7 cups to Heaven - 7-cup Barfi for Janmashtami

For the longest time, I stayed away from even attempting to make Indian sweets. I even stayed away from thinking about making them. When it came to celebrating festivals, I always made my own rules. Why might Krishna only want uppu seedai and vella seedai for Janmashtami. Why not chocolate cookies? Or buns? Why make Indian sweets and savouries for Deepavali. Why not cookies and cakes again? You get the drift, don't you? I simply didn't want to move out of my comfort zone. So, I found every excuse not to.

A few years ago, I was a visiting with a friend and she had made a snack with beaten rice and a sweet. I asked her if she'd brought the sweet from India or if one of her family members had visited. She told me that she'd made it herself. I immediately asked her for the recipe and made it soon after. Three years later, it remains the only Indian elbow greasy sweet I can make confidently. 

1 cup Ghee
1 cup Besan
1 cup Milk
1 cup Almond Meal/ Dessicated Coconut (or a combination of the two)
3 cups Sugar
Cardamom and Saffron to taste
1 tbsp Ghee for greasing the plate/cake tin

Grease a large thali or plate and keep aside. (I've even used cake tins when I didn't own a thali.)

Heat 1/2 cup ghee in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the besan and fry it until the raw smell of besan goes and you are left with the wonderful aroma. To this, add the milk carefully. Add all the other ingredients, including the remaining 1/2 cup ghee. Keep stirring until the mixture comes together and begins to leave the sides of the pan.

Transfer to the greased thali/plate and smooth the mixture down carefully. Cool it a little. Cut it into diamond shapes with a sharp knife or a pizza cutter. When fully cool, store the pieces in an air tight container.

Be sure to share this with your friends and family. You may want to hand out recipe cards with this as people are bound to ask you for the recipe. Especially if you're like me and no one associates any traditional sweets with you, they're probably thinking - if she can make it, why not I?

On that happy note, let me sign off while wishing all of you a Happy Janmashtami.

Check out some other not so traditional Janmashtami recipes on the blog here.

Soraikkai Thuvayal

 

 

Meals. At times, they're something I put together in a jiffy. At others, they are painstakingly thought through. Ever since A started eating regular meals, I have started putting more thought into what I put on the table. All the same, I don't want A to have conventional ideas of what a meal must be and must not be. So, it doesn't have to be rice or roti. A meal could be dosai, pasta, soup and a sandwich, rice-dal-sabzi, parathas... as long as it has carbohydrates, proteins, fats and a good portion of vegetables, it is a meal.

 

One night, I decided to make wheat doddaks for dinner. A few years ago, I added moong flour to the batter and have not stopped since. Thus, the wheat and green gram doddak was born. My carb and protein elements had been taken care of. In order to convert it into a full meal, I grated some bottle gourd into the batter and made little doddaks for A. Now, that was a full meal for him. It had all that I wanted in his meal and it was something he wanted too (to be able to eat by himself).

But why all this talk about doddaks in a post about a thuvayal? Because putting in grated bottle gourd into the batter may make it a meal for my little one, but we adults need something to go with the doddaks. And since I have been known to make a thuvayal out of just anything, I decided to make the vegetable element of our meal into a thuvayal.


This recipe deviates from my usual thuvayal but is a keeper recipe.


1 cup Bottle Gourd, peeled and diced
2 tbsp Coconut, scraped
4 Red Chillies
1 tsp Mustard
1 tsp Cumin
3 tsp Urad Dal (Black Gram Dal)
1 tsp Chana Dal
1 tsp Sesame Seeds
1/4 tsp Fenugreek Seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
3 tsp Oil
1 tbsp Tamarind Paste
Salt to taste




 

Heat the oil and fry the red chillies, mustard seeds, sesame seeds, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida, chana dal and black gram dal for a couple of minutes. Add the bottle gourd and fry for 2 minutes. Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes. Grind the mixture along with the coconut, tamarind paste and salt.

Serve with the doddaks. Serve on buttered toast. Serve with rice. Serve with chapatis. In short, serve it just about any way you like.

Oats Doddak

 

I once blogged about how I could never understand people who ate the same stuff for breakfast every day. Rain or shine. That post was about a mango and melon smoothie. That was about 9-10 months ago. Since then oat and fruit smoothies have become a staple for breakfast. Even baby A loves the smoothies for breakfast. But sometimes he craves something savoury. I made this for him one morning and then ate the stuff for lunch. (If you are making this for children, omit the chillies or use a small portion of deseeded chillies.)

