This month Tongue Ticklers completed four years on the web. To mark the big occasion (a big one for me!) I had initially thought of having a giveaway of some of my photo prints. Around the same I found that Siri was organizing a fund-raising event to raise money for Vaidehi Ashram, a home for destitute girls in Hyderabad, India. I have always been close to children and any cause that helps children holds a special place for me. So, this blog anniversary I have decided to provide two of my prints as one of the raffle prizes in the event.

When I got married to P we were sure we would adopt children but Nature decided otherwise.  We were blessed and we treat our children as the highest gift Nature offered us.  But not all children are lucky.  Many are unfortunately left to fend for themselves!  Thankfully, for every evil that exists in Society, there are angels to balance the acts.  Siri’s post on the young girls in Vaidehi Ashram is an eye opener.  Even if we cannot adopt there are many ways in which ordinary people like us can help these angels.  What any ashram needs most is funds to keep it going.  No amount is less.  Every penny counts.  Vaidehi ashram is a place that nurtures injured spirits and rekindles hopes for 108 young girls, aged from 3 to 22.   Most of the children either do not have parents or have a single parent who can no longer take care of them. Each child came with a heavy heart and is taught to live a life of dignity.  I hope we, along with Siri can help raise enough funds to keep the good work in Vaidehi Ashram going, and bring a smile on the faces of many young children like little Samantha.

If you would like to donate for the cause please visit Siri’s blog for more information on how to participate in the event. Many of my blogger friends have sponsored some beautiful items as raffle prize(s)! Make sure you get there fast, before someone else grabs hold of them! Besides you will also help bring hope and happiness to several young girls.  The event begins today, and there are 40 raffle prizes up for grabs, each one more exciting than the other!  Once the donation process is completed, please forward your payment confirmation message to info(dot)siri(at)gmail.com, clearly specifying which raffle prize(s) you are interested in. For any correspondence/questions/queries, email Siri at the address mentioned above.

Some of the photographs being offered have appeared on my blog at various times.  Some are fresh and unpublished.  Please check my picasa gallery or facebook if you would like to pick them up!  I have placed captions for each photograph in both the galleries.

Follow Siri’s directions in her post above to seal the deal!  Here’s wishing Siri mega-success in this thoughtful venture.

A peek into the album – please remember that my code is RW2

(You can choose the photograph you like after the announcements on 27th February, 2012)

A brief overview of how the Fund Drive will work -

1 raffle ticket = 10$ or 500Rupees

1. For Example – If a donor contributes 50$ or 5000Rs, then he/she can avail 5 raffle tickets which can be used to bid on any of the raffle prizes below. One can use all 5 on one prize (in turn increasing the chances in the lucky draw) or on different raffle prizes. At the very end, a random drawing will be conducted by the Ashram kids to decide who gets each of the raffle prize(s).

2. Those of you, who would like to contribute can choose your raffle prize(s) and after your donations are complete, please send an email to info(dot)siri(at)gmail(dot)com with the raffle prize details that you would like to to bid on.

3. As soon as she receives your email, your name will be added to the “Who all chose this Raffle:” column against the raffle of your choice.

4. Random drawing will be conducted and winners for each of the raffle prizes will be announced on Monday, February 27th 2012.

The original post can be found with pictures at tongueticklers.com. Please visit the site for more tasty recipes and mouthwatering pictures.

My relationship with ‘undhiyo’ is odd.

It started with aversion, probably because I tasted the overly sweet version at Tip-Top.  Tip-Top is a famous chain of restaurants in Thane, and the restaurant serves Gujarati cuisine as part of the menu.  I was once invited for ‘thali lunch’ by a relative, and it took all my will-power to finish the lunch.  I just gobbled everything down and swore off Gujarati dishes!  Sometime later we visited my uncle in Baroda.  He took us to a Gujarati hotel and I was blown off by the taste.  The food was not strewn with jaggery and the hint of sweetness was just right.  After we returned home, I decided that Tip-Top must have been just a one off experience.  I wasn’t a convert yet, but I was brave enough to try ‘undhiyo’ from Prashant Corner, another famous eaterie in Thane.  This time too, sweetness dominated the dish.

I met the perfect undhiyo twice before I learnt to make mine.  Once when we ordered a batch from Crawford Market last year at office, and before, when my neighbour, M Aunty sent me some of her undhiyo.  Only, M Aunty’s was a tad spicier as it contained many masalas I am not used to.  Last year I made undhiyo thrice at home and I got the balance right each time.  I however did not dare to share my recipe as I still wasn’t sure whether it was as good as the original.  Besides, the pictures were not good.  This year, I was brave enough to take my preparation to office.  One of my friends is a Gujarati, brought up in Ahmedabad.  I knew she would be the right person to tell me whether I made the right thing.  She ate a bite, and asked, “Can I take the remaining too?”  I could not believe it!  Then she asked in surprise, “You made this? It tastes exactly like the one we make at home. Authentic, and very tasty!”  To boot that, she actually licked the spoon!  I was in seventh Heaven!  I needed that boost before I could post the recipe here.

