Pumpkin Puris

In early October we visited a pumpkin farm and bought this pie pumpkin with the idea of making something out of it during Halloween. In general everyone loves puris….so here is my attempt of making mildly sweet puris out of a pie pumpkin.

Happy Halloween to all!!!

Ingredients –

2 cups peeled and grated pumpkin,

1 cup grated jaggery,

2 tbsp sesame seeds,

1/2 tsp cardamom powder,

3 cups wheat flour,

Oil for deep frying the puris.

Method –

In a saucepan mix grated pumpkin, jaggery and sesame seeds. Keep on a medium flame and keep stirring the mixture till the jaggery melts and gets incorporated well with the pumpkin.

Pumpkin leaves a lot of water so this mixture will look a little watery.

Allow it to cool down completely.

Mix in the wheat flour and cardamom powder with the cooled pumpkin jaggery mixture. The dough should be firm than the chapati dough. Add very little water only if needed.

Allow the dough to rest for 20 mins.

Heat oil for deep frying the puris.

Take a portion of the dough on a oiled plastic sheet and using a rolling pin roll it out a bit thicker than chapati. Cut into circles with a cookie cutter and deep fry the puris in hot oil on a very low flame.

There puris last for 7 to 8 days.

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Veggies Stir Fry

Here is a quick recipe of stir fried vegetables which is my family favorite. My 5 year old Anaya just loves this.

We usually make it a little sour, but if you don’t prefer too sour food, just reduce the lime juice quantity.

Sometimes I also add boiled chick peas or boiled pink beans. Just add them along with the corn kernels.

You are free to add any veggies of your choice.

Ingredients –

1 cup corn kernels (fresh or frozen),

1 cup Brussels sprout cut into halves,

1 cup asparagus cut into 1 inch pieces,

1 cup broccoli florets,

1/4th cup carrot cut into stripes,

1/2 tsp black pepper powder,

3 to 4 tsps lime juice,

1 tsp olive oil,

Salt to taste

Method –

Heat olive oil in a pan and add Brussels sprout and corn. Cover the pan and let it cook for a minute.

Now add carrots and cover and cook for another minute. Next add asparagus and broccoli florets, mix well and sprinkle pepper powder, salt and lime juice. Cover the pan and let it cook for a minute or two.

Take care not to over cook the veggies…they should be crunchy.

Serve hot.

Kaju Peda

Anaya was craving for Pedas one day. With very limited choice of ingredients the challenge was to soothe her sweet tooth. I checked my pantry and the idea of making Cashew Nut Pedas struck me.

Google is god as always. A little bit of research and the ingredients were lined up.

The end result was simply delicious.

Ingredients –

1 cup cashew nuts soaked for 3 hours,

1/2 cup sugar,

1/2 cup milk,

1/4th tsp cardamom powder,

3 tsp clarified butter / ghee

Method –

Grind together soaked cashew nuts and sugar to a smooth paste.

Heat a heavy bottom pan, melt the ghee and put the ground cashew paste and stir well.

Add milk and keep stirring till you get a lumpy mass that does not stuck to the pan. This takes approximately 7 minutes.

Mix in the cardamom powder and switch off the gas.

Allow it to cool down a bit and shape them into pedas.

Oats Dosa

Hello everybody!! I am back again after a long hiatus and this time I am really hoping to be regular 🙂

Here is a recipe of healthy oats dosa. I had a big tin of old fashioned Quaker oats which I had bought to make breakfast porridge, but nobody likes porridge. I didn’t want to waste the oats and the idea of oats dosa thus struck upon me. I did a little reading on other food blogs and decided to try them out.

These dosas come out perfect without getting stuck to the griddle and get cooked faster than regular dosas. Needless to say they are tastier and very filling too.

There is no restriction on the type of oats you use, however I would discourage flavored oats (unless you want to make flavored pancakes).

I served it with tomato pickle and peanut chutney for sides.

Try it and let me know your feedback.

Ingredients –

1 cup raw rice,

1 cup urad dal,

3 cups oats,

Salt to taste,

Oil to make dosas,

Water to soak the ingredients

Method –

Soak rice and urad dal for approx 5 hours and soak oats for around 2 hours.

Grind soaked rice, urad dal, oats to a smooth paste with little water. The dosa batter consistency will be little  thinner than the normal dosa batter.

Add salt and allow it to ferment overnight.

Smear some oil on a hot griddle and make thin dosas. Flip and cook on the other side too.

Serve with any side dishes of your choice.

Garlic Cheese Bread

As typed by Milo…

This post is dedicated to my dear friend and office confidant Laura. She gifted me this bottle of authentic Olive oil which she got all the way from Spain to Norway to India. Thanks Laura. Yet another inspiration to keep cooking with my spouse.

Ingredients –

1.5 cups All-purpose flour/Maida,

1 tsp. active dry yeast,

½ tsp. sugar,

2 tbsp. olive oil,

Pepper powder,

Italian spice mix/pizza masala,

½ cup water,

2 cheese cubes,

4 tsp. garlic paste,

Salt to taste

Method –

Slightly warm ½ cup water and put sugar and yeast and let it stand for 15 minutes till the yeast bubbles up.

Take 1 cup flour and mix it with 1 tbsp. olive oil and the yeast solution. Knead it well and keep the dough covered in a warm place for an hour.

The dough will rise to double the quantity.

After an hour, punch the dough to remove the air and mix in ½ cup flour, salt to taste, pepper and Italian spice mix as per your taste. Knead the dough well for around 5 minutes.

Cover and keep it in a warm place to rise. It will take another 45 minutes to an hour.

Now knead the dough for 2 to 3 minutes and divide it into 2 portions.

Take the first portion on a flat surface and roll it out into a circle using a rolling pin.

Apply 2 tsp. garlic paste evenly on the rolled surface and sprinkle with grated cheese.

Press the cheese lightly with your fingertips so that it sticks to the dough.

Now fold the rolled circle into half, press and seal the edges lightly.

Apply 1 tbsp. olive oil on the outer surface of the bread and sprinkle Italian seasoning over it.

Do the same steps for the other portion of the dough.

Preheat the oven at 220 degree Centigrade for 10 minutes.

Place the bread on the baking tray lined with aluminum foil. Cut it into 4 pieces using a knife and bake for around 10 to 15 minutes.

Relish it when its hot.

Fresh Garlic Bread – Norwegian Style

 

 

As typed by Milo…

Mid of May 2013 I had an opportunity to visit Oslo, Norway on an official assignment. As always buying local Norwegian ingredients and bringing them back to India and making a custom India-International dish was on my un-official agenda 🙂

Norwegians are very proud to have a variety of bread types, from half-baked to healthy whole grain varieties; they all are always stacked in convenient stores across Oslo. Ready to make bread flour and a packet of yeast was something I picked up to be taken to India. To this I could also add the Norwegian herbs a packet that was gifted by my dear Norwegian friend and foodie Oddlaug Lindgard.

Here is a Norwegian bread recipe customized for the Indian palate, dedicated to Oddlaug.

Ingredients:

1) 500 grams Norwegian ready to bake flour. This variety isn’t available in India obviously, but a close equivalent can be easily made at home. We have a flour making machine (Ghar-Ghanti) at home and making instant healthy flour is therefore very easy. If you don’t get a ready to make whole grain bread mix you could make a 500 grams mix at home by mixing fine whole wheat grain flour 350 grams, coarse whole wheat grain flour 75 grams (having an occasional whole grain gives the very good look, besides the healthy fibre) , oats 50 grams , and 25 grams sesame seeds.

2) Yeast (I used a Norwegian brand but there are several Indian local brands available)

3) 100 grams garlic de-skinned garlic pods, you could reduce this for a milder flavor.

4) 2 table spoons dried red chili flakes; I made them fresh at home by simply cutting dried chilies in 5mm by 5mm pieces.

5) 1 table spoon dried dehydrated curry leaves powder; this was also made at home to ensure authentic freshness. Simply dehydrate the curry leaves in an oven and then crush/grind them in a mixture. Preserve in a deep freezer.

6) Olive oil.

7) Norwegian herbs. This was a gift by my dear friend Oddlaug when she learnt about CookingWithMySpouse. It is impossible to get one in India, but I can suggest an equivalent. Take 2-3 handful of Kasuri Methi, a pinch of Saffron and 2 tea spoons of bay leaf powder. This should give the baked bread a nice texture and flavor.

Preparation:

Activate the yeast by adding the yeast powder to 150 ml warm water set aside for 10 minutes. You should get a fermented smell if the yeast is good to use. Long term refrigeration of yeast makes it dormant and ineffective.

Coarsely crush the garlic pods in a pestle.Mix the Norwegian bread mix (or you Indian equivalent) , Norwegian herbs (or the Indian equivalent), Garlic paste, Curry leaves powder, chili flakes. Add salt to taste. Add a tea spoon of sugar. Now start adding water and knead well. Also add the warm yeast liquid. The kneaded dough should be firm.

Make buns and add cuts to allow the buns to expand well when baking. Place on a baking dish with an aluminum foil. Set aside for 10 minutes to let the yeast do its work. The uncooked buns will rise.

While the uncooked buns rise pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. Place the uncooked buns into the oven and let them cook for 25-30 minutes. The top of the bun may become a little hard and brittle. Remove the buns and brush them with olive oil and put them back into the oven for another 10 minutes.

The buns are now ready to be served plain of with a side dish. We served the hot buns with Tomato Marmalade, and what a dish it turned out to be. One of the best breads I have ever eaten second only to authentic Norwegian bread and original Goan fresh bread.

Cashew Chutney

As typed by Milo…

This is an inspiration from one of Vineet Bhatia’s Twist Of Taste programmes.
The recipe on television looked simple and the taste was intriguing. When I made the
dish it indeed turned out to be delicious.

Cooking time less than 10 minutes if you have all the ingredients in stock!

1) 2-3 handful de-skinned and broken cashew nuts. Recommended to use fresh ones as older/stale
ones tend to have a slight bitter after taste.
2) Carom (Ajwain) seeds 1.5 tea spoons
3) Mustard oil 2 table spoons
4) Asofetida 1 tea spoon
5) Jaggery 2 table spoon

Heat the pan until it starts smoking in a flat pan. Add the Carom (Ajwain) seeds and let them all
pop ensuring the aroma gets released.
Now add the Asofetida.

Add the jaggery. Let it stand on the flame until the jaggery cubes melt. Reduce the mixture by
a 10th (not to be read as to 10th). Add the cashew nuts at this time. Stir continuously as this
easily sticks to the bottom. Cook for the next 5 minutes to allow the cashew nuts to soften.

Serve this sweet nutty preparation as a replacement for pickle.

Cherry Almond Cake

Milo’s colleagues from Norway were down sometime last week, and we baked this cake for them. They enjoyed it with a cup of black coffee. Photo courtesy Oddlaug 🙂

This is Neeta Mehta’s recipe attempted by us.

Ingredients –

1 cup All Purpose Flour/Maida,

1 tsp Baking powder,

1/2 cup Glazed Cherries cut into round slices,

1/2 cup Almonds chopped,

3/4th cup powdered sugar,

2 Eggs,

1/2 cup oil (vegetable/sunflower or any oil that does not smell),

1/2 tsp Almond essence (I used mixed fruit essence)

Method –

Sift together flour and baking powder and keep aside.

Beat together powdered sugar and eggs till frothy.

Add oil and beat it for a while.

Add the flour to the egg batter and mix well.

Add the essence, chopped cherries and almond and mix well again.Keep a few cherries and almond to put on top of the cake batter. The cake batter for this cake is quite thick.

Pour into a greased tin and bake in a preheated oven (175 degree centigrade) till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

If the top is browning too quickly,loosely cover the top with a foil.

Remove from oven,let it cool for 10 minutes and then remove to a wire rack.

Slice and serve.

Quick Chilly Mushroom

As must be evident from Varsha’s innumerable posts, Sunday meals at our house is always special, generally some authentic Goan fish preparation and seldom chicken. I have given up eating non-veg since a very long time. To compensate, Varsha always tries to make some vegetarian preparation for me.

This is an impromptu recipe that we came up with. Preparation time less than 15 minutes flat, therefore the name “Quick Chilly Mushroom”.

Ingredients –

Mushrooms (10-12 large bulbs),

1 tsp Ginger Garlic paste,

Garlic cloves (7-10),

½ tsp Pepper powder,

1 large Lemon,

1 tsp Soya Sauce,

1 tsp Vinegar,

2 Green chilies,

½ dried curry leaves powder (dehydrate curry leaves in the oven, once cooled crush into powder. Can be stored for months in the refrigerator.)

1 tsp Corn flour,

Salt to taste,

2 tsp Clarified Butter (Ghee, preferably home made)

Method-

Wash and clean the mushrooms and cut them into 2-3 pieces each, length-wise, ensuring there is a little bit of stalk and bulb with every piece. Squeeze a lime and set aside.

In a small bowl mix ginger garlic paste, pepper powder, vinegar and Soya sauce. Apply this mixture to the already cut and lemon soaked mushrooms.

In a hot pan put the ghee. Once the ghee melts add the chillies (make only 2-3 pieces of a chilly) and the garlic cloves (whole cloves with the skin). Let the flavours start mixing. To this add the cut mushrooms. Cook initially on a slow flame for 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Mushrooms tend to get cooked soon. To this add the corn flour. If you feel the preparation sticks excessively to the bottom of the pan, feel free to add some ghee.

Cook for another 5 minutes.

Serve hot as a starter/side dish.

Roos Omlet – Goan style

As typed by Milo…

Mapusa my home town is a well known place in Goa for its authentic Goan style shopping offerings. Crowded Friday markets offering everything one would need, from herbs, spices, masalas to home made Goan sannas, dos, bebinca etc.

After tiring marathon shopping sprees in the markets nothing like a filling roos omlet at one of Mapusa’s famous cafe’s (by the side of the Taxi Stand).

We currently live far away from Mapusa, but recollecting its memories triggers sweet nostalgia. This post is dedicated to one such memory.

 

Mushroom Xacuti

Ingredients –

1 packet of button mushrooms cleaned and chopped,

1 cup freshly grated coconut,

2 tsp dry grated coconut,

1 small onion finely chopped,

1 small onion thinly sliced,

5 to 6 cloves garlic,

1 piece of ginger,

1 tsp coriander powder,

½ tsp turmeric powder,

1 tsp red chili powder,

1 to 2 tsps. My mom’s garam masala powder or any other garam masala,

2 to 3 tsp tamarind extract,

Salt to taste,

2 tsp oil,

Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method –

Heat 1 tsp oil in a heavy bottom pan and fry thinly sliced onions till golden brown.

Add the cut ginger pieces and garlic to the onions and fry for a while.

Add freshly grated coconut to the onions and continue frying till nutty brown color.

Mix in the dry grated coconut and fry for a minute or 2.

Add all the spices to the coconut mixture fry for a minute and switch off the gas, allow it to cool.

Grind the onion coconut mix with tamarind extract and little water to a smooth paste. Keep aside.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and fry the finely chopped onions for 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the mushrooms and salt to the onion and fry for another minute or 2.

Mix in the ground masala, salt and sufficient water to make gravy.

Let the gray boil for 4 to 5 minutes. Adjust salt and garnish with coriander leaves.

Xacuti always tastes better the next day.

 

To make an Omelet, beat 2 eggs with salt and red chili powder. Mix in finely chopped onion, tomatoes and coriander leaves.

Heat a frying pan with little oil, pour the egg mixture in the pan. Cover the pan with a lid.

Gently flip the omelet and let it cook on the other side. Once dome remove it in a plate and pour Xacuti (roos) over the omelet.

Serve with bread.