in words and do hope you enjoy reading them as much I love sharing my thoughts on food and memories with you.

Having said that, I promise to keep this one short and savoury. Basically a spiced, savoury, breakfast semolina cake. This Rava Idli, is a common Karnataka breakfast dish and most loved by all of us at home. It repeats itself almost every week. Not the kinds we get at a restaurant, that’s dense, heavy and feels stodgy with one slice, but instant, light and the kinds you want to indulge in more than just one. Pair it with chutney or serve this with vegetable sagu like it’s done traditionally, this one will send you taste buds whirring for more. Whoosh, you can’t help but love it!

Rava Idli

1 cup regular yogurt (not the Greek yogurt kinds)
1 cup semolina (sooji rava)
2 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1-2 green chillies
1 sprig curry leaves
1 tsp. Channa dal
1 tbsp. broken cashew nuts
1 tsp. baking soda (or an unflavoured fruit salt, like Eno)
Salt to taste

Mix a cup of semolina in cup regular yogurt and set aside for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the tadka. Heat the oil in a small frying pan. Add in the mustard seeds, channa dal, cashew nuts, curry leaves and heat till the mustard seeds begin to splutter. Turn off the flame and add this to the semolina, yogurt mixture. Whisk well. Add chopped green chillies and salt to taste. Finally add in the baking soda (or a sachet of fruit salt, if using), give the entire batter a quick, good whisk. The batter should be thick, similar to idli or cake batter. Transfer the batter to an oiled cake tin. If you have idli moulds, its best to use them. However you don’t own idli moulds, use regular cake tin for this purpose.

Heat a steamer / rice cooker. Place these moulds in the steamer and cook for 15-20 mins. Alternatively you can microwave it on high power for 4-5 minutes, till skewer inserted comes out clean. Slice and serve hot with any chutney of your choice or with vegetable sagu as available commonly in restaurants.

Mixed Vegetable Sagu

Mixed vegetable sagu is a popular Karnataka dish, typically served in Bangalore restaurants. It’s spicy and goes well with puris, dosas, aappam, and even rice. For best results, ensure that the vegetables are cooked just right – they should neither be crunchy nor too mushy, just the right bite.

INGREDIENTS

For The Masala Paste

2 to 3 green chillies, roughly chopped
4-5 peppercorns
2 tsp. coriander powder
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1/2” stick cinnamon
2 cloves
3-4 garlic cloves (optional)
4 tbsp. freshly grated coconut
1 handful of cilantro

Other Ingredients

1 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. mustard seeds
A pinch of asafoetida
A sprig of curry leaves
1 large onions, finely chopped
2 cups chopped mixed vegetables (potato, carrots, beans, capsicum, cauliflower green peas)
Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

To make the masala paste, grind all the ingredients mentioned under masala, adding little water to a thick, fine paste. Keep aside.

Next, heat oil in a wide mouthed frying pan and add the mustard seeds. When the seeds begin to splutter, add asafoetida and torn curry leaves, and sauté well on a medium flame. Add the onions and sauté on a medium flame, while stirring continuously till they turn translucent. Add the mixed vegetables, salt and 1¼ cups of water, mix well and cover and cook on a medium flame for 12 to 15 minutes till the vegetables are tender, stirring in between. Add the prepared masala paste, mix gently and simmer for another 5 minutes. Serve hot with Rava Idli.

Masala Bread Upma

2013-01-28T20:42:00.001+05:30

I eat bread with not much favour to it. It's something I like to reserve as a last option. It wasn't until I began baking some at home did I really take much liking to it. Even as a kid I did not enjoy it much. At home, Sundays meant the day to relax and unwind and that meant some time off from cooking for mom too and that's when bread for our breakfast was an affair. We had many Sundays with bread sandwich for our breakfast. Saying that I do not rule out that homemade bread is indeed fresh and tasty.