Oondhiyo or Undhiyu

Yesterday I made it again.  This time I was confident.  I took photographs.  Unfortunately undhiyo, though extremely tasty is not a photographer’s dream.  The sauce is coarse, the vegetables are a-plenty, there is too much going on in the dish and it is difficult to show it all together in a plate.  I did my best.  No, I am not a discoverer.  I searched and found a recipe by Hemant Trivedi that seemed right to me.  Hemant Trivedi used to publish in a website that is no longer available.  He has recently returned to blogging and is transferring his recipes to his blog.  The recipe for undhiyo is not available as of now but I had saved mine from the site long back.  Please visit his site for some authentic, tasty, Indian recipes.  I tried the recipe exactly as given while starting but went on to make slight changes towards the end till I got what I had tasted.

I am a convert!  I have gone from hate to love.  My family loves the dish now!  And I owe it to the recipe that helped me find my version.

It turns out however that not all Gujarati undhiyo recipes call for jaggery or sugar.  There are basically two regions where ‘undhiyo’ is prepared.  Both regions basically follow the same recipe but they have their distinct touch too.  Surti undhiyo has a generous amount of jaggery in many dishes.  I stuck to Kathiawari as it does not recommend the addition of jaggery.

Undhiyo is a Seasonal dish.  It is made between December and February when fresh greens are available in plenty and many crops are harvested.  The recipe celebrates the abundance of fresh legumes and root vegetables by bring them all together in a rich, coarse sauce made of more greens – coriander and coconut.  The fresh legumes make all the difference.  It is alright if you can’t find all the legumes I used.  Fresh pigeon peas and chickpeas are not available everywhere.  Do not substitute with the dried ones for the fresh ingredients.  Use broad beans or fresh fava beans instead, or any fresh legume found in your region.

Fresh pigeon peas (Lilva tuvar)

One other ingredient I added that is not usually found in most recipes is ‘harbhara’ – fresh green chickpeas.  In Thane, there is only one vegetable vendor who sells the variety of vegetables needed to make undhiyo.  This time I found that he also had freshly harvested chickpeas.  It was his suggestion that I add it to undhiyo.  Since he is a kind old man who knows a lot I could not refuse his advice and bought 50gms of harbhara as well.  The addition did not take away anything.  Maybe it added to the bounty of greens.  The dish is not difficult but involves a lot of preparation time.

Fresh chickpeas (harbhara) and Fresh fava beans (Valor papdi)

My tips:

Pod the legumes the night before.  This takes a long time.  You have to pod fresh pigeon peas (lilva tuvar), broad beans (surti papdi), fava beans/hyacinth beans (valor papdi) and fresh chickpeas (harbhara).  Also remember that even though 100g of each bean may seem too much, after podding, all that remains is about 50g! So it is not actually as much as it seems.

Clean the fenugreek leaves and prepare the dumplings a day or two before you prepare the dish.  The dumplings are called muthias, basically because the rustic procedure involves holding the dough in your palm and pressing by closing your fist (mutthi) around it.  These days, we make oval shapes instead.  You may want to substitute half the gramflour with wheat flour.  I prefer to use only gramflour as my daughter is allergic to wheat.  You can also steam the dumplings instead of deep frying.

I found that undhiyo tastes best when made in generous quantities.  It helps the vegetables take in flavours.  I have used very less oil as compared to the traditional recipe.  Usually it is recommended to deep fry the root vegetables till half done.  I instead baked mine.  I did deep-fry the muthias though.

I used ginger along with ‘ambe halad’ or mango-ginger.  You can only ginger if you cannot find ‘ambe halad’.  I made a bowlful of generous paste using the two gingers, fresh green garlic and green chillies.  I used only a bit in this recipe.

I boil water separately and use this if needed as the vegetables used here are already half-done, and I do not want to bring down the temperature of the preparation half-way through.  This is highly recommended though not mentioned in any recipe.

Recipe: Kathiawari Undhiyo
Recipe adapted from Hemant Trivedi

Yield: Serves 6
[Gluten free, allergen free, side dish, served traditionally with any flatbread]

Ingredients:
To prepare the night before:
The legumes:
Fresh pigeon peas (Lilva tuvar) – 100g (string the beans and pod)
Fresh chickpeas (Harbhara) – 50g (Pod the chickpeas)
Broad beans (Surti papdi) – 100g (String and split the sides of the beans almost till the end but do not separate them)
Fava beans (Valor papdi or fresh val) – 100g (String and pod)

The above can be mixed and stored together

All those legumes together along with tender broad beans behind (Surti papdi)

The muthias [Dumplings]:
Fenugreek leaves [Methi leaves], picked from the stems, rinsed, patted dry between towels, and chopped fine – 1.5 cups
Gramflour [Besan], sifted – ¼ cup [keep ¼ extra if needed]
Ginger-garlic-chilly paste – ½ tsp. [Please refer tips]
Red chilly powder – as per taste
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp.
Asafoetida pdr [Hing] – A pinch
Water – about 2tbsps., or more if needed, to bind
Salt to taste
A pinch of cooking soda [optional, not recommended]
Sugar – ½ tsp. [optional, not recommended]
Oil to deep fry

Mix the ingredients for the muthias into a tight dough. Make balls about the size of marbles or a tad larger. Add more water sparingly if needed. Deep fry in hot oil till browned all over. Drain onto kitchen papers before storing in an air tight container.