 

The use of oats in this doddak is a healthy twist in the tale. Oats keeps hunger pangs away longer thanks to its lower GI and is also full of fibre.

 

Ingredients:

1 cup Oats, roasted and powdered

1 tbsp Semolina

1/4 cup Coconut, scraped

1/4 cup Coriander, chopped

2 Green chillies, chopped

1" piece Ginger, chopped

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Cumin Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

7-8 Curry Leaves

Prepare the tempering in a small kadhai and transfer the contents to a mixing bowl. Add the remaining ingredients except the oil and mix well using a little water. (Do not add too much water. The batter should not be watery.)

Pour the dough onto a hot griddle and spread it a little. Pour a few drops of oil on all sides. Make a slit in the centre using the spatula and pour a few drops into this slit.

Turn over and allow the other side to crispen as well. Serve with pitti chitni and toop or with plain butter.

Pok Choy Thuvayal

I have access to a wide variety of greens here. I use them in many ways: stir fries, salads, etc. Sometimes, I simply use a local green in my regular Indian cooking instead of an Indian green. We have had Kai-lan (Chinese Broccoli) Dal, Kangkong (Water Spinach) Sambar etc. I like the idea of throwing in a green leafy vegetable into just any dish. And all of you know about my obsession with Thuvayals. When I found a couple of bunches of Pok Choy that weren't fresh enough for a stir fry, I made a thuvayal with it. It was very tasty and I know we will have it again soon.

 

1 1/2 cups Pok Choy, washed and roughly chopped

2 tbsp Coconut, scraped

1 tbsp Oil

2 Green Chillies

1/2 tsp Chilli Flakes

1 tsp Mustard Seeds

1 tsp Sesame Seeds

1/4 tsp Fenugreek Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

2 tsp Black Gram Dal

1 tsp Tamarind Paste

Salt to Taste

For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/2 tsp Black Gram Dal

a pinch Asafoetida

5-6 Curry Leaves

Heat the oil and fry the green chillies, red chilli flakes, mustard seeds, sesame seeds, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida and black gram dal for a couple of minutes. Add the pok choy along with the coconut and fry for 2 minutes. Grind the mixture along with the tamarind paste and salt.

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

Mix some rice and ghee/ sesame oil. Add a couple of spoonfuls of the thuvayal. Mix well and get ready for a quick trip to heaven. That's how good this was.

Green Masala Dal

Dal is almost a staple in our house. I don't make it everyday, but I make it very often. On days when it is pasta/noodles or anything other than rice and roti, dal doesn't make an appearance, but it is there to grace our meals on every other occasion.

Growing up, I saw only four varieties of dal being used. Toor dal (red gram dal) was the most common. Moong dal came second and not a close second. Udad and chana dals were relagated to temperings and that was that. Whole udad and whole chana found many uses, as did whole masoor. It is only when I moved out of home that I started stocking every variety of dal available in the market and learnt how to cook with them. Split, unsplit, skin on, skin off, premixed... you get the drift, don't you?

To aid me in my quest for newer dal dishes, I bought myself a pocket book by Tarla Dalal called "Dal". I have tried several recipes of hers from this book and have never been disappointed. This is one such recipe that I have adapted from this book.

1/2 cup Toor Dal

1/2 cup Moong Dal

1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder

1 tbsp Ghee

Salt to taste

Grind to a paste:

1 cup Coriander Leaves, chopped

1/3 cup Coconut, scraped

1 Onion, roughly chopped

1" piece of Ginger

3 Green Chillies

3 cloves Garlic

Combine all the ingredients for the paste and grind to a paste using as little water as necessary.

Cook the dals with the turneric powder, salt and 3 cups of water. Drain the water, reserving 1/2 cup (or save the rest for rasam). Mash the dals well.

Heat the ghee in a pan and add the ground paste. Saute for 4-5 minutes. Add the mashed dal and the 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a boil. Serve hot with rice or rotis.

