Zucchini Hummus Parathas

 

 

 

Life stages. Usually, unless you're at a certain stage yourself, or have been past that stage, it is difficult to understand what it is all about. It is nearly impossible to empathize. At least for me, it has been. For the longest time, I couldn't understand why parents fussed over what their children could eat. I saw one set of parents agonizing over their children's lunch and dinner and I saw another set that relied almost totally on prepackaged food.

 

 

Now that I have one of my own to worry about, I realize that I am not the agonizing type. I don't fuss over A's food. He usually eats what we eat. Yes, at times, he may go hungry because he is throwing a tantrum and refuses to eat. Since he is just a year and half, I do offer him one other comfort food option at most meals. If he refuses that as well, I let him be. I know that in these food battles, I am never going to win. My aunt said to me, "My children's paediatrician said that no child with access to food will ever starve." So, when A is hungry, he will eat. My obligation is, then, to ensure that the right kind of food is accessible. And I know that this is me. Every parent is different as is every child.  

 

A has been very fiercely independent for a long time. I see a lot of me in him. I am pretty much the "I-can-manage-all-by-myself-thank-you-very-much" kind of person. When it comes to food, he prefers being able to feed himself. But he is also picky at the moment about textures. He will not touch wet or sticky things. (Or if he does, he will quickly wipe his hands on my clothes!) He is not very comfortable with a spoon and more food falls on his stomach than in. At times, we give him a roasted papad (protein) to eat by himself while he is being fed his meal of rice, dal and vegetable. At times, I make baby sized cutlets for him. He likes to eat oven baked fries (potato, sweet potato, carrot) and I give him a plate as a snack or before his main meal.

 

 

And parathas work very well. I make 'all in one' parathas for him which I cut into bits. He then eats them all by himself. I make the dough, roll out the parathas and freeze them with baking paper in between them. On days when I am feeling particularly lazy, I just pull out two of these, toast them on a tava with a little ghee/oil and cut them up. And then I feel good that he got his carbohydrate, protein, fat and vegetable fix from that one meal.

 

 

1/2 cup Chickpeas (soaked and cooked)

1 cup Atta (Whole Wheat Flour)

1/2 cup Green and Yellow Zucchini (diced)

1 tbsp Tahini

1 tbsp Sesame Oil/Gingelly Oil

1 tsp Paprika

1/s tsp Turmeric

1/2 tsp Cumin Powder

1 clove Garlic

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Sugar

 

Grind the chickpeas with the garlic, tahini and zucchini. Place this mixture in a bowl. Add the other ingredients. Mix well. Keep adding a little water as necessary and knead into a soft, pliable dough. Cover and allow to rest for a few minutes.

 

Divide the dough into small balls and roll them out with the help of a little flour. Toast on a hot tava until brown spots appear and the paratha is cooked.

 

Serve as they are or with some yogurt on the side.

 

Of late, many friends have been requesting child friendly food on the blog. So, I hope you like this.

 

If you are making these for adults, increase the amount of spices or serve with a side dish. I have started adding sesame paste to many of our meals as sesame is a good natural source of zinc. You could substitute the chickpeas, tahini, garlic, paprika and oil with 2/3 cup of ready made hummus.

Chocolate and Zucchini Cake

About a couple of years ago, a couple decided to go on an impromptu vacation for a couple of weeks and visit a couple of places. They'd known this other couple in one of the places they intended to visit and had met them before a couple of times. The other couple invited this couple to stay with them. Most everything about the stay is a blur today. The only thing I can remember about my dear namesake and her hubby visiting us was that we had loads of fun. Sometimes the best laid plans go to waste and the best times happen when you put in the least amount of planning. This was one such.

Arundati gifted me this book, Deep Dark Chocolate, during that trip in 2009. I've gone through it a few times but never really tried anything. We had an old friend come over for lunch today and I decided to make this cake. It has a whole host of ingredients and today was one of those days when I had just about everything. I modified the recipe in the book to get this beautiful dark chocolatey cake.

2 Medium Zucchini, grated

2 Carrots, grated

1 1/4 cup Flour

1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon Cocoa Powder

3/4 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

6 tbsp Oil

2 Eggs

1/2 tsp Orange Zest

1/2 cup Raisins

3/4 cup Chocolate, roughly chopped

Icing Sugar for Decoration

Grease and line a 9-inch cake tin.

Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C.

Sprinkle 1/4 tsp salt over the zucchini and carrots and set aside for 30 minutes. Wash well and squeeze dry.

In a bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

In another bowl, mix the oil, sugar and brown sugar and beat well. Add the eggs and beat again for a couple of minutes. Fold in the dry ingredients and mix until well blended. Add the zucchini-carrot mixture, raisins, orange zest and chocolate bits.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35-45 minutes or until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.

 

Allow to cool. Dust the icing sugar all over the cake. Cut into wedges and enjoy with a cup of coffee or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

This is a great way to get anyone to eat their vegetables. I knew there was zucchini in the cake because I put it in. But quite like my chocolate beetroot mini muffins, nobody else could even make it out. This would have to be one of the most moist and chewy chocolate cakes I've baked.
I thought of you, Arundati, the entire time I baked this cake and would like to share a slice with you and with everyone who has been a part of this blog.
The Singing Chef turns 4 today! And I couldn't have done it without all of you. Thank you for your continued support.

Zucchini Moong Dal

Since I had to cook fairly traditional meals over the last three weeks, I did a lot of “food-processing” over the weekends. I peeled kilo after kilo of sambar onions that I brought back from Bangalore, diced carrots, beetroots and zucchini and chayote squash, chopped beans and cabbage and filled my freezer with different “vegetable mixes” – for sambar, avial, kootu and pulao, in addition to everything else. I used to do this sort of thing earlier (in my somewhat more organized avatar) and I stopped when I started paying my maid to chop vegetables for us. Now, I find it easier to do things myself than explain to my perennially appearing harassed maid how I want something done. One side of me begs me to not “waste” my weekends, but the more practical side of me tells me I should know better than to have vegetable related stress on a weekday.

Zucchini is in season. And it is has been robbed of its “exotic vegetable” status. When a vegetable is sold at the same price as or cheaper than the other seasonal vegetables, it can’t retain its exotic tag for very long. Not in my books, at least. And that is the same fate that Zucchini met with in my kitchen this spring. I am surprised I haven’t made sambar with mushrooms yet, but then again, mushrooms didn’t exactly reach the price nadir this year.

I opened my freezer to find a bag of frozen Zucchini and decided to make lunch with it. This dish turned out to be finger licking good and we mopped it up with rotis at lunch.

2 meduim sized Zucchini, chopped

1/2 cup Moong Dal, washed

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Cumin Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

7-8 Curry Leaves

1 Green Chilli, slit

1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder

1/2 tsp Chilli Powder

1/4 tsp Cumin Powder

1/4 tsp Coriander Powder

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a pressure pan. Add the cumin seeds and asafoetida. When the cumin crackles, add the curry leaves and green chilli and fry for a minute. Add the dal and saute for another minute before adding the turmeric and chilli powders. Add the zucchini pieces and salt along with the cumin and coriander powders. Add 1 cup of water and cover and cook for 1-2 whistles. Garnish with coriander leaves if you like.

Serve hot with rice or rotis.

Zucchini Thuvayal

Winter. I have to talk about it in the past tense. As early as the first week of March. I’ve enjoyed using winter vegetables in just about every dish these past 3-4 months and I’m going to be sorry to see them disappear over the coming 2-3 weeks. Then it is back to the Tinda-Tori-Bhindi-Kundru-Lauki routine, all the way until November. Such is life.


I bought some zucchini to make a stir fry, but ended up using it in this thuvayal. I really wonder why I don’t make these thuvayals/thogayals often enough. They’re easy, tasty and are a great way to add another vegetable dish to your table.

2 Zucchinis, chopped

4 Red Chillies

1 tsp Mustard

3 tsp Urad Dal

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

3 tsp Oil

1 tbsp Tamarind Paste

Salt to taste

For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/2 tsp Urad Dal

a pinch Asafoetida

5-6 Curry Leaves

Place the zucchini pieces in a microwave safe bowl. Add 2 tbsp of water and cook on high for 2 minutes. Squeeze out the water when cool.

Heat the oil and fry the red chillies, mustard, asafoetida and urad dal for a couple of minutes. Grind the chillies along with the tamarind paste and salt. Add the zucchini pieces and grind again. Finally, add the fried mustard and urad dal and grind lightly.

Heat the teaspoon of oil for the tempering in a frying ladle. Add the mustard, urad dal and the asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves. Add this tempering to the zucchini mixture.

Serve this with rice and a little ghee and some papads or vadams on the side. We ate this with rice, rasam, and Kootu.

Zucchini Kootu

Exotic vegetables needn't be only used for exotic dishes. They can be adapted to our day to day foods as well. Now, it is one thing to use local vegetables in our traditional dishes, but quite another to find special vegetables and then use them in "ordinary" dishes. I remember the first time Amma bought Brussels Sprouts in Madras. And she made upkari in the same manner as she'd make this. I thought she just wasn't creative then. But when I make mushrooms this way or zucchini in this manner, it does amount to the same thing.

Vaishali recently blogged about the Zucchini Kootu. The idea seemed wonderful and I wanted to try it out. I was feeling quite lazy and didn't want to do much work. I married her idea to Amma's recipe and landed with this. I really enjoyed the kootu and look forward to eating this more often!

1 cup Zucchini, peeled and diced
1/2 cup Moong Dal
2 tsp Sambar Powder
2 tbsp Coconut, scraped
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Urad Dal
1 tsp Oil
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
Salt to taste

For the Tempering:
1/2 tsp Oil
1/2 tsp Urad Dal

Pressure cook the diced zucchini along with the moong dal and the sambar powder.

Heat the oil in a frying ladle and add the urad dal. Fry till the dal turns golden brown. Grind this along with the cumin seeds and the coconut. Add this paste to the zucchini-moong dal mixture along with the salt. Add the asafoetida and mix well.

For the tempering, heat the oil in the frying ladle and add the urad dal. Add this to the dish and serve hot with steamed rice.

Zucchini Tomato Soup

This may not look like the most appetizing of soups. Especially, given the lovely colour of most soups I've made this winter. But since I tried it out and since it was a nice nourishing soup which we really liked, I had to share it with all of you. This is a nice way to use up zucchini after making all those lasagne and stir fries.

2 Zucchinis, diced

4 Tomatoes, chopped

2 Onions, chopped

1 tsp Garlic, chopped

1 tsp Oil

1 tbsp Mixed Herbs (Parsley, Basil, Oregano)

1/4 tsp Nutmeg Powder

Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a pressure pan. Add the onions and garlic and fry for a minute. Add the tomatoes and zucchini and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the herbs and the nutmeg powder. Add 2-3 cups of water and pressure cook for 2-3 whistles.

Blend in a liquidizer and pour the contents into a pan. Bring the soup to a boil. Season with salt and pepper. Close your eyes and enjoy the soup while it is still hot.

Zucchini Turnip Stir Fry

Roti-sabzi, Pulao, even cutlets. All of this can get boring on a day to day basis. Maybe I won't tire of pasta that quickly. I haven't tested myself in that area. Not that I plan to in the near future. I had to use up my winter bounty and decided to make this stir fry. I had not cooked with turnips before. I'd only eaten turnips in this pickle.

I made a simple stir fry that we had with some cooked cornmeal. The combination was very nice and our lunch plate was colourful. I didn't get a chance to take a photo of my lunch plate. (That would be too much, wouldn't it? Even if everyone at work knows I'm a food blogger!)

2 Zucchinis, cut into 2" sticks

2 Turnips, peeled and sliced

2 carrots, peeled and cut into 2" sticks

2 Onions, quartered

2 Tomatoes, quartered

1 tsp Chilli Flakes

1 tsp Basil

1 tsp Parsley

1 tsp Oregano

1 tsp Garlic, chopped

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 tbsp Olive Oil

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the onions and the garlic. Add the chilli flakes, basil, parsley and oregano and fry for a minute. Add the tomatoes, zucchini, turnips and the carrots. Add the salt and pepper. Cover and cook till the vegetables are done. Serve hot with rice or cooked corn/wheat meal.

I'm sending this to Divya as she hosts this month's edition of Think Spice... Think Pepper.

Passion Cake, Page Ten and Cloud Nine

Of late, I have been having a lot of conversations with friends about food and cooking. I really love cooking, but more than that, I love good food. So much so, that I'm not even particular about eating it. I can read cookbooks to pass time. (We all read each other's blogs, don't we?) I think about meals (though I don't really plan ahead) and food combinations a great deal. I also wonder about food habits and how they come to be what they are. The other thing I wonder about is the "I'm a working girl and so I can't cook" syndrome. Now, I don't believe that cooking is a woman's job. But I also don't believe that a woman who goes to work cannot manage the kitchen. Maybe it was because of what I saw growing up. Amma had a full time job and yet she managed to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. Back then, "home delivery" and "take away" weren't exactly commonplace. And even if they were elsewhere in the city, the IIT campus allowed us no such luxury.

Life has fallen into a routine for most of us. And I am no exception. Cooking our meals is a part of that routine in my case. It irks me no end when I see young colleagues run into the office huffing and panting from barely 2 km away because they "had" to make lunch. I asked one such what the big deal was and she said, "I don't know how you manage to cook and reach in time. But I can't. I don't know why I am expected to. At my mother's place, education was given importance, not cooking." That usually does it. End of conversation. Because in a way, it is as though in my house, I was made to cook instead of study.

I think there are several issues here:

• The feeling that girls "have" to do the cooking
• The myth that education and cooking run as two parallel lines
• The bigger myth that a working girl cannot run a home
• The biggest myth that cooking is laborious, boring and time consuming

I hear things like, "Oh, we never cook in a pressure cooker. My mother is very particular about cooking things the right way." Excuse me! Who decides the right and wrong ways? I am also told, "You can get away with pasta and all that, my husband has to have rotis, rice, dal, vegetables and salad at every meal." I have not been able to understand how "I get away with pasta". But more importantly, even that entire meal is ready in less than 30 minutes in my kitchen. With some prior planning of course. I have been baking for 22 years and cooking for about 19 years now. Did it interfere with my education? Maybe it did. But it didn't stop me from being a gold medalist at University. Does it interfere now with my career? Maybe it does. But it hasn't stopped me from enjoying what I do for a living or giving it my very best. I have never thought of these as chores. On days when I really don't feel like cooking (and S is also knackered!!), we eat out. I don't fuss over our food or our mealtimes. I merely enjoy them. And there's every attempt to eat right. (Mangoes and icecream do make a meal, don't they?)

I baked a little cake today. I'm on cloud nine. Why, you ask? For a multitude of reasons. I got a raise and I got a bonus at work. But why would I talk about that here? This has to be about food, right? Yes, you're right. This is not only about food. This is about this very food blog. The Singing Chef was featured on Page 10 of this morning's Metro Plus, a supplement of The Hindu under

Food Bytes. I have not yet read the newspaper clipping, but my dear friend, Aarti, told me about it in the morning. Appa has kept aside a clipping and will show it to me when I meet him in May. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the internet edition. So, I made this fat free Passion Cake because I firmly believe that the proof of the passion is in the cake!

1 cup Carrots, grated

1 cut Zucchini, grated

3 Eggs, separated

2 tbsp Almonds, ground

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Cinnamon Powder

Zest of 1 Orange

1 tbsp Icing Sugar (for dusting)

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Grease and line a square baking tin.

Sift the wheat flour along with the baking powder and cinnamon.

Beat the egg whites until stiff.

In a separate bowl, whisk the yolks along with the brown sugar, orange zest and almond powder. Fold in the flour mixture and the grated vegetables alternately. Fold in the egg whites carefully. Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 40-50 minutes. When done, sprinkle icing sugar through a sieve over the cake.

Cooking and baking aren't as tough as they're made out to be. I've said this before and I'll say it again. I'm about the laziest person you'll ever meet. So, if I'm saying these aren't tough, then you have no choice but to take my word for it. In the words of Peter Pan, "All you need is faith and trust... and a little bit of pixie dust!"

Zucchini Capsicum Makhanwala

It's already time for Z. I asked Nupur what happens when we complete the 26 letters of the alphabet and she said she's not thought about it. Sad as I am to see this event come to an end, I had to make something special to bid the A-Z of Indian vegetables adieu.

Z is for Zucchini Capsicum Makhanwala and this is my entry to Nupur's A-Z of Indian Vegetables. This dish could easily have qualified for X as well because I'd eaten Zucchini so many times, but had never bothered to eat it. On our trip to Manali last week, we saw Zucchinis at the local market that were bigger than the bottle gourds in that area. My dish, however, used a reasonably small yellow Zucchini.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp Oil (Or ½ tbsp butter and ½ tbsp Oil)

1 Onion, ground to a fine paste

1 Zucchini, sliced

1/2 each of Green, Yellow and Red Capsicum

¼ cup Tomato Puree

¾ cup Slim Milk

½ tsp Turmeric Powder

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1 tsp Kasuri Methi

1 tsp Sugar

Salt to taste

Heat the oil. Add the onion paste and fry for a few minutes. Add the turmeric and chilli powder and fry for another minute. Add the chopped capsicum and zucchini slices and fry for 4-5 minutes. Add the tomato puree and salt. Mix well and cook until the mixture bubbles. Add the milk and bring to a boil while stirring. Add the kasuri methi and sugar. Cook for 5 minutes. Garnish this with coriander leaves if you wish and enjoy with rotis.


I absolutely love the taste of kasuri methi in this dish and consider the absence of it in any makhanwala to be a sign of disrespect. We eat capsicum at least once a week if not more often. S and I both like the flavour it imparts to any dish. Here, the pairing of some sweet capsicum with a normal green one seemed to go very well with the Zucchini and the flavours were rather well blended.