Although one of the ways I did enjoy bread was in form of this Masala Bread Upma that was spiced well and tasted delicious. I often frowned at the sight of bread loaves served with butter or jam, but the moment it was converted to this upma, I would relish bowls full of these and go for the second and third helpings too. The base of the kadhai had crumbs of crusty bread stuck to it and that tasted heavenly. I have memories of scraping it off, not sparing the spatula too, relishing every bit of the last spiced crumb! Well, I still do it till date. :) Hope you too love this recipe as much as I do.

Masala Bread Upma

INGREDIENTS

6 Bread slices
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1 tsp. red chilli powder
1 tsp. turmeric powder
1 onion, finely chopped
1 large tomato, diced
1 green chilli
2 tsp. peanuts
1 sprig of curry leaves
Coriander leaves to garnish, optional
Salt and lime to taste

DIRECTIONS

Stack the bread pieces on top of each other and dice them through using a knife. Tear them into 1 inch cubes. Else tear them roughly using your fingers, crumbling them through into uneven pieces.

Heat oil in a pan and fry the mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add in the curry leaves, the chopped onions and peanuts. Fry them on medium high flame till the onions turn slightly brown in colour. Add the chopped green chillies, turmeric powder, chilli powder and fry further for a minute. Add the diced bread pieces and stir them well gently. Fry for a couple of more minutes stirring till all the masala has coated the bread pieces well. Finally add in the diced tomatoes and season with salt to taste. Fry further more for 2 minutes. Remove from flame and add a dash of freshly squeezed lime juice to taste. Serve hot.

Peanut Chutney Powder

2013-01-24T23:05:00.000+05:30

I made this quite a while ago but I don't know why I had been procrastinating on this one. It just sat in the corner of my drafts and though every time I thought of posting it other recipes caught my attention. I finally decided to put this recipe here, least I forget and it goes into hiding.

A while ago I had posted the recipe for a quick instant evening snack, Corn & Mint GuLiappa along with which I served this lip smacking peanut chutney powder. I promised then that I would share this recipe with you in the following post, but that didn't happen. So here it comes. This recipe is quite simple and comes from my mom and hope you too love it the way we do. It goes well with dosas, idlis and other breakfast dishes, as well pairs well with steaming hot rice and dollop of ghee.

Peanut Chutney Powder

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Peanuts
2 tsp. Red chilly powder
3-4 Cloves of garlic
1 tiny piece of tamarind
Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

Dry roast the peanuts along with cloves of garlic on a medium low flame till the skin turns to a darker color and the garlic is dry (has no moisture left). Let it to cool for a few minutes. Using the palms of your hand or placing peanuts between two towels, rub them to remove the skin. Grind the roasted peanuts, the roasted garlic along with chilli powder, tamarind and salt to taste till its powdered. You can leave tiny flecks of peanuts in there if you want a slight crunch. I prefer to grind it to a fine powder and serve it with a dollop of fresh ghee. Use as is or serve with ghee or dahi.

Product Review: Gone Mad Choco Sticks & Quick Gone Mad Chunky Monkey Ice cream

2013-01-20T00:13:00.000+05:30

Just as I mentioned on my previous post on how life is like being a toddler's mom, I received an email from Sagarika, Madisons asking if I was open to do product reviews. Last year I was unable to be a part of some blogger events and give justice to product reviews that came into my mailbox since other priorities took up that space. However, this year began on a good note with a product review for newly launched Gone Mad – Choco Sticks that hit the market stands recently.

I received a pack of 24 Gone Mad Choco Sticks in a neatly wrapped card case promising the goodness of fudgy chocolate filling beneath a layer of thin wafer. The reason I took up to this review was because this wasn't the first time I had tasted Gone Mad Choco Sticks. My previous trip to my local supermarket saw me picking up this Cigar shaped choco stick, indeed to dress up a dessert and I loved it instantly. There are several brands and kinds of Choco sticks and wafer chocolates in the market, but this is one had me smitten. I do say that it's indeed the best I have had in recent times and if I had to really describe, it's sort of a crisp bite into a thin wafer that envelops a nice chocolatey-fudgy-brownie-kinda tasting filling. And that's delicious and addictive.