Stuffed Brinjal

The one big food related plus of having time on my hands, which was a scarce commodity barely two months ago, is being able to make dishes that require a little more time than others. It helps also to live in a city where many ingredients are easy to come by. For instance, I found this bag of almost identical sized baby brinjals   when we went grocery shopping. I bought the bag immediately, wanting to make Ennai Katrikkai. But I was missing a crucial ingredient. I decided to make this dish instead.

This dish is not a family recipe or anything like that. We had a lady working for us many years ago. One day, she asked Amma if she can make a side dish to go with chapatis. Amma agreed. She made this and all of us really liked it. It featured regularly on our menu for several years. I'd forgotten about this dish and made it just once earlier after Amma reminded me about 1-2 years ago. I made it again last week and it was gone before we knew it.

1/4 kg Baby Brinjals, slit crosswise with stems intact

2 Onions, finely chopped

2 tbsp Coconut, scraped

2 Cloves Garlic

1" piece of Ginger

1/4 cup Coriander Leaves, chopped

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1/4 tsp Garam Masala

1/4 cup Roasted Peanuts, coarsely crushed

Salt to taste

1 tbsp Oil

For the tempering

1 tsp Oil

1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

7-8 Curry Leaves

Heat the tablespoon of oil and add the onions. Fry for about 3-4 minutes and add the coconut. Fry until the coconut turns brown. Grind this mixture with the garlic, ginger, and coriander leaves. Mix the turmeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala, and salt into this paste along with the crushed peanuts.

Stuff this mixture into the slit brinjals.

Heat the teaspoon of oil in a kadhai/pan. Add the mustard. When the mustard splutters, the asafoetida and the curry leaves. Add the stuffed brinjals and cover and cook for 5-7 minutes or until the brinjals are cooked. Uncover and cook for a minute or two.

Serve hot with chapatis or with some rice and dal. I could just eat this on its own. I also realized that this dish doesn't take as long to prepare as I'd imagined. Agreed that it has more steps than a simpler side dish, but it is in no way complicated.

Tendlya Bhutti

Here is the dish I really wanted to send in to the RCI Udipi and Mangalore (how long ago was that?) event that Sia hosted. I just didn't make it in time. This dish is Mangalorean in every possible way. Amchi in every possible way actually. It has all the ingredients that amchis love: coconut, tamarind, jaggery, bedgi chillies and tendli! Though this is made with a little gravy (not much), I make it a little dry as S likes it that way. (Did you just buy that? Well... as always, I sauntered out of the kitchen with the dish on the stove and returned to almost no gravy!)

1 1/2 cups Ivy Gourd (Tendli/Kundru/Kovakkai/Dondekkai), sliced into discs

Salt and Jaggery to taste

For the masala:

3-4 Red Chillies (preferably Bedgi)

1 tsp Coriander Seeds

1/2 tsp Black Gram Dal (Udad Dal)

1/4 tsp Fenugreek Seeds

4-5 Garlic Cloves

3 tbsp Coconut, scraped

2 tsp Tamarind Paste

1 tsp Oil

For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

Heat oil in a kadhai. Add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds splutter, add the asafoetida. Add the ivy gourd pieces to the oil and fry for a minute. Add the salt and jaggery, mix well and cover and cook for 4-5 minutes.

In the meanwhile, heat the teaspoon of oil for the masala and fry the red chillies, coriander seeds, black gram dal, fenugreek seeds and garlic for a minute or two. Grind this to a paste with the coconut and the tamarind paste.

When the ivy gourd pieces are tender, add the ground masala to the vegetable and mix well. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until the ivy gourd pieces are covered with the masala and the entire mixture is a little dry.

This is a dish that you can enjoy with chapatis as much as with some rice and dali-saar.

Beetroot Karumadhu

While growing up, how many times did you have to be told to eat something because it is good for you? I've lost count. Of course, I also didn't have to be told such things. I didn't quite know that  there was this option to say, "I don't want this." The only threats/coaxing I ever received had to do with the speed of my eating.

"XYZ's mother says that her hair grows long because she sits down for dinner at 8 and finishes by 8.15."

I still don't have long hair. I am still in touch with XYZ and I know she has long hair. And I know that finishing dinner in 15 minutes cannot be the only secret. And guess what? The world is talking about the benefits of eating slowly. I must admit that I do finish my meals faster than most people.