The day after:

The root vegetables:
Purple yam (Kand) – 150g approx. [Cut into ¾” inch chunks]
Sweet potatoes – 100g approx. [Cut into ¾” chunks]
Baby potatoes [Dum aloo waale aloo] – 200g approx. [Make a cross on the top and cut halfway down. Do not cut through to the bottom]
Purple baby brinjals – 200g approx. [Cut off the crown. Make a cross on the top and cut halfway down]
Raw banana [Kachha kela] – 1 banana [Cut into three pieces with skin. Make a cross on each piece and cut halfway down]

The Spice mix [Green masala]:
Coriander leaves, cleaned and picked – 4 cups, finely chopped
Ginger-chilly-garlic paste – 1 tbsp., or more as per taste [please refer tips]
Coconut, freshly grated – 2.5 cups [do not use dry coconut]
Clove powder [lavang/laung] – ½ tsp.
Cinnamon powder [dalchini] – ½ tsp.
Roasted coriander powder [dhania pdr.] – 1 tsp.
Roasted cumin powder [jeera pdr.] – 1 tsp.
Salt to taste
Amchur [Dry mango pdr.] – If needed – as per taste
Lemon juice – 1 tbsp.

Oil – 4 tablespoons [Yes, this is astonishingly less than the preparation traditionally calls for]
Fennel seeds [ajwain] – 1tsp.

Mix all the ingredients for the spice mix together, except the lemon and amchur. If gratings are fine and leaves are chopped fine, there is no need to grind. If not, grind the ingredients together into a coarse paste. It must have a good crunch and texture. Do not grind into a paste. The dish will not taste the same. Once ground, taste and add lemon juice and amchur according to your taste. I like mine to have a good dose of acidity and 1 tbsp. of lemon juice agrees with me. I keep the dry mango powder as an emergency and use it at the end, if I find the flavours imbalanced. This should yield about 2.5 cups of masala. You can add a few tablespoons of water if needed.

Method:

Thaw the prepared muthias and legumes next morning and keep aside till needed.

Stuff the slit vegetables with some of the spice mix. Try packing as much as you can without breaking the vegetables. Remove the extra stuffing stuck around.

Pre-heat oven to 200 deg. C. Do not insert the baking tray while pre-heating the oven.

Heat 1.5 tablespoons of oil in a wok and pour into a mixing bowl. Add the root vegetables and the stuffed vegetables to this. Very gently toss so that the oil coats the vegetable reasonably well.

Line the baking tray with a non-stick parchment paper or foil. Gently arrange the tossed vegetables so that they are separate and not over one another.

Bake in the center of the oven for 15 minutes or till brown on the sides. I usually remove after ten minutes and toss lightly to ensure that the browning is even on all sides.

If, you do not have an oven you can deep fry the vegetables till half done. Or simply skip the process. It makes a difference – the browning.

Baked vegetables

Remove the baked vegetables. Separate the non-stuffed vegetables and toss them about in some of the spice mixture.

Heat the remaining 2.5tbsps. oil in a wide wok till hot. Add fennel seeds. Add the legumes and toss well. Usually a pinch of cooking soda is added to retain the green colour. I do not use soda. Add a bit of salt to help cook, and half a cup of hot water. Also add some of the masala. Cover and cook for five minutes on medium heat. Add the thawed muthias [dumplings] and vegetables [stuffed and others]. Add the rest of the green masala on top and another cup of hot water. Cover and cook till all masala is absorbed. At this stage if the undhiyo seems very dry, a little hot water may be added. Check for balance of flavours. If it seems too tangy to you, a marble sized lump of jaggery will tone it. If not tangy enough, ¼ tsp of amchur mixed in will make it perfect.

Mix well before serving, taking care not to break the vegetables.

Undhiyo is generally served with any flatbread. While I think it tastes best with jowar rotis, I often find hotels serving it with pooris.

Sometimes you love a dish so much that you create a tradition for your children. Undhiyo is one such dish. Growing up, I did not know about it. I started with an aversion to it. I ended up loving it so much that in my house Pongal (The Harvest Festival for South Indians) is incomplete without undhiyo.  In my house everybody prefers rice and rasam to go with undhiyo!

If you are going to try this, now is the Season.  It will last till the first week of February.  Hurry, and let me know how it turned out!

The original post can be found with pictures at tongueticklers.com. Please visit the site for more tasty recipes and mouthwatering pictures.

The original post can be found with pictures at tongueticklers.com. Please visit the site for more tasty recipes and mouthwatering pictures.

“Mummy, you like this very very much, don’t you?”  The girl asked.

“Hmmm….,” I replied, still digging happily and a tad greedily into my bowl of sweet and mildly salty carrot stir-fry.  I knew I would go for a second, more generous helping.

Simple carrot stir-fry

“Then, why is it not on your blog yet?”  She queried.

“Too simple!”

“I thought you said you did not know to cook anything but potatoes when you started cooking!”  She exclaimed, “So this cannot be that simple, right?”

