Blushing Basil

Diwali!

2009-10-19T22:20:00.001-07:00

Best wishes from the blushingbasil household...
(Diwali classics in the pic - Mullu Murukku (lentil fritters), Almond Halwa and Mango Shrikhand)

Fenugreek Leaves' Sambar

2009-06-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

When I sit down to write a post, most often I do not have a clue as to what to write about. The recipe part is the easier of the two. So for the story part, I just begin with whatever is on the top of my mind at the moment and then ramble on about it. Today's recipe about Methi Sambar is a neat recipe and turns out to be one of my faves but there's nothing glamorous about it that I can write stories about.

To play catch up for the months I have been missing out posting -

Feb - left me frazzled since the rush of things so demanded to exercise some of my old-time indefatigable spirit. (No, I don't enjoy being that and did pleasantly surprise myself that I could pull it off (again).)
V-Day - Though the practical half of my brain agrees that the hype about Feb 14th is one pompous marketing gimmick that is prevalent worldwide, I have to confess that I got bitten by the V-day bug a long time ago. Gimmick or no gimmick, I associate this day with a colorful kaleidoscope of events ever since my undergrad days. The anticipation and nerves felt was very infectious even to a person completely untouched by the fever (like me). The atmosphere remained charged all through the week and culminated in very different ways for every walking soul. It also led to a lot of "illegal" betting as to who would give THE card to who and the act of speculation turned out to be the top-rated sport of the month. It was considered perfectly normal (for even those very serious-in-life-first-benchers) to bandy around gossip. You could hear a lot of shushing in the corridors when some much sought-after maidens or hunks passed by. Times have changed and a decade has rolled by...V-Day has metamorphosized to being more predictable and pleasant. But I sure do miss the feeling of restlessness that so accompanies folks in their very early 20s. ;)

March - February segued into March and things mellowed down quite a bit. It was suffused with numerous fun events, a refreshing change to enjoy blithely, after what seemed like forever. (The two girls I consider "best" friends were on a long vacation in India and I couldn't help missing the insanely interesting phone chats.)

April - saw me very excited when my dad finally booked his tickets to here. Albeit he was never against visiting here, it took convincing from at least 15 different people to make him take a break from his teaching job at the college. The tough part was trying to drive down the fact that "now" was indeed a good time! He arrives in the first week of June and needless to say I’m thrilled. Apart from that, we also had one of our customary potlucks, complete with dress code and all. Though donning a sari is one of the most complicated tasks for an artistically-challenged imbecile like me, I never relent and make use of any opportunity that comes my way. The guests arrived resplendent in colorful and trendy kurtas and saris. We had a ball of a time hogging and playing games until late into the night.

May – was good especially because of all the summer shopping I unabashedly indulged in. On Sundays, Vee and I did some serious trail biking on our mountain bikes on the ever-so scenic trails in and around the Bay Area, wending our ways to the summit. Riding alongside a bubbling brook or going downhill on a bumpy dirt road unfailingly proves to be a catharsis of all the built-up stress.

June - After work, I love watching the sunset from our 7th floor west-facing apartment. The garnet ball that sinks into the horizon has one musing over whether this epitome of serenity could indeed be the rambunctious sun that scorches mercilessly during the day. The shimmering light adorns the worn-out city like a jewel. (hmm...dreamland eh?)

Getting back to this recipe, I am quite a fan of the unique taste of Fenugreek leaves and always have stuck religiously to Aloo-Methi to relish it. The downside to Aloo-Methi is I can't make it as often as I'd like due to the high carb nature of potatoes. My quest for an equally interesting dish minus the high carb levels led me to this intensely flavored sambar. This is one of those recipes which I credit to Amma.

Methi Sambar served over hot rice and pan-fried plantain

Ingredients -
1) Fenugreek leaves - 2 large or 3 small bunches (leaves separated with short stalks on - washed)
2) Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
3) Fenugreek seeds - 3/4th tspn
4) Red chilies - 1
5) Toor dal - 1.5 tbspns
6) Asafetida - a generous pinch
7) Green chilies - 2
8) Toor dal - 1/2 a cup (separate from #5)
9) Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tspn
10) Olive Oil (or any cooking oil) - 2 tspns
11) Tamarind - Gooseberry-sized ball (soaked in 1/4 cup of warm water for 20 minutes)
12) Sambar Powder - 2 heaped tspns (Scale this down if your sambar powder has a lot of heat in it.)

Method -
1) In a pressure cooker, heat oil and season with ingredients 2-7 adding one at a time and evenly frying them.
2) Add in washed toor dal on top of the sauteed condiments.
3) Stack cleaned and washed fenugreek leaves as the third tier and pour just enough water so the lentils get cooked.
4) Sprinkle half the salt you intend to use for the dish along with turmeric powder and pressure cook for 3 whistles or 8 minutes if you are using an electric pressure cooker.
5) Squeeze the juices out of the soaked tamarind, add some water if needed so that the extract is no more than 1/2 a cup.
6) Boil the tamarind water with the remaining salt and the sambar powder.
7) After all the steam has cooled off, pour the tamarind-sambar powder mixture into the cooker and mash slightly.
8) Simmer for 5-7 minutes until it all comes together. (You can add more water if you like your sambar thin.)
9) Serve along with hot rice and watch the hungry folks dig in!

Oh man! We did it!

2009-02-23T07:25:00.000-08:00

As a principle, I wouldn't want to write about something that has been/is going to be written about a lot but today I can barely contain the enormous rush of feelings towards ARR, Resul Pookutty and Slumdog as a movie in general. Millions are the diehard fans of ARR (like me) in India and scores of us right from the moment we heard Chinna Chinna Aasai in Roja way back in 1991, but the very realization that this adorable wonder-boy from Chennai has transformed himself into a leaf in the history of India is simply mind-blowing. The sheer delight in being able to perform on a stage as prestigious as the Academy Awards by itself is an achievement of a lifetime for any Indian. I'm sure fellow Indians would agree with me, we would consider that as pride unequalled even if ARR hadn't bagged any award last night. Seeing him exude his trademark unassuming, soft-spoken, very-common-man-like persona in a ceremony which is probably the ultimate showcase of glamour, riches and beauty was a breath of fresh air that serves to strengthen scores of age-old adages.

Resul Pookutty and ARR - we salute you! Jaya Ho!

P.S. - The only other truly remarkable thing about last night was getting to see that "the three kids" got to attend the Oscars too. What an indelible mark in the hearts of the families of those endearing kids who live in the Mumbai slums!

Bell Pepper Delight!

2009-02-03T18:13:00.000-08:00

Oh no! Nooooo!

Oh yes, I chickened out! I hate to admit it but I have been pretty apprehensive about even attempting to type http://www.blogger.com/ in the address bar out of fear that guilt and emotion threaten to overcome me. I do not know if other bloggers experience something as insane as this but I kinda' hate visiting other blogs as well when I set foot into such a self-created predicament. Writing this post is almost like a confession about my dark side in reality. Vee says he suspects I must have suffered some trauma during childhood for me to react in this ridiculous fashion. But I've assured him that that is not the case. I have always been this able-minded individual right since I was a kid (almost like the kid in Robin Cook's Mutation, you know ;)). I have been busy no doubt, but the very feeling that I am unable to be religious in what I started haves me feeling like I want to throw up each time I hear the word "blog". My dear reader, if you didn't think I was that crazy while reading the beginning of this post, I'm sure you must have concluded I am no less than a mad girl whose madness has reached swooning proportions. The funny thing is I have been doing these kitchen expeditions which turned out to be good successes but no, I simply wouldn't click any pictures of those dishes. It is like the urge to click pictures for the blog got thrown out the window and got bulldozed by some roadwork vehicle. A classic case of nut-ism!

Q - So, how do I make peace with myself?

A - By being back with a bang! (Bang reads as a damn good recipe in my "mental" (literally) dictionary!)

Also, Anu kind of prodded me to at least post "something" (anything) because she's absolutely tired of looking at the Oats Pongal post for ages now! Should I waste some of my blog space lamenting about how busy it has been and blah blah? Hell, no! It is clichéd to say "Life is a rollercoaster" but I continue to be appalled by the sudden out-of-the-blue twists and turns. May be that's what keeps one's interest "to live" piqued. Imagine a world where everything was as utopian as it could get - you'd die out of boredom within a month!

Some good healthy recipes have been crowding my inbox these past 3 months which I am hoping will soon transform themselves into blog posts to see the light of the day. :)

Today, I have a lovely recipe up my sleeve to blog about. The name that I have coined for it might be misleading because in reality it is a dry curry which can be had as an accompaniment with any gravy or dal over rice. (Lest I incur the wrath of my Tamil friends here, this is called podi-idicha karamadu in my parents-in-laws' home.) Bell pepper had (yes, "had" not "has"!) been one of my favorite vegetables during my Delhi days. I wonder if it had something to do with the cooler climate in the north that had us hankering for the hot shimla mirch subzi or if it really was the bell pepper we got in Delhi during the 80's that was bursting with oodles of flavor. There was this kid named Ruchika in my class whose swanky lunch box always had some toothsome Punjabi curry or attractive fusion dish in it. Thanks to our moral ethics' cops (a.k.a. prefects), who took it on themselves to ensure the kids shared their food, I always got a bite or two of her appetizing lunches! Back home, I used to urge my mom to make the same dishes, Ruchika's mom's way. It was a tough call for her, since all she had to work with, was a 6-year old's description of the taste and appearance. But since moms' are born kitchen scientists, the outcome always turned out palatable, close to the original and more than enough to bring a smile on a kid's face. The huge hybrid bell pepper that we find in the U.S. sure does have a delicious crunch but it doesn't come close to its Indian counterpart which had a distinct hot taste to it. I personally prefer the red bell peppers to the green ones here. Also, I have taught myself to dress up the American pepper in ways which make the pepper feel special and loved.

Here goes one very South Indian recipe -

Ingredients -

1) Bell peppers - 6 medium-sized ones - chopped into 1" pieces

2) Oil - 2 tspns

3) Mustard - 1 tspn

4) Curry leaves - a few

5) Asafetida - a pinch

Fry in 1 tspn of oil, cool and grind to a coarse powder -

1) Bengal Gram Dal - 3 tspns

2) Whole Urad Dal - 3 tspns

3) Coriander Seeds - 3 tspns

4) Red Chilies - 3

5) Asafetida - a pinch

Method -

1) In a pan, heat the oil and splutter the mustard seeds, followed by curry leaves and asafetida.

2) Dunk in the chopped bell pepper.

3) Sprinkle water and cover and cook in low flame until almost cooked.

4) Turn up the heat, fry for a minute and sprinkle the ground powder.

5) Toss around until coated evenly and then continue frying for a few minutes.

6) Serve along with rice and gravy of your choice!

Note - The bell pepper can be substituted with pretty much any vegetable of your choice.

Candlelight Vigil for India - I

2008-12-01T14:16:00.000-08:00

Posted from my drafts - written a while ago- of course there have been many developments after this but those have been saved for part II.

It's been a while since I posted something new around here and I was bubbling with so many delightful incidents to spin my stories around. But alas! The past five days have left me too sober to think about anything other than the state of affairs in my home country. It is a rude awakening for folks like me who tend to complain (or crib) at the drop of a feather. For the past few days, I have been looking at my life with the eye of an insufferable on the borderline of indulging in self-pity. But all my little misgivings with life have seemed to have shied away in the wake of the magnitude of what happened at Mumbai. This entire Thanksgiving, I have been glued to the couch in front of the TV and after the international telecast on CNN got cut, I have been drinking in the inspiring journalism on NDTV 24X7 Live. Sometimes my heart feels so numb that my mind starts playing tricks on me and I drift into a trance where I am certain I have imagined it all. If only life could be that fair!

In the past three decades, "We, the (Indian) people" - think we have been through it all - from watching riots break out outside our homes on various occasions including brutal assassinations of at least two prime ministers, having some of the most terrible politicians history could have ever seen rule over our land, observe passively one tragedy after the other engulf the country - Bhopal gas leak, religion/caste centric riots, slanders and wars, natural calamities like earthquakes and tsunamis claiming thousands of lives, - to being thrown in a world where the air we breathe is deemed unfit according to international health standards. Of course, Indians are a very resilient lot. How else could we have borne all this? Whatever happens, L-I-F-E goes on. Correction - Life has to go on. We are a developing country after all, who cannot afford to take some time off for ourselves for mourning, can we? Whether that is a good thing or not is debatable but there is no refuting the fact. So deep down in your heart, when you have this smug feeling about adversity and wonder what could be worse, along comes a reminder of terror that sweeps you off your wit's end. To hear about "something" that happened in the news is one thing and to actually experience it live as the horror revealed itself little by little over three excruciatingly long days is a different dimension of fear altogether.

May be that is what makes our heart wrench when we hear the words 9/11 to this day many years later and it is the same familiar feeling that is gripping our souls today about Mumbai.

May be that is what has rekindled the flame of revolution in the hearts of the youth in Mumbai.

May be that is what the media has decided to showcase in their fight against dirty politics.

The "media" have been typecast as news-hungry gossip-mongers since forever of course. But akin to all other things in life, "not all" media is bad, right? We expect radical changes, then we'd better get used to the fact that positive journalism can act as a fast-acting catalyst. After all, life is all about taking risks and shattering the umbrella of "conventionalism". If I may say so, the only lucrative outcome of this tragedy is that India has learnt to recognize "both" of its worst enemies - the "religion-less" terrorists themselves and internal politics leading to costly mistakes. The citizens have risen and taken it upon themselves to ask precise questions - "Why were the intelligence reports from the U.S. ignored? What took the NSG commandoes more than 7 hours to reach the location? Why aren't our cops better trained/equipped to handle chaotic, dangerous situations?" The past has to be dug up and cleansed thoroughly in order to usher in the new "tomorrow". Security analysts in the U.S. admit that the stand that U.S. has always taken against India-Pakistan tensions cannot continue to be played by the rule-book anymore.

Looking ahead...Many were the images of carnage that moved us to tears but one of the most striking images that brought with it a breath of fresh life-saving air is that of the citizens (people) holding candles in the dark of the night (some until as late as 1:00 a.m. in the morning). Their glowing angry faces represents the future of India, I thought. I hear them talk day in day out in what is now being called as "We, the people - Citizen's Movement" and I'm transfixed by how lucid they are in expressing their opinions. Why does the voice of the common "man" whose average intelligence is much higher than people-who-shall-not-be-named get buried beneath all those bureaucratic blankets? Not anymore, I pray! The vigil has begun inside the country but what can we, who are away in greener pastures, do? The inability to do anything has been ravaging my being. I say to myself - there could be something we could do to bring about a radical change too. I examine my conscience to look for answers to whether I've inadvertently stepped into the shoes of the clan of the younger generation that decided "enough is enough" a long time ago and fled to greener pastures. I have an urge to not just sit around pondering over this but actually do something. I realize every small step will be one step closer to the goal and the flame that the folks in Mumbai lit up, is blazing through every Indian's heart.

May the flame remain immortal!

Oats Pongal!

2008-09-08T15:23:00.000-07:00

In a pensive mood after a considerably long and refreshing vacation at a few of the East Coast spotlights, I have not been spending much time in the kitchen this past week. One would expect to be in brighter spirits after a trip of that sorts, but the darned tasks that I had blissfully abandoned before I left, have been daunting me ever since the flight touched down in San Francisco last week. As soon as the pilot announced - "The South West crew would like to welcome you to San Francisco and at this time, we request you to remain in your seats until the seat belt sign is turned off", I closed my eyes and tried not to think of the doom that lied in wait for me. On the car ride back home, we stopped for dinner at Saravanaa's (a South Indian restaurant which is a branch of Saravana Bhavan in India) along with Ashwin who had come to get us. The food was comforting as always and I stuck to eating Rava Idlis with a few mouthfuls of their excellent curd rice. At the end of a trip, I find myself almost always craving for simple home food. Hot rasam with rice followed by curd rice with oil-free pickles like the tiny mangoes' one (maavadu) or the dried lemon one (naarthanga) continue to top the lists. (The chennai-ite in me is still alive and kicking, I note!) In a futile attempt to delay the demise of our trip, we tried to prolong the dinner by punctuating it with a lot of forced conversation. But the parents were tired and I caught them furtively (and longingly) looking towards the exit more than once. Out of pity for them and poor Ashwin as well, who had kindly driven all the way to the airport right out of work, we finally signaled to the waiter to bring us the check. At thirty past nine in the night, we reached home. Scanning through my mental Outlook Calendar, I figured I had to do at least a teeny bit of unpacking, xxx, xxxxwww and yyyzzz but instead, all I managed was to sit around dumbly staring at some TBS show before taking an extra-long hot shower. A few minutes later, I was curled up in bed reading A Thousand Splendid Suns. (Was I in reverse-denial?) I slept fitfully that night and woke up to the sounds of the countless chores buzzing around in my head. I started running around trying to complete all of them at once and here I am, a week later still an avid participant in the mad rat-race!
In the same context, here is something that I read on one of my favorite blogs - a true masterpiece, this post is! With reference to the same post, I am still waiting for the un-invited Sunday evening guy to leave. May be this weekend, he'll pack his bags and bid farewell...I hope so...I would so love that!

Since I have been harried with all those unfavorable thoughts all week, eating healthful and quick-to-make dishes has gained a lot of priority. One such dish which has not disappointed me so far is Oats Pongal - guilt-free and wholesome, it tastes just fine without any dipping! If I were to describe pongal in a single sentence I would say - it is a first cousin of moong dal ki kichdi. I made it this crazy week too when I had no interest whatsoever in cooking! It's been a regular in the basil household since the past year or so after I came up with the idea (of dressing up oatmeal the gratifying pongal way) in my quest for a healthy but delicious dish. Now, it also serves as my pretext to sneak oats into Vee's diet as he cannot stand a steaming bowl of plain oatmeal with milk and fruit. This is off to Suganya's JFI - Whole grains.

Oats Pongal - oatmeal with lentils.

Without further ado, here is the recipe -

Ingredients -

1) Steel-cut Oats - 3/4th cup

2) Green gram dal (moong dal) - 1/3rd cup

3) Ginger - 1" piece

4) Cumin seeds - 1.5 tspns

5) Black peppercorns - 1 tspn

6) Curry leaves - few

7) Oil - 1.5 tspns

8) Ghee - 1 tspn

9) Asafetida - a generous heap

10) Salt - to taste

11) Cashew nuts - 1 tbspn (broken)

Method -

1) Rinse the dal and dunk it in a pressure cooker along with the oats. Add about 3.5 cups of water.

2) Grate the ginger and stir in half of it in the pressure cooker. Also add in 1/2 a teaspoon of cumin seeds along with salt (to taste) and pressure cook for 12-15 minutes or 4-5 whistles. (The cooking time can vary with the cooker. If not done properly, add about 1/2 a cup of water and pressure cook again until done well.)

3) Take the remaining cumin seeds and peppercorns and give them a quick run in the blender. I generally prefer a very coarse powder in my pongal. However, this step could be modified to suit your palate by making it into a fine powder or omitting the grinding altogether.

4) In a small pan, heat the oil and ghee together. Put the cumin and peppercorn mixture and after that turns crisp, toss the ginger, curry leaves, asafetida and cashew nuts. Everything should fry well but take care so it doesn't get charred .

5) Pour over the cooked oats and dal mixture and mix well.

6) Serve piping hot with nothing or coconut chutney!

Festive Sweetmeats & Savories!

2008-09-03T11:49:00.000-07:00

I can understand God looking forward to us folks celebrating his birthday (pun unintended ;)). After all who could resist it if millions were busy making merry on your annual special day! But what beats me is why in this wide world would HE prefer the pure ghee (clarified butter) drenched sweets and oil-fried crunchy snacks? The only sane answer I can think of in his defense is, HE being the immortal deity, doesn't really have to dread the almost imminent side-effects of cholesterol or fat that afflict us mortals. That is just the tip of the iceberg though. It is common belief that if you ate the offerings that were presented to him, you are blessed and hence no harm (read as gaining a pound or two) will befall you. As you and I know, that is just a cock-and-bull story. I am a huge fan of the numerous exceptionally riveting mythological stories from the good old Indian epics. Though I haven't really laid my hands on an unabridged version yet, the retold English Amar Chitra Katha versions are good for me for a lifetime. Back home in India, on a dusty bookshelf in my now-not-so-used study, there sits an enormous collection of them. Amidst those very books, in some corner lies buried, my childhood. Some day, may be my kids or grandkids would inherit the treasure and I am hoping they will get as starry-eyed as I have always. A month ago, it was Lord Krishna's birthday and I being the new daughter-in-law, dutifully followed the customs and rituals that my new-found family has practised over the generations. I like to think that I had a great time doing whatever I was doing but it stirred up a lot of thoughts lying dormant. Over the centuries, man's interpretation of festivals and GOD has become pretty skewed, don't you think? I dislike sounding judgmental but IMHO the focus should be more on the lines of -

remembering HIM for a few insightful moments (and may be the wondrous epics his life has been portrayed by),
listening to some carnatic melodies sung by M.S. (Ah! Paradise!),
being good all day by thinking fine thoughts,
sharing life's joys with friends and family,
spreading love and then doing something divine like helping a person in need,
and last but not the least having quality F-U-N.

(FYI - I came up with this list after ransacking my brain for quite some time.)

In all the hustle surrounding festivals, people get so caught up coddling the Lord by performing austere ceremonies that the true spirit of the day lies around completely forgotten and shunned by everyone. When we overdo the petty things, the bigger more important tasks get thrown out of our heads. One could argue that that is exactly what preserving culture is all about. My philosophy is - preserve and pass on the culture to the next generation but do it in a way it will truly remain indelible.

Now that those thoughts that have been swimming around in my head have found their vent, I'd like to proudly present the goodies Amma, Vee and I made for Krishna Jayanti a.k.a Janmaashtami/Gokulaashtami. Though I am an advocate of health-eating, I couldn't help but gobble up indecent amounts of everything we made. Gosh! What a shame! As a repercussion, I am now constantly high strung, planning the extra hours I should be sweating out at the gym. Not fun at all! While walking around, I seem to be pouncing over my reflection on any shaggy bit of reflective surface to see if all that deadly gluttony has made me go pudgy. That kind of paranoia is gross indeed!

Mullu Murukku, Cashew Burfi, Rice Flakes Payasam, Rice Flour puffs (Uppu Seedai) - A collage! (Missing in picture - Appam and Jaggery Seedai)

Mullu Murukku

In this post, I am sharing only the lentil-flour thorny fritters' (mullu murukku) recipe. The other recipes will be posted subsequently as updates to this post.

Ingredients -
1) Deshusked Green gram dal flour (Moong Dal flour) - 1 cup
2) Rice Flour - 3 cups
3) Salt - 3tspns
4) White sesame seeds - 2 tspns
5) Asafetida - 1/2 a tspn
6) Hot Oil - 1 tbsp
7) Water - 1/2 - 3/4 cup (or as need arises!)
8) Oil - for deep frying

Paraphernalia needed-
1) Murukku Mold (or squeezer) with the star-shaped holes' plate! (Picture is at the very end of this post.)
2) Slotted spoon (I like to call it a hole-riddled ladle.)

Method-
1) In a large mixing bowl, mix well all the dry ingredients listed in 1 through 5 and make a well for pouring in the liquids.
2) Heat the oil and pour it in the well. Mix it in the flour after it is not too hot for your fingers.
3) The flour will still be dry at this stage but with a glaze to it.
4) The dough has to made in small batches, where each batch is not bigger than a lemon-sized ball. The stress here is on the size because you make enough dough for just one murukku. If you end up kneading all the flour, then it would dry up significantly and the murukkus would not come out good, I am assured by Amma.
5) In a deep pan, heat enough oil for deep frying.
6) Take a smaller bowl and add about a handful of the flour mixture into it.
7) Sprinkle water and knead it into a ball. It should be soft but not sticky. Sprinkle more water if required.
8) Press the lemon-sized dough ball into the squeezer after removing the piston part (bottom one).
9) To test the oil to see if the heat is enough to transform the sticky dough into some very crunchy fritters, drop a small bead of dough into it and check to see if it bobs right up to the surface.
9) Replace the piston into the squeezer. Hold it directly over the oil and press such that the dough that escapes out of the star shaped holes at the bottom falls into the oil. While doing so, remember to continually make circular motions with your hands in a very random fashion as though you are creating some kind of a squiggly solid.
10) After about a minute, the murukku can be turned over using the hole-riddled ladle if it has firmed enough.
11) Remove onto a paper napkin after the murukku gets a glowing brown color. (Ours turned out to have a greenish tinge because we used the green gram dal flour which was not dehusked!)
12) Wait for it to cool and the excess oil to get absorbed by the paper before storing away in an air-tight storage dish.
13) Repeat the process for the remaining dough and enjoy these mullu murukkus which are guaranteed to become a raging favorite of all in the family!

The Murukku maker with the star-shaped squeeze pattern

Eggless Birthday Cake!

2008-08-11T16:14:00.001-07:00

Just the other day I was accused of rambling on and on in the post on baking and not posting any useful baked delight recipe. My rejoinder sounded lame but true - I blog here to treat both my passions - writing and cooking. They are my passions all right but I have a long and arduous way to go in both before I reach a milestone where I can take a rest break may be. Anyway it feels like some kind of festive event at home since the past two days. I have been on my toes in the kitchen so much that it elicited a remark from Appa, "Is Diwali coming in early this time around?" Well! It is Vee's first birthday after our wedding and this is the first birthday he gets to spend with his parents after 7 years. Predictably, we are excited! Try as much as I can, it never is possible to keep a surprise from Vee. Call me sloppy and or may be he is just too evil! He HAS to find out what I vainly plan as a mighty surprise. To him, it is some kind of a silly game to fumble all my covert plans. At the stroke of midnight, we had a small candles-blowing and cake-cutting sort of a family affair not-a-surprise-anymore-party. For the cake to soak up the flavors well, I had to bake it in the morning and I let it sit on the kitchen counter for about 11 hours. My insides were all queasy because this is the first time I baked this one the eggless way. When we did sit down to grab a bite in the middle of the night, the verdict was favorable. Vee, Appa and Amma - found it irresistible. I found it a tad too sweet but the texture was light and flaky which I loved. After slicing and storing the cake and licking away the dregs left behind in the pan, Vee and I comfortably settled in on the couch and watched two episodes of "Heroes" one after the other! :) (It was enjoyable and addictive that night but it sure did lead to me having to sacrifice my spin class in the morning and a lingering dull headache all through work the next day!) x-(

Here is the recipe which is now my version after scouring dozens on the internet.

Gooey Caramel Pineapple Upside-down Cake

Ingredients -

For the upside-down topping-
1) Dark Brown Sugar - 1 cup (tightly packed)
2) Pineapple slices - 8 oz. can
3) Maraschino cherries - 1 small can
4) Butter - 1/4 cup (No melting or softening required here.)

For the cake -

1) AP Flour - 3 cups

2) Baking Powder - 5 tspns

3) Softened Butter - 1/2 cup

4) Sugar - 1.5 cups (Can reduce this a bit.)

5) Vanilla extract - 1 tspn

6) Cinnamon Powder - 1/4th tspn

7) Milk - 1/2 cup

8) Pineapple juice (from the sliced pineapple can) - 1/2 cup

9) Crushed pineapple - 3/4th cup

10) Salt - 1/2 tspn

For the egg substitute -

1) Flax seeds - 2 tbspns

2) Water - 6 tbspns

Method -

Making the egg substitute-

1) Grind the flax seeds to a fine powder.

2) Mix the powder with the water without forming any lumps.

3) Simmer on a medium flame for 5 minutes - stirring often.

4) Let it cool down completely before using.

The topping -

1) Cut up the butter and sprinkle the bits around evenly on a 9X13" rectangular pan.

2) Preheat the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit and place the pan in the oven for 5 minutes.

3) Remove and spread the now liquid butter and grease the sides of the pan too.

4) There will be a lot more butter than required for greasing though but that will be used for our topping. Stir in the brown sugar and spread evenly.

5) Return the pan to the oven for 5 more minutes.

6) Retrieve pan. The sugar must now be a semi-liquid caramel sort of consistency.

7) Arrange neatly the pineapple slices and cherries.

8) Important - Do not let the topping cool for too long before pouring in the cake batter. Adjust and plan the sequence of steps accordingly.

Baking the cake -

1) Mix the AP flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and keep aside.

2) Cream together the melted butter along with the sugar until light and fluffy. (A couple minutes of pulsing using a hand blender at this stage would be sufficient.)

3) Stir in the flax seed mixture a little at a time, while continuing to beat the mixture. Add the cinnamon powder and vanilla extract too. (This should be done within a couple more minutes of pulsing.)

4) The dry flour, the liquids (milk and pineapple juice) and crushed pineapple can be added in an alternating fashion.

5) Beat until everything is all mixed up well. (At the most, 3 more minutes of whirring the blender.)

6) Pour over the topping and pat to evenly spread the batter.

7) Place the pan in the pre-heated oven and bake for 40-50 minutes at 350 degrees F.

8) After the knife-test has been cleared, remove from oven and let it cool in pan for 15 minutes. (Take care not to leave in pan for long because there is the danger of the topping getting stuck to the pan.)

9) Turn over on a cookie sheet and let it sit for a few hours before devouring it!

Up close

Poha and Grad School Life

2008-07-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

Green, yellow, brown, pink, red - this dish has them all! A great way to incorporate all the colors on your platter. Recent studies suggest we need to try and fill our plates with all the colors in the spectrum - VIBGYOR as a rule of thumb. Each colored vegetable has a different vital nutrient and since this is a nifty way to remember, the diet bulletins really canvass for the rainbow diet. A good method to make any dish healthy is to reduce the oil as much as you can, and replace the little oil added with extra-virgin olive oil. Rice flakes seem to be a raging favorite of many but this was not a staple at home in India for me. I got hooked when my good friend Chetna made it for us at Rolla during our grad school life together.

A little divagation here (as always) - IMHO, Indian graduate students in the U.S. simply have a ball of a time! Of course there is this constant worry of monetary troubles nibbling away at the back of your mind along with the more pressing problems of homework deadlines, project submissions, term papers, EXAMS, T.A. class preps and last but not the least, research papers to submit to journals or conferences ominously looming over your head. Phew! We had this week before the finals week called "dead" week in our school. No way I am kidding...even the professors used it. When I first heard it during my first sem at grad school, I didn't need an explanation from anyone because I knew I was going to be so dead that week any way. If you managed to catch at least 3 hours of shut-eye every day of dead week on an average, then you must be a super whiz kid or something to that equivalent. The place used to be filled with sleep-deprived, unshaven, disheveled, worried-looking, red-eyed zombies and just like in the movies, you could find them everywhere - in the labs, lounges, library, T.A rooms, vacant classrooms and restrooms too. Some cult that was! You survive dead week, only to find yourself hurled into the finals week. All those sleepless nights that lead to the next make your whining mind tell you no more of scurrying along is going to get you that A. Yet, you fight and suddenly you are all done! You can't believe it at first. OMG! What am I going to do with all this free time on my hands, you catch yourself lamenting to yourself at least once. After may be a week of partying and sleeping-like-a-log days, it dawns on you that life couldn't have been better. The glorious holidays are finally here and research at last gets the amount of respect it always deserved. And yeah, you get to make up for all those missed episodes of House and Everybody Loves Raymond too!

Chetna makes yummy poha and I for one, like her way of making it, the best. She used to whip it up in a jiffy on those memorable grad school days which were bound to turn into all-nighters. The key to making delicious poha is to keep the spice as less as possible. The grain itself is very light in texture and easily catches on to the flavoring. The first time I made it on my own after painstakingly jotting down the recipe from her, I ended up with a sticky dough-like pulpy fiasco. I was disgusted. A transcript of the phone call that followed after the niceties were exchanged-

me - Hey! I followed your recipe verbatim but I ended up with a less-than-desirable product. What the hell did I do wrong?

she - Aww! May be you soaked it for too long in too much water.

me - Whaaaattt? Weren't you the one that said the longer it soaked, the better it would fluff up?

she - That is true but you did soak it in a colander, didn't you?

me - What do you mean by "soaking in a colander"?? A colander obviously lets all the water run out, correct? That is not soaking by any means. How come you missed telling me this?

she - Arrrrey! You cook all these complicated dishes...I assumed you would know rey!

me (too petulant to reply) - (growl) You..you...(grunt)

she - LOL!

me (now embarrassed) - I had no clue, Chetna.

Here's her classic recipe (which I have been successfully making for the past 3 or so years now) -

Colorful Poha

Ingredients -
1) Rice Flakes (thick) - 1.5 cups
2) Mustard Seeds - 1 tspn
3) Cumin Seeds - 1/2 a tspn
4) Asafetida - a pinch
5) Roasted peanuts - 2 tbspns
6) Curry leaves - few, washed and squeezed
7) Green Chili - one (slit)
8) Onion - 1 finely cut
9) Tomatoes - 2 small or 1 large (chopped)
10) Frozen peas - 1/2 cup (thawed)
11) Frozen corn - 1/2 cup (thawed) (Substitute both frozen goodies with fresh if desired.)
12) Cilantro - few sprigs
13) Oil - 2 tspns
14) Red Chili Powder - 1/2 tspn (Increase if you like it spicy.)
15) Salt - to taste

Method -
1) Wash the rice flakes in a colander in running water. Shake it around so that all the flakes get wet. Hold under water for a minute.
2) Place the colander in a bigger vessel lest a particularly wet kitchen counter digs you. Cover and leave in the colander for 20 minutes.
3) Meanwhile, heat oil in a pan, add ingredients 2-7, one at a time after each turns crisp.
4) Throw in the onions and saute till the translucent stage is reached.
5) Tomatoes next! After they start losing shape, add the frozen veggies, salt and red chili powder too. Continue frying till most of the moisture is gone.
6) Reduce heat to a simmer and fluff up the "soaked-well-in-a-colander" rice flakes with a fork. Add the flakes slowly, stirring with a light hand the entire time.
7) Cover and leave on a low flame for 5 minutes until the marriage of the tastes happens.
8) Remove from flame and garnish with chopped cilantro.
9) Serve hot without any condiment.

Variation - You can subsitute corn with boiled, cooled, peeled and cut potatoes.

10-minute Coconut Rice Noodles and a summer chiller!

2008-07-15T20:59:00.001-07:00

When you are having one of those lazy Saturdays when you are not up for cooking something elaborate for "brunch" but would rather like to keep it low-key and quick, this is exactly the dish for you. On weekends, I'm a person that begs to differ; differ from what I feed myself over the week for breakfast. Our Saturdays in the basil household, begin a little late with a rigorous circuit and core strengthening workout class at the gym. The class itself lasts for an hour and a half but its unrelenting effects last for a day and a half, absolutely in the literal sense. Sunday is a no-workout day or in other words a "rest" day in my exercise schedule but I always intend to do some yoga at home. Though that's never seemed to materialize simply because Saturday kind of exhausts me and there's always the abyss-like pit of "to-dos" that I end up falling into. Rice noodles come in two varieties broadly - Thai variety and the Indian variety. This savory flavoring works well for both but I enjoy the Indian version better because the gooey-ness is absent here. If you were to ask a "maami" (auntie) from Chennai, she would very well launch into a lengthy discourse on how the noodle (sevai) is to be made. In South India, they actually make the rice noodle from rice flour using a noodle-maker (achu). Evolution is necessary if you want to stay afloat in turbid seas filled with the tantalizing, blood-thirsty jaws of to-do lists. x-(

Here's the 10-minute version with the instant rice noodles. We lapped it up in a jiffy and I made a healthy watermelon-grape chiller to wash it down with!

Coconut Sevai

Ingredients -

1) Instant rice noodles - 2-3 cups cooked and drained as per instructions on package.

2) Mustard - 1 tspn

3) Red Chilies - 2

4) Bengal gram dal - 1 tbspns

5) Black gram dal - 1 tspn

6) Curry leaves - a few (washed)

7) Asafetida - 3 pinches

8) Coconut - 3 tbspns (grated)

9) Oil - 2 tspns

10) Salt - to taste

Method -

1) Let the rice noodles cool well. Fluff with a fork.

2) In a pan, heat oil and add the seasonings from 2-7 in that order making sure each is crisp but not charred before tossing in the next one.

3) Stir in the coconut and add salt. Continue sauteing for a minute.

4) Dunk the cooled noodles and mix together on a low flame for 5 minutes until the salt and the flavors have all blended together.

5) Serve as is or with whatever accompaniment you'd like - sambar, tomato chutney - anything pairs up well!

Watermelon-Grape Punch -

No fuss here! Blend together, some watermelon chunks and red seedless grapes. Strain to get a clear juice or go the healthy way and drink it up with the pulp like we did! A mint leaf on the top makes a cute picture and a nice excuse to nibble on it. :)

Game Nite Rasmalai!

2008-07-15T18:08:00.000-07:00

We had this Game Nite last weekend and since it was a post-dinner affair, I was left with no choice but to make some dessert. I sound like I am cribbing because I am supposed to be on a diet for heaven's sakes! As a consolation, the other dish I served the guests was a healthy one - mildly spiced popcorn. The rasmalai itself turned out pretty good I thought, given that I was only making it for the second time. This happens to be a dessert I learnt from one of my friends in grad school - Smitha. The first time I made it, it took ages since I was a novice to baking and kind of overestimated the amount I'd need for a party. The result was almost two huge pans of leftover rasmalai....not that my roommates complained though. ;) This time around, I was careful about the quantity so as not to compromise the quality. We served this when everyone was in the midst of an action-packed round of Pictionary and they were quite nonplussed to be served home-made rasmalai and cube-shaped ones at that. I was fine with their bewilderment as long as there was none who screamed sacrilege! Next day, the poor rasmalai managed to pass the ultimate acid test and that too with an A+. How? Well! Appa remarked that it tasted better than the conventional way in which it was made 'coz he felt the malai part never really has a lot of flavor while this modified way seemed to produce malai's which were bursting with taste. The only sad part of this whole affair is the fact that since the past three days, the leftover rasmalai has been sitting in our refrigerator and it feels like an anathema by all means. Vee and I are on a crash 7-day diet plan, you see...

Chilled Rasmalai

Ingredients -

1) Ricotta Cheese - 1 lb tub

2) Sugar - 1.5 cups or lesser

3) Cardamom - 1/2 a tspn (powdered)

4) Whole Milk - 5-6 cups

5) Almonds - a handful (sliced or pounded)

6) Pistachio nuts - a handful (pounded)

7) Saffron - a few strands soaked in a few tspns of milk.

8) Rose Water - a few drops

Method -

1) In a bowl, whisk together the ricotta cheese, half of the 1.5 cups of sugar and a generous pinch of cardamom powder. You can use a hand blender to get a silky consistency. (If you don't have one, the good old fork will do the trick too.) The sugar can be adjusted according to taste, but remember the milk in which the malai will be dunked into, will be sweet too. You don't want to end up making it cloyingly sweet!

2) Grease a baking pan and pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees F.

3) Pour the sweet cheese mixture into the pan (or pans) and spread it out evenly. The amount you pour, should not be more than 1-1.5 inches thicker. This simple check ensures the cheese doesn't take too long to bake. Reach for a second smaller pan if you think the mixture is already laid out thick in the first one.

4) Bake at 300 degrees F for about an hour and leave on broil for 5-6 minutes until the top gets some hazel colored specks. Wait until the knife test yields a neat pass and the cheese springs back from the pan. Importantly, do not expect the cheese to solidify to a hard cake. It will feel slightly soft but when you leave it to cool down, it firms up quite a bit.

5) Remove from the oven and let it cool in the pan. After it has cooled for three quarters of an hour, cut it up in diamonds or squares.

6) As and when the baking happens, you can set the milk boiling in a heavy-bottomed dish.

7) Once it reaches boiling point, add the remaining sugar and simmer. Be sure to stir often so that it doesn't spill over. The cardamom powder, saffron stands, rose water and all the pounded nuts also go in at this stage.

8) Continue simmering until the milk syrup has reduced in quantity but is not too thick like a basundi by any means. Too thick is not good because the malai cubes will refuse to soak well.

9) Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes before adding the cut up sweet cheese cubes. Assembling in a wide mouthed basin helps in avoiding traffic among the pretty cubes.

10) Cover and refrigerate for 4-5 hours before serving. And...let the party begin!

Low-fat Caulifower Soup

2008-07-10T22:13:00.000-07:00

I return from work to find that I am late yet again. The rain drops I battled with my windshield wipers lash around unobtrusively on my window sill. It has been cool and wet all day long and now in the late evening, nature seems to be doing its garish little dance with rain and clouds. Folks at home are in a drowsy mood and I start thinking of something that would fire up the atmosphere. Natural choice is hot bhajjis as I am so used to fantasizing from my Chennai days. No, I tell myself....find something healthy! Weighing a lot of options, I tactfully start making trade-offs between taste and time. Choices range from masala bhel, spicy popcorn, ragi roti to hot soups. And the winner is - S-O-U-P. I start ravaging my veggie-tray in the refrigerator and find this small cauliflower hiding in a corner - it is your turn tonight, sweetie - I say to its forlorn looking face! Within minutes, I have it washed and scrubbed clean. There are at least 3 different ways in which I make this soup and I decide which one of those to use. This one takes about a half hour to make from the time you pick the veggie to spooning the soup into bowls. Thirty minutes later, I lay out the table and start summoning everyone for dinner. "Whatz for dinner, honey?", asks Vee without looking away from his laptop. I refrain from replying so that he would be forced to check for himself. After deliberating for a little bit, he finally hops over to the table and what he sees, brightens his face. The guy loves soup of any kind. Amma and Appa prefer soups any day to the mundane salads that I so often serve them for dinner. The soup is still piping hot and as everyone savors it one spoonful at a time, all the sleepiness is driven away. They are as pepped up as they could ever get!

Here's the recipe which is my own adaptation from Mrs. Mallika's "100 Refreshing Soups and Stews" cookbook.

Steaming bowl of cauliflower soup

Ingredients -

1) Cauliflower - 1 (quickly separated into large florets)

2) Garlic - 2 small cloves (If you'd rather prefer ginger, go with a 1" piece of it!)

3) Onion - 1 small (roughly chopped up)

4) Green Chilies - 2

5) Milk - 1.5 cups (I used 1%-low fat.)

6) Whole Wheat Flour - 1 tbspn

7) Oil - 1 tspn (I use Extra Virgin Olive Oil.)

8) Softened butter or ghee - two drops

9) Salt - to taste

10) Black Pepper - a few corns

Method -

1) Heat the oil and butter in a pressure cooker or pan and saute the garlic cloves and green chilies until the raw smell of garlic is all gone.

2) Throw in the onions and continue sauteing for a few minutes until they turn translucent.

3) Next go in, the cauliflower florets. Fry some more.

4) After about 5 minutes, sprinkle the wheat flour and stir around till everything is well coated.

5) Add 1 cup of milk and about 1/2 a cup of water and salt to taste.

6) Pressure cook in a low flame for 10 minutes or until one whistle sounds.

7) Wait till all the pressure is released and leave the cooker open for some time for the contents to cool thoroughly.

8) Take all the solid particles you can find (in the cooker) in a blender and pulse a few times to get a paste-like consistency. It is important to not pour in all the contents with the liquid into the blender as that will result in a not-so-smooth texture.

9) Transfer the soup paste into the cooker again and mix with the liquid portion. Add in the remaining milk and stir well.

10) Simmer until the soup starts boiling and if the soup is too thick for your taste, you can pour a cup of water and wait till it boils through.

11) Spoon into bowls and pulverize some peppercorns over them. Garnish with a sprig of cilantro!

A chef and an obsession...

2008-07-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

Baking is an art form in reality. In most other styles of cooking, it is easy to undo human error. Undoing in totality might prove to be difficult may be, but surely the dish can be salvaged by using tips from experts. Digressing a little, Mrs. Mallika Badrinath - rendered a top chef in Tamil Nadu - offers a bunch of SoS tips in almost all her books. I have the whole series of her books sitting on my book shelf. It is interesting that I never purchased even one of them. That is not to be mistaken that I did not intend to buy them, but what I meant is even before I heard of her fame and glory, I got gifted a couple of her books by her son who happens to be a good friend of mine. I started experimenting recipes from her books and within weeks I was hooked! Peps (as we call him) must have realized how much I adored them 'coz he gave me the entire series as a wedding gift. Her recipes are tried and tested ones but what makes them valuable is, they are described in a surprisingly simple way with ingredients right off the kitchen shelf. There is indeed something in them that makes you want to start making them, the moment you set your eyes on them. Three cheers to her!

So baking, I reiterate can turn into a gruesome nightmare if some of its vital ingredients were omitted or forgotten or a pre-processing step skipped. There are some "cool" and handy recipes which fall under the failsafe category while some others can prove to be very finicky. When we lived in IIT Delhi, we had this family living in the apartment above ours, who had returned back to India after living a few years in London. Uncle was a professor in IIT and auntie was a homemaker. After living a few years in India, they decided to go back to London again and that's when they decided to get rid of all the stuff that they couldn't possibly take back with them. We, who were pretty good friends with them started to become proud owners of a lot of "Made in England" stuff. Assorted things started becoming new members in our household which included travel guides on London, some very adorable dolls, a sandwich maker, pens, knife-sharpener (which lived true to its name until its disappearance some twenty years later) and an electric cake oven. One of the dolls that I christened "Goldilocks" still lives in my home in Chennai though she only has her head attached to the torso now. Her hair was and is a point of fascination to me to this day. You'd probably mistake me for being slightly soft in the head if I revealed the things I've done with her hair like shampooing and using the drier to style it. She's lived through it all - the pretty Miss. GL. My mom was an epitome of experimentation. She never ceased to try out new stuff - be it picking up a new art form like doll-making, knitting, crocheting or trying out new foods, collecting new recipes, stitching new patterns of dresses from fashion magazines, learning new beauty treatment techniques or baking new cakes! The oven that we inherited from our neighbors easily became her obsession. We are looking at the early 80's here before the times of food blogs and the internet. She didn't have a recipe book on baking or cakes either. She just followed her instincts to start trying out different combinations of flour, eggs, baking powder, baking soda, butter and flavoring essences to come up with some truly delectable cakes. I was a kid and to me, her cakes looked and tasted very different from the ones we got from the bakery in neighboring Hauz Khas. I loved them for their freshness and ambrosial flavor. Many years later, some time in 2001, I baked my first pseudo-cake. Pseudo because it was from an instant packaged mix but the experience was gratifying. I was a grad student and I didn't have a baking pan back then. Following my friend Anu's suggestion, I ended up baking it in a heavy- bottomed pressure pan and it still turned out great. A series of instant cakes followed but it was not until the fall of 2003 that I tried baking a cake from scratch (again acting on Anu's recipe that she had gotten from her cousin in Dallas). The difference was instantly obvious and the flavor reminded me of the home-made cakes my mom used to bake. That triggered a saga of obsession with baking ONLY from scratch! I wonder sometimes if I inherited the crazy-about-baking gene from my mom 'cuz today if I go without baking something (anything!) for a couple weeks in a row, I start getting panic attacks. x-( Baking being a very healthy substitute to frying gives me that extra bit of adrenaline rush.

When I started writing this post, I wanted to follow it with a cake or muffin recipe but for fear of having to post something ridiculously long, I stop here.

Cream of Wheat Kichadi (with a twist)

2008-06-24T11:21:00.001-07:00

The twist part is not something that is all that new. But I do manage a unique flavor to the final outcome which usually leaves people smacking their lips and wondering what went into it. I am one of those that associates a particular moment, place, thing or dish with a memory from the plethora, that are tucked in those many crevices in my mind. Most often it is a favorable memory (thankfully!) but sometimes there are things which trigger sad, bad or simply disgusting ones! Thinking (or even writing) about Rava Kichadi brings back a lot of my friends' smiling faces - anu, sindhu, aravind, pavani, arun and of course Vee. Vee loves this dish since it is supposedly one of his childhood faves but he really is fond of my little variation too. My mom used to make rava kichadi with lots of tomatoes (after blanching) in it and that's my favorite way of having it though I don't get to make it that way quite often (growl). Yet another memory that comes popping back is that of my dad teaching me how to make it when I was in the ninth grade. Oh yeah! I learnt most of the basic dishes I know today, from my dad.

Scoops of Rava Kichadi with veggies

The recipe follows -

Ingredients -
1) Fine Semolina - 1 cup
2) Onion - 1 big (thinly sliced)
3) Green Chilies - 2-3 (slit)
4) Ginger - 1" piece (julienned)
5) Potato - 1 (diced) (OPTIONAL - I omit this almost all the time.)
6) Frozen peas and carrots - 3/4ths of a cup (thawed)
7) Frozen Lima beans or French cut green beans - 1/2 cup (thawed)
8) Tomatoes - 1 big (diced) (Obviously, you need to wait until the Salmonella scare has passed!)
9) Turmeric - a small pinch
10) Cilantro - a handful (roughly chopped)
12) Water - 3.25 cups
13) Salt - to taste

For seasoning -
a) Oil - 2 tspns
b) Butter/Ghee - 1/2 or 1 tspn
c) Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
d) Cloves - 2
e) Cinnamon - 1" piece
f) Bengal gram Dal - 1 tbspn
g) Split Urad Dal - 1 tspn
h) Asafetida - a generous pinch

Method -
1) Dry roast the semolina in a pan on a medium flame until the granules acquire a light brown shade and keep aside.
2) In a deep pan, heat the oil and then add in the ghee. After both are heated through, toss in the seasoning ingredients c through h, one after another in the order listed above, always making sure none of them get charred.
3) The ginger and green chilies can be thrown in at this point and after a minute the onions go in too.
4) Fry till the onions are translucent and then the veggies listed in 5 through 8 can be added in. Sprinkle turmeric powder over this and then fry on a medium flame until the tomatoes start to turn mushy.
5) Pour the 3.25 cups of water and stir in salt. Cover and cook until the water starts gurgling.
6) Remove from heat and stir in the dry roasted cream of wheat adding a little at a time ensuring no lumps are formed.
7) Put the mixture back on a medium flame and cover and cook for 10-12 minutes until soft.
8) Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with any chutney of your choice.

Note - I am sure you must have figured out that the twist part was none other than the addition of the cloves and cinnamon. It really does add a lovely flavor and I'm sure you won't be disappointed. The consistency of the kichadi is quite different from that of the cream of wheat upma. A kichadi always needs to be mushy and soft with a glazed look to it.

Mangoes - Grade "i"

2008-06-01T21:38:00.001-07:00

I was supposed to be writing a few beautiful words about the "king of fruits" before submitting my handiwork to Indira's Mango Manthram event but alas! my piece isn't ready yet. (boo-hoo!) I procrastinated for too long before actually starting to "work" on it during the Memorial Day weekend. To make up, since the past weekend I have diligently put to use any bit of leisure time I managed to steal. So here's my submission to this event which is still incomplete (hence the grade "i"). Amma and I have been putting some serious time and thought into this for quite some time and I am proud to say it is a joint collaboration. My sincere thanks to Indira for giving my family and me a chance to share these beautiful moments of working together. We do hope to finish it soon and this post will be appropriately updated.

The Three Mangoes

Another view

A little bit about The Three Mangoes -
Yeah! In reality it is a pattern with three mangoes in it. Appa and Amma came up with the idea and a draft. I drew out what they conceptualized. With my dear friend Nisha's help, the arduous task of deciding the stitches was figured out. We have used long and short stitches for filling up the mango(es) and chain stitch for the stem, leaf outline and leaf veins. The leaf(ves) itself was filled up with simple long stitch. As you can see, I am yet to fill up the two other mangoes and the leaf. My justification for even attempting to submit is that the single mango with the leaf still qualifies as a “very” mango piece for Mango Manthram.

Cream of Rice Upma

2008-05-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

Back home in India, we are used to having Upma(s), Idlis, Dosas and all those dishes in their close likeness as staple breakfasts. Something that always intrigues me is how quickly I've grown used to not having any of those for breakfast. A decade ago I would've stated the probability of that happening close to zero. Today I find myself still craving these dishes but certainly not for breakfast. I prefer to have them for lunch along with a serving or two of veggies. For breakfast I am kind of addicted and devoted to a steaming bowl of oatmeal with milk or buttermilk 4 times a week. At other times, I like to have bran flakes with milk, whole-grain toast with almond butter or hummus, oat flour pancakes, oats-and-fruit shake or oats upma! Uh-oh....all my choices seem to have oats in some form or the other. I need to start my day on a vibrant note and a healthy breakfast goes a long way in helping me achieve that. I also try to stick with breakfasts which are oil-free and low in sugar. So most of the Indian breakfast items I write here have transformed themselves into lunch dishes in our household! Cream of rice upma is one of my dad's faves. I remember my mom making this for us during weekends (on the ones she was around) when I was a kid. The consistency is all that matters in a upma to make it go from simply delicious to oh-what-a-sticky-mess!

Hot Rice Rawa Upma ready to be eaten!

Here goes Amma's recipe for this -

Ingredients -
1) Raw Rice - 1 cup (Use Ponni or Sona Masoori rice for best results.)
2) Toor Dal - one handful
3) Bengalgram Dal - one handful
4) Cumin Seeds - 1 tspn
5) Black Peppercorns - 1 tspn
6) Onion - 1 big (chopped)
7) Salt - to taste

For seasoning -
1) Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
2) Bengalgram Dal - 1 tspn
3) Blackgram Dal - 1 tspn
4) Asafetida - a pinch
5) Curry leaves - few (rinsed)
6) Ginger - 1 inch piece (julienned)
7) Green Chilies - 1 long one (slit)
9) Oil - 3 tspns

Method -
1) Wash rice in cold water and spread it on a muslin cloth overnight in an airy place so that the rice is completely dry. You can omit this step if you are sure the rice is absolutely clean like the one you get in the U.S.
2) Take the dry rice and add ingredients 1-5 and pound coarsely in an Indian blender (like Sumeet). If you don't have one, make sure you pulse in short bursts until the mixture has the consistency of coarse steel-cut oats or cracked wheat.
3) If you ended up producing too much of soft flour, do not panic. Sifting the cream of rice will separate out the soft flour. But you will have to make some more cream of rice with another batch of rice.
4) After this step, the procedure is pretty straightforward like upma made with any other ingredient.
5) Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and toss in the seasonings one after another as mentioned above.
6) Next, add in the onions and saute till they turn translucent.
7) Pour 2.5 cups of water and stir in the salt and bring to a rolling boil.
8) The cream of rice can be added a little at a time to ensure no lumps are formed. (I generally take the pan off the stove and put it back on only after I'm convinced that I've created a homogeneous mixture.)
9) Cover and cook on a low flame until done. This could take upto 25 minutes. If you don't have a lot of time on your hands, you can pressure cook the upma.
10) If you are going the pan way, then you can uncover and leave it on medium heat for a few minutes after the upma is cooked through to get a yummy upma crust! :)

Spiced-up Lentil Fritters (Paruppu Vadas)

2008-05-27T14:56:00.000-07:00

I am not a sucker for deep-fried stuff and have very few faves in that category. I rarely tread into that territory and try to limit my visiting it to 3 or 4 times a year.

Top 5 reasons why I dislike deep frying anything -

1) It screams UNHEALTHY right on your face. High in saturated fats that can make you see a spike in your LDL levels.

2) I end up undoing 50% of my work out sessions. (Oh what an utter waste of all that determined dragging-my-lazy-self-out-of-bed at 5:30 in the morning!)

3) The kitchen vent starts spinning the smell around and my house starts reeking of the carbon-deposited oil. (Ugh!)

4) My mane absorbs the microscopic oil particles that are aloft in the air so efficiently that at the end of the session, I am forced to wash my hair lest I end up looking like I've run out midway from a hot-oil massage session.

5) Vee would get addicted. Sounds crazy but true. The last thing I would want is to have him start craving for those "goodies".

So what business does this recipe have in my blog, you may very well ask. When I was a kid (a rotund one), I hardly had any of the worries listed above. My parents used to take me to Malai Mandir (Hill Temple) in Delhi once every month and I remember being intrigued by these trips. The reason being everything about these trips was so very TAMIL-ian. My mother used to say I had been brought to Delhi when I was an 80-day old baby. Since I had spent the prime of my childhood in Delhi, I had little association with tamil and the tamilian culture itself. Those monthly temple visits used to feel like I was transported to a different world! Now, after all the worshipping was completed, we used to find ourselves on the verge of hunger and that's where the vada-seller comes in. Outside the temple were lined small roadside shops. Amidst the flower sellers, was nestled a homely shop that sold out-of-the-world spicy paruppu vadas! It had become a ritual to stop over at the shop to savor the vadas before returning home in the 620 bus. Given the fact that south-ey food (madraasi food) was sparse those days in Delhi, the vadas seemed all the more delicious. The pics posted here were clicked on Pongal day (Harvest Festival day on Jan 14th) when we (Vee and I) made these at home specially because it was our "thalai Pongal" (the first pongal festival after marriage).

Hot Paruppu Vadas

Amma's recipe follows -

Ingredients -

Main ones -

1) Bengal gram Dal - 1 cup
2) Toor Dal - 1 tspn
3) Red Chilies - 2
4) Curry leaves - few
5) Asafetida - a pinch
6) Salt - to taste
7) Grated coconut - 1 tspn (optional)
8) Cilantro - a few sprigs (finely chopped)
9) Oil - for deep frying

Spiced-up variations - (Omit if you are making the plain vadas.)
1) Aniseeds - 1 tspn
2) Onion - 1 medium-sized (finely chopped)
3) Garlic - 1 clove (optional) (I didn't add it.)

Method -
1) Soak both the dals together for 1 hour after washing well.
2) Drain the water and collect it in a cup and use it for grinding as needed.
3) Grind coarsely adding as little water as you can along with the red chilies, asafetida, curry leaves, coconut and salt. Also add in the aniseeds and garlic while grinding for the spiced-up variation. (I use Sumeet blender for this. I did try this once with the blender I bought in the U.S. and it turned out to be a disaster since I was forced to add some extra water.) The dough should be as dry as this illustration here.
4) Mix in the chopped cilantro leaves and onion and make small lemon-sized balls of the dough.
5) Place the balls on a piece of cloth or kitchen towels (napkins) for 10-15 minutes so that the excess water gets absorbed.

The dough balls drying on kitchen towels

6) Heat oil in a small (deep) frying pan.
7) Flatten the balls slightly and shape like fat saucers before dropping them in the hot oil.
8) Fry over a medium flame until the bubbles have subsided along the edges of the vadas. Turn over once.
9) Drain on kitchen towels so that the excess oil is absorbed and the fritters look dry.
10) Serve as a snack with tomato ketchup or chutney.

Low-fat Tomato Chutney

2008-05-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

This is an easy-breezy recipe. We had this today morning for breakfast as an accompaniment for as-soft-as-flower-petals idlis (that analogy is a direct translation of a phrase used in my native language). This chutney is mild in flavor but sure does have a delightful tangy taste to it.

Ingredients -
1) Ripe Tomatoes - 2 #s
2) Green Chilies - 2 #s
3) Roasted Gram Dal - 2 tbspns
4) Oil for frying
5) Salt - to taste
6) Mustard Seeds - 1 tspn
7) Black gram Dal - 1 tspn
8) Asafetida - a pinch

Method -
1) Dice tomatoes and slit the green chilies.
2) Heat 1 tspn (or lesser) oil in a pan and add the green chilies; wait for 30 seconds and dunk the diced tomatoes in.
3) Fry till tomatoes are soft.
4) Allow the mushy pulp to cool and grind along with the roasted gram dal and salt.
5) For seasoning, fry mustard seeds, black gram dal, asafetida and curry leaves in a half teaspoon of oil and pour on top. Serve with any Indian breakfast dish.

Plantain Tamarind Dal (a.k.a Vaazhakka Puli Kootu)

2008-05-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

Last night, I made this kinda' sour kootu for today's lunch. As the name implies the two main ingredients dominate the taste over the other things that go into it. I am sure kootu is nothing new in the blogosphere. Before the times of food blogs, I would have had to explain that kootu is an amalgamation of a veggie and a lentil together with a mild seasoning. It is more often the comfort food in most South Indian households. To me it is a cool dish because you can make it really low-fat by just reducing the amount of coconut or by omitting it altogether. Tamarind kootu is a sour variation of the original by adding some tamarind extract to it. The ground spice mixture added is a little different to make sure the flavors blend well together. There are a few different styles for making the spice mixture and in this post I write Amma's recipe. Since she and Appa (my f-i-l) are here now on a vacation, I don't have to bother wracking my brains each night to decide what to make and leave alone trying to figure which recipe to use. Now all I do is ask our walking culinary encyclopedia for the recipe and pat comes the reply. The thing I appreciate most is her recipes are really simple and the flavors very mouthwatering.
Now on to the recipe ...

Plantain Tamarind Dal on rice

Ingredients -
The main items -
1) Plantain - 1 medium sized
2) Yellow lentils (Toor Dal) - 1/2 cup
3) Bengalgram Dal (Channa Dal) - one handful, washed and soaked in water for 20 minutes
4) Tamarind - half a lemon sized (if you like it sour, you can increase it and vice versa.)
5) Salt to taste
6) Turmeric Powder - one pinch

For the ground mixture -
1) Red Chillies - 3
2) Blackgram Dal (Urad Dal) - 2 tspns
4) Coriander Seeds - 2 tspns
5) Asafetida - one pinch
6) Black peppercorns - 5-6
7) Coconut (fresh or frozen) - 1.5 to 2 tbspns
8) Oil - half a tspn
9) Water - just enough for grinding

For the seasoning -
1) Oil - 1 teaspoon
2) Mustard Seeds - 1 teaspoon
3) Curry Leaves - a few
4) Asafetida - a large pinch

Method -
1) Skin and chop the plantain into half-inch cubes. You can leave a little bit of the plantain skin on if you prefer it that way.
2) Soak the tamarind in sufficient water and microwave for about 30 seconds to shake up the stubborn flesh a bit. After it is cooled, squeeze and extract the tamarind flavored water and strain it to get rid of the rind and stones part.
2) In a microwave-safe bowl, add the soaked bengalgram dal and the chopped plantain pieces along with a pinch of salt. Add just enough water for them to be cooked and microwave on high until done. The dal need not be cooked to a mashy consistency as it will get cooked a wee bit more in the final dish while simmering.
3) Meanwhile, heat up the half tspn of oil in a non-stick pan and add the red chillies, blackgram dal, coriander seeds and asafetida in that order. (Make sure each gets fried before you add in the next.) Allow it to cool and grind it along with the peppercorns, coconut and water to a smooth paste.
4) Heat one tspn of oil in a pan and after is hot, dunk in the mustard seeds and cover the pan while they crackle and dance around unless you desire a messy kitchen counter.
5) Toss in the curry leaves with the asafetida.
6) Wait for 5 seconds until a asafetida-ish aroma starts emanating and then add the tamarind extract with enough salt and a pinch of turmeric powder.
7) After the tamarind water starts boiling a little, toss in the cooked plaintain and bengalgram dal mixture.
8) Wait for a couple minutes before adding the slightly mashed toor dal and ground mixture. Add a little bit of water if the concoction is too thick and reduce the flame to medium hot.
9) It will take about 5 minutes for the mixture to start gurgling and reduce heat and simmer for a couple more minutes if required.
10) Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with rice. (If you are a South Indian and not watching calories, you can drizzle a little bit of ghee on top for that added oomph.)

Ragi-Akki Roti

2008-05-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

Ragi-Akki roti is a pretty conventional dish from Karnataka, though not very often used together in a roti. (Akki roti is the roti made purely out of rice flour.) I have been fond of Ragi rotis ever since my days in Chennai. My aunt who used to live in the apartment below ours used to make them almost weekly for Uncle, her granddaughters and me of course! Auntie as I have always called her, is one of the best cooks that can ever be and her penchant for maintaining a clean house and kitchen at all times used to have me flabbergasted. To my eyes, her kitchen resembled one of those clean rooms in hospitals even if you sneaked a peek in the midst of a feast preparation for 10 people. Of course I was a shabby teenager back then but then life is all about learning after all. My subconscious had been covertly absorbing what it observed in my mom's and auntie's kitchens and today it manifests itself in every tiny bit of housekeeping I do. Another interesting observation about those times is that I had no knowledge of my own about nutrition. But I did trust Auntie about the glowing reviews she gave Ragi. Well...as the story goes, I loved this dish and never had the chance to eat it, much less make it since I moved here to the land of opportunities in 2000. That sounds dramatic but the truth is that in the university town called Rolla (read middle-of-nowhere) where I lived until I graduated last year, we were 100 miles away from the closest form of civilization. Since my move to California, two things changed - 1) Indian grocery stores here stack everything that you can ever think of (except one of my favorite veggies - plantain stem) and they do flaunt at least 5 different brands of Ragi flour. 2) My discovery of the umpteen Indian foodie blogs led to stumbling upon lots of recipes for Ragi rotis. But I still didn't dare to attempt it because I was too apprehensive that I'd make a mess of the whole thing. The wait ended in a surprising manner sometime in February this year. On one of our weekend skiing trips at Tahoe, we stopped enroute at Folsom at our friend Pavan's place. His parents were visiting and needless to say they were charming hosts. It sure was heartwarming to get back from the cold slopes to a lovely home-cooked dinner. After the nice meal and a good night's sleep, Vee and I were all set to hurry back but Pavan's mom (Auntie) wouldn't hear of it. She insisted to send us only with breakfast in our stomachs. The usual polite refusals and the persisting insisting were happening in full swing but only until I heard what was for breakfast. As you can imagine, Ragi rotis it was! I acquiesced only too willingly and Auntie gladly agreed to teach me as well as share with me the recipe for making them. We set to work immediately and oh boy what fun we had together! And Vee, who hadn't been too sure if he'd like them in the first place had a ball gorging on them.

Ingredients -
1) Ragi Flour - 1 cup
2) Rice Flour - 1 cup
3) Onion - 1 medium sized - finely chopped
4) Green Chilies - 2 (julienned)
5) Cilantro - a few sprigs (cut up into bits)
6) Dill leaves - a few (roughly chopped)
7) Salt - to taste
8) Water - for the dough
9) Oil - for frying

10) Few cooked corn kernels - (optional)

Method -
1) Take a big bowl, sturdy enough to withstand the kneading and add the dry ingredients (ragi flour, rice flour and salt) and mix well.
2) Make a well in the center and toss in all the remaining ingredients except water.
3) Mix with a light hand and then add water a little at a time and knead well until a soft and pliable dough is obtained.

The dough (after a ball was torn off)

4) Cover and leave aside for 10 minutes.
5) Take a non-stick, flat griddle and grease with little oil but make sure it spreads all over.
6) Tear off a big lemon-sized chunk of the dough and shape into a rough ball and place it in the middle of the griddle. Start patting it from the top and continue doing so until you see it metamorphosing from a ball to an egg and then to a disc and finally into a thin roti. The patting can seem tricky but in reality it isn’t because the dough is very forgiving and easy to manage. It helps to smear some water on your fingers time and again during the patting.

Roti being patted by Auntie

7) Place the pan on a medium flame and cover and cook after drizzling a wee bit of oil along the circumference.

Roti before covering

8) The roti will lift off easily for turning over once the underside is cooked through. Flip and cook for a few more minutes.

Ragi roti with blobs of butter (x-()

9) Serve piping hot because this one tastes great when hot along with any kind of chutney you like!

Tappal Roti - A Maiden Recipe

2008-05-12T15:57:00.000-07:00

I hadn't heard of the existence of such a dish until about 6 months ago when marriage took me to a new household. In my mind's eye, a new household was like looking forward to a whole new series on discovery channel. I am always in awe of the myriad flavors and tastes that "aunties" or "maamis" can concoct, with wonderfully simple recipes. Though most of them do fall under my so-called umbrella of healthy eats, there are a few irresistible ones which are a complete no-no in my health-eating category. Whenever the Mr. Hyde in me starts to crave for such dishes, I like to convince Dr. Jekyll that consuming them once in a blue moon will not make my cholesterol levels go sky-rocketing. Dr. Jekyll also makes sure I burn off those extra calories on the treadmill soon. Tappal Roti is one such dish which both V (my dear hubby) and I love. Of course, since it is my m-i-l's (who will be referred to simply as Amma here on, in this blog) recipe, he has been relishing it for quite a while. I took to it pretty easily and did try to reproduce what I had learnt from Amma in India. The outcome was good but not as perfect as hers was. The reason I attribute to a little excess water I inadvertently added in the batter but it was still delicious enough. The dish itself goes by the name of roti but the taste and texture resemble a hybrid version of dosa and idli together in the same package.

Tappal Roti served with idli podi in a thali style platter

Here's the recipe as sent to us by email -

Ingredients -
1) Raw Rice - 1 cup (I used Ponni Raw Rice from the Indian grocery store.)
2) Black Gram Dal (Urad Dal) - 1/4 cup
3) Oil - for frying the rotis

Method -
1) Grind the raw rice in the blender in its dry state till it reaches an idli rava coarseness.
2) Soak the urad dal in little water for an hour and refrigerate it for another hour along with the water.
3) Grind the dal along with little water so that it becomes a thick batter.
4) Add one cup of boiling water with enough salt to the rice rava and let it soak for 4 hours.
5) Mix the soaked rava with the ground dal batter. The resulting batter should be coarse and thick and slightly thicker than normal idli batter.
6) Heat a small deep curved pan and pour a ladle full of roti batter in it. Drizzle oil generously along the sides of the roti and cover and cook on a medium flame. (The "drizzling generously" is the sad part here and I couldn't get myself to be very generous I should say.)
7) Just pry the roti on the edges and check to see if it attained a reddish brown color. If yes, turn over and drizzle some more oil. If not, let it remain covered for some more time.
8) The other side will not turn completely brown but you will know if tiny light brown spots start to appear. (You can see these when you pry it again at the edges.)
9) Remove the roti from the pan and enjoy with home-made idli podi.

Note -
The cooking time of the roti after pouring into the pan can take up to 3-4 minutes depending on how hot the pan is. So this dish requires some patience.

Welcome!

2008-05-12T14:29:00.001-07:00

It's happened! Today I begin my blog journey on the culinary front. Though this has been on my mind since long, I have never mustered up the courage to do so. Call it a busy life or simply chickening out (!?!) whatever! The thought process is working overtime to find where to start from the ubiquitous collection of recipes I have managed to maintain over the past four or so years. Rest assured, I will be posting my first recipe very soon. :)