Beetroots in Indian cooking must have caused (still be causing)  a great deal of stress to children. I suppose that children are either put off by the colour or drawn to it. There cannot be a middle path. Actually, there is no middle path for adults either. What are my views on beets in Indian cooking? Beetroots are best used in salads and cakes, and of course in soups.

As far as Indian food goes, I like beets in things like chutneys. The occasional sambar or rasam with beets is a welcome change. The stir fries/sautes I deal with when I have to. That would explain why this recipe is not exactly a weekly feature in my home.

1/4 kg Beetroot, peeled and diced Steam the beetroot until tender.

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Urad Dal

1/4 tsp Chana Dal

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

2 Red Chillies

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

1 tbsp Coconut, scraped

7-8 Curry Leaves

Salt to taste

 

Heat oil in a pan. Add the urad and chana dals, mustard seeds and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves and the red chillies. Fry for a minute. Add the chopped beets and the salt. Sprinkle a little water on top. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the coconut and mix well.

 

This is a pretty side with the usual rice and sambar/rasam routine. Perfect when you really do need a splash of colour on your plate.

Carrot-Chayote Squash Kootu

As you've all noticed, I've gone traditional. I am enjoying picking Amma's brains of dishes that she used to make when we (my brother and I) were children. I'm enjoying recreating those dishes at home. I find that when I grind a masala for a dish that Amma's just finished telling me about on the phone, the aroma that hits my nose as soon as I open the mixer jar transports me right back to my childhood. When I get ready to eat, if my dish tastes just like what Amma used to make, then I'm all set for a trip down memory lane all through my meal.

This kootu featured rather regularly on Amma's weekly menu. While I didn't think much of it then, I'm sort of hooked now and I must say, this features quite regularly in my kitchen too.

1/2 cup Chayote Squash, peeled and diced

1/2 cup Carrot, peeled and diced

1/2 cup Moong Dal
2 tsp Sambar Powder
2 tbsp Coconut, scraped
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Urad Dal
1-2 Green chillies, slit
1 tsp Oil
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
Salt to taste




For the Tempering:


1/2 tsp Oil
1/2 tsp Urad Dal
7-8 Curry Leaves

Pressure cook the diced carrot and chayote squash 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. Add the slit green chillies. Grind this along with the cumin seeds and the coconut. Add this paste to the chowchow-carrot-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 and curry leaves. Add this to the dish and serve hot with steamed rice.

A very traditional dish to celebrate a festival. Wishing all of you a very happy new year. Iniya Puthandu Nalvazhthukkal.

Masala Keli

I joined the Great Vega'N Vegetarian project some time ago. I noticed that Cynthia had written a post about steamed plantains for breakfast. It took me back to a time (and place, more importantly) when plantains were easily available. As a child, I don't remember having eaten steamed plantains. I ate them as an adult when someone told me they made for an ideal breakfast.

This dish, however, is one that my mother dished out whenever she could lay her hands on the nendrampazham. A very typically konkani dish that is sweet, spicy and sour, all at once. I asked a colleague to get me half a dozen of these plantains and when he did, I made this.

4 Ripe Plantains (Nendrampazham/Rajali Keli), peeled and diced

3-4 tbsp Coconut

2-3 Green Chillies, finely chopped

1 tbsp Jaggery, grated

2-3 tbsp Coriander Leaves, chopped

2 tsp Tamarind Paste

Salt to taste

For the tempering:

2 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

In a pan, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the asafoetida and the turmeric. Add the green chilli and the diced banana pieces and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and cover and cook for 4-5 minutes. Remove the cover and allow the banana pieces to caramelize a bit.

Enjoy this dish for breakfast or as a tea time snack. I can't seem to ever have enough of this. Let me know what you think.

Winter Vegetable Sukke

I make a lot of mixed vegetable dishes, especially in winter. I’ve gone on endlessly about how I like a colourful plate. I found a whole bunch of vegetables that needed to be used up, and quickly. It was time for my weekly vegetable purchasing spree and I had just 1-2 pieces of each vegetable left in the crisper. I made this dish for lunch and used one vegetable of every variety I had on hand. I ended up using seven vegetables. Feel free to use any combination of vegetables for this dish. I’ve found that winter vegetables lend themselves very well to this preparation.

