Dali Ambat

One of the side benefits of having relatives come over and spend time with you is the food. We had some very yummy amchi food. Simple, yet tasty. Dali Ambat is one of those dishes that is not widely talked about, but made quite frequently in most amchi homes. I forgot to take a picture of this dish when it was made and remembered when it was almost over. So I quickly took a picture of my plate halfway through dinner. Please forgive the near lousy picture and believe me when I say this picture doesn't do the dish much justice.

1/2 cup Toor Dal, pressure cooked in 3 cups water

1/4 cup Coconut, scraped

4 Red Chillies

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

1/4 tsp Fenugreek seeds, fried in oil

1 tbsp Tamarind paste

Salt to taste

1 Onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp Oil

Grind the coconut, red chillies, turmeric powder, tamarind paste and the fenugreek seeds to a fine paste. Add this paste to the dal. Add salt and bring the mixture to a boil.

In a small kadhai, heat the oil. Add the chopped onions and fry till the onions turn brown. Add this to the boiling mixture. Serve hot with rice.

If you're looking for a no onion/garlic version, you could use this tempering:

1 tsp Cooking Oil
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
½ tsp Asafoetida (Hing)
7-8 Curry Leaves

In a frying ladle, heat the oil and add the mustard. When the mustard splutters, add the asafoetida and turn off the flame. Add the curry leaves. Fry for a minute and add this to the boiling mixture.

I am sending this to Linda for this month's JFI: Toor Dal.

Aloo Chokha

One of my closest friends during my schooldays hailed from Bihar. Yet, I learnt almost nothing about Bihari cuisine from him or his mother. I just remember a lot of yellow and white, both in his lunchbox and on their dining table. I was wondering what I should make for the RCI: Bihar. I asked my colleague (who happens to be married to a Bihari) about their cuisine and she revealed that her mother-in-law was Bengali and so she was confused about which foods belonged to which state. She gave me 2 recipes which I wanted to try, and I am certain I will sometime soon. Another friend stayed with a Bihari family in the U.S. and is currently staying with us. She told me about this simple recipe using mashed potatoes called Aloo Chokha. Since I have Aloo Mash at home, we were able to whip this up very quickly. I used the leftovers this morning as a stuffing for parathas.

2 cups Mashed Potatoes

2 Onions, chopped finely

1 tbsp Ginger-Garlic-Green Chilli paste

1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder

1/2 tsp Chilli Powder

1/2 tsp Cumin-Coriander Powder

1 tbsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

Salt to taste

Coriander Leaves for garnish

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds. When they crackle, add the onions and fry until they turn pink. Add the ginger-chilli-garlic paste and fry for a few minutes. Add the turmeric powder, chilli powder and the cumin-coriander powder and fry for a minute. Add the mashed potatoes and the salt. Cook for a few minutes and garnish with coriander leaves.

We ate this with some Adraki Dal and rice. I am sure this will go well with rotis as well.

Off this goes to Sangeeta's place as my entry to RCI Bihar. Happy hosting Sangeeta. And thank you for this opportunity to explore the cuisine of a state that was totally new to me.

Mixed Vegetable Curry

I have been busier this past week than I have been in a long time. So, much as I promised to be regular and all that, I have not managed a single post in an entire week. While work did keep me occupied a great deal, I also had my cousin and family visit me from Bombay. They returned to their base last morning. Having a three year old in the house can be a lot of fun and it can also be a very trying experience. Especially if the little one doesn't enjoy mealtimes. I have been thinking an awful lot about how I became a non fussy eater. How did I learn to not just eat what was placed in front of me, but also relish it? I made a pizza on the day the family arrived. My niece did not even look at it. (On another day, we went to Pizza Hut, and she devoured a double cheese pizza.) I baked vegetable buns and chocolate chip buns. She didn't even look at them. I tried telling her that she should try things out before deciding whether she likes them or not. Did I succeed? Not entirely. Which also means that I didn't entirely fail. I got her to look forward to milk time. She tried chocolate milk and strawberry milk and found that milk was not all bad. She enjoyed a fluffy cheese omelette for breakfast one morning. The entire episode got me thinking and I figured that I am this way because of my parents and their attitude towards food. If my parents had nurtured strong likes and dislikes in me, I may very well have fallen into the category of fussy eaters. For this 3 year old, meal times meant dal-rice and curd rice. In many ways, I couldn't help but empathise with her for not enjoying meals. But it got me thinking nonetheless.