I was caught.  How do children manage to do that everytime?

You tell me!  Is it too simple?  Do you make this dish?  And do you like it enough to try it?  Or  would you not try this because this is too simple?

Winter is the time for gorgeous, plump, red carrots and I do not miss the chance to celebrate its abundance.  I make a few rounds of ‘gaajar halwa’ and this ‘poduthuval’.  Poduthuval is the Palakkad lingo for dry vegetable sautes and stir-fries that may or may not contain a sprinkling of coconut.  Mostly they do.  Fresh coconut added towards the end not only adds natural, mild, sweetness to a savoury dish, thereby balancing the flavours but also serves an essential crunch or bite.  I am a coconut person.  I use large amounts of coconut and feel sorry that people have wrongly associated this tasty and healthy gift as a ‘cholesterol builder’ or ‘fat builder’.  First off, plant products do not have cholesterol and second, coconuts have fatty acids that help your body.  What you need to avoid is the oil, not the fresh coconut.  If you really want to take care, simply do not add oil in this dish.  I have it that way too and it tastes fresh and crunchy!

Thanks to the young lady, here’s a recipe I love, and I hope some of you haven’t had it before – that will make me feel justified in featuring it!

I have grated the carrots this time but I, sometimes also dice them into fine pieces.  My son prefers them diced and the daughter likes them grated.  There is always something to disagree about!

This is best made with juicy, red carrots!  The colour is so beautiful and fully of energy, its hard to keep oneself away!

Recipe:  Carrot poduthuval ~ Easy carrot stir-fry

Ingredients:

Split, husked, mung beans (Mung dal) – 1/4 cup, soaked for at least an hour, and drained
Carrots (Gaajar), fresh, plump and juicy – 6 large ones, grated in medium sized grater
Green chillies, slit vertically – 2, or more, if you like some heat
Coconut, freshly grated – 1/4 cup
Lemon, ripe, medium sized – 1, juiced (About a tbsp.)
Salt to taste

Seasoning (Tadka/baghar)
Coconut oil – 1 tsp.
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp.
Husked, black gram dal (urad dal) – 1 tsp.
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Sesame seeds, white – 1 tsp.

Method:
Scrub lightly, was and dry carrots. Do not peel. Maximum sweetness in carrots is right under the skin and when you peel you discard the best portion. Grate and set aside. Do not use fine grater or cheese grater. We need the bite so use a medium sized grater.

Heat oil. When hot enough, add mustard seeds and black gram dal. When the seeds splutter and dal turns pink add the curry leaves and slit green chillies.

As soon as the curry leaves crisp up, add the carrots. Stir fry to mix well. Cover and cook for a 4-8 minutes depending on how you like your carrots – very crunchy 4 mins). My mother would make this really soft. She cooks till the carrots lose their crunch, about 8-10 minutes. I prefer cooking for just 4 minutes to warm up the dish.

Add the mung beans, sprinkle sesame seeds, and coconut and stir fry on low heat till mixed well. Put off fire. Squeeze the lemon and stir to let the juice distribute.

Serve as a salad, or an accompaniment with rice and gravy (sambar, rasam or kadhi)

That’s all! In under 10-15 minutes you have a healthy and tasty dish ready. This is the kind of dinner I like to make on weeknights or even weekdays. I like my weekday cooking to be light and healthy. I sometimes avoid the carbs and just gorge on the carrot poduthuval for dinner.

The original post can be found with pictures at tongueticklers.com. Please visit the site for more tasty recipes and mouthwatering pictures.

I am sure as bloggers you too have gone through this experience – bonding beyond boundaries with ‘faceless names’ that later blossomed into cherished friendships!  Haven’t you?  Then there are friends who connected more than others, so much that they became your family, even though you have never met them.  I am proud to have Soma for one such friend.  Don’t laugh when you read this! I have a whole family out there and though our philosophies differ, some of us are separated by continents, we follow different lifestyles, yet we connected and bonded.  Hopefully I will introduce you to them here.

Many of you may already know Soma.  She has won several accolades in the form of being featured on prominent food sites, and winning several photography contests. Her ‘food sets’ are styled impeccably – inviting and at the same time rustically charming.  Her writing comes from the heart and her love shines through when you read her family stories on the very popular blog ‘eCurry’.  Thanks to facebook and flickr we are now buddies.

Soma hails from Bengal,  and cooks traditional Bengali and North-Indian food, contemporary global cuisine as well as some beautifully thought out original recipes, such as the one she has made today.  Read on and prepare to be smitten with Soma’s photography and writing skills.

If you try her recipes and would like to know her better follow the ‘eCurry’ page on facebook and twitter.  You can also find Soma’s photographs on flickr.

Please welcome Soma!

‘Sesame and balsamic glazed asparagus cranberry tart’

 I love playing with flavors and ingredients. The sweet and the savory seem to be not a very likely match for a tart, but I was determined to try it out. Once I brew something in my head, it is hard for me to rest until it gets executed.  So I took the risk and tried it out, building the recipe while I was actually working on the tart, with only the asparagus and dried cranberries in mind.