1 Radish, peeled
1 Beetroot, peeled

1 Red Carrot, peeled

1 Purple Carrot, peeled

1 Turnip, peeled
1Potato, peeled and quartered
1Onion, quartered
1/2 tsp Fenugreek Seeds
1/2 tsp Coriander Seeds

1/2 tsp Urad Dal
1 tsp Oil
1/4 cup Coconut
3-4 Red Chillies
1 tbsp Tamarind Paste
1/4 tsp Turmeric
Salt to taste

For the tempering:
1 tsp Oil
1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
7-8 Curry Leaves

Cut the radish, carrots, turnip and beetroot into 2" long pieces. Pressure cook all the vegetables with a little salt for 1-2 whistles.

Heat the oil and fry the fenugreek seeds, urad dal and the coriander seeds for a minute. Grind this along with the turmeric, tamarind, coconut and red chillies to a somewhat fine paste. Add this paste to the cooked vegetables and add salt to taste. Cook for 4-5 minutes.

Heat the teaspoon of oil for the tempering in a frying ladle. Add the mustard and the asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves. Add this tempering to the vegetable mixture. Serve hot with rice and dali-saar or with chapatis.

Radish-Broccoli-Onion-Potato Sukke

Elaborate lunches. They get pushed to weekends. When the weekend comes, they get pushed back into the next week. This kept happening for quite a while before I realized that we were eating one pot meals all the time. One weekend, I decided to fix this issue and made a konkani meal. Sukke, dali-saar and rice. Not elaborate by any standards, but when all your other meals are pulaos or mixed rice dishes or roti and sabzi at best, this meal, simple as it might be, comes as a much needed whiff of fresh air.

Sukke is a dish that was a staple at Amma's place, more as a side for chapatis than with rice and dali-saar. I added whatever vegetables I wanted to use up and I was rather happy with the result. I tend to use broccoli florets a lot and the stalks always seemed to only get used in soup. Now, I am bursting with ideas to use broccoli stalks in many ways.

1 Radish, peeled

1/2 cup Broccoli stalks, peeled

2 Potatoes, peeled and quartered

2 Onions, quartered

1/2 tsp Fenugreek Seeds

1/2 tsp Coriander Seeds

1 tsp Oil

1/4 cup Coconut

3-4 Red Chillies

1 tbsp Tamarind Paste

1/4 tsp Turmeric

2 tsp Jaggery (optional)

Salt to taste

For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

7-8 Curry Leaves

Cut the radish and the broccoli stalks into 2" long pieces. Pressure cook the radish, broccoli stalks, onions and potatoes with a little salt for 1-2 whistles.

Heat the oil and fry the fenugreek seeds and the coriander seeds for a minute. Grind this along with the turmeric, tamarind, coconut and red chillies to a somewhat fine paste. Add this paste to the cooked vegetables and add salt to taste. Add the jaggery, if using. Cook for 4-5 minutes.

Heat the teaspoon of oil for the tempering in a frying ladle. Add the mustard and the asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves. Add this tempering to the vegetable mixture. Serve hot with rice and dali-saar.

If you miss the train I'm on...

... you will know that I am gone. You can hear the whistle blow a 100 miles.

I'm sure you're all wondering what these lines have to do with my food blog. Agreed that this is the blog of The Singing Chef and that music has to be a part of this journey. Read on till the end if you want to unravel this little mystery. This is a long post.

I have always talked about why blogs and cookbooks will co-exist. Each fixes a different problem, a different need. There is a certain joy in going through a cookbook, getting inspired by it, cooking something from it and enjoying it. There is a different joy in blog hopping, finding a recipe, cooking it, letting the blogger know (or even seeking inputs where necessary) and then telling the whole world what a nice recipe that blogger put up. Overall, it fosters a sense of camaraderie. This post is my way of saying thanks to my fellow bloggers for putting up some delicious recipes that have added much needed variety to our dinner table. Some of the recipes that I tried (and we loved) are:

Pumpkin Erissheri from the Jugalbandits.

Tomato Spinach Pulao from Nags' Edible Garden.

Indian Style Baked Tofu from Madhuram's Eggless Cooking.

Pasta the forgotten way from Arundati's Escapades.

Mushroom Stroganoff from Aarti's Life Goes On.

Baby Carrots and Thyme from Nandita's Saffron Trail.