Garuda PolyFlex Foods Pvt Ltd has made a recent entrant into the wafer category with its Gone Mad Choco Sticks, and with the kind of catchy, chocolatey wrapping, a delicious piece of chocolate stick tagged at a decent price of Rs.5/- per piece it is sure to steal the show in chocolate segment of the market and make it popular especially among the kids. I handed a couple of these to my family and my friends and they surely enjoyed these bars.

On a flip side, I certainly think Garuda foods may need to work a bit on their individual packaging. These Choco Sticks are great no doubt, but if you go for their singles priced at Rs. 5/-, they crumble a lot and that too quite easily. The singles are quite fragile. If you buy the package of 24 sticks then you are saved, but if you go for their singles, you'll find most of the wafers crumbling and off the chocolate filling, mainly due to human touch and feel of the product before the purchase. And I saw that as problem even with the packaged ones.

Yet saying this I don't mean to demean these choco sticks. I do think the entire box of choco sticks can make up for a good picnic munching with your friends or a travel companion to beat those hunger pangs. They can be great birthday party treats or even a part of return gifts that most kids would love munching into. They can be used to dress a dessert which is quite what I did here. I made a quick Chunky Monkey Supreme Ice cream and topped it with Gone Mad Choco Sticks instead of chocolate chunks. They are delicious. There will be couple of more recipes that I intend to use these little addictive bars, but till then I do hope you enjoy these bars in this healthy, simple and delicious Quick Gone Mad Chunky Monkey Ice cream, a recreation of my Chunky Monkey Ice cream I made in the past.

Gone Mad Chunky Monkey Supreme

INGREDIENTS

2 bananas, peeled, chopped and frozen (I used yelakki bananas here)
1 Go Mad Choco Stick, crumbled
A tablespoon of honey (optional)
1 tsp. milk masala powder (make one at home with roughly powdered almonds, pistachios, saffron and cardamom)
Roasted and chopped nuts (almonds and pistachios)
1 Go Mad Choco Stick, broken to half, to garnish

DIRECTIONS

Place frozen bananas in your food processor. A tablespoon of honey is optional, you can add it if you like your ice cream sweet. Pulse until its mashed well and comes to consistency of ice cream. If you have difficulty while churning the frozen bananas, or if banana isn't binding, try adding 1-2 tbsp. non-dairy milk or wait for a minute or so to defrost slightly and then churn. Scoop out a ball of soft serve into a serving bowl. In a martini glass, crumble the go made choco sticks, top it with the banana ice cream and then spread generous pinches of milk masala powder, roasted and chopped nuts and garnish with more Go Mad Choco Sticks. Serve immediately.

Huggi - Sweet & Savory for Sankranthi!

2013-01-14T23:27:00.003+05:30

So what do you think is life like for a toddler mom food blogger? Fun, thrilling, stressful, exciting, uncertain, adventurous, tough, entertaining, or may be all of these??? Interesting! Let me give you a glimpse of me as a food blogger.

Just about 2 days ago I decided Sankranthi, the festival for harvest is here and I need to have a post signifying it for the 14th. I rustle up my calculations and cross upon Huggi, a traditional Havyaka household dish, and an apt one that can make it right for the day and the festival. Perfect, I think.

So to be able to post it a day in advance that will benefit my readers, I decide I will cook the recipe a day before, photograph them and publish here. I almost put things together, when I simply get a feeling that I am cheating. Would that justify me celebrating the festival? It made more sense to cook them the first thing in the morning of the festival while my family is around, finish the pooja, offer God and relish them fresh. So I push the entire thought of cooking Huggi for the day of Sankranthi, in a hope I will be able to quickly grab some clicks and post them here, hopefully the same morning. Hopelessly, that rarely happens!