I also wonder why meal times have to mean rice or rotis. There was this one time when we'd invited a bunch of people over for dinner. I'd made several items and served biscuit rotis as appetizers. We had a 3 year old who devoured them. He ate three and a half rotis and then had a bowl of tomato soup. Quite a meal for someone who'd just turned 3. In fact, quite a meal for someone who turned 30 as well. Despite this, his mother fretted over his not having eaten rice and made him eat a serving of peas pulao and then some curd rice.

While I have been wondering about all this, you must be wondering if I have been cooking at all. I assure you, I have. I am not in the cracker and milk mode and have a decent meal each night. I am also having very decent breakfasts and lunches. I have not had a chance to buy fruit and that's the only item missing from my daily diet and I will fix this very soon.

I made this mixed vegetable curry to go with rotis some time ago and liked it a lot. I made it again today with mushrooms and soya and had it with some jeera rice. I didn't click a picture, but since the recipe is the same, I decided to write about this one. I just put in whatever I could find in the mixie jar and made this paste. This has no onions and no garlic. So it is ideal fasting/festival food.

1 cup Carrot, cut into long pieces

1 cup French Beans, cut into long pieces

1/2 cup Soya nuggets, prepared as per instructions on the pack

1 tbsp Oil

Grind to a paste:

2 tbsp Cashews

2 tbsp Peanuts

4 Red Chillies

1 tsp Coriander Seeds

1 tsp Cumin Seeds

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

1/4 tsp Kashmiri Chilli Powder

Salt to taste

This dish tastes great when prepared over the stove as well as in the microwave.

Stove Top Version:

Pressure cook the carrots and beans.

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the paste and fry for a few minutes. Add the vegetables and the soya nuggets. Cover and cook for 4-5 minutes.

Microwave version:

Place the carrots and beans in a microwave safe bowl. Add a little water. Cover and cook on high for 5 minutes. Keep aside.

In another microwave safe bowl, place the oil and heat on high for a minute. Add the paste and cook on high for 2-3 minutes, stirring after every minute. Add the vegetables and soya nuggets. Cover and cook on medium for 5-7 minutes. Allow for a few minutes of standing time.

Enjoy this dish with rotis or rice or even bread. I am sending this to Suganya for her Vegan Ventures event.

I am also sending this to Srivalli for her Microwave Easy Cooking: Side Dish Series.

We are off to attend the wedding of S's friend in Agra. And after we get back, we have 5 other weddings to attend this week. That definitely means almost no cooking at home. I hope that doesn't mean no blogging. I have not even thought about RCI this month yet and there's the JFI entry that I have to post. There's the big issue of WBB as well. I will get back to this blog as soon as I can. See you soon.

Date Bars

I had been thinking for a long time about this month's A Fruit A Month (AFAM) event. Do I have a recipe that I can share? Do I try making date pancakes? Or should I stick to good old bhel puri? I thought about it for a while and then thought some more. And I remembered this recipe that's been in my drafts for almost as long as I can remember.

This is one more of Amma's recipes. She learnt this at baking class. It is relatively easy to make and tastes so good that you really have to exercise self control to not eat up the entire batch when it is freshly made.

For the base:

2 cups Flour

1/2 cup Butter

4 tbsp Powdered Sugar

2-3 drops Almond Essence

For the topping:

150g Dates

4 1/2 tbsp Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

A pinch Salt

2-3 drops Almond Essence

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp Lime Rind

2 tbsp Raisins

2 tbsp Chopped Nuts

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Combine all the ingredients for the base. Press the mixture into a tray that is greased and lined with butter paper. Bake at 170 C for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop the dates and cook with 1/4 cup water until soft. Allow to cool. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Beat the brown sugar along with the eggs. Mix in the flour mixture, dates, lime rind, almond essence, vanilla essence, nuts and raisins. Spread this over the baked base and bake again for 25-30 minutes at 170 C.

You really have to make these and sample them to realize how yummy they can be. (As always, the pictures aren't exactly the best.) I am sending this to Chandrika of Akshayapatra for this month's AFAM.

Mava Cake

This is a post that talks of several firsts. And all this around my favourite time of the year. Diwali or Deepavali is my favourite festival. In fact, this is my favourite time of the year. Come what may, I try to spend the day with my family (read parents - I am only now slowly getting accustomed to the idea that my family is now S!). There was this one year, 1999, when I had just moved to Gurgaon, and I couldn't go back to Madras. In those days, a one way flight ticket from Delhi to Madras was almost what I took home as pay after taxes. Today, things are very different. Flights are cheaper and my has increased in 8 years. Thank heavens for small mercies! That year, I was to be all by myself. Thankfully, a senior from University contacted me and took me home to spend the festival with his family. It was fun being part of festivities that were alien to me. But Diwali to me is not one tenth as much about the rituals as it is about being with family. I came into this world on Deepavali day. So, my birthday according to the Indian calendar always falls on the same day as the festival. And one of the 9 names that were given to me during my namakaranam is, for the same reason, Deepa.