Now talking of a guest post, there could not have been a more pleasurable one than this. This blogging affair for me had begun as a journal, but over these few years I have myself standing in a place which I obviously could have never imagined during those first few months. I have a shimmering web of friends in every corner of the world and I see the world and the food through their eyes and words even if I cannot be physically there.

But that was not what it was then; when I would open my blog every hour and wait for a comment, wanting to know someone, converse on the same table.

But it happened. One day I came across a food blogging event called FIC, hosted by the Sunshinemom. I had no idea what FIC was and who the Sunshinemom was. All I understood was I had to send something over that was green! I had the Beans with Coconut, and I wrote to this so called Sunshinemom. And it all began there, with my admission to the world of Food in Color (FIC) and under the warmth of this Sunshinemom.

Slowly we connected. I had a friend.

The Sunshinemom is no one but Harini; a lady with vibrant personality and the author of Tongue Ticklers.  One will easily spend a few hours soaking in her eye candy photographs and inspirational vegan recipes.

We did not “chat” everyday, not even regularly. But when you connect with someone, you just do even without the constant chirping. The vibes we shared strung us together across the continents. We did share little bits of our life, feelings, little conversations about family and kids. But I know we had more than that. Few months back when I was planning on my trip to India, Harini wrote to me and said she will come by and meet me and we are not even neighbors in India. In fact she had to take a flight. I was touched beyond words. Unfortunately the meet did not happen this time, but we spoke and we talked like old friends without inhibitions.

It is a privilege for me to do a guest post for her.  And I will be honored to have her sometime soon.

Yes, I was talking of combining not so usual ingredients, and this one has a few to begin with. Then the sesame, balsamic and almonds came along. I found these really slender young asparagus and could not resist myself. So I picked them up with not many plans. But when I came home and saw the bag of dried cranberries on the kitchen counter top, my brain started ticking.

It is time to go back to the Olive Oil Tart Crust, since I needed to do a vegan recipe for Harini. Besides, after that discovery, we have mostly stuck to the dairy free crust with not much to lose. It is a bit tricky but quite flaky and airy like any good old tart crust.

Recipe: Sesame and Balsamic Glazed Asparagus Cranberry Tart

Ingredients: (makes one 12 inch x 6 inch tart)

To make the Asparagus and Cranberries (the filling):

1 bunch asparagus (about 15-20 spears), tough ends removed
1/4 cup or as much as you want, dried cranberries
1.5 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for greasing the skillet
2 teaspoon white sesame seeds
Sea salt or any coarse salt
red crushed pepper
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
few tablespoon almond flakes/slivered almond

For the spread:

use any of your favorite spread/sauce/chutney/hummus. I have used a Roasted Tomato and Red Bell Pepper Spread.

For the crust:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup + 2.5 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup + 1.5 tablespoons  very cold club soda (use a little bit more or less to make a soft but non sticky dough)
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
dried herbs, (optional) – any kind you like

Method:

Making the crust:

In a bowl combine flour, salt, black pepper, herbs with a whisk.

Whisk together club soda and oil until almost creamy, about a couple of minutes

Pour the oil water mix in to the flour mix and stir together with a fork, until the flour come together in a dough form and no dry flour is left. If you think you need extra liquid, add some more club soda or just cold water in very little amount. Use your hands briskly to pull the flour together in to a dough, and work with the dough briefly and gently and just long enough to pull the dough together. Do not work with /handle the dough too much. The dough should be soft, but not at all sticky. It will not be very stretchy, but will rather kind of come apart.

Roll the dough between two sheets of parchment paper, into a rectangle, about 10-12 inches long and 5-6 inches wide, but you can roll them into whatever shape you desire. Do not roll back and forth.  Remove the top parchment paper. Trim the edges, to even it out if you wish or press them a little higher at the edges. Prick the entire crust with a fork. Make sure the tart crust is not rolled too thick. Since the crust has no egg or butter, it will get tough easily if it is too thick and will not be as flaky. If you need a smaller size tart, divide the dough into half and make 2 small tart crusts.

Bake the crusts on the same parchment paper at 400 degree F for about 12 – 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden.

To cook the Cranberries and Asparagus:

Trim the asparagus to approximately same size, preferably the same size or a little bigger than the width of the tart.

In a skillet add oil, sesame seeds and red crushed pepper. Allow it to heat up till the seeds and the pepper sizzles. Add the cranberries and the asparagus spears and gently toss them together.

Add the salt and balsamic vinegar, toss well until the cranberries and asparagus are coated with the balsamic vinegar and cook at medium to high heat, tossing frequently for about 5-8 minutes or until the asparagus are just tender but still a good deal crunchy and still green. Remove from the heat and set aside.

To make/assemble the tart:

Cool the crust to just until warm and comfortable to touch.

Smear the spread/chutney/sauce evenly over the tart. Arrange the asparagus close together in a line horizontally so that there is no space between them. If they are too long, curve/bend then a tiny bit to fit them in.

Place the cranberries on the top; sprinkle the almond flakes on the tart toppings. Sprinkle some crushed pepper if you wish. Bake the tart in the oven for about a couple of minutes at 350 degree F, just enough to warm the tart.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Soma – thank you for the very kind words about Tongue Ticklers.  I am so glad to have played virtual host if not in real.  Someday, we will make that happen in reality too!

The original post can be found with pictures at tongueticklers.com. Please visit the site for more tasty recipes and mouthwatering pictures.

An old recipe – A new photograph!

The original post can be found with pictures at tongueticklers.com. Please visit the site for more tasty recipes and mouthwatering pictures.

To me every day is as important as the new year, and my resolutions have nothing to do with the start of the year.  It has everything to do with the Seasons.  Autumn is my new year.  Autumn wakes me up from a lazy stupor that I run into at the end of the Rains.  Autumn fills me with zest and anticipation and towards the end of the year, I usually make several starts and resolutions.  Not all the resolutions work out at the end, but I do try.  I am sure you have yours too – a new year that is special only to you. When is your new year?  The conventional new year is a good day too.  It means meeting up with friends and some merry making which is always welcome.  This year we decided to meet at Pune at a friend’s house.  My son stayed back to celebrate with his friends and my daughter was more than happy to accompany us for a last treat.  Her exams are coming up soon and we had to make it back the very next day.

It seemed appropriate that I should start the first post of this year with a sweet one.  So I decided to share an easy recipe for chocolate cake-ganache truffles.  It started out like this.  I made a moist chocolate cake as a gift on Christmas eve.  It looked good and I just did not have the patience to let it cool in the tin.  Within five minutes of bringing it out of the oven, I turned it out and all I had was broken chunks of good chocolate cake.  It was made with belgian dark chocolate and cocoa and I could not let it go waste.  That is how I thought of the truffle recipe.

If you are not comfortable making cakes, you could still create a beautiful dessert with your children with this recipe. They will love the chocolate mess it will create, as well as take pride in making truffles. If you have some leftover store bought chocolate cake you can use this recipe to make a new dessert out of it the next day. We do not need the icing for this, so just remove it before using the cake.

I did not use any flavouring this time.  But you could use any liqueur of your choice, strong black coffee or orange juice and zest with this recipe.

Recipe: Chocolate cake-ganache truffles
Deconstructed: A chocolate cake and chocolate ganache put together

Ingredients:
Chocolate cake crumbs – 3 cups (I ran the chunks in the mixer to get fine bread crumbs)
Dark chocolate, broken – 1/3 cup (I used Belgian, really bitter)
Corn syrup – 1tsp. (optional but helps in getting a creamy texture)
Cream – 1/2 cup (I used vegan soy cream)
Powdered vanilla sugar – 2tbsps. (Optional – I used this to offset the bitterness of the chocolate)
Powdered pistachios (any powdered nut) – 1 cup

Method:
Place the cake crumbs in a mixing bowl and set aside.

Place the broken bits of chocolate and sugar in a small mixing bowl. If chocolate is not bitter, do not add sugar. If you like them bitter avoid the sugar.

Place the cream in a saucepan and bring it to a boil on medium heat. Pour it while still hot, over a sieve into the chocolate and whisk well till the chocolate melts into a shiny, smooth glaze. Let sit or refrigerate to let it come to room temperature. It will thicken slightly.

Pour the glaze into the cake crumbs and mix well. It will turn into a sticky doughy mixture. Form balls and roll over cocoa, powdered nuts or flavoured cocoa powder. If you are serving this at a Child’s birthday party, make them cake pops, dip in chocolate and cover with sprinkles. My kids seem to have grown out of that now.

These are easy to make, travel well and make pretty gifts for Christmas or Thanksgiving. Besides you save the damaged cake.

Once again – Wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year.

The original post can be found with pictures at tongueticklers.com. Please visit the site for more tasty recipes and mouthwatering pictures.

A Thai ‘Soupe au Pistou’

A bit of confusion there, isn’t it? A Provencal soup or a Thai soup?  Well, both!

I am more a thyme person than basil but these days our markets do not seem to be stocking thyme, so I picked up a bunch of basil the other day thinking – Thai! Sometimes I have this terrible craving.  Craving for certain flavours and when I have them, nothing else can work.  Well, the idea feasted on my mind.  I wanted coconut milk.  I wanted Italian. I wanted pesto.  I wanted soup because we are having a very pleasant but sudden chill wave here in Mumbai.  Quite unexpected and a very pleasant turn of climate.  I had basil – lots! I had coconut and my husband was at home so I hoped he would not mind extracting coconut milk.  The thought of silky, sweet, thick coconut milk makes me drool even as I write!  I love its  natural sweetness.  You could use canned but it just cannot compare with the freshly expressed milk.  But I could not think of anything but Italian with basil.  A pesto?  No, a pistou.  A pistou soup!  The one that David Lebovitz made long back.  I had bookmarked it then.  I went back and looked up the recipe and I knew then that we were going to have another one of my fusion recipes that evening.

I made a soup au pistou, but not the traditional Provencal one.  Mine is heavily borrowed from Thai cooking.  Basil makes such a good partner to coconut milk.  You must try this one!  A pistou is similar to an Italian pesto but without many of the pesto ingredients.  Pesto contains pine nuts and a dash of cheese which pistou generally does not.  Works great for me as it is naturally vegan. I like soups that contain lots of veggies.  Vegetables lend flavour and colour, making it ideal for the senses.

Shall we go about making the soup?  I hope I have laid enough arguments to make you buy zucchini and basil on your next trip to the market!  Most vegetables will work fine here.  I used green and yellow zucchini, and a small potato with skin.  I did not have much that day and I wanted to finish off whatever little I had.  You can add carrots, leeks, spring onions, and tender string beans too.  David adds some beans and pasta as is traditionally done in a pistou soup, but mine is nowhere near traditional so I just did what my senses wanted.

Dish: Thai soup au pistou

Recipe improvised by the senses of Sunshinemom

Serves 2 bowls

Ingredients:

Thick, fresh coconut milk – 2 cups

Green and yellow zucchini – 1/2 each

Potato, scrubbed – 1 small, about 1/4 cup

Cauliflower broken into very small flowerets – 1/4 cup

Water – 1/4 cup

Bay leaf – 1

Thai green bird chillies – 2

Sea salt and lemon pepper to taste

For the pistou:

Basil, washed and dried – 2 cups

Garlic cloves, peeled and crushed – 2

Extra virgin olive oil – 3-4 tbsps.

Sea salt – a pinch or two to taste

Method:

Scrub the vegetables and dice them into very small pieces.  We want them to cook real quick.  I am quite particular about all being the same size.  They look pretty and cook evenly.

Heat a saucepan with 1/4 cup coconut milk on low heat.  Add the bay leaf and add slit bird chillies.  The coconut fat will be enough to cook them.  Saute for half a minute and add the diced vegetables – potatoes and cauliflower together followed by zucchini after two minutes.  Keep stirring and cook on low heat.  Add  a pinch of salt.  Cover and cook on low heat for five minutes.  Test for done-ness. Take care that the liquid remains.  If needed added more coconut milk.

When done, add the rest of the coconut milk.  Stir well to warm through but do not let boil.  We do not want the milk to split.  Set aside the soup.

For the pistou:

Bring a cup of water to boil.  Blanch the basil leaves in it for ten minutes.  Refresh in cold water to retain colour.  Remove and dry bunches of leaves in a towel.

I used a mixer to grind but if you would like to, use a mortar and pestle.

Tear the basil leaves and place in the mixer along with crushed garlic.  Pour olive oil through the hole on the lid and grind to a coarse mixture adding a pinch of sea salt.  The mixture should be coarse and not fine.  We do not want the water from the basil to exude.  Check seasoning and set aside.

Serving:

To serve, warm the soup. Remove the bay leaf and the chillies if you do not want to bite into them.

Place a tablespoon of pistou in the centre of the soup and serve with a slice of bread for dinner.  Traditionally a pistou soup may contain pasta as well.  I prefer a light soup.  I bet thin rice pasta would be good in this soup, though.

I generally have soups for light dinner and that means, no bread!

I save some for a photograph to be taken in the morning.  Do you?

I will see you next year with a smile (a grin, sorry!) and a sweet.  Hope you are all having a good time as you read this.  Can you believe I am wearing a turtleneck sweater in Mumbai as I am writing this?  Bizarre, but it actually feels chilly these days!

The original post can be found with pictures at tongueticklers.com. Please visit the site for more tasty recipes and mouthwatering pictures.

I sometimes get mails that request recipes suited to a particular need.  Normally I reply with a recipe if I have one, but it does not reflect on my blog.  However when Ashwini wrote to me saying she needed some quick recipes for her baby because she wanted him to have the best without having to fret over how to make it, how she wanted her baby to grow up on natural sugars and salts and not become a ‘sugar addict’, it struck me that moms are more informed today than a decade back, and that it is nice to have a vegan resource for vegan babies as well.

The thoughts culminated in this ‘broccoli butter’ recipe made specially for Ashwini and for several other new mommas and papas.  I have decided to post reader request recipes on my facebook fan page, because I thought I must give back something special to those who follow me there.  Do check up the recipe and share with me your thoughts and suggestions.

I hope this column turns out useful for new mommies and people who like healthy food!  We all have the greatest gift – the gift of donning a human body and a thinking brain.  Let’s resolve to treat it with respect and give it the best!

Find the recipe here

The original post can be found with pictures at tongueticklers.com. Please visit the site for more tasty recipes and mouthwatering pictures.

Black cake soaked in rum

 I am drunk!  Absolutely boozy!  I am rum!

Not me darlings.   It’s my Christmas cake!  I do not drink nor do I serve drinks at parties except for a rare tequila or a glass of wine.  A girl is allowed that much distraction, right?  Whatever I have stocked is stuff I use for cooking.  The fact that alcohol evaporates makes it easier to take liberty.   I didn’t know that ‘that fact’ was known to my daughter who loves gourmet food – blame it on all the cooking happening at Top Chef and Master Chef!  One day I returned home from work and she presented me this beautifully made spaghetti all twirled and sitting prettily in a plate.  I tasted and exclaimed saying it was just so good!  She proudly showed me the bottle of carefully stored white wine and excitedly told me how she had reduced it to make the sauce.  For a long time after that I did not use any more alcohol and ever since I have been careful to demarcate the boundaries – ‘I can, but not you’.

Now, if you are a ma like me you will loosen up during festivals.  You won’t?  Hmm….  In that case you can use orange juice instead.  It is not the same but it is quite close.  Apart from that little change you just have to follow the recipe as it is.

Now for the likeminded. I dunk my dried fruits (black raisins, currants, dried cherries and other berries, dates, and apricots) in rum for a whole year before Christmas.  So, if I have made my cake today, tomorrow I just replenish the supply and let it sit in a dark hidden spot till its time to smell it the next year.  But if you haven’t do not fret!  It will flavor well even if soaked overnight, though it will not be quite the same OR maybe that’s just me!  There.  We are done with the preliminaries so let’s just go on to the recipe.  I am not going to chatter much today.   It is the cake that is important and I am not losing focus.  I do sound a tad happier than usual, don’t I?  I hope it’s not all that rum in the cake, dears.  Do you?  I forgot to mention that the cake was made a few days back.  My husband and kids could not wait and I needed to take pictures so we decided to eat half that very day and I carefully saved the other half packed in cheesecloth and kept refreshing it with a tablespoon of rum all over.  I returned from a work a while back, unwrapped the cheesecloth and took a peek.  There was the mistake.  Jr.H and I demolished another half (she a thin slice and me a few thick ones).  We have graciously left a quarter for the boys.

It is fruity, boozy, very delicious, moist and absolutely makes your Christmas so much merrier!  Here is how I made it.

The quantity I made is not much.  The cake fits a six inch round tin.  I veganized this from Vera’s adaptation of Emily Dickinson’s Black Cake recipe.  It struck me when I saw the link shared by David Lebovitz.  I have changed it quite a bit along the way.  I use brandy usually but decided on rum this time.

Recipe: Rum soaked Black Cake

Yield: I was left with some batter after pouring a six inch round cake pan till it was 2/3rds full.

Ingredients:

Flour – 2 cups
Baking soda – ½ tbsp
Nutmeg, ground – 1 tsp.
Cloves, mace and cinnamon, ground together – 1 tsp.
Salt – One pinch
Oil (I combined extra virgin coconut oil and sunflower oil together) – ½ cup (You could use ¾ but I stuck to ½ to reduce the fat but felt the cake could have used a tad more)
Sugar – ¾ cup
Tahini, cashew cream and corn syrup (optional) – 1 tbsp. each, mixed together
Rum – ¼ cup
Thin molasses – ¼ cup
Various dried fruits soaked in rum – 1.5 cups
Dates, chopped – 1/3 cup
Fresh citrus peels – ¼ cup
(I cut orange peels into strips and let them boil in hot water for about 10 minutes.  Drained to remove bitterness if any, and chopped them into tiny pieces)

Method:

Preheat oven to 150 deg. C.  Grease and line a 6” round pan with baking paper.

Run flour, baking soda, spices and salt together in a mixer till combined.  Empty into a stainless steel or glass mixing bowl.

Mix the oil, sugar, tanini-cashew-corn syrup paste, rum together well and run for a minute in the mixer to blend lightly.  Not too long.

Add half the flour and molasses and mix well.  Mix the fruits with the rest of the flour and add again.  Stir well.  Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 50 minutes to an hour, or till dark brown and well risen.  Test and check that a skewer or toothpick poked in the center comes out clean.  Let cool in pan for ten minutes and turn out the cake.  Remove the parchment paper.  Brush the top lightly with a brush dipped in rum.

Serve when cool or wrap in cheesecloth soaked in rum/brandy and store in an air-tight container. 

Dribble a tbsp of rum/brandy daily to let the flavour soak in the cake and to keep it really moist or it will dry up!

Leftovers?

After pouring the batter into a six inch round tin, I was left with a little more that could fill only a small tart tin.  My children find fruit cakes too fruity and sweet so I decided to make a cake in a tart.  I took some to office and imagine my delight when my friends liked the ‘tart cake’ so much that they actually said they would make their fruit cakes in tart form next time.  The biscuit base actually balances the sweetness of the cake very well!

A rum cake tart!

Update:

The last time I had posted a dish with molasses I was asked where one can get it in India.  Molasses is a by product produced during extraction of jaggery/sugar.  It is locally known as ‘kakvi’ in Maharashtra.  I got a generous supply from a friend who recently went to Kolhapur where all the sugar factories are located.  But you get the imported variety in Crawford Market.  Try and source the local one.  I found it so much better than the imported stuff I bought from Crawford Market.

Note:

I would like to mention that the cake is a little difficult to slice into precise triangles or neat slices.  Your knife is bound to trip over fruits on its way down and your recipe has baked spot on if you find crumbs falling out as you cut.  Expect that especially after a few days of keeping.  What counts and make this a great recipe is that it has lot of moisture (if you have been soaking it in rum/brandy or juice), and it is the haphazard slicing is proof!

The original post can be found with pictures at tongueticklers.com. Please visit the site for more tasty recipes and mouthwatering pictures.