The morning of Sankranthi dawns and the baths are over. I head over to the kitchen to make both versions of Huggi, the sweet and the spicy one, both equally delicious and my favourites too. My cooking is done on time, pooja is over, little one is to be fed and I am to decide if the oggarne/tadka needs to be added then or saved for the photographs. A tic-tac-toe and I add a part of the oggarne/tadka, saving some of it for the grace. I almost finish feeding my hungry toddler, put her to play in my kitchen and keep a keen check on her from the corner of my eye, often hanging around me for my attention. A huge effort goes into distracting her with piles of kitchen utensils and cutleries to amuse her. By now my kitchen is in a huge mess with utensils, dolls and toys lying on the floor and on counters too. Adding to this, hazaar utensils lay around to be cleared and washed. I clear a part of these to make some space for the props to be fitted into the existing clutter, as obvious to make my dish look a little appealing. By now my little toddler begins to get anxious, seeking my consideration to play with her, so she's up on the kitchen counter, least I can keep her busy with my constant talks and her plays. I begin to place up my props, lay the dishes, top the garnishes, neat my background, foot the tripod and almost begin to shoot when a tiny hand hovers over to dish, pulling the props, the background and at times the camera lens too! Again, in an attempt to distract, I hand over unforeseen kitchen items for her to play. Her hands go deep into the jar of my precious ghee, the onion and garlics are off their peels, things helter-skelter and a glass or two ends up cracking on the floor. Though by now she is bored and there comes the shrill cry, more mess and my woe! Then there are agony moments when my garnish ends up in a mess, spoons are thrown into the dish, splattering on to the table cloth and I throw up my hands in anguish! Did I say life of a blogger mom was stressful? Phew!

I come back to square one of laying things on the dining table instead, let her on her foot to play, hand over a spoon and bag of chickpeas for her to fiddle with, foot the tripod and almost begin to shoot a photograph or two when my little one spills over all the chickpeas, gives up on them instantly and hovers over to tripod, attempts a climb, almost tumbling over it. I tip toe over the scattered chickpeas, just managing to balance the falling camera on a single foot and my toddler on another! Again, I give up, shove aside the tripod and shoot by hand with a few shaky shots and some good angles. Did I say life of a blogger mom was adventurous? True!

Okay, so by now I somehow manage a few shots here and there and then sit down to processing the files, generally when my baby is off to her sleep. And today she decides not to sleep. I sit her till the noon, simply hoping I can make through this post today! She's off to sleep and I sit to blog about it, my thoughts are totally empty. Heck! Where do I start? Every blogger's foe, that blogger's block! I try to start, then just let it go. Instead I manage to do my processing and editing. Of the hazaar photos I click randomly I short-list to the chosen few. By then my little one is awake. Here I go off again, almost being sure this will have to wait another day, may be next year too...??? Yeah, I did say life of a blogger mom was uncertain.

With all that said and done, I finally have my post here, though not exactly on time as I would have preferred it earlier in the day. I sat at a stretch, almost 3 hours and managed to crack a good long write up too! And as it gets published, its fun and exciting. As the comments pour in, it gets entertaining too :) That's life being a food blogger and toddler's mom too!

Sihi Huggi

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup moong daal
1 cup rice
3 cups milk
1 cup water
2 tbsp. clarified butter / ghee
1 1/2 - 2 cups sugar or jaggery (adjust as per taste)
1-2 cardamom pods, crushed
A handful cashew nuts & raisins
A pinch of saffron

DIRECTIONS

Wash and clean the moong daal and rice and keep it aside for about 10 minutes. In a pressure cooker, add the moong daal, the washed rice. Cook them in 2 cups of milk and 1 cup of water to 3 whistles. If you do not have a pressure cooker at hand, use a regular cooking pan and cook the daal and rice till they turn soft and mushy. Once cooled, lightly mash them using the back of the ladle once cooked. Add the sugar to taste and adjust the thickness of the huggi by adding remaining milk, if necessary. Add in the saffron and stir well. Heat it till it comes to a boil. I've used sugar here since I ran out of jaggery, but I suggest you try the jaggery version as it tastes great too!

Next, heat three tbsp. of ghee in a wide mouthed pan. Add cashews and fry till they turn golden brown. Switch of the flame and quickly toss in the raisins and cardamoms. Allow them to plump in the heat. Garnish the prepared sihi huggi with the fried cashews and raisins and serve hot.

Khara Huggi

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup moong daal
1 cup rice
2 tbsp. clarified butter / ghee
1 tsp. turmeric powder
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1 tsp. chopped ginger
2 chopped green chillies
1 tsp. whole & broken peppercorns
A sprig of curry leaves
Salt to taste
A handful cashew nuts

DIRECTIONS

Wash and clean the moong daal and rice and keep it aside for about 10 minutes. In a pressure cooker, add the moong daal, the washed rice along with chopped ginger and green chillies. Cook them in sufficient water (about twice to three times the quantity of rice and dal) to 3 whistles. If you do not have a pressure cooker at hand, use a regular cooking pan and cook the daal and rice till they turn soft and mushy. Once cooled, lightly mash them using the back of the ladle once cooked. Add turmeric and salt to taste. Adjust water to your desired thickness as necessary.

Next, for the oggarne, heat three tbsp. of ghee in a kadai. Add the cumin seeds. When the cumin seeds turn fragrant, add torn curry leaves, the whole and broken pepper and cashew in the ghee till the cashews turn golden brown. Garnish the prepared huggi with this oggarne and top with more roasted cashews before serving.

Wishing you all a Happy Sankranthi this season!

Apple Cashew Galette

2013-01-10T00:17:00.001+05:30

I have never been fond of pies or tarts. In my humble opinion, pies are too much of a work that I can easily do without. Though I admit after that pastry dough attempt, I should call this hardly any effort. Pies are great no doubts, but I assume they can do more good to parties and big gatherings. As for a family of 2.5 (that .5 credit goes to my toddler, ahem ;)), I think it’s a lot too much than we can eat.

Not long ago, when I started out my culinary expedition paired with blogging and photography, out of sheer craze for collecting baking gears, I bought a couple of tart cases and pie tins to flaunt them in my ever growing collectibles. They sat, sat and sat in my ever brimming cabinet, weighed down by new objects of desire that piled up on them. I did not quite put them to use and they were soon forgotten. It was only until last week that I noticed a thick blanket of dust resting peacefully on them, growing at a steady pace, plump and nice, making a brand new piece of hardly used stuff look like an antique artefact dusted off from a granny’s attic. I seriously urge to curb my impulsive shopping flair. Some tips are most welcome please!

Amazingly, that’s not a case with my cookbooks. My study area has been stacked with cookbooks and magazines neatly, adding and multiplying by leaps and bounds by every passing month, wailing for space beyond what it can accommodate. A few purchased, a couple borrowed, some cut-outs, handy snippets, few subscriptions … and even as new cookbooks and magazines have added to my collection, the old books still hold a special place in my heart. You’ll find them scattered everywhere, some at my bedside table, here and there at the coffee tables, a couple on the kitchen counter, a few on the center table, handouts on my microwave, some under my pillows too… Phew!

Yet with so many cook books around I like to go back to my old one with classic recipes. I've admitted in the past, I totally love the Big Book of Baking for its classic collection of recipes. I've made several from them, never had them fail, blogged some here and continue to do so. As I dusted my pie pan, my thoughts quickly raced back to the recipe I had seen for tarts and pies in the Big Book of Baking. The perfect time I need to put my pans to use, before they can make up for a good sale in an antique store!

But when I set out to put the recipe together, lethargy kicked in and what was meant to be a neat fluted tart, ended up being a free form one, but of course baked on my fluted tart tin! Galetté, a notably French recipe, is a free form tart that can be either sweet or savoury and here’s one for Apple Cashew Galetté, made from locally fetched apples.

Apple Cashew Galette

INGREDIENTS

For the Pastry

90 gm plain flour
85 gm cold salted butter, grated or cut to small pieces
1-2 tsp. cold water

For the Filling

350 gm cooking apples, peeled, cored and sliced
62 gm soft light brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
100 gm cashewnut halves

DIRECTIONS

To make the pastry, sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Rub butter into the flour using your fingertips. Add just enough ice cold water to bind and form a firm dough. Bring the dough together, knead very lightly and wrap in a cling film. Refrigerator for about 20 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 220 deg C. Toss the apples with the all of the sugar and add ground cinnamon. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to a 8-inch round. Transfer to a baking tray. Spread the pie filling over the dough, leaving an inch on the borders. Roughly fold the border over the filling, to ensure the filling is well cased, while leaving the center open. Top well with the cashew halves and bake for 45 minutes or until golden. Serve warm with whipped cream or custard or as is.

Moong Dal Khichdi

2013-01-04T21:27:00.000+05:30

So we've stepped into the new year. Welcome 2013! With Newer hopes. Brighter dreams. Best of health & prosperity aplenty like never before, here’s Vegbowl giving a warm welcome to 2013 with hopes of bright future, a year full of good luck, surprises, love and prosperity. And I turned a year older as I celebrated my birthday yesterday in a discreet way. Wishes poured in, friends whom I don’t get to interact too often took time to wish, many messages on Facebook tipped in and all that made me smile. Yet somewhere deep within, there was nothing that made me feels fancy about celebrating as it reminded me that I was growing old. Yeah, I probably did enjoy all that stardom of congratulatory messages and gifts while in my teens or even early twenties. Not any more. As I cross a milestone, it feels deeply reflective and provokes thoughts about several things, which I simply wish to put aside.

While highs and lows are a part and parcel of everyone’s life, I wish to thank each and every one who directly or indirectly became a part of my life. For many who brought smile on my face, happiness in my life, for the ones who filled my life with countless moments of joy, fun and laughter making it memorable and worth living every minute, others who motivated and inspired me, who stood by rough waves, giving me strength, at all times. Thank you all for all making me feel so special and good about myself. I feel blissed and blessed!

After all that think-thanking done that I've been itching to type, I've been pondering over what recipe should be ideal as the first post for the year. The net has been hovering over with innumerable desserts and after the week long festivities and celebrations gone by, followed by New Year partying, I am sure you've had enough of food indulgence or more than what you had asked for. This perhaps is the right time to settle for this simple heart warming Khichdi that is basic, one-pot and delicious! It’s quick, light on tummy, healthy and delightful comfort food. With lentils, rice, vegetables and spices, it’s gluten-free, healthy and a complete meal in itself. The below recipe is one of my favourite where I like to use our traditional sambhar powder, however you can replace it with garam masala instead. Use ghee instead of oil for an extra flavour. A dash of lime will bring in that added kick to this Khichdi.

Moong Dal Khichdi

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup rice
1 cup Moong dal
1 tbsp. ghee/vegetable oil
1 tsp. mustard seeds
6-8 cashewnuts
4-5 Garlic cloves
1 tsp. Grated ginger
1 large Onion, chopped
2 Tomatoes, chopped
1-2 Red chilli powder
1 tsp. sambhar powder
2-3 red chillies (optional)
1 cup Mixed vegetables (chopped beans, carrots, fresh peas)
Sprigs of Coriander leaves and dash of lime to garnish(optional)

DIRECTIONS

Wash rice and lentils together in couple of changes of water. Drain the water and set aside for 10 mins.

Meanwhile, in a pressure cooker, heat a tbsp. of oil. Fry the mustard seeds till they splutter. Follow it by adding crushed garlic cloves, grated ginger and onion. Fry them on medium high heat till the onions brown. Add whole red chillies if using. Next add the cashew nuts and fry for a couple of minutes. Then add the chopped tomatoes followed by vegetables, beans, carrots, fresh peas and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the rice and lentils and fry for a minute more. Season with salt, red chilli powder and sambhar powder. Add double the quantity of water and pressure cook for 3 whistles. For a mushy khichdi, add more water before pressure cooking the khichdi. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot. Top with a dash of lime before serving.

Fusilli in Cheese Sauce

2012-12-29T16:36:00.002+05:30

It may sound clichéd, I really hate stating the obvious, but it is insane how quickly a year can fly by. I can’t believe that it’s time an entire year has gone by and we are close to its end. With hardly two days to go we will soon bid a bye to it. I hope you had a great time holidaying this Christmas with your family and friends. In a retrospect to the year 2012, it has been a fantastic one in all aspects that it pains parting away from it. It seems soon, too soon and I can’t come to terms in accepting that we are close to its finale. On a positive note, I am looking forward to the brighter prospects of 2013. My daughter is growing bigger and niftier with every passing day. The coming year she will turn 2 and may be step her first foot into schooling. She’s a quick learner and I am sure she will make waves in years to come.

To retrospect the year, the earlier part of the year has been quite eventful on personal and professional front. Firstly, I switched my job from what was right next door to travelling for hours in distance, yet I am in a sense of great satisfaction, getting what I expected out of my job. Then, as my daughter turned one this March, she moved out from her infant phase to being a high energy, active toddler which has been quite a welcome progress. That reasons why I have been quite lenient in blogging this year, despite taking time off in late evenings to keep my blog going. Strangely, I realized that I have been better than the last year where I had just about 37 posts and this year I crossed 40+ posts. Somewhere in February, I took a huge step when I moved out of blogspot to my own domain, but that was a wise decision, because I still love cooking, sharing, writing, clicking and blogging and all that’s associated with it! Sadly I missed out on many invites to media and blogger events that kept flooding my mailbox. But I realize I cannot stuff myself more than what I can take. So that’s okay.

This time of the year is when most people take a sabbatical, planning week long holidays or partying. What are your plans? The spirits are high, mood is warm and light and one inevitably tunes to being merry as the magical charm of New year steeps in. Hope you too enjoy these festive days with your families and friends and welcome the New Year with new hopes, dreams and loads of prosperity. In absolute desire to bid adieu to this year, here’s a quick pasta dish, Fusilli in Cheese Sauce I’m sharing with you. It’s nothing different than the traditional mac and cheese we’ve grown up eating. But yet, I would never want to replace the macaroni with any other kinds of pasta if I am making these. I always stock macaroni, but on odd days like this one, I ran out of macaroni and went ahead with fusilli. Here I did use fusilli, so I call it as Fusilli in Cheese Sauce, since Mac and Cheese, is Mac and Cheese and nothing else!

Fusilli in Cheese Sauce

INGREDIENTS

500ml regular milk
1 onion, peeled and quartered
1 garlic clove
1 bay leaf
200g macaroni (1 pack)
1 tbsp. butter
4 tbsp. plain flour (30gm)
125g cheddar cheese, grated

DIRECTIONS

Cook the fusilli pasta in rolling boiling water with salt till its al dente. This will take about 10 mins or so. Drain out the water and then run the pasta under cold water to stop the pasta from cooking further. This also helps in keeping the pasta separate. Add a dash of olive oil, toss well and set aside.

Cut onion into quarters. In a milk pan, heat the milk along with onion, garlic and bay leaf until almost boiling. Remove from the heat, leave covered to infuse for 10 mins, then strain. Reserve the onion and garlic and use them as paste in other gravy dishes.

In a wide mouthed pan, melt butter. Add flour and cook stirring constantly for about a min on medium low heat. This is called as roux and is the base for thickeners. Pour the warm infused milk into the roux until smooth. Simmer for few mins, stirring often, until the sauce has thickened. The sauce is done when its thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Check by running your finger through the sauce on a spoon and it should leave a trail. Remove the pan from the heat, then add the cheddar cheese. Then stir until the cheese has melted. Season well with salt and pepper. Serve hot.