There has never been an opportunity for me to try my hand at making any of the Diwali sweets or savouries. Amma always made stuff at home every year and while I've helped her make the besan laddoos and other things, I've really always only been the taster. And I believe that has held me in good stead. Had it not been for all those years of meticulous tasting, I doubt I'd be even a fourth as good a cook as I am today.

This year, for a change, I thought I should make some bhakshanam for Deepavali. It was to be just S and me here in Gurgaon. So I had decided on besan laddoos and a few savouries. But then all of a sudden, we decided to go to Madras. I dropped all plans. I mean one wouldn't take Bhakarwadis if one were dining with Chitale Bandhu. Or imagine taking murukkus while going to tea with the folks at Grand Sweets. A phrase in Tamil, "Sooriyanukkey Torch a?" (Showing a torch to the sun.), seems apt.

But that is when Nandita played spoil sport. She asked me if I'd be interested in doing something jointly. She at her place in Bombay and me at mine, here in Gurgaon. I agreed and she shared the recipe with me. We were to make this "together" on Saturday. I forgot completely that my cousin and family were going to be here that weekend. I decided to make it today. It was almost like being part of a small daring baker's group. So, although we were all set to go to Madras and even though I had no plans of making any sweets for Diwali (just planned to binge on whatever Amma was making this year!) I was going to make something special for Diwali. So, there you go. I've already told you about two firsts. 1. That I made something jointly with someone in the blogosphere. 2. That I made something by myself for Diwali. Keep reading for the third.

This is a fairly simple recipe.

Wet Ingredients

1 tin Sweetened Condensed Milk(400 g)

50g Butter (Amul butter is fine)

200 g Mava (khoa)

1/2 cup Milk

1/4 cup Milk (this is to be used if while mixing the wet and dry ingredients, if your batter is too thick).

Dry Ingredients

1 1/2 cups Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

2 Cardamoms, peeled and powdered

Pinch of Saffron, pounded with a pestle using a bit of sugar

1/4 cup Cashew nuts, powdered coarsely

To Decorate

2 tbsp Cashews, coarsely powdered

Heat the wet ingredients together till butter melts and the mixture is homogenous. Cool the mixture to room temperature.

Sift the maida and baking powder three times. Add the cardamom, saffron, and cashew nuts. Whisk the dry and wet ingredients together. Use the 1/4 cup of milk if the batter is too thick. The final consistency should be that of idli batter, or the besan batter used for making pakoda. Bake in muffin cases (and sprinkle the cashews on top of the batter) for 20 minutes at 350F or till light brown on top.

This recipe yielded 33 muffins (the recipe said 12) and I'm not complaining. The first person to taste the mava cake was none other than dear Lakshmi. For the very first time, I met a fellow food blogger who had become a friend in the really short time that we've been in the food blogsphere. Lakshmi and her husband Satish visited me today for about an hour. It didn't feel like I was meeting them for the first time. It felt like old friends were re connecting. I lured Lakshmi to my place by promising her a fresh, home made pizza. And it seems like it was good enough for her because she was here, right here in my apartment. Talking about things, looking at my house and recollecting the different things she's seen in the pictures on my blog and then connecting those to the furniture, crockery and other stuff.

For me, Diwali has never been a season of giving and receiving gifts. It has been about being with loved ones. I must admit that it has also always been about food. I plan to make a batch of cupcakes and distribute them at an orphanage that my colleague visits on a regular basis. She had asked us to donate money for some chips and colas, but I thought this may be a better idea. It is going to require a great deal of effort, but given how much I love baking, I think it will be worth my while.

I am sending this to Meeta who is back with one of my favourite blog events, Meeta's Monthly Mingle. This time's theme is Traditional Feasts. She'd asked us to talk about why we made a certain dish if it was the first time we were making it. It is very simple. I wanted an Indian sweet, but my forte is really baking. This eggless cake seemed apt for this festival. It has all the flavours that traditional Indian sweets have and it is a baked goody. Moreover, when Nandita asks you to do something, it is very difficult to say no.

This also goes to Vee for her Diwali event. You can find Nandita's mava ring cake here. This joint baking thing was so much fun.

I'd like to wish all of you and yours a very Happy Deepavali. Have a wonderful time and I'll see you when I get back from Madras.

Pasta Salad with Coriander Pesto

I'd mentioned in a post that we'd started eating salads for lunch and I didn't post the other simple recipes for salad since then. So here's something that has been pending for 2 months now while I have been posting about cakes and kheer and pizza!

I had made pesto sauce with basil several times after the chef at Earth, the Italian lounge S and I can't have enough of, taught me how to make it. I don't use pine nuts, but use cashews instead. While walking down the aisles of Morning Stores, a specialty store in GK I, I noticed coriander pesto in their sauce section. That gave me an idea. I came home and a few days later I made this lovely salad for lunch.






1 cup Pasta, boiled
1 cup Capsicum, cut into strips
1/2 cup Baby Corn, cut into long pieces
1/4 cup Broccoli, cut into florets and steamed


For the Coriander Pesto:

1 cup Coriander leaves

1 cube Low Fat Cheese

2 tbsp Cashews

2 pods Garlic

3 tbsp Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Grind together all the ingredients for the pesto. Toss the vegetables and pasta in the sauce.

This sauce makes a lovely spread for crackers and toast as well and in my opinion would make a great dip. The coriander flavour is lovely and I will be making this sauce more often as a pasta sauce as well.

Pizza and a milestone

I have been baking for a really long time. And I started baking with yeast only in the last 3 months. I've tried a variety of buns and breads and have been more successful than I thought I'd be.

Amma makes the yummiest pizza I've ever eaten. And I'm not the only one to think this. My best friend was visiting India for the first time in the 2.5 years since she moved to the U.S. A couple of weeks before she landed in Madras, we were on the phone with her and Amma asked her what she should make for her when she's here and she said, "Pizza" without thinking twice. Amma asked her, "Aren't you tired of eating Pizza there?" and she said, "But nothing is like what you make, Aunty!"

I'd never ventured to try and decided that eating Amma's pizza each time I visited my parents' place was more than enough. I do end up going at least 4 times a year so I can't really complain. (Even though this is at their dinner table every week.) But Amma was always asking me why I couldn't make this myself. I was scared of how it would turn out. And she'd say, "You make all kinds of bread, how can this intimidate you?" Anita also suggests that one can start baking breads with the easy pizza base. I finally summoned the courage to try this out last weekend. I started chopping vegetables to make pasta and halfway through decided to make pizza. I didn't have mushrooms in the fridge (it's usually a staple in our fridge, but when it is selling at Rs. 250 a kilo, I don't have the heart to use it as often!) and added whatever I could find. So, I did deviate a lot from Amma's original pizza sauce recipe. I'm not complaining!

For the dough:

1 1/2 cups Flour
1 tbsp Yeast
1/8 cup Oil
1/2 tbsp Sugar
3/4 tsp Salt
1/4 cup Water, boiling
1/4 cup Milk

For the sauce:

1 Onion, sliced
2-3 medium Tomatoes, chopped finely
1 Capsicum, sliced (I used small portions of red and yellow capsicum)
2 tsp Chilli Flakes
1/8 cup Broccoli, cut

1/8 cup Sweet Corn

1/8 cup Paneer, cubed
3 pods Garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp Tomato Ketchup
1 tsp Sugar
1 tsp Oregano

1 tsp Fresh Parsley, finely chopped

1 tsp Fresh Basil, finely chopped
1/2 tsp Pepper
1/2 tsp Olive Oil
Salt to Taste

100g Mozzarella Cheese, grated

1 tsp Olive Oil

For the dough:

Take a huge mixing bowl and place the oil, salt and sugar in it. Add boiling water and mix until the sugar dissolves. Add the milk now to bring the mixture to room temperature. Add the yeast and mix well. Add the flour and knead into a dough. Place the dough in a greased vessel and cover it with a damp muslin cloth. Allow to rise until double in size (roughly 45-50 minutes).

For the sauce:

In a pan, heat the oil and add the garlic and onions. Fry for a minute or two. Add the capsicum, paneer, corn and broccoli and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the parsley, basil, oregano, chilli flakes, salt, sugar and pepper and fry for another minute. Add the tomatoes and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the ketchup and cook the mixture for a couple of minutes.

To Proceed:

Grease a pizza plate.

Spread the dough over the plate. (You could roll the dough using a rolling pin. I prefer doing this by hand.) Spread the olive oil over the dough. Spread enough sauce over the base. Sprinkle the cheese over the pizza.

Bake in a hot oven (400 F) for 20 minutes. When done, cut into wedges. Enjoy your meal.

This is a recipe I've been wanting to try and post for ages. It took 6 months of food blogging to get this very special recipe out. I just completed half a year of blogging and have all of you in the food blogosphere to thank for making a smooth sailing for me. Along with family and friends, you've all egged me on. Thank you all for your support and love.