The green jackfruit

Diwali wishes!

2007-11-06T11:20:00.000-08:00

Wish you all a great Diwali.

Happy cooking. I am looking forward to reading all those great posts.

Here is a small and lovely e-book on Diwali sweets, I found here: http://sify.com/downloads/diwali_sweets.pdf

JFI for Jackfruit

2007-05-28T16:22:00.001-07:00

This month JFI has Jackfruit as the star and it is hosted by Jai and Bee. I love jackfruit, obvious isn't it... I especially love the green, unripe kind as a vegetable. I usually make it Kerala style with lots of coconut. This time I decided to try a new way as a Biryani. I used frozen green jackfruit. For this recipe, I think the frozen ones are sturdy. The canned kind would turn into a mush.

For this JFI, I made Kathal biryani and Elai adai.

I had never imagined anyone else using green jackfruit except Keralites. But from so many recipes that are available, I know I am wrong on that. The biryani actually tastes so much like a Chicken biryani. Jackfruit is quite meaty in texture when cooked.

Kathal biryani (from Sanjeev Kapoor)

Raw Jackfruit (cut Into 11/2" Cubes) 12 pieces
Rice 11/2 cups
Green Cardamoms 4
Black Cardamoms 2
Cloves 5
Cinnnamon 2 1"sticks
Sea Salt to taste
Oil 2 tbsps+to deep fry
Onions (sliced) 4
Caraway Seeds (shahi Jeera) 1/2 tsp
Ginger Paste 1 tbsp
Garlic Paste 1 tbsp
Turmeric Powder 1 tsp
Cumin Powder 1 tsp
Coriander Powder 2 tsps
Red Chilli Powder 1 tsp
Tomatoes (deseed And Chopped) 1 cup
Yogurt 11/2 cups
Coriander Leaves 1/2 bunch
Saffron a pinch
Milk 2 tbsps
Garam Masala Powder 2 tsps
Mint Leaves 1/2 bunch

Cut the jackfruit into slices. Peel and cut into cubes. Wash and soak rice. Parboil the rice with a little sea-salt and half of the whole garam masala (cardamom, cinnamon, cloves). Drain the parboiled rice and keep aside.

Heat sufficient oil in a kadai and deep-fry the jackfruit cubes. Drain and keep aside. In the same oil deep-fry half the sliced onions till golden brown and crisp. Drain and keep aside.

In another pan heat two tablespoons of oil, add shahi jeera and the remaining crushed whole garam masala. Add the remaining sliced onions and sauté for a while. Add ginger paste, garlic paste and continue to sauté. Add turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder, chopped tomatoes and continue to sauté for two to three minutes. Add the fried jackfruit cubes and stir. Add yogurt, sea salt and chopped coriander leaves. Dissolve the saffron in lukewarm milk and keep aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Take a large casserole, arrange half the jackfruit mixture. Over this spread a layer of rice. Sprinkle saffron milk, garam masala powder, mint leaves (torn),. Then repeat these layers once again. Top it with fried sliced onions and mint leaves. Cover with aluminium foil and cook in the preheated oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. Serve hot with a raita .

I also made Ammupatti's elai adai. Her way of making it is similar to my mom's. I used store-bought rice flour and roasted it without coloring the flour. I also used thawed frozen banana leaves available in Asian grocery stores.

It tastes so good warm with the fragrance of banana leaf. You can also make it with parchment paper but nothing to beat banana leaf.

The filling is some delicious chakkai varatti.

Another dessert I love with jackfruit is chakkapradhaman. You can make chakkapradhaman in two ways- with jackfruit varatti or without. Check out my recipes here and here. Making the jam in microwave is much easier than making it on stove-top!

Chayote squash subzi , the Andhra way

2007-05-17T12:56:00.000-07:00

This is my contribution of to RCI event for this month that focuses on Andhra cuisine and hosted by Latha. I have a great taste for the Andhra foods such as Gutti Vankaya kura, the biryani and the mouth-watering avakkai pickle- possibly everyone has. But from the many blogs which specialize in this cuisine, I have learned so much about the home-style foods that you never see in restaurants. And I make some of these simple recipes regularly at home like Indira's ridge gourd curries, Sailu's Black pepper rice. It is good to see healthy eating habits crossing state borders, isn't it?

For this RCI, I am making a dish that made me respect the tasteless chayote squash a teeny bit more. I consider chow-chow or chayote squash to be quite boring. My MIL and mom makes it as a kootu but somehow this vegetable never seems to absorb any flavors, just my opinion...

In the past year, I have learned two new ways of preparing this vegetable. And this recipe is one of them I found at Pachakam.com and I found it when I was searching for an interesting way to make this squash. The cooked vegetable is coated with a thick and coarse sesame-red chili powder. Adding groundnuts and sesame to curries is quite common in Andhra cuisine, making it very tasty. I like to make this extra-spicy because the sesame in the powder does tame a lot of the heat. We eat this with phulkas.

Chayote squash subzi (with very slight modifications from original)

2 chayote squash, peeled and diced
1 large onion
1 inch ginger, peeled and grated
3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely diced (optional)

Roast and powder coarsely:
1/3 cup white sesame seeds
a pinch of salt
3-4 red chilies

Seasoning:
1/2 tsp urad dal
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
Salt to taste

Heat oil. Add the seasoning ingredients except turmeric and salt. When mustard pops, add garlic, ginger and turmeric. Then add onions, and saute till translucent. Add the cubed squash and salt. Mix and cover and cook on low-medium heat till soft and well-done. Add tomatoes if using. Tomatoes make it a little sticky and watery but nice and tangy. You can leave it out if you want a dry curry.

Lastly, toss in the sesame powder. The quantity of powder may seem a whole lot but you need this to give taste. Adding a tbsp or two, will not help much...

Garnish with cilantro. Done!

Delicious recipes from fellow bloggers

2007-05-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

I usually try out more recipes than I post on this blog. Most of the recipes are from fellow bloggers- I always prefer to hear reviews of my blogger pals than some high-flying chef.

Here are the recipes I tried in the past couple of months:

1. Vaghareli Lilva Kichadi from Trupti.
It is very comforting with kadhi and a dollop of ghee. Yum... Check out Trupti's Gujju recipes. Gujarathi food is something I highly adore and being primarily a vegetarian cook, there are several options with this cuisine. I aim to try out all her recipes from the section.

2. Besan stuffed chilies from Chachi's Kitchen

It is so so tasty and easy to make. Thanks Sajeda, I love this new way of cooking chilies without the usual deep frying. There are some great recipes, many of them gujarathi, in this blog. I love the way her roti's look. Can't wait to try the green chili pickle...

3. Masala Puri from Shilpa's Aayi's recipes

I have tried quite a few recipes from her over a year or so. I am amazed at how regularly Shilpa updates her blog! Masala puri was something I had never heard of but I just wanted to try it after reading her post. Needless to say it came out great. Btw, her date cake is a must-try.

4. Dal rice, the south Indian way from Daily Musings

Quite a healthy meal but with so much great flavor from garlic, sambar powder and onion. It lacks the heat of regular sambar rice and my daughter ate it up gladly.

5. Bread upma from Menu today

This is a tasty departure from my usual bread upma . The addition of fennel gives it the real tamilian kick and the yogurt makes the bread tangy. In my opinion, bread upma has to be the best kind of upma...

6. Gongura pachadi from Sailu

It is so tangy and spicy- it is mouth-wateringly good. This recipe has been my first successful attempt at making gongura pachadi (or thokku). I have had a lot of failures with the taste of other recipes and so this successful recipe will be repeated every time I buy gongura. The only change I did was saute the garlic a little with the rest of spices.

7. A very simple Rajma, indeed from Gopium

I followed Gopinath's advice mostly. But I may have broken his strict (witty) instructions by adding some tomato paste:-) I did not even soak the rajma at all. Such an easy, quick recipe but with all the great taste of authentic rajma. I can't wait to try the Chhole.

Thanks y'all for such great recipes!

Double apple bundt cake

2007-05-02T07:52:00.000-07:00

The search started off as a way to use up a jar of Apple butter. But now I am so glad I had a jar to make this recipe. This author's followers are many and this book has been raved all over the blogosphere and beyond... I have nothing more to say about this book and this cake's taste was enough for me.

I usually like to make snack cakes like this with oil because it is slightly lighter. To say the cake was tasty is an understatement. The spices came together very well and I am glad now for that jar of apple butter...

Double Apple Bundt Cake, from Baking, From My Home to Yours

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup store-bought apple butter, spiced or plain
2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and grated
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup plump, moist raisins

Center a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 350º F. Butter and flour a 9-10 inch bundt pan.

Whisk together the dry ingredients, flour through salt.

Working with stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, or hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed, scraping the bowl as needed, for 3 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth, thick, and pale. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each addition; you’ll have a light, fluffy batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the apple butter. Add the grated apples and mix to completely blend. Add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the batter. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the nuts and raisins. Turn the batter into the bundt pan and smooth the top of the batter with the spatula.

Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a thin knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack to cool for 5 minutes before unmolding. Cool completely before serving. The cake tastes much better after a day or two.

Mili Juli Sabzi (a.k.a Mixed Vegetable Curry)

2007-04-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

Finally I made it to Nupur's A-Z of Indian vegetables. This week comes the letter 'M'. And it is not too easy to pick a vegetable with this letter for me. Mango can't be treated as a vegetable, can it?

Then one fine day I made this mixed vegetable subzi, the way my mom makes it always. Eggplant, okra and green plantains are cooked together and towards the end of cooking a coarsely ground rice-red chili mixture is sprinkled on top. It is simple with no pretentious flavors but so good.

This is my contribution to Nupur's event.

Mili Juli sabzi

10-12 small round eggplants, quartered
10-12 okra, cut into slightly largish pieces
1 large plantain, skin removed and cut into thin slices (here I mean the small plantains and not the big ones used in chips)

1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1/2 tsp turmeric
Salt

Powder:
1 T rice
3-4 red chilies

Dry roast rice and red chilies till rice turns milky white. Grind very coarsely. Heat 1 tsp oil in a skillet. Add mustard and urad dal. When mustard pops, add the cut vegetables , turmeric and salt. Sprinkle little water, cover and cook until all vegetables are done. Having plantain cook as soon as the other veggies is the key here.

Uncover, add ground powder and fold them in. Saute for a couple of minutes on a high flame.

Puli Aval

2007-03-07T11:40:00.000-08:00

I am not a big fan of batata poha. It never tastes good when I make it and I have never had a good version of it. I am prejudiced towards Puli aval, an adaptation of poha made, Kannadiga style. It is just an easier version of tamarind rice and is a great brunch item or light supper dish.

Puli aval

2 cups thick poha
1-2 tsp any spice mix you have (I use sambar powder or rasam powder)
1.5 tsp tamarind paste
handful of peanuts
3-4 red chilis broken
1 tsp chana dal
1 tsp urad dal
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
few curry leaves
1 tsp sugar or powdered jaggery
salt to taste
water as needed
hing, a pinch

Take about 2 cups of water or buttermilk. Add the salt, spice mix , sugar and tamarind paste. Mix well. Add poha and soak for a 2-3 minutes. This depends on quality of poha. Thick poha in India can take soaking for 10 min or more. But in US it gets soft in 2 minutes...
If poha is not submerged fully, add a bit more liquid.

Pour contents into a strainer while you prepare tadka. Heat little oil. Add the peanuts and toast them a little. Next add the dals, chilis and mustard seeds and let mustard splutter. Add curry leaves and hing. Next add all the poha and saute till dry like upma.

Serve hot.

Chocolate Ricotta muffins

2007-02-26T18:35:00.000-08:00

This was our pre-Valentine's day indulgence. The muffins are supremely chocolatey due to the cup of chocolate chips folded in. If you cannot tolerate so much chocolate, you can leave them out for some ordinary and moist cocoa muffins.

The recipe comes from Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe. Unlike many of the baked goods I make, I have made this recipe twice. It is a great use for some leftover ricotta cheese. It can be made with oil or melted butter, some soy-protein mix can be substituted for the flour- all this making it so adaptable and versatile.

Chocolate-Ricotta muffins- I got 16 normal sized muffins

Nonstick spray for the pan
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
6 to 8 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose (can add about 1/2 cup of soy-protein mix for 1/2 cup flour, or you can use 50:50 whole-wheat and AP flour)
1 cup ricotta
2 large eggs
1 1/3 cups milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted or oil

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly spray 12 standard-sized (2 1/2-inch-diameter) muffin cups with nonstick spray. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, cocoa, and sugar in a medium-sized bowl.

Place the ricotta in a second medium-sized bowl, and add the eggs one at a time, beating well with a medium-sized whisk after each addition. Add the milk and vanilla, and whisk until thoroughly blended.

Pour the ricotta mixture, along with the melted butter, into the dry ingredients. Using a spoon or a rubber spatula, stir from the bottom of the bowl until the dry ingredients are all moistened. Don't overmix; a few lumps are okay.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Fill them even with the top of the pan. Bake in the middle of the oven for to 20 to 25 minutes, or until lightly browned on top, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven, then remove the muffins from the pan and place them on a rack to cool. Wait at least 30 minutes before serving.

They are great warm but even better the next day!

Meyer lemon- chocolate tartlets for my Valentine

2007-02-15T19:16:00.000-08:00

I made these decadent tartlets for Valentine's day. This is from Fran Bigelow's book, Pure Chocolate. Unlike usual chocolate-only books, this book has a lot of unique recipes, not just the usual chocolate cake and brownie recipes.

You can find recipe for this tart at http://brandoesq.blogspot.com/2005/09/white-chocolate-creme-citron-tarts.html . The crust is actually a recipe for chocolate wafers. These wafers make great ice cream sandwiches, just like Klondike bars.

Lake Como Biscotti

2007-02-10T17:42:00.000-08:00

This is one plain, biscotti recipe from Maida Heatter's book of Cookies. Plain does not translate into bad, but in a world of cappuchino and Nutella biscotti this is ordinary. Maybe the kind you will eat in Italy, and that is where Maida had it too.

I have made several biscotti recipes but this recipe was quite finicky- grinding up almonds, getting the zest of lemons etc etc...

Lake como biscotti

2 cups whole blanched almonds (I kept the skin on)
2 cups sifted AP flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp b.powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup minus 2 T sugar
2 large eggs
finely garted rind of 1 large lemon
1 T plus 1.5 tsp lemon juice
scant ½ tsp almond extract

Toast the almonds in a shallow pan in a preheated 350- degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly colored, shaking the pan once or twice. You can tell when they are done by the strong smell of toasted almonds when you open the oven door. Set aside to cool.

Oven 375 F. Turn baking sheets upside down and line with parchment or foil.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, b.powder and salt. Add sugar and mix. Add about ½ cup of this flour mixture to the food processor. Add ½ cup of toasted almond and process for about 30 seconds, or until the nuts is fine and powdery.
In a large bowl, mix together the processed ingredients with the remaining sifted dry ingredients. Stir in the almonds.
In a small bowl, beat the eggs with rind, lemon juice and almond extrcat just to mix. With a large rubber or wooden spatula stir the egg mixture into the dry ingredients until well-moistened.

Lightly flour a large board and turn dough onto it. Sprinkle a little flour on top. Shape it into a mound. With a long, sharp knife, cut into equal quarters. Flour surface and hands and roll each piece into long narrow shape, 10 inch long and 1 inch wide. Brush off loose flour. Don’t flatten tops.

Place all four rolls, crosswise on lined sheets, 2 inch apart. Bake loaves in upper rack for 20 min, reversing halfway. Mine was done in 10 min. I overbaked the logs and result was I had great difficulty slicing and things were falling apart. They should be lightly colored and feel almost firm.

Reduce the oven temperature to 275 degrees and remove the sheets from the oven. Immediately, with a wide metal spatula, release a strip from the parchment or foil and place it on a board. Repeat with the second strip. Use a pot holder or a folded towel to hold one of the hot strips in place, and use a serrated French bread knife to cut the strip crosswise into slices 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide. Repeat with the second strip. For me though, the longer I let the logs sit, the better luck I had slicing them. Place the slices, cut side down, on unlined cookie sheets with a little space between them. Return to oven to bake at 275 degrees for 35-40 minutes, turning slices and reversing the sheets top to bottom and front to back once during baking. At the end of baking, they should be a pale honey color on both sides. Let cool and store in an airtight container.

Comments- The addition of ground almonds did not help the flavor in any way. It is just more work. The whole almonds look very pretty in the biscotti but made slicing difficult. For a plain-tasting biscotti, this is too hard a recipe and it yielded only around 30 for me and not 50 as stated in Maida's book. I still hear great things about her Gingerful biscotti and will be trying them soon.

Back again!

2007-01-27T21:48:00.000-08:00

After a bit of juggling with the new blogger (most of it trying to get them send my login information and trying to get it work ), here I am . Happy new year to all of you!

Thanks so much for your wishes and emails checking on me. I feel so appreciated...

The last few months have been like a whirlwind and things are getting back to normal or so they seem. Hopefully I can get back into posting more.

As a bonus, a nice simple recipe Chai Concentrate that I love. It tastes just like the Oregon Chai Latte concentrate but without the tea in it as an ingredient. You will have to add it later!

I spent quite a few $$$ on chai concentrates (esp. Oregon Chai) but no more. I always have condensed milk around and this makes great use of it. I like to use pre-ground spices. I never seem to get them fine enough in my grinder. I add a tbsp of it to brewed cup of hot or cold tea. Yum!

Off to India- Your opinions needed!

2006-11-20T14:09:00.000-08:00

I am leaving for a month-long trip to India in a week. I am looking forward to good times with family and good food, of course. Being a foodie, I usually get a few cookbooks without knowing about the success rate of its recipes.

But this year, I have you all to help me find good books. Any suggestions for Indian cookbooks focusing on some regional cooking? Absolutely any style is welcome but in specific I would appreciate help with good books on Andhra, Maharashtra, Kerala, Bengali, Gujarathi and/or Karnataka cooking (all written in english or tamil or may be in Hindi).

Also, if you have had some nifty kitchen tools/gadgets that is available in India, you can add that to your comment too. If you have a blog, a post would enable us all to view the tool and its value.

Your comments and emails are greatly appreciated.

Small batch chocolate chip cookies

2006-11-16T12:29:00.000-08:00

chocolate chip cookie

Don't you just love chocolate chip cookies? My family loves it but most recipes make 30 or more large cookies. We get addicted to chocolate chippers when they are there... So this is from the same book (Small batch baking) as the White chocolate blondies, I made sometime back. This recipe just makes around 8-10 smallish cookies or 6 large cookies.

Now you want to know the texture- it is perfect, according to me. Crispy on the outside, soft-chewy on the inside.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Adapted from Small Batch Baking.

2 T plus 2 t butter (room temp)
2 T brown sugar
2 T granulated sugar
2 T egg, well beaten
1/4 t vanilla
1/4 cup plus 2 T flour
scant 1/4 t baking soda
1/8 t salt
1/3 cup chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugars, mix in the eggs and vanilla, stir in the dry ingredients, then the chips. Bake at 375 for 8-11 minutes.

Ragi Puttu

2006-10-24T21:15:00.000-07:00

Ragi puttu

We make rice puttu for navaratri. Raagi puttu is vey famous too. I had purchased some raagi flour for making Ragi dosa. So I decided to try this also. One thing about ragi flour is it turns stale quickly. Since I got the flour in USA, it probably is already stale and not as tasty as the ones ground in India. Surprisingly, it tastes very close to the rice puttu I am used to and it is so much better for you.

I followed this recipe but like some other recipes, I slightly roasted the flour until aromatic. It drives away any stale odor your flour might have.

It stays for upto a week in the refrigerator. It tastes great with a little ghee on top.

Mysore rasam

2006-09-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

A slightly complicated rasam, with all the goodness of arachuvitta sambar but as comforting as a nice, tangy rasam- that is what Mysore rasam is. Like I always wonder with Mysore bonda, I don't know if this is made in Mysore or what. But it totally suits tamilian taste-buds and everyone else's too...

Mysore rasam

2 Tbsp tur dal, cooked

1 lemon-sized tamarind
1/2 tsp Turmeric
salt
1 tomato, finely chopped

For powder:

1 tbsp tur dal
2 red chilies
5-6 peppercorns
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp chana dal
1 .5 tsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp coconut
a pinch of Hing

Fry all this in a little ghee until reddish. Grind to a coarse powder (some people do make a coarse paste of it, that is fine).

Boil diluted tamarind water with tomatoes, turmeric and salt. Add the powder or paste and then the cooked tur dal. Bring to a boil. When a nice aroma emanates, it is done. Season with mustard, curry leaves and cumin using ghee.

A nice rasam for those days when you don't want to make sambar but paruppu rasam is far too simple (read boring) for you.

A corny breakfast soup

2006-08-17T17:21:00.000-07:00

You may wonder how soup figures in breakfast. I still do...

But my MIL being here, and she being used to eating this as part of a hearty breakfast, I don't argue. Would ya??

This is a light but hearty soup. It can be made in 15 min and you can make this a light, fall supper too. I liked this soup a whole lot and with so much corn, in season, I make it in summer.

Corn soup Indian style

2-3 ears fresh corn, kernels removed from cob
1 large onion, chopped
1 inch piece ginger, finely chopped
1 large tomato, kept whole
1 green chili, optional (depending on sweetness of corn)
Salt

Place all in a pressure pan with 1 cup water. Cook for 2 whistles. Open and remove skin from the whole tomato. Strain all the solids from the stock with slotted spoon (you don't have to be a perfectionist here). Grind all the solids including ginger, tomato etc. Grind solids into a smooth paste. Add the paste to the stock and add 2 cups of water. Adjust salt if needed and bring to a boil. It should be thinner than chowder. Serve with some black pepper and a sprinkling of kasoori methi on top.

Methi gives a very special taste to this soup. Do try to use it. Ginger is also a great flavor with the corn. The fresher your corn, the less sweet it will be. If you do not care for sweet corn type of soup like me, get fresh corn on the cobs for this. If you have some old corn in the fridge, then the starch would have turned into sugars and so it will be on the sweet side. So do use a chili or two.

Mixed vegetable chutney

2006-08-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

My posts have been so sporadic recently mainly because of my new job. A lot of cooking has been going on since my MIL is here. Everyday dishes and special occasion dishes are being prepared but I have had very little time to photograph or write about it.

Mixed vegetable chutney is MIL's recipe. It is an excellent way to clean-up the refrigerator's contents. Although I am a big fan of coconut chutney, it tends to be heavy and we hardly get any coconuts here that can taste as great as the ones in South India. A little bit of this and that and there, you have made this tasty chutney.

Mixed vegetable chutney or thogaiyal

1/2 cup grated carrots
1 medium onion, diced
1 tomato or green tomato, chopped
2 red chilies
2 green chilies
4-5 chunks of green pepper, diced fine
1 small zucchini, peeled and diced
1 inch ginger, peeled and chopped
1 T Urad dal
2 T grated coconut or powdered coconut
1/2 tsp mustard seeds

Heat a tsp of oil. Add red chilies, urad dal and mustard seeds and let mustard pop. Now add the onions, ginger and all the vegetables except tomato and saute until carrot, zucchini and peppers soften. Now add the tomato and saute 1 min more. Lastly add coconut and turn off heat.

Grind with little tamarind paste (1/8 tsp) and salt into a thick paste. Season with urad dal and mustard.

This also goes great mixed with rice. Of course, it is a great combo with dosa and chappatis.

Biriyani vs Biryani

2006-07-24T11:55:00.000-07:00

The tamilian Biriyani has a huge fan following. There is no spelling mistake here- it is biriyani for tamilians, quite different in taste from the North Indian Biryani. Biryani usually has several layers and then baked in an oven for 30 min or more. It is a very festive, expensive and of course, time consuming dish.

For tamilians, especially, those non-vegetarians who relish eating at Chettinad style joints (Ponnusamy hotel, Aachi's and the like), you know this style of biriyani. There is usually a vegetarian version available without the chicken but with a whole, boiled egg perched on top. This biriyani is very easy to make and it makes a delicious meal with onion raita. You could also go the entire mile by serving it with some South Indian kurma.

I got this recipe from my friend several years ago and this recipe has been a hit every time. Two ingredients are essential to this dish- Fennel seeds (or saunf) and a few mint leaves. They give the characteristic flavor of the dish.

Vegetable Bir(i)yani

1 cup long-grain rice (basmati is not required)
1 cup finely chopped carrots, beans, cauliflower and a handful of peas

Paste:
1/2 a medium onion
3-4 garlic cloves
1 inch piece ginger
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp clove powder
4-5 green chilies

Seasoning:
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 bay leaf
3-4 crushed cardamom
10-15 mint leaves, roughly chopped
2-3 slit green chilies

1. Heat oil or ghee in a pan. Add the whole spices in the seasonings, then add mint and green chilies. Now add the paste and saute for 2-3 min.
2. Add vegetables and saute for a minute. Now add rice, salt and stir well to mix. Add appropriate quantity water, cover tightly and cook until done.
3. Serve hot with onion raita and an optional boiled egg.

Jaggery dosa

2006-07-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

This is one of my childhood favorite tiffins. My husband is not a big fan of it and so I really don't bother making it much. I like this dosa on the sweet side although the amount of jaggery in this recipe is for the lightly sweetened version. This tastes like appam made into a dosa. It contains a whole lotta wheat flour in proportion to rice flour.

batter

1 cup wheat flour
1/8 th cup rice flour
1/2-2/3 cup Jaggery
1/2 cup coconut grated
1/2 tsp Powdered cardamom
1/2-1 ripe banana
Ghee

Take jaggery with a cup of water in a saucepan in stove and keep stirring till completely dissolved. Keep it down and when little warm add wheat flour, rice flour, mashed banana, coconut and elaichi powder. Mix everything very well. Let rest for 10 min until luke warm or even room temperature. Keep the tawa on medium heat and pour the batter like normal dosa and pour a little ghee on sides.Turn both sides till light red. Be slow when you turn.

Best served when hot or warm.

I like this with just ghee but I know people have this with milagai podi or chutney too (those are weird combos, IMHO).

Pickled vegetables

2006-06-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

I love North Indian style pickles served in Punjabi food joints. The pickle is not spicy but it goes so well with curries, probably because of all the North Indian spices used. I found this recipe on a website and although, I do not like carrots, pickled carrots are so very tasty. Carrots form a large portion of this pickle but other vegetables like cauliflower, beans and beetroot can also be used.

I halved the original recipe and the halved recipe makes about 3 cups of pickle. It keeps in the refrigerator for upto a month.

Dhaba style pickled vegetables

2 large Carrots, cut into big dices
2 limes
6 green chillies
1/4 cup or less sliced ginger

dry spices:

1/8 cup coriander seeds (coarsely broken)
1 T saunf
1 -2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp hing
8-10 peppercorns

1/2 cup lemon juice (or as needed based on sourness)
1 T salt or as needed
1/4 cup oil

Mix the cut vegetables with salt and tumeric and keep aside. Heat the oil till it starts to smoke. turn off the flame and allow it to cool for 2mins. Mix all the spices and mix it with the vegetables. Add the hot oil and lemon juice and mix well.

Yosemite trip highlights

2006-06-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

Bridal veil falls

Amazing is too weak a word for how this park is. We have visited most of the important national parks in the US and some of the parks left us asking ourselves- "what is the big deal?". A friend warned us that since we had already seen Alaska's wilderness, this would be a let down. But it was almost as amazing with stark granite cliffs and waterfalls flowing down the rocky edges.

Water gushing down from the bridal veil falls

If you are in California, this should be the time for you to visit. Falls are in full force and mosquito season is just starting. But the only trouble is finding accomodations since everything is booked months ahead. We got to stay in the Housekeeping camp, and it is not so bad. It would be downright relaxing if you cooked there in the fire pit (that is if you are not freaked out by bear stories floating around the net).

View from glacier point

If you are just visiting the park as a day trip, consider carrying enough food for the day (and remember to use bear boxes while you look at the sights). Curry village (wonder who named it so) was way too crowded and food concessions close by 8 PM.

Lower Yosemite falls

Meme-10 things I miss most about Mom's cooking

2006-06-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

Garam Masala came up with a great meme to honor our mothers. We keep blogging about so many of mom's recipes yet when we are down we remember certain dishes that have not only touched our palates but also our hearts. When I miss my mom, I try to make dishes that she would make for me. I know I am trying to get closer to her through her recipes(which is not always possible being in USA). However much I write these recipes down and follow them to the T, how come they don't taste like hers?

Here are some of my favorite dishes and combos. They taste good only when she makes it but when another experienced cook makes it, it is never as good. Is it the love that goes into it...

10. Keerai masiyal, vatral kuzhambu and paruppu thogaiyal combo.
9. All her homemade juices- she has a huge food-mill and used to make juices from everything from orange to tomato. I sure did not appreciate them earlier but now when she has stopped making them (my parents have type 2 diabetes), I think of all the effort that went into making those juices and how much I chose to drink the craze of that time, Coke in PET bottles (**sigh**).
8. Ennai kathrikkai curry
7. Drumstick milagootal and milagai pachadi (yum)
6. Radish sambar
5. Mysore pak (so soft and delicious)
4. Sambar saadam- this is a sort of south Indian version of Bisi bela bath. It tastes great with her next speciality...
3. Urulai roast curry- she uses a lot of oil for this but even when I do the same thing, against all my better judgement, I never get the same yummy crust.
2. Green jackfruit curry- I love it so much that I have named my blog after it. I have never succeeded in making it properly, so I have never posted about it in this blog. When my mom makes it, I will sure write about it.
1. Chinna vengaya araichu-vitta sambar- This is her speciality. She makes the masala with ground coriander seeds, fenugreek, gram dal and coconut. It tastes especially yummy with any spicy curry.

Above all, I salute her for being so unrelenting in her efforts at cooking, never saying once that she was not well enough to cook for us and making tiffin everyday of the week at 3PM for us as growing kids. Even now, when we have the means to have a cook come in everyday, she chooses to do all this and more. Thanks amma for being an example of how a mother should be! Now following in your footsteps is the hard part.

Thanks Garam masala for coming up with this meme. It feels great to put down emotions on paper. If any of you want to write-up about your mom and her cooking, consider yourself tagged.

A traditional pair for adventurous taste-buds

2006-06-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

Makai di roti & Sarson ka saag

Some combinations are well-known and popular in India- Idli-sambar, butter chicken-naan, carrot halwa-vanilla ice cream and of course, Makki di roti & sarson ka saag. This is probably the most famous food-pair in India (a Shahrukh- Kajol kind, if you will) and is sometimes a stereotype when we talk about authentic punjabi dishes.
Ironically, the saag that you get in restaurants as side for makai di roti is a dish wholly made with spinach. You can hardly appreciate the flavor of the roti with the bland palak saag. Saag made with mustard greens is slightly bitter and has much more flavor. This is a classic winter combo but this is the season of fresh sarson, here in California. The frozen mustard greens lack the pungency of fresh greens. So I prepared the traditional combination last week to experience the riches of Punjab's fields. I may not have achieved the taste of the fields (one reason being my use of cornmeal available here) but this was a tasty dinner, nevertheless.

Makki di roti

This is made with corn flour. You can get the flour in Indian stores in US but the age of the flour is suspect. I used cornmeal. You can also use masa from mexican markets. I followed this recipe but used atta instead of plain flour. Making rotis of this stick dough is the hard part. I seem to have got it righ this time (my previous trial was a dismal failure).

Sarson ka saag

Made with three different greens, this dish is very tasty. I have made some versions of this before and this was the most tasty and more similar to what I have had in India.

1 large bunch sarson or mustard leaves (should have 4 cups of leaves)
2 cups palak (spinach)
1/2 cup methi (fenugreek)
4 T makki ka atta (corn pounded into flour)
2 big onions finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 large tomatoes, finely chopped
1 inch ginger
4 green chilies, finely chopped

Pluck mustard leaves, palak and methi leaves from off the stalks. Wash them well in running water. Chop finely. Add finely chopped ginger, chilies and pressure cook it for 2 whistles.

Remove from the fire and pound the saag in the pressure cooker pan till it is well mixed. Put it back on a low flame and gradually add makki ka atta stirring constantly untill all flour is mixed in the saag. Before serving, heat ghee, and brown the garlic, then add onions, fry till they are golden brown. Add tomatoes and cook till a thick puree is formed. Add the saag to it and serve hot with dollops of butter.

This is an early post for Anthony's curry mela- a great round-up of tasty dishes of the week.

Maa ladoo

2006-06-09T13:20:00.000-07:00

There is a link between tamil families and sweets. For every family, there is a traditional sweet that is made for every special occasion and is the gold standard for that family. When a guy in that family gets engaged, the bride's family has to prepare the sweet (or procure it from a good source) for the betrothal ceremony. The preparation will be subject to extensive critique at the end of the day (not usually in front of the bride's family, thankfully). The complicated part of this protocol is that the traditional sweet is never asked for openly in Indian 'arranged marriages'. One has to make assumptions based on whether the family is from Tanjore, Thirunelveli etc. For people, unfamiliar with tamil brahmin groups, most people originate from Tanjore, Thirunelveli and Palghat.

My marriage had this usual dilemma on what the guy's family sweet would be. S, being from Thirunelveli, it was decided that it should be Maa ladoo . It turned out to be a right guess, that my dad later confirmed with someone in S's family. My family is a rava ladoo family but our family sweet was boondi ladoos. Notice how complicated things are and how sweets are in-grained into life of Indians. My mom was not sure whether the ladoos were to be made with green gram, or dalia or yellow moong dal. We safely bought it from Krishna Sweets, who have the reputation for tasty sweets. Whether they lived upto S's family standards, is not known. Mainly because S feigns selective amnesia as to what happened when the sweet was tasted later on.

Anyway, this recipe comes from my MIL herself. I like rava ladoo but I have acquired a taste for Maa ladoo as well. And oh, the maa stands for 'maavu' made with powdered dalia.

Maa ladoo

1 cup puffed chana dal or dalia
1 cup sugar
4-5 T broken cashewnuts
5-6 elaichi

1/2 cup to 1 cup melted ghee , as needed

Dry roast dal until fragrant and warmed through. It should not change color. Add the dal, sugar and elaichi to a food processor and process until powdered fine. It would do good to pass it through a sieve once or twice. Heat 2 T of ghee and roast cashew until golden brown. Add to the powder. Add melted ghee as needed to make rounds from the powder but not so much to make it oily or soggy.

This sweet is especially nutritious for children since dalia is considered easy to digest and helps to increase bone density and promote weight gain.

Mor kaalan

2006-06-06T15:11:00.000-07:00

mor kaalan with two types of sevai

This is a recipe from Kerala that is very similar to mor kuzhambu but very, very thick. It involves boiling the buttermilk for about 45 minutes and reducing it. Then you add a paste made of lots of coconut and green chilies and that is how you end up with this tasty dish. You have to use fresh coconut only. When my grandmom used to make butter at home, churning cream, she used the buttermilk by-product for this. The churned buttermilk is very pungent and smells too strong for drinking as such. Since she is from Kerala, she used it so.

This is a concentrated form of mor kuzhambu and so it is made quite spicy. According to my mother-in-law, this dish can be stored and used for upto a week. Of course, because of the coconut, that is a questionable point. Anyways, here is the recipe:

