Beerakkaya Ullikaaram (Ridged Gourd with Onion-Tomato Relish)
This recipe was given to me by my friend Padma…of the Kothmir Kaaram fame:)… that recipe was quite the hit with many of my friends so I have to refer to Padma as just that, for now . I feel so blessed that I have good friends who love good food and so sharing recipes is a part of our everyday conversations over lunch…as we sample the newest restaurants in town, that is:)
So for snow day #4, we tried the recipe along with Paalakura Pappu, Spinach Dal, Andhra style. I tried Sailu’s version of Spinach dal as it is here. Both were good, the Pappu was a little mild for our taste but I made the Ullikaaram quite spicy so I think they complemented each other quite well.
Ingredients:
4 Ridged Gourds, chopped into small 1 inch pieces
1 big yellow onion, sliced into thin long slices
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
1 1/2 tbsp oil
2 big vine ripe tomatoes, chopped into pieces
1 1/2 tsp red chili powder
salt to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin powder
Method:
Heat the oil in a kadai or a heavy bottomed vessel. Add the cumin seeds when the oil is hot.
When the seeds turn fragrant and light brown, add the red chili powder, turmeric and salt, then add the onions. Fry for about two minutes till the onions cook a little, they don’t need to brown.
Now add the ridged gourd pieces, tomatoes, red chili powder, salt and turmeric. You can also add the cumin powder now.
Cover the pan and let it cook for about 10 minutes. Keep stirring in between and cook till the ridged gourd pieces are well cooked.
Now remove the lid and cook for 5 more minutes till the water evaporates. Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve with hot rice.
Hot Bread Tikkas
Its Snow day #2 in Plano, TX…17F with a wind chill of minus whatever, 2 inches of ice, (ice, not snow) on the streets, rolling blackouts everywhere, frozen pipes…you’d think the world was coming to an end in Plano! Jokes aside, it has been pretty serious and I have to say I’m very thankful I’m still typing this. This means that I have power at home, heat to keep us warm, groceries to last us for at least the next day…and, internet connection. At least for now. Thank you (silent prayer) for an uneventful day today.
You’d think that a day like this is perfect to cook and blog…only, when you have a bored 9 year old at home for 2 whole days and you have to work, its the perfect recipe for disasters, cooking or otherwise. “Amma, can you play with me?” or “Can I go outside to play by myself”…only to be back in 5 minutes with a frozen chin and a “Do we have anything to cover my chin?” to “I’m sledding umm ice-skating outside”…aargh!! We’ve had painted t-shirts, hand made water bottle people traps (don’t ask!), catapults, paper ninjas strewn all over the house..all Nikhil’s original creations. And school just announced that they are closed again tomorrow. Help!! Who has time to cook, or blog!
But again, I’m thankful for Amma, who continues to ensure her babies (me and her grandson:) are well-fed, as she whips up the perfect antidote to a gloomy snow day…steaming hot bread tikkas! Add some chili sauce and ketchup and I’m all set for snow day #3:)
Ingredients:
Whole wheat bread – cut into small squares - 4 slices
1 cup chickpea flour (besan)
1/2 Yellow onion chopped fine
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1tbsp red chili powder (add more if you like it spicy)
1 tsp garam masala (available in Indian stores)
1 tbsp oil
1/2 cup water
salt to taste
Method:
Take the chickpea flour in a mixing bowl. Add about 1/2 cup water to make a smooth paste. The batter needs to be a little runny so as to coat the bread, not too watery but a slightly thicker paste, so adjust the water accordingly.
Add the onions, chili powder, salt and cilantro and mix well.
Take a bread cube, dip it in the batter so it coats the bread completely.
Heat a flat skillet and the oil, when the skillet is hot. Add the bread slices coated with the batter and shallow fry till well browned on all sides. Serve piping hot with ketchup or chili sauce.
Travel Bites – Mumbai Spice, Houston
Mumbai Spice! Houston has its share of Indian restaurants – Kiran’s (reviewed here), Udipi, Bombay Brasserie, Mughal, Nirvana, and Mumbai Spice. The two that stand out are Kiran’s and Mumbai Spice. Mumbai Spice, my home away from home as Malini calls it, has some great treats. The food tastes great and the service is fantastic. Mr Bakshi, the owner is almost always there, taking care of every little detail and making sure that the patrons walk out feeling special. He has his repertoire of jokes and shayari (Hindi or Urdu couplets) that can keep you entertained.
Now about the food. The food at Mumbai is quite the traditional Indian food that you find at most Indian restaurants. His chef Buta Singh is from Punjab and he specializes in North Indian cuisine. His specialties are Tandoori Chicken, Dal Makhani, and Paneer Do Pyaza. Last night, my colleague/friend Anil and I walked in to Mumbai Spice and asked the chef to surprise us with his favorite dishes. He brought out Paneer Do Pyaza, Bhindi Masala and Tarka Daal with some White Rice and Naan.
One of my pet peeves about Bhindi Masala at restaurants is the amount of oil they use and how much they fry it. The Bhindi Masala at Mumbai Spice was done just right – not too green and not too fried – the way mom used to make it.
Paneer Do Pyaaza was good and had the right amount of spices in it. The paneer was soft and moist with enough of the spicing to add flavoring to it.
The one let down was the dal, I prefer my dal light and not thick! This dal was extremely thick and looked like it was picked up from last evening’s buffet;)
Bottomline- Mumbai Spice is a good place to eat good Indian food, though not as sophisticated as Kiran’s. But the quality of the food and the host make it a must try place in the Houston suburbs.
PS: If you do make the trip ask for the Mirchi Pakoras if you like really spicy Indian style Pepper tempuras.
Lunchbox Series – Peanut Sesame Noodles
I love technology! I just love, love the fact that I now have lunchbox and recipe ideas at my fingertips, literally. Yes I am officially an app junkie!
So I was debating what to pack for Nikhil’s lunchbox last night. A quick run through the crisper gave me the following ingredients: half a head of broccoli, a quarter cut green bell pepper, some baby carrots and some scallions. Like many other app junkies, I’ve downloaded more apps on my Ipad/Iphone than I use them. Most of them were purely because I love to read the “top 10 best apps” articles on all the daily tech feeds out there…and download them just because:)
I’d read so much about the Epicurious app and hadn’t really put it to its test. So I got back 36 recipes for noodles with the ingredients. Of course it helped that Nikhil also contributed to this recipe search and added noodles to the ingredients. Basically, half the battle is having your child pick what he or she wants for lunch …did I really need an app for that? Of course I did.
We picked the first recipe…Peanut Sesame Noodles which asked for a few more ingredients from my pantry and which, thankfully I had in stock. I chopped the veggies last night and cooked the noodles and mixed the sauce this morning. I didn’t make it cold the way the recipe suggested but heated the sauce for about 1-2 minutes (not more) and garnished with lots of cilantro. Nikhil loved it..I know this already because he couldn’t stop eating it this morning and wanted it for breakfast:) Hopefully it lasts through lunchtime.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/3 cup warm water
- 2 tablespoons chopped peeled fresh ginger
- 1 medium garlic clove, chopped
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Asian sesame oil (I used regular sesame oil available in Indian stores but I’m sure the Asian sesame adds to the flavor)
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
- I tsp Sambal sauce or any red chili sauce (this was not in the original recipe and you could omit if you dont want to the noodles to get too spicy)
- 3/4 lb dried linguine fini or Haka noodles (I used Haka Instant Noodles)
- 4 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1 green bell pepper, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips (you may use red or yellow bell pepper as well)
- 2 tbsp grated carrots or julienne cut
- 1/2 cup broccoli florets
Method:
Make dressing:
Purée dressing ingredients in a blender until smooth, about 2 minutes, then transfer to a large bowl. (You can use a blender or beat the peanut butter well until smooth, add the other ingredients and beat well with a fork or spatula, if you don’t want to pull out a blender like contraption during the morning craziness:)
Noodles:
Cook noodles in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water until tender/al dente. Drain in a colander, then rinse well under cold water.
Heat the sesame oil in a wok. When hot, add the scallions, bell pepper, carrots and broccoli.
Toss for about 1 minute in the hot oil, and then add the peanut sauce. Mix for about another 1-2 minutes, and add the noodles. Mix well to combine.
Cool and serve/pack in the lunchbox.
I packed the noodles for Nikhil today with some salad (romaine, apples, pecans, kidney beans with raspberry vinaigrette dressing on the side)
Venn Pongal – Traditional South Indian Rice Porridge
A very happy Pongal to all!
For those wondering what this means, Thai Pongal is a harvest festival celebrated by the people of Tamil Nadu (a South Indian state). Pongal in Tamil means “boiling over or spill over.” The boiling over of milk in the clay pot symbolizes material abundance for the household. Thai Pongal, celebrated at harvest time, is traditionally intended to thank the Sun God that helped create the material abundance.
Rice is added to the milk with some jaggery and this “Sakkarai Pongal” is then allowed to boil over. What you see in the picture below are the traditional dishes made for Pongal. Venn Pongal is the “salty” version of Pongal, simply put. It’s a type of rice porridge or “khichdi” with rice and lentils as the main ingredients.
As with all traditional dishes, there is an art to making this dish just right. I’ve had various types of venn Pongal, too dry, too pasty, too much ghee (clarified butter), not enough ghee:) and so on. I think Anusuya’s recipe of Venn Pongal is what I would classify as the “just right” kind. She makes the Pongal and then transfers it to a crock pot which, I think gives it that perfect consistency.
Ingredients:
2 cups raw rice
3/4 cups moong dal
1 fistful red lentils (masoor)
7-71/2 cups water
Salt to taste
1/2 cup cashews
2 tbsp whole black pepper
1 1/2 inch Ginger crushed or sliced into small pieces
1/4 cup Ghee (clarified butter)
A sprig of curry leaves
1 tbsp cumin seeds (jeera)
Method:
Roast the moongdal. Mix all the other grains, add the water and transfer this to a pressure cooker.
Pressure cook the mixture with salt to taste ( for the above amount you can add about 2 tsp salt) for about 5 whistles or about 10-15 minutes.
While the rice is cooking’ heat the ghee in a flat bottom pan. When hot, add the ginger and sauté lightly. Now add the cashews, powdered pepper, and cumin seeds. Fry till cashews are golden brown. Add the curry leaves and turn off the stove.
Open the lid of the pressure cooker after it has cooled a little, mix the rice and lentil mixture well with a ladle.
Now add the pepper, cashew, Ginger and the ghee to the rice. Garnish with the curry leaves. You can now transfer this to a crock pot and switch to “keep warm” mode.
Aviyal (Vegetable Stew in Coconut Chili Gravy)
This is one of Amma’s (my mom) famous recipes. I may have mentioned it here before, but she used to be referred to as “AP Mami” among her near and dear friends. Mami in Tamil refers to aunt and AP stood for Aviyal (vegetable stew) and Paal Payasam (a traditional Indian rice pudding or kheer). I can’t say much about the creativity of the title nor do I believe it does any justice to her incredible culinary skills, but the name stuck for a while. She became known for her Aviyal and Paal Payasam at pot lucks and other group dinners. Strangely I never really cared to learn these dishes from her growing up, and almost always took them for granted. But I never did develop a taste for Aviyal made by anyone else. And to add to this, I married a foodie, who has a similar taste (at least with this dish, in many other cases, we are quite the opposite:), and who wouldn’t dream of having any other Aviyal but Amma’s.
Rambling aside, here’s the recipe the way Amma makes it. She refused to write it down for me so I had to watch her make it and ignore the “throw this in and add that” instructions. This is a very simple recipe and there’s just a few key things to remember as you cook this dish.
Ingredients: (to serve about 4 people)
1/4 cup beans, cut lengthwise into 1 inch pieces
1/4 cup white pumpkin cut into small quarters
5-6 drumsticks (saragava)
1/4 cup raw green plantain cut lengthwise into 1 inch pieces
1/4 cup yam cut into small quarters
1 1/2 cups grated coconut
10-12 green chilies (I use Thai green chilies, but you can use longer ones if you need to reduce the heat or deseed them)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 cup plain lowfat yogurt, beaten
2 tbsp coconut oil
A few curry leaves
Method:
Take about 2 cups water in a saucepan, add the mixed chopped vegetables and turmeric and bring to a boil. Boil for a few minutes until cooked. Drain the water into a separate bowl and set aside. You can use this water later for the gravy if needed.
Grind the grated coconut and green chilies to a paste in a blender. You can add the vegetable water set aside (about 1/2 to 3/4 cup) to make a smooth (not too runny) paste.
Add this paste to the cooked vegetables, and add salt . Place the saucepan over a medium flame. This is the most important step to make the perfect aviyal. Make sure you are close to the stove and you are stirring frequently till the mixture comes to a light boil. Once you see the first signs of boiling, add the beaten yogurt and mix well for one more minute. Turn off the stove, add the curry leaves and the coconut oil. Enjoy with some hot white rice!
If you haven’t already noticed, Aviyal does look very similar to the vegetable stew posted earlier but is a different method. Both the dishes have their origins in Kerala though Aviyal is also a very popular dish in Tamil Nadu (states in South India). If you try both, let me know what you think of their distinct tastes.
Breakfast Smoothie – Banana Blueberry with Granola
Seems to be going good..I’m on a roll:) I did say I wasn’t too fond of making resolutions but two sites I frequent, Yoga Journal and WordPress both have challenges for the new year, or at least the new month in the new year, to make things easier for folks like me, I suppose.
WordPress has a challenge to write at least one blog post a day or a week to stay within the challenge. I didn’t sign up for it, of course, but thought it was interesting that they did that, understanding the psyche of bloggers in general. Hopefully I can “passively” stick to that challenge. I do want to make my posts meaningful and not post just because..
But I did sign up for the Yoga Journal Challenge which started today. It’s a chance to “get back on the mat” as they say and practise yoga for 10-20 minutes a day or even up to 45 minutes, depending on your time. I did the first challenge today which was truly a 45 minute practise that I could only do for about 20. Hoping I can finish the rest sometime tonight, but it feels good to start. Let’s hope I don’t jinx it by sharing this information here (and yoga will help me get less cynical:)
Anyways, today’s challenge also has a breakfast suggestion or an after-practise smoothie courtesy of Vegetarian Times. Good way to start the day with some protien, fiber and omega-3. I modified the original recipe a little by adding some non-fat blueberry greek yogurt instead of the plain yogurt and honey.
Ingredients:
1 ripe banana (you may also use frozen bananas here per the original suggestion, in which case you don’t need ice)
1 cup non-fat blueberry greek yogurt
1/2 cup frozen or fresh blueberries
1/4 cup vanilla soy milk (may also use plain soy milk)
1/4 cup Vanilla pecan granola with chia seeds (see picture for exact brand, but you may use any granola)
Blend all the above in a blender, the more powerful the speed the better. I used Vitamix, my favorite kitchen appliance and also one of the most powerful blenders out there, but you can make this smoothie in any good blender. If you own a Vitamix, mix the ingredients at variable speed from 1-10 first and then increase to high and blend for about 2-3 minutes till smooth.
Banana Bread French Toast
I know…surprise, surprise! Two posts in two days? Rather, three if you count the fact that I finally clicked “publish” to the Kothu Parotta post from almost two months ago;) Yes, I have slacked, but I’ve also set the bar so low that anything looks good now:)
This Banana Bread French Toast is inspired from this breakfast place we went to a a few months ago. “Bread Winner’s Cafe” is a popular restaurant in the DFW area and , in my opinion has the best pancakes and french toasts . Easy recipe, and not sure why I didn’t think of it before, but that’s why I don’t call myself a cook…my recipes are all inspired. Its made with my favorite ingredient…bananas so I couldnt resist sharing it here.
Ingredients:
4 slices banana bread (recipe link here)
2 eggs beaten lightly
1 tbsp maple syrup
Banana slices and pecans/walnuts for garnish
Method:
Beat the eggs in a bowl. Soak a slice of banana bread for about a minute on each side till completely coated.
In the meantime, melt some butter in a skillet (or use oil/butter spray). Add the egg-coated slice of banana bread and cook each side till done and browned.
Serve the french toast with banana slices, pecans or walnuts, whipped cream and of course, a drizzle of maple syrup.
As you can see here, I went a little overboard on the syrup and cream, making this look like a scrumptious ice cream instead, but you get the idea!
Oatmeal South Indian Style
A creative method to making this breakfast staple, this South Indian style oatmeal comes from Anusuya’s kitchen. It’s popularly known as “Thachi Mammu” (yogurt rice) oatmeal in my home and not surprisingly a favorite breakfast item. You can find us making this almost every weekend, and Amma adds her own personal touch when she makes it, which adds to the taste. If you have a taste for yogurt rice and all its varieties, this is a must try recipe.
Ingredients:
2 cups quick cooking oats
1- 1 1/2 cup hot water
1/2 cup diluted yogurt or buttermilk
1/2 tsp crushed green chilies
1/2″ ginger
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
For tadka or popu or garnish:
1 tsp mustard seeds
a pinch asafetida or hing
1/2 tsp oil
Method:
Take the oatmeal in a microwave safe bowl. Make sure the bowl is not too shallow and is deep enough to allow for proper cooking in the microwave. Add 1 cup of boiling hot water, and let it stand for about 3-5 minutes. Now cook this in the microwave for about 2 minutes on high. The oatmeal should be completely cooked by now. If not, cook it for another 45 seconds.
Now add the diluted yogurt, ginger, green chilies, asafetida and salt to taste.
For the tadka: Heat the oil in a small pan, add the mustard seeds. When the seeds begin to splutter, turn off the stove and pour this on the yogurt oatmeal mixture. Garnish with chopped cilantro leaves and enjoy.