Chukku Kaapi from Mishmash

I have told you all that I didn't intend for this blog to become what it has. All this is a bonus. I only hoped to create a repository of recipes that I can access easily. Today, there are so many people who write back and let me know they tried something from my blog. I feel thrilled. When my "forced-to-be-bachelors-for-a-week" friends write in and tell me they cooked a simple meal from my blog which spared them another night of Maggi, I feel honoured. Then there are some folks out there who would make it seem like I am a celebrity (one even said as much!) and have nominated this blog in the Best Baking Blog category in the FoodBuzz 2009 Food Blog Awards!

This post is as much one to thank each and everyone of you who has visited this blog, encouraged me to continue blogging (especially at those times when I felt like giving up). I want to acknowledge the friends who have come into my life through this very medium. I want you all to know that I am deeply grateful for your presence in my life today. To all of you, I say:

I'm on the top of the world lookin down on creation

And the only explanation I can find

Is the love that I've found ever since youve been around

Your love's put me at the top of the world

But why am I singing the song by Carpenters, when I started with that beautiful song by Peter, Paul and Mary?

If you miss the train I'm on, you will know that I am gone

You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles,

A hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles,

You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.

Lord I'm one, lord I'm two, lord I'm three, lord I'm four,

Lord I'm 500 miles from my home.

500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles

Lord I'm five hundred miles from my home.

Because Lord I'm one, lord I'm two, lord I'm three, lord I'm four, Lord I'm 500 posts from my home. And to reach this wonderful milestone on the day that S and I celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary makes both the celebrations that much sweeter! Happy Anniversary Sachin. You've made the last three years so memorable and I look forward to all the memories we will create together.

Baked Somashe

Festivals are always about food, aren't they? When I know a certain festival is coming up, I plan what I'm going to make. This year, Gowri Tritiya and Ganesh Chaturthi came on the same day. (I doubt I will ever understand the Indian calendar system!) So, while we performed both the pujas in the morning, I decided to make Tritiya food for lunch and Chaturthi food for dinner. (Including dali saar and Patrodo.)

I decided to take it easy and brought the chaklis from a store. I then decided to take it even easier and use readymade wonton wrappers for the somashe. And given how sultry it was, I chose to bake them. They taste almost nothing like the hand rolled, deep fried versions. In fact, these are more like cookies with their caramelized sugary flavour and that crunch. I would definitely make these again.

20-22 Wonton wrappers

For the filling:

1 1/8 cup Sugar

1 cup Water

3/4 cup Coconut, scraped

1/2 cup Cream of Wheat (Rava/Sooji)

1/4 cup Cashews

1 tsp Cardamom powder

2 tbsp Sesame Seeds

Roast the coconut, cream of wheat and sesame seeds individually and keep aside.

Make a sugar syrup of 1 thread consistency with the sugar and water. Add the coconut, sesame and cream of wheat along with the cashews and cardamom powder. Mix well and allow to cool.

Place a wonton wrapper inside a somashi press. Place some filling on one half and dab a little water along the edges. Cover with the other half and close the press and hold it down. Remove the somashi from the press, remove the excess wrapper and seal the edges again with your fingers (just to be doubly sure!). Place on a damp towel and cover. Repeat with the other wrappers.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.

Place these on a greased baking tray and bake for 7 minutes. Turn each somashi over and bake for another 7 minutes. Your almost "no-sweat" somashe are ready! This post is late for Ganesh Chaturthi, but by the time you get to read this, I would be attending the Visarjan puja at my uncle's place in Matunga. I hope you all had a good Teyi/Chavati.

Rajma Sundal

There are snacks and there are snacks and then there is Sundal. To me sundal has always been a tasty and filling snack. But more than that, it is a guilt free snack. I mean, how many snacks do you know of that would fit the bill here? While I have used kidney beans in a variety of ways. I was surprised to note that I hadn't tasted it in its sundalavatar! I tried it and I was quite impressed.

1 cup Kidney Beans, soaked overnight
1 tsp Oil

7-8 Curry Leaves
1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/4 tsp Urad Dal
1/4 tsp Chana Dal
1 tsp Green Chilli Paste
1/4 tsp Ginger Paste
1 Red Chilli
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
1 tsp Dry Mango Powder (Amchur)
1 tbsp Coconut, scraped
Salt to taste

Pressure cook the soaked kidney beans with salt for 4-5 whistles. Drain when done.

In a kadhai, heat oil. Add the urad and chana dals, mustard seeds and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves, ginger and chilli pastes, and the red chilli. Fry for a minute. Add the cooked kidney beans, dry mango powder, and a little salt. Cover and cook 4-5 minutes. Garnish with the scraped coconut and enjoy.

This is perfect for breakfast, as a snack or even as a side with your meal.

Tinda Koora

Tinda is one summer vegetable that I absolutely detest. But I bought a packet of it last summer and tried this. This year, I am even stronger in my resolve to eat with the seasons and not try and find winter vegetables in summer, pay through my nose for them, and then feel that they weren’t really worth it.

My dear friend P now works for Field Fresh, a company that is into fresh produce. Every week I get my supply of fruits and vegetables from her. Some of them are even part processed. This is a picture I took in the winter. This feature repeats every week, you just have to replace the winter vegetables with summer vegetables. So now, P is not the type of person who will take no for an answer. When I told her I didn’t know how to make Tinda, she even started teaching me different ways to cook the vegetable. I figured it was simpler to just allow the vegetable to make its way into our basket.


I put Tinda in sambar once and we quite enjoyed it. (OK, I know that sambar can mask the taste of a vegetable if you make it in that manner.) A week later, I decided to make it in the south Indian way (like an Upkari/Karumadhu). Now, where I come from, turmeric and cumin are not part of such steamed vegetable dishes. S finds the absence of turmeric in these dishes quite conspicuous. So I ended up making this dish with cumin and turmeric to please S. Both of us “enjoyed” eating Tinda (probably a first for both of us).


Here’s a very north Indian vegetable cooked in a very south Indian way.

1/4 kg Tinda, peeled and diced

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Urad Dal

1/4 tsp Chana Dal

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

2 Red Chillies

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

1 tbsp Coconut, scraped

7-8 Curry Leaves

Salt to taste

Heat oil in a pressure pan. Add the urad and chana dals, mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves and the red chillies. Fry for a minute. Add the chopped tinda, turmeric and the salt along with a little water. Cover and cook for one whistle.

When done, open and cook without the lid to let the excess water evaporate. Add the coconut and mix well.

This is a perfect side to a meal with rice and sambar.

Wheat and Green Gram Doddak

Fusion foods. I somehow always thought of them as very exotic. Like Malabar Parathas with Thai Green Curry that I once had at Cosmo Village in Bangalore. I didn't think of a fusion of two or more Indian cuisines. I made this doddak some time ago. It is only now, when I sat down to blog about it, that I figured out the fusion element in my recipe. The cross between the Andhra Pesarattu and the Konkani Gava Pittye Doddak is what became our tasty breakfast dish.

1/2 cup Wheat Flour

1/2 cup Moong Flour

2 tbsp Cream of Wheat (Rava/Sooji)
2 tbsp Coconut, scraped

1 tsp Green Chilli Paste

1/4 tsp Cumin Seeds
1/4 cup Coriander, chopped
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

For the tempering:
1 tsp Oil
1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
7-8 Curry Leaves

Prepare the tempering in a small kadhai and transfer the contents to a mixing bowl. Add the remaining ingredients except the oil and mix well using a little water. (The batter should not be too watery, just a little thicker than dosa batter.)

Spread the dough onto a hot griddle and pour a few drops of oil on all sides. Make a slit in the centre using the spatula and pour a few drops into this slit. (This helps the oil reach the centre and aids in crispening that portion.)Turn over and allow the other side to crispen as well.)

Serve hot with a chutney, podi or sambar on the side. The moong powder makes this a meal by itself. So it is perfect for those weeknight dinners as well.

Coconut Chutney Gobhi Matar

This is yet another side dish that celebrates the wonderful combination of cauliflower and peas. These two vegetables are available in plenty during the winter months. I am usually anywhere between 2 and 6 months late in posting recipes. There are exceptions. On some days, I might make a dish and blog about it the same day, or within 24 hours. Sometimes the dishes take about a year to make it to the blog. Some dishes don't ever make it. So, although this dish was made in the peak of winter, I'm talking about it here right in the middle of summer.

1 cup Cauliflower florets, steamed

1 cup Peas, cooked

1 tsp Oil

Salt to taste

To be ground to a paste:

1/4 cup Coconut

1" piece Ginger

2-3 Green Chillies

1/4 cup Coriander Leaves

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the paste and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the cauliflower, peas and salt. Add a little water. Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes.

This is very easy to make and is a great side for chapattis. We also enjoy it with hot rice and some dali-saar. One more of Amma's keeper recipes shared with all of you.

Moong Kosumbari (Yugadi /Rama Navami Pachadi)

This is a very simple dish that is made on Yugadi as well as Rama Navami. It has a nice tang from green mangoes which is probably the reason I enjoy this the most. (Please note that this is not the Ugadi Pachadi that is made in Andhra Pradesh.)

I made this in bulk last week to take to a slightly belated Yugadi celebration at the New Delhi Konkani Sabha on Sunday. I made this for 70 people. I expected to bring back a lot of it. I even joked to S that we could take a box each to work the next day. As it turned out, we did have lots left when people began leaving. Just when I started to close my boxes, a lady walked up to me and said, "If you don't mind, I'd like to take some of this home." I was thrilled. I emptied all the contents of one box into her container. She eyed the next box. I quickly emptied that as well. She said, "I came back quickly because I definitely wasn't going back without the pachadi." I said, "Thanks, I'm honoured." She looked at me and her expression was one of complete surprise. I probably didn't look like one of those people who could (and would) have anything to do cooking. But hey, I was thrilled.

Such encounters always take me back to this topic. But it could just be me. People who know me also know how lazy I can be. Considering I commute from Gurgaon to NOIDA and back everyday, they probably expect that I would not lift a finger. In a way, I'd like for people to think that of me. (The lower the expectations, the happier they'll be with anything I do.)

Coming to my "nearly award winning" recipe:

2-3 tbsp Cucumber, grated or finely chopped

1/2 cup Moong Dal, washed and soaked for an hour
2 tbsp scraped Coconut
1 tsp Green Chilli-Ginger paste

1 small Raw Mango, grated (or juice of 1 Lime)
Salt to Taste
Coriander leaves for garnish

For the tempering:
1 tsp Oil
1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
7-8 Curry Leaves

Grind the coconut along with the chilli-ginger paste and make a rough chutney like paste.

Place the soaked moong dal in a large bowl. Add the ground paste, cucumber, raw mango, salt and mix well. In a small kadhai or frying ladle, heat the oil, add the mustard seeds and asafoetida, and when the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves. Add this to the cucumber mixture.

Your pachadi is ready. Go ahead and make this on Rama Navami and get ready to get appreciation by the truck load. This is the last of the three part series on Rama Navami. I think I have finally gotten around to at least cooking and posting about things festive.

Vazhaikkai Podimas (Version 2)

There was a time when I had to travel a great deal to lay my hands on plantains/raw bananas. And I think that it was probably easier for me to go to Madras and have Amma make me some vazhaikkai karumadhu or kaela phodiyo than it was to travel from Gurgaon to CR Park to buy certain vegetables. This time around, I find that vegetables are far easier to come by in Gurgaon. And when the local Mother Dairy/Safal outlet inside my apartment complex sells vegetables that I like, I am certain that this city has come a long way.

I made a version of vazhaikkai podimas sometime back. Once I'd finished making it, I realized that this wasn't close to what I'd eaten growing up. My Mami in Bombay used to make a lot of Tamil dishes. And she didn't stop with sambar and rasam. She'd make things like paruppu usli and podimas. Amma didn't make podimas, but my Mami did. I decided to get her recipe and try it. It turned out to be very tasty. I have made it a couple of times since and it never fails to impress.

2 Raw Bananas/Plantains, steamed, peeled and grated

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

1/4 tsp Urad Dal

1.4 tsp Chana Dal

2 Green Chillies, chopped

1 tbsp Coconut, scraped

a Pinch of Turmeric Powder (optional)

Juice of 1 Lime

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the urad and chana dals. When the urad dal turns light brown, add the mustard seeds and the asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the green chillies, the turmeric, if using, and the grated bananas. Add the salt and take off the heat. Stir in the lime juice and add the coconut. Mix well.

This makes for a great side with a traditional Tamil lunch. Or you could even eat it as a salad like I do. Either way, it is a keeper recipe.