Tastefully Veggie ...

Drumstick Chops (Murungakai Chops)

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 07:11:00 +0000

Drumstick Chops

One more veggie that I certainly miss in this part of the world. I would normally buy a few of them during my quarterly Indian grocery shopping, chop them and freeze. Then I started noticing that if the fresh veggie was not very good then the frozen one has no flavour or flesh. I then started using them soon after I return from the shop. I was once left with three of them to use up and they were not particularly great so chose not to make sambar with them. My sister-in-law had made this dish when we were at her place and I quite liked it. It is incredibly simple but very tasty and a must try if you like drumsticks. With due credit to my SIL, here is the recipe…

3 drumsticks, cut into about inch and half long pieces
3 tomatoes, pureed
1 onion, finely chopped
Turmeric powder
1 teaspoon chilly powder
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
Asafoetida
Few curry leaves
Salt to taste
Cooking oil

Heat some oil and add the mustard seeds. Once it crackles, add the onions and fry until it just changes colour then add turmeric powder

Add the drumstick, pureed tomatoes, chilly powder, asafoetida, curry leaves, salt and enough water and cook covered until drumsticks are done and desired consistency is achieved

Serve with rice

Methi Muthiya

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:39:00 +0000

Methi Muthiya

I have a few gujarati dishes, especially snacks that I have on my to try list. One of those was muthiya. It derives its name from the fact that we hold the dough in our fist and that is what muthiya refers to. It is a very simple dish but tastes very delicious. It is a great snack or even a breakfast. It also makes a great finger food for young ones and the fact that it is not deep fried, yet tasty makes it even more appealing to me. Normally, people would add some soda bicarbonate to it but I avoid it as much as possible. I have tried this dish with and without those pinches of soda bicarb and I did not find it to make much of a difference. If you do not have fenugreek leaves, use any herb of your choice, like coriander maybe. I quite liked it even without any chutney. Here is the recipe…

Handful of fenugreek leaves
½ cup wheat flour
¼ cup semolina, rava
¼ cup besan, chickpea flour
Salt to taste
½ teaspoon chilly powder
Turmeric powder
Asafoetida
Juice from one lime
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
Cooking oil

In a bowl mix together chopped fenugreek leaves, wheat flour, semolina, besan, salt, chilly powder, turmeric, asafoetida, lime juice and little oil and make a dough

Divide this dough into 4-5 equal balls and roll them to form cylinders about the length of your palm

Steam these cylinders for 15 minutes, cool then ut to bite size pieces

Cut them into bite size pieces while heating some oil and adding mustard seeds. Once the seeds crackle, add sesame seeds

Add the cut pieces and toss so they get coated with the tempering and also kind of shallow fry in the oil. Shallow fry is probably not the right term as you do not need even that much oil, it is more of roast them by tossing them every now and then.

Serve with green chutney or just on its own

Cranberry Shortbread

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Cranberry Shortbread

I am so excited about using up stuff from my pantry as it seems to give me a sense of accomplishment to see a packet going empty. I must admit that sometimes I would buy some ingredients thinking I will find some use for it later. And that later would not easily come because I may have been wary of trying something new and keep pushing its use until the use by or best before date. When it comes to best before date, I usually use my sense organs - sniff, taste and decide. This recipe was whipped up so I could be done with the pack of dried cranberry that would have gone past its best before date this month end. I quite like shortbreads because they do not need any raising agents, there is pretty much nothing to stop nutrition absorption (not that the traditional shortbread recipe of flour+butter+sugar offered much nutrition to absorb). What I mean is it was a good inspiration for me to use some nice ingredients in this as I know if it comes out well, it will go down with everyone very easy. I decided to make it fibre rich by adding some bran; nutrient rich and lesser in processed ingredients by adding more whole wheat flour than all purpose flour; added brown sugar instead of refined sugar; vitamin rich and good fat rich by adding ground almond. The butter was ofcourse to bind them together and form the shortbread biscuits. You could replace it with margarine if that is your preference. They came out so good that I could not keep away from them and even spoilt my appetite for dinner.

¾ cup whole wheat flour
¾ cup dried cranberry
½ cup all purpose flour
¼ cup bran
½ cup brown sugar
100gm butter, softened
½ cup ground almond
1-2 tablespoon milk

Mix all ingredients together (first the dry ingredients followed by butter then gauge how much milk is needed) to make dough that can be held together in your fist but will disintegrate if pressed by thumb

Take a portion of the mixture, roll into 5-8mm or so thick disc and cut into required shapes and place on baking paper lined tray

Bake at 180degC for 8-10 minutes, until edges browned

Transfer to cooling rack and serve

Mooli Jowar Paratha

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:43:00 +0000

Mooli Jowar Paratha

There were times when mooli (white radish) was available at Tesco here but these days I barely find any vegetables of Indian origin. Thankfully they atleast continue to sell okra. Anyway, reason I mention this is because it is not often that I lay my hands on mooli although I like the vegetable. I am not a big fan of its smell but considering I either make raita or parathas with them, they do not smell too bad as they are not cooked long. I would normally make regular wheat parathas with mooli stuffing and must say that I struggle to get it well shaped as mooli can be quite watery and make the rolling process a challenge. When I feel like I should rather have some other cereal/grain, I make mooli jowar (sorghum) paratha. I have made it a couple of ways. One is how I have mentioned below, another is by skipping whole wheat flour and using bajri so it can be taken by wheat intolerant people as well. Either way rolling these parathas can put some off but I stick to my method of tearing up a ziploz bag and using it so it does not stick. I find cling films to be too thin so they do not serve the purpose for me. The parathas final texture is quite nice, not soft but a bit flaky but not making your throat and mouth feel dry. Here is the recipe...

1 cup jowar flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
2 tablespoon methi leaves/coriander leaves
2 green chillies, finely chopped
½ cup radish, grated
Cooking oil/ghee
Salt to taste

Mix together the jowar, salt, wheat flour, ginger garlic paste, methi or coriander leaves, chillies and radish. Do not add too much water and make the dough a bit stiff and not as soft as chapatti dough. This is because when we rest the dough, the radish will give away some water and make the dough even more watery and sticky. Knead the dough with some oil. Rest it for about 30 minutes and knead again before making parathas

Make a large lemon sized balls. In order to make the parathas, cut a zip loc bag on its sides so it opens like a rectangle. Dust the ball with flour and place on one side of the Ziploc bag and cover it with the other side. Roll to flatter disc couple of times then dust again. Roll to desired thickness but bear in mind this will not be as thin as chapattis. Put the whole Ziploc with paratha on one palm and slowly peel it off from the zip loc

Cook on medium flame until both sides are done and drizzle some ghee/oil.

Serve with pickle and yogurt.

Sprouted Mung Bean Dosa

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:05:00 +0000

Sprouted Mung Bean Dosa

Sprouting beans is a great way to enhance their nutritive value however I noticed that not everyone likes to eat them straight away. I also struggle to just eating raw sprouts. I usually briefly shallow fry store bought sprouts if I was adding them to rice but whenever I sprout beans at home I normally find a recipe in which it gets cooked. That way, this dosa (savoury crepe) recipe is quite good because you will not realise that it has sprouted beans in it. I either read this bit of info somewhere or I am totally making it up – very young sprouts are more nutritive than mature ones (i.e. small budding sprouts are better than the long shoots). In order to increase the nutritive value, I added brown rice to the recipe. This increases the bulk and keeps one fuller for longer. Some may have noticed that when they consume protein rich food, it actually fills them up quicker than carbohydrates rich food. This dosa is quite filling and by the time I finished two normal sized home made dosas, I was full. For those who are calorie conscious, this is a great meal. I made egg curry to go with this as I did not want to go through the hassle of grinding a chutney as I had already lined up a list of things to grind. I would suggest that this be served with some tangy chutney or egg curry/kuzhambu.

1 cup mung bean sprouts
½ cup brown rice (or white rice)
½ cup par boiled rice (idli rice)
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
Salt to taste

Soak the rice and fenugreek seeds together for about 6 hours

Grind to batter along with mung sprouts and add salt. Batter should be similar to normal dosa batter consistency

Spread aladleful of batter on a hot tava, drizzle some oil, cook until bottom side turns golden then flip and cook until done

Serve with tangy chutney.

Dal Fry

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:20:00 +0000

Dal Fry

Most Indian restaurants in Inverness are not really Indian so it is not all that easy to find genuine Indian food. Being vegetarians, our options are limited and I usually go for sag aloo or bhindi bhaji and dal. Although the menu would say tadka dal, it would not usually have the traditional tadka. However, I must say that it tastes quite nice and different from the usual dal recipe. If you are a vegetarian or even a non-vegetarian conscious of calories, then you would appreciate the need to have lentils and pulses in our everyday diet. Adding them to sambar and rasam is a good option however, it is probably not for everyone. Knowing a number of different dal dishes I think would come in handy and you could be surprised by how many different flavours you could impart to these otherwise bland ingredient. This recipe was my attempt to re-create the restaurant dal and my husband’s feedback (he is the one who likes their dal more than me) was that I had outdone them. My honest opinion is also the same. In my earlier attempt to reproduce the dish, I was not very successful as I used garlic powder. Over time, I think my cooking skills are maturing so after recently tasting the dal, I figured it must be garlic paste that imparts that flavour. Bingo! I added wee bit of coriander powder and amchur powder (dry mango powder) as the latter imparts some sour flavour. This is optional though. It is a very simple dish best served with freshly steamed rice and sabji or chapattis.

1-2 teaspoons garlic paste (depending on how garlicky you like)
½ teaspoon chopped ginger
½ cup tuvar dal (pigeon peas)
¼ cup mung dal
3 green chillies
2 tablespoon finely chopped coriander leaves
½ teaspoon coriander powder
¼ teaspoon amchur powder (dry mango powder)
Turmeric powder
Cooking oil
1 teaspoon ghee
1 small onion, sliced

Cook the dals together with turmeric powder ensuring the dal is mushy. I also ran my hand blender so it was well mashed but this purely depends on your preference

Heat little oil and add the onions and brown. You could add a couple of pinches of sugar so it helps caramelise and brown. Keep aside

Add bit more oil and ghee and once hot, add the garlic paste (mine was rather coarse paste), ginger, green chillies and fry well until browned and ensure raw smell goes

Add dal, required water, salt, chopped coriander, coriander powder, amchur and simmer for about 10 minutes stirring often and adding water as needed

Garnish with browned onions and serve hot

Bran Orange Cranberry Muffin

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:47:00 +0000

Bran Orange Cranberry Muffin

I am trying to figure out ways to use up the bran in my pantry and what better than sneak this fibre into a muffin. I think that is one of the most pleasant ways to consume bran. Like always, I tried to reduce the use of refined flour and used more wholewheat flour and ofcourse did not use butter but used oil instead. The orange zest and juice both gave a refreshing flavour and it was so great to bite into those cranberries every mouthful. I try to keep the ingredients and procedure simple because it makes the baking experience less of a hassle and gives time to clean up. I have always observed that whenever people have something like chocolate muffin as a snack, it is the fat and sugar in it that fills them but this muffin will keep you full with real good stuff like wheat, bran and ofcourse cranberries. Here is my way of doing it (about 10-12 muffins)...

½ cup bran
¾ cup wheat flour
½ cup all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sunflower oil
½ cup chopped dried cranberries
¾ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
Zest of one orange, grated
About ½ cup water

Mix together the bran, flours, sugar and baking powder

Pour the orange juice in a saucepan and add the cranberries and mildly heat for about five minutes to plump up the cranberries. You could skip this step and add both directly

Pour the orange juice with cranberry, oil, orange zest and mix until combined. Add water as required to make a batter to spooning consistency

Pour into muffin moulds (greased if using non-silicone ones) and sprinkle a pinch of raw sugar on each of them and bake in a preheated oven at 180degC for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes clean

Transfer to cooling rack before you start enjoying this yummy and healthy snack

Mavu Laddu (Maa Laddu/Payatham Maavu laddoo)

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:57:00 +0000

Mavu Laddu (Maa Laddu)

As far as I have seen most grandmothers of people of my generation have been stay at home ladies. I do not like to use the word housewife or homemaker because I think they both understate the amount of work they did. Anyway, reason I talk about grandmothers is that usually they make such yummy dishes that are quite traditional as well. Very often there is a medicinal value attached to these dishes and sometimes they can be pure indulgence. Either way, they taste great. I have always wondered if I would be able to churn out dishes like my grandmothers and mother. My maternal grandmother would make Mavu Laddu (Mavu is flour and laddu refers to a sweet ball). She would normally use besan (chickpea flour) but sometimes use mung dal flour as my husband prefers the latter. They would literally melt in the mouth and you could easily lose count of how many you have had. I am now faced with an enormous task of using up stuff from my pantry as the shelves have begun to sag now and I know that this is the limit. I am hoping that in the next 6-8 weeks I manage to clear out most of it and one such ingredient was roasted mung dal flour. I also had half a packet of butter sitting on the counter (softening as I was hoping to make some biscuits the previous day). When you put these two things together, comes the wonderful laddu. Quick call to Chennai to clarify the recipe and there came the yummy laddus. It is not difficult to make them and does not involve non stop stirring etc. but the hard part is making the balls while the mixture is still hot. They will not hold together once cooled too much. Despite the fact that I am used to ‘not entirely white collar’ job, it was quite hot. Anyway, the ghee would heal the wounds :)

1 ½ cups mung dal flour
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup ghee, melted
Few cashew nuts

Heat little ghee and roast the flour until raw smell goes. I had bought roasted flour but still chose to roast it to wake it up and be sure

Heat couple of spoons of ghee and fry the cashews until golden. Melt the remaining ghee

Grind together the sugar and the flour in a mixie/food processor

Add this to the ghee cashew mixture and gradually add ghee and keep mixing until it gets to a consistency where if you make a ball with some of the mixture it holds firmly. Ofcourse a little bit more ghee will only make it even more yummy. Note that the mixture should not be on fire while carrying out this process

Bare the heat and make laddu of desired size, cool and enjoy them!

Paneer and Vegetable Kurma

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:33:00 +0000

Paneer and Vegetable Kurma

I am not sure why I end up postponing the use of paneer and leave it almost to the use by date. This time again, I had a pack of paneer that I had to finish off soon and was looking for a good but different paneer dish. Sometimes the downside with paneer dishes could be the fact that it lacks vegetables other than onion and tomato. I wanted to ensure we get a good load of vegetables along with the paneer. While browsing Tarla Dalal’s website, I found this rather simple kurma recipe and seemed like exactly what I was looking for. I made ever so tiny tweaks like not grinding the chillies separate and including it with onion but otherwise the recipe was fairly simple and stuck with it. If you would like to keep the fat down, you could use semi-skimmed milk instead of whole milk. I had made a fresh batch of garam masala and this was the first dish I made with it. As it was homemade, the quantity of masala needed is so much lesser than what I would add from a store bought packet. This recipe will serve two and I was glad that the dish was all gone quickly. Here is the recipe…

½ cup cubed paneer
1 large onion, pureed
3 green chillies, pureed along with onions
3 cloves
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 green cardamoms
1 cup milk
2-3 cups of mixed vegetables like peas, carrot, cauliflower, babycorn, beans
½ bell pepper, chopped
Handful of coriander leaves
1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
½ teaspoon garam masala
Salt to taste
Cooking oil

Heat some oil in a kadai and add the cumin seeds, cloves, cardamom, bay leaf

After the seeds brown, add the onion chilly paste, ginger garlic paste and fry stirring often. After about five minutes add little water so it does not burn. Fry until the raw smell goes away

Add the vegetables including bell pepper, half the milk, about half cup water and cook on low flame until vegetables turn tender

Now add paneer, salt, garam masala and rest of the milk and simmer for about five minutes

Add coriander leaves and serve hot with roti/rice.

Almond Maizemeal Shortbread

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:23:00 +0000

Almond Maizemeal Shortbread

One of the dishes associated with Scotland is shortbread biscuits. These are quite simple to make and usually call for three ingredients – flour, sugar, butter. The sight of the cows here would explain how good the quality of butter is and these shortbreads come out so tasty. However, I was looking for rather healthy versions of baked goods. I have trying quite hard to find nice baked recipes which would not do much harm to us but on the other hand satiate cravings as well as provide nutrition. I have come across quite a few who believe that they would rather do the full fat/calorie version and enjoy small portion of it rather than a low fat/calorie version. I find it hard mainly because most of the times we underestimate how calorie rich some ingredients are and the ‘allowable’ portion size is usually far smaller than what we allow ourselves. Also, I think baking is a great way to add few ingredients that may not be that handy or delish in normal cooking. I ordered couple of vegan books with baking recipes and now beginning to try them. This original recipe is from the book Vegan Baking by Linda Majzlik and I just changed it by using butter instead of vegan margarine. The shortbread is rather crumbly so it needs to be handled with care and has to be cooled completely. Maizemeal is rich in dietary fibre, protein, vitamin B6, magnesium and omega 6 oils, vital for good heart, optimal bowel functions and fight against infections. Although the pack I used said fine maizemeal, it was a bit like semolina so I am guessing if it was as fine as flour, it will be less crumbly. Anyway, this came out very well (much to my relief as otherwise so much almonds would have gone a waste) so I am sharing it so even wheat intolerant people can enjoy shotbread.

1 cup maizemeal (100gm)
1 cup ground almond (100gm)
½ cup brown sugar (50gm)
½ teaspoon almond essence
3 tablespoons milk
50gm butter, softened

Combine maizemeal, ground almond, brown sugar and butter

Add almond essence and milk and mix well. This will form a rather flaky dough

Spoon this into a lined oven proof dish and spread so it is about 3/4th inch think and cut into 8 triangles. I used a piece of baking paper to flatten the mixture as it could be sticky

Bake in a preheated oven at 180degC for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown, then cut again as they would have kind of joined together

Let it cool in the dish for a bit and then carefully transfer to cooling rack and serve once completely cool

Stuffed Ridgegourd

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:32:00 +0000

Stuffed Ridgegourd

Of the many hard to come by vegetables in the region I live in, ridgegourd is one. I have written about this wonderful vegetable in a previous post. One day when I was pretty aimlessly browsing the internet I came across many stuffed ridgegourd recipes and then I thought I should make some myself. During my recent visit to England I managed to get hold of some of these goodies and first thing I tried after returning home was stuffed ridgegourd. My husband is usually not very fond of such stuffed vegetables so it was pretty much me that I was cooking for. I used 2 ridgegourds while the filling could yield 3-4 large ridgegourds. I was left with extra filling which I later used with chayote squash. I had no problem finishing off all that I made as it was really tasty.

2 tablespoons peanuts, roasted
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 onion, chopped
3 dry red chillies
Piece of ginger
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
Few curry leaves
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
Asafoetida
3-4 ridgegourds
Cooking oil

Heat some oil in a pan and fry the onions for couple of minutes

Add the coriander seeds and red chillies and fry for couple of minutes

Add the ginger and sesame seeds and fry until aromatic

Keep aside and grind to paste along with curry leaves, salt, turmeric powder and peanuts

Peel the ridgegourd and cut into about 1.5 inch long pieces. Try to scoop some of the seeds out using a bread knife so you make some room for the stuffing

Fill the ridgegourds with the stuffing. You can smear the left over filling on the vegetable

Heat some oil and add mustard seeds and once they crackle, add turmeric powder and asafoetida. Add the stuffed veggies and sprinkle some salt, cook covered until done (about 20-25 minutes)

Serve with rice or chapatti

Surprise Orange Muffin (Eggless)

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:45:00 +0000

Surprise Orange Muffin

If you are a regular reader of my blog, then you probably have read a number of times that I am working on my baking skills as it is new to me. I would classify myself as a beginner in baking and everytime I come across a beautiful recipe, be it a cake or a muffin or dessert, I usually think to myself that I should just try that recipe to the letter. Then I do gather the courage to get to the kitchen and grab all required ingredients and put them on the counter. Then I see the big portion of butter that the recipe calls for sitting on one side; a cup of sugar now begins to look like a mountain of sugar and the white flour is all the more white now. After all this reality hits me, I give up on the original recipe and end up with more of ‘my’ version of low fat recipe. I have heard quite a few people say that they do not realise how much sugar and butter goes into a cake unless you make one. As I say, I almost never manage to make a full fat version. If I have people over for a meal and I do chose to make a cake or something, I try to stick to my low fat version because most of the times I feel bad if I serve someone fatty food while I do not eat it myself. Having said that, it is beyond doubt that the taste has to be perfect if not, I will not serve it. Anyway, with all this background, I wanted to make a really quick cake to take to a family that had invited us for dashera. I wanted it to be different so thought I will have some jam filling. I was planning on getting a smaller cake tin but never got to it so had to change to cup cakes instead. That meant the fillings could go along with the batter and one could bite into the jam filling inside. I used fresh orange juice in the batter itself as the flavour complemented the jam. It had that citrus burst and felt so fresh. I have also made this with nutella filling and my family loved it as well. I really loved this recipe and it certainly is a keeper. Hope you like it too…

¾ cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
¾ cup caster sugar
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoon water
¼ cup oil (I used sunflower oil)
Jam of your choice for filling (half to 1 teaspoon per muffin)

Mix all dry ingredients together

Add all wet ingredients to dry ones and mix until combined. The batter should be to pouring consistency

Fill half the muffin moulds with the batter and spoon some jam in the middle. Then cover with more batter and ensure you do not fill more than ¾ of the mould. Put the muffin moulds on a tray and gently tap the tray

Bake in a preheated oven at 180degC for 20-25 minutes

Apple Halwa

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:05:00 +0000

Apple Halwa

Somehow I seem to have been left with atleast a couple of packs of apple to consume. I am not one of those that can just grab an apple and snack on it as I like them cut into bite size pieces. Ofcourse, one needs time and energy to do that so you guessed it right, I seldom have apples. I have tried a few milkshakes with apple and intend to post some of those recipes sometimes. For now, I came across some apple halwa recipes and thought now is probably a good idea to try it. It is a mix and match of few recipes I came across online and the good thing is it does not needs cups of sugar. I absolutely loved the result although was a bit disappointed that it did not have the same consistency as tirunelveli halwa or something, in the sense that despite me trying to slice them, the slices were not firm. So these would be best serve in cups with spoon like carrot halwa. The combination of the almonds with the sweetness and mild tartness from the apples was fabulous. Here is how I made it...

3 apples, peeled and ground to paste
3 tablepsoon sugar
2 teaspoons ghee
2 teaspoons flaked almonds or any other nuts of choice
2 tablespoon milk powder

Heat a saucepan and add the ground apples with a spoon of ghee. Cook until almost all moisture has evaporated stirring frequently

Add the milk powder and mix well

Add sugar and flaked almonds and mix well and cook until it all comes together. Add little more ghee and cook until it all comes together like a ball

Serve!

Iron Rich Yogurt Drink

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:30:00 +0000

Iron Rich Yogurt Drink

Couple of years back, around the same time I was wondering how I could share my thoughts on food, healthy eating, some indulgence, my recipes, traditional recipes so they do not get lost etc. Then with help from my husband, I started this blog and it has been absolutely wonderful having a platform to write and also have readers read and feedback. I was always keen on eating sensibly and am a firm believer that good food can be quite healing in both preventing and curing ways. The more I realised that I could influence my state of health, and ofcourse that of the family, via food that we intake, the more interested I became in what exactly goes into the food. This is one of the reasons I wanted to learn more about ayurvedic science behind food and understand how I could make advantage of the medicinal properties of several wonderful ingredients yet create yummy dishes that taste nothing like a horrible cough syrup. As a first step I bought couple of books and this recipe is from one of them, The Ayurvedic Cooking by Amadea Morningstar and Urmila Desai. This does not involve any cooking and is pretty simple and is an excellent breakfast drink that could keep you going for a good while. Several people suffer from iron deficiency and resort to supplements in the form of tablets. One of the painful side effects of iron supplement is constipation. On the contrary, this drink is rich in iron but also mildly laxative due to its fibre content. It does not have to be sweetened as the natural sugars in its ingredients are adequate but that is a personal choice. By no means will this taste like medicine because it is indeed quite a tasty drink. I do not believe in New year resolutions as there is no bad time to do good things so why wait till new year. However, I thought several people believe in it and for those who would like to give 2012 a healthy start, here is my little help. Wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year!

¼ cup raisins
4 dried figs/peaches/apricots
1 cup water
½ cup yogurt

Soak the raisins and figs/apricot/peaches in water overnight

Blend all ingredients together to make a smooth drink

Serves 1-2

Paneer Kali Mirch Masala

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:35:00 +0000

Paneer Kali Mirch Masala

Just as I was looking for a paneer recipe, I came across this one on a television program. With the ingredients being quite simple and readily available, I prepared this for dinner the same night. I must say that the dish turned out to be superb. It has a few levels of flavour that slowly unravels as you bite, chew and swallow. The dish was even better than most paneer dishes served in many restaurants. The combination of paneer and black pepper was surprisingly wonderful.

1 cup cubed paneer
1 large onion, chopped
2 green chillies
2 tablespoon cashew nuts, soaked
1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
¾ cup curd/yogurt
¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon coriander powder
½ teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon black pepper powder
¼ teaspoon chilly powder
½ teaspoon kasoori methi
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 bay leaf
Salt to taste
Cooking oil

Heat little oil in a kadai and fry the onions

Add green chillies and ginger garlic paste and cook until raw smell goes

Cool and grind to smooth paste along with the soaked cashew nuts

Heat some oil and add the cumin seeds and bay leaf

Once cumin browns add the ground paste and cook until most of the moisture is gone and it all comes together

Add turmeric, coriander, cumin, chilly and black pepper powders, mix well and fry for couple of minutes. Add little water if needed (I cleaned up my mixie jar and added some water from it)

Add yogurt and kasoori methi and allow to simmer

Add paneer, salt and simmer for about 5 minutes stirring frequently

Add chopped coriander leaves and milk and simmer for about 10 minutes stirring frequently

Serve!

Milagu Sadam (Black pepper rice)

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:35:00 +0000

Milagu Sadam (Black pepper rice)

This winter, although a rather mild one compared to the last few, has been quite a challenge for me. I have been down with sinusitis almost everyday and even stepping out very briefly puts me down for the next couple of days. Whether it is due to this constant cold or whatever, I have been resorting to black pepper in a number of dishes. I must say that earlier I was not too fond of black pepper as it did not have the same kick as chilly, atleast not for me. It has however come very handy this winter and I seem to enjoy the dishes made with it. This particular recipe, I came across on a television program and immediately made note of it. Again, it is not one of the programs that I would usually try recipes from but this I thought was ideal considering my head was throbbing in pain. The result was very good and seemed to serve the purpose. I think it is the dry ginger, sukku, that helped clear my headache sooner and the heat from the pepper help decongest. I did not fry the tamarind too long as it could destroy the vitamin C in it. One of the most important benefits of black pepper is its impact on the digestive system. It helps the body secrete hydrochloric acid so food is digested promptly, else food could sit in the stomach for long and cause heart burn or move to intestine and cause flatulence. It can also trigger appetite and also promote urination. It is also said to have anti-oxidants. Both pepper and dry ginger help promote sweating thus making them helpful while suffering from cold. After so much discussion about the benefits of the ingredients, I must say that it tasted wonderful too. I had it along with nellikai pachadi (gooseberry raita). Here is the recipe...

2 tablespoon black peppercorns
2 dry red chillies
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
An inch long piece of dry ginger (sukku)
Couple of flakes of tamarind
1 teaspoon channa dal
1 teaspoon urd dal
Salt to taste
Asafoetida
Gingelly oil (preferred as it cools the body)
Curry leaves
Few cashew nuts

Heat a pan and add black pepper and red chilly. Roast for a minute and add the dry ginger then again a minute later add the cumin seeds and tamarind and roast until seeds pop. Cool and grind to powder

Heat couple of spoons of gingelly oil and add the channa dal, asafoetida and urd dal. A minute later add the cashew nuts and fry until they all turn golden. Add curry leaves

Add the ground powder and fry briefly

Add rice and required salt and mix well. I added about half the quantity of powder and mixed just enough rice to serve one.

Serve with a raita/pachadi or with yogurt

Tikkar Paratha

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:44:00 +0000

Tikkar Paratha

I love parathas and enjoy experimenting and trying various varieties of parathas. However my better half does not enjoy them so I make them only when I have to make something for myself. I saw this recipe on a television program and made a note of it in my to try list and finally found the opportunity to make it. One of the interesting things about this recipe is it uses cornmeal (this is not the same as corn flour) which has been sitting in my pantry for a while. This could make a single dish meal with just yogurt and pickle. The addition of cornmeal would normally mean you cannot roll the parathas with neat edge and they will look a bit cracked, that is quite normal. Just like the presenter of the show, Anitha, explained, dab of ghee does make a difference to this dish. I normally do not smear oil or ghee on the parathas but this was an exception. Ghee in moderate quantities is good for the body so I used my allowance for that day. I noticed that maida/all purpose flour was more suitable for dusting than wheat flour itself. It was a lovely paratha that is certainly worth trying.

1 cup wheat flour
½ cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
2 green chillies, finely chopped
2 tablespoon coriander leaves, finely chopped
½ teaspoon chilly powder
1 grated onion
Salt to taste
Mix all ingredients together and add required water to make soft dough like that of chapatti and rest it for 10 minutes

Divide into about 5 equal sized balls and roll each one into thick chapattis. I found all purpose flour to be ideal for dusting

Cook both sides (once you see bubbles, flip, cook, again once you see bubbles flip, press) on a heated tava and smear ghee on both sides

Serve with yogurt and pickle

Methi Mutter Malai

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:30:00 +0000

Methi Mutter Malai

Holiday season usually means a bit of indulgence when it comes to food. Visiting friends and also having some over are usually some opportunities to spoil ourselves. It does not have to be too bad though because I think one can make real yummy dishes without having to add an awful lot of fat. This dish can be made very rich and high in calories by using double creamand also some butter however I chose to let go of some fat but not the flavours. The fenugreek leaves lend great flavour to this dish and makes me wish I could have unlimited access to this wonderful ingredient. Instead of using cream, I used milk and simmered for a while so it thickens somewhat. For garnish I just used a spoon of yogurt. It was very yummy with chapatti and will taste good with rice. Will serve about 3-4 people.

3 cups chopped methi (about 1.5 bunches of fenugreek leaves)
2 tomatoes, finely chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoon cashewnuts
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
2 green chillies
1 cup peas
½ teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
¼ teaspoon garam masala
½ teaspoon chilly powder
Turmeric powder
½ cup milk
Salt to taste
Cooking oil

Heat oil and add the onions and couple of minutes later, add chillies, garlic and ginger

Once onion is half done, add the tomatoes and cashews and cook until mushy. Keep aside and allow to cool and then grind to paste

Heat a kadai and add oil, add the methi leaves and allow to wilt

Add the peas and little water and cook until peas is done

Add the ground paste, cumin powder, coriander powder, salt, turmeric powder, garam masala, chilly powder and some water and allow to boil so raw smell goes away. Stir every now and then as cashew is a thickner and settles to bottom

Add the milk and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring every now and then

Serve!

Eggless Christmas Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:17:00 +0000

Eggless Christmas Cake

We do not normally celebrate Christmas but this year I decided to indulge in baking which is typical of this holiday season. I have been lucky to use up my holidays and get some extra time on hand so decided to experiment few recipes. My husband loves the fruit cake that they sell in the stores at this time of the year. It is loaded with nuts, dry fruits and some spices. I wanted to try something similar and also to make it more christmasy wanted to add some booze. However, I always like to sick to my principles, so went for non-alcoholic red wine. I looked up few recipes but somehow none of them clicked so came up with my version using some online recipes as inspiration. I had to cut down on the nuts to keep it toddler safe and also cut down on butter to make it a touch less unhealthy. We were visiting some of my brother’s friends and as they do not eat eggs, I preferred to make eggless version. I quite liked the outcome as the consistency was quite similar to what they ought to be and also they looked and tasted similar to the traditional counterpart. So, with my best wishes for this holiday season, Christmas and New Year, here is the recipe...

3 cups self rising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup raisin
1 cup currants
1 tablespoon mixed peel
½ chopped dates
2 teaspoons all spice powder
Little salt
120gm butter
¾ cup cooking oil (preferably sunflower oil)
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup brandy/alcohol free wine
1 1/3 cup water plus another ¼ cup water
Chopped nuts like pecans/almond

Bring 1 1/3 cup water to boil and turn the flame off. Add the sugar, currants, peels, raisins, dates and bring back to boil and cook open for 5 minutes. Allow to cool a little

Add butter to this and combine and allow to cool wee bit

In a mixing bowl, bring together the flour, the spice powder, baking powder, salt and mix

Add the water and dry fruits mixture, vanilla extract, oil, wine/brandy and little water to make a batter and also add the nuts

Add chopped figs preserved in syrup

Once fully combined, add the vinegar and mix. Put the batter into a greased 24cm baking tin and bake in a preheated oven at 190degc for 30 minutes and at 180degC for further 30 minutes. One could put a foil wrap on top at about 40 minutes into the baking process to prevent scorching but I chose not to, instead I cut the top layer of the cake to make an even surface.

Orange Cake with Caramel Topping (Eggless)

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:31:00 +0000

Orange Cake with Caramel Topping (eggless)

This year somehow the holiday season has caught on to me as well. Like many, I feel like I need to bake many goodies but the rational side of me says they still have to be as healthy or as less unhealthy as possible. I had some oranges that I had to use up so thought of making an orange cake. I had made orange based muffin (which I am yet to blog about) sometime back and did fancy something orangey. I found a butterless version of orange cake here, adapted the same and wanted to jazz it up with a caramelised topping. The only thing that went wrong was with how well I clamped my springform cake tin. Apparently I had not done it well so some of my caramel dripped making the centre look like there was no caramel. The cake was great in texture and taste and all at home just loved it. It is not common for a non-chocolate cake to go down well in my family but this was a clear winner. I realised I did not have enough orange to get one cup of juice so I added some orange extract. You could avoid it if you have a cup of orange juice. Add the vinegar only at the end just before pouring into the mould. Unlike what I did, try to avoid cutting the cake until completely cool. Had I waited long enough, the slice would have been a lot more neat. Anyway, it tasted really yummy so that is all that matters.

Caramel topping:
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoon water
2 tablespoon butter

Add sugar and water in a saucepan and heat while stirring until the sugar dissolves

Stop stirring and allow the sugar to caramelise, you know it is done when it turns amber coloured

Turn flame off, add the butter and combine by swirling the pan and not stirring

Slice oranges and arrange at the bottom of the cake tin lined with baking paper

Pour the caramel over and swirl the tin to evenly spread it

Orange cake:
1 cup all purpose flour
½ cup wholewheat flour
1/3 cup ground almonds
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon soda bicarbonate
1 cup sugar
½ cup orange juice (or 1 cup orange juice and no water)
½ cup water
½ teaspoon orange extract (skip if using 1 cup orange juice)
2 teaspoon vinegar
1/3 cup sunflower oil

Sift flour, baking powder and soda bicarb together

Add ground almonds and sugar and mix well

Add all wet ingredients except the vinegar. Mix until combined. Add the vinegar and mix

Pour the batter over the orange and caramel and bake at 180degc for 30 minutes (until a tooth pick inserted come out clean)

Never keep opening the oven while the cake is baking as this will stop the cake from rising

Cool the cake in the tin for 5 minutes and then transfer to cooling rack and cool completely before cutting

Serve!

Babycorn Manchurian

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 08:02:00 +0000

Babycorn Manchurian

I love Manchurian, especially the cauliflower but do not like the fact that it is deep fried so I have never made that version. I came across this babycorn manchurian recipe on a television program and put it in my to try list as it did not involve deep frying and also made use of an ingredient in my pantry that I seldom use. It was vegetable stock cube, I have kept an organic pack of cubes handy mainly because my husband likes a claypot dish that pretty much needs just few vegetables and stock cube. The cubes I have are MSG free and I prefer to keep things additive free for health reasons. I was trying to keep the menu for the day simple so chose to make this Manchurian to go with vegetable egg fried rice. I love babycorns and when I found that I could get frozen ones at much lesser cost, I kept ordering one pack very other week. This recipe, like many Chinese recipes, calls for finely chopped garlic and ginger instead of ginger garlic paste. The dish came out very well and tasted like the Chinese food that one would get in Chinese restaurants in India. Here is the recipe...

10-12 babycorn, slit
1 bunch spring onions
1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cube vegetable stock
1 tablespoon soya sauce
1 heaped teaspoon corn flour
1 teaspoon black pepper powder
Salt if required
Cooking oil
Heat some oil and add the ginger, garlic and spring onions, sauté until it wilts

Add babycorns and sprinkle some water and cook until babycorn is just done

Add the vegetable stock cube, soya sauce, about two cups water and boil

Add the cornflour and let it thicken while simmering

Add blackpepper powder and boil for couple of minutes

Check for salt and add only if needed as the stock cube and soya sauce also have some salt in them

Serve hot

Hariyali Chawal (Coriander Rice)

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 10:41:00 +0000

Hariyali Chawal

Making variety rice usually makes my job simpler and sometimes I chose very simple rice dish so that I can make a nice and spicy gravy on the side. I recently saw the Hariyali chawal recipe on Tarla Dalal’s website and thought it was simple yet packed with flavours. Also, I had two bunches of coriander leaves to use up so it was an ideal choice for our lunch. Also, coriander leaves are rich in vitamin C and as this recipe does not call for cooking the leaves, it keeps the heat sensitive vitamin C intact. Being winter, it is absolutely important to keep the immune system upto scratch and vitamin C is very important for that. It also has plenty of vitamin K and A. The latter helps prevent oral and lung cancer as it helps keep healthy mucus membranes. A simple recipe packed with so much goodness, the browned onions used as garnish added so much taste to the dish that I later thought I should have put more of it...

1 cup rice, rinsed and soaked for 20 minutes
4 cloves
3 cardamom pods
1 star anise
2-3 pieces of cinnamon
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
1 onion, finely chopped
Salt to taste
1 cup coriander leaves, finely chopped
Cooking oil
½ onion, sliced

Heat some oil and add the cloves, star anise, cardamom, cinnamon and peppercorns

Once they get big and crackle, add onions and fry until soft

Add the drained rice and mix well.

Add required water and salt (I added 2 cups water for 1 cup rice),pressure cook for three whistles or how you would normally cook the rice

Fluff up the rice with fork so you do not break the grains and add the coriander leaves

Heat a kadai and add some oil and brown the sliced onion and use as garnish. You could do this at the very start to save some time and not having to use another kadai, however, I did not want any brownish colour passed to my rice so fried the onion before starting the side dish

Serve

Arbi/Seppankezhangu Podimas (Taro Root/Colocasia with spicy powder)

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:01:00 +0000

Arbi/Seppankezhangu Podimas (Taro Root/Colocasia with spicy powder)

There are some vegetables that are called ‘naatu kai’ and that simply means it belongs to that particular place. Back home such vegetables include snake gourd, chayote squash ash gourd, arbi etc. Beans, potatoes, carrots etc. are considered ‘english’ vegetables. When I was in India, I had taken the native vegetables for granted but once I moved to Scotland, I was quite shocked to barely find any of the wonderful vegetables I was used to. So every visit to an Indian grocery shop (which was once in a quarter), I will try to get as many vegetables as possible. That week would be exciting because I will recreate many yummy dishes that my mom and grandmothers used to do prepare and enjoy them. On a recent visit to my brother’s place, I got to make this arbi podimas and again because I seldom get arbi around where I live, it was a treat and did not miss my opportunity to photograph the steps. Here is the recipe...

20-25 numbers of small arbi
Cooking oil
1 teaspoon tamarind puree diluted in 2-3 tablespoons of water
Turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Curry leaves
Couple of pinches of dessicated coconut/freshly grated coconut
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
Asafoetida

For powder:
3 tablespoons channa dal
2 tablespoon coriander seeds (dhania)
4 dry red chillies
Cooking oil

Wash arbi well as it could be covered with mud. Steam them until a knife would comfortably slide in

Allow to cool so it is easy to handle, then peel the skin

In the meantime heat little oil in a kadai and roast the channa dal until golden brown then coriander seeds until aromatic and dry red chillies until they begin to change colour. Keep aside to cool and powder

Once powder is ready and arbi is peeled, heat oil in a kadai and add mustard seeds. After it splutters add asafoetida and turmeric powder

Add the arbi, if some of them are big, cut it else I would put them straight in as they are likely to get mashed when we stir. I cooled the arbi well so they retain their shape and do not get mushy. Add the curry leaves as well

Mix carefully so all the arbi are coated with the oil, mustard seeds and turmeric. Then add the tamarind water and again stir carefully

Fry for 8-10 minutes and then add salt and the ground powder and mix well. Roast for 10 minutes adding little more oil if needed

Serve!

Rasagulla

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:20:00 +0000

Rasagulla

I don’t have a sweet tooth really so making sweets will usually mark a special occasion or arrival of some guests. This time though it was a visit to my brother’s place that called for a sweet to be made plus. I chose to make rasagulla as he likes them a lot and also because it would help me use up a large portion of the 4 pints organic milk I was trying to finish up before we fly. The recipe per se is simple and similar to rasamalai the key difference being that this will remain in the sugar syrup. The quantity of sugar mentioned is only for people like me but if you have a sweet tooth then increase to 2 ½ cups of sugar. The texture of the rasagulla came out very well and more importantly they all held well without breaking down in the sugar syrup. This will be possible only if the kneading is done properly and the balls as rolled do not have any cracks.

5 cups milk
1 ½ to 2 cups sugar
4-5 glasses water
Lime juice

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, add couple of tablespoons water and add the milk. The water supposedly helps prevent the milk sticking to the bottom

When milk is about to boil, add the lime juice so it coagulates to form the paneer

Drain this, run under cold water so it is easier to handle and also the lime flavour goes away and squeeze out as much water as possible

Knead well by hand to make it like dough

Make equal sized balls (about 12 to 14 numbers) ensuring there are no cracks

In the meantime heat the sugar and water, starting with four cups of water. Make sure it begins to boil

Add the prepared balls and cook covered for about 5 minutes. Check to see if more water is needed, if so, add half a glass. It is important that the water remains boiling so do not add too much extra. The balls will double in size so make sure there is enough room in the saucepan, about 5-8 more minutes cooked covered
You know it is done when the balls float and are almost double the original size.

Serve with the sugar syrup

Jam Biscuit

noreply@blogger.com (Veena) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:51:00 +0000

Jam Biscuit

I had written up a post for a traditional Bengali sweet dish and thought of making it my 250th recipe. However, during a conversation with my mom she asked me casually if it was the traditional recipe or I had given any twist. Then I realised that that particular post does not quite carry my stamp. I was also delighted with my baking trial the very same day so decided to share that joy as the 250th recipe. I had been meaning to make a jam sandwich biscuit for a while and finally managed to do so as I had to keep up my promise to the wee one. I did not want to load it with maida i.e. all purpose flour so decided to go whole wheat flour for most of it. Then came the idea of ground almonds as it is extremely good for health and also in the ground form makes it safe for wee ones to eat. I learned while watching Great British Bake off that ground almonds increases shelf life of baked products. In order to not compromise on the texture I did not reduce the butter an awful lot but used little less sugar than normal as the jam would add some sweetness too. It is recommended that jam be applied after baking else the biscuit may get soggy. I also kept the jam at room temperature hoping it will not contribute to sogginess of the biscuit. The biscuits came out grand and it was difficult to stop with just one. I am extremely pleased with my baking exercise and gives me confidence that I can come up with healthy and yummy baked dishes.

I would like to thank all my readers for your support and encouragement, without which I am not sure if I would have reached this milestone of 250 recipes. THANK U!

1 cup butter
1 cup wheat flour
½ cup ground almonds
½ cup all purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
Few teaspoons milk, as required
Jam (seedless) as required

Cream the sugar and butter together. It is important that the butter is soft so leave it at room temperature long enough

Add the wheat flour, all purpose flour, ground almonds and make a dough. If measured correctly, you may not need any milk, but if the dough still does not come together add a teaspoon of milk at a time and knead just until dough comes together. At one point the dough will hold together if held in your hands but fall apart when dropped and at the next stage it will just hold together. It will not be soft like chapatti dough.

If the butter has melted making the dough difficult to handle, refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. The temperature in my place is quite low so I only rested the dough at room temperature for 10 minutes.

Take a portion of the dough and roll into about disc of about 4-5mm thick

Cut to desired shape using a cookie cutter and for each one cut another cookie with a hole in the centre. Place in a baking tray lined with greaseproof baking paper. Prick the whole biscuits with fork as you do not want this base biscuit to rise too much

Bake in a preheated oven at 180degC for about 8 minutes or until edge start browning

Transfer to cooling rack and cool completely

Apply some jam on whole biscuit and cover with biscuit with hole in the middle

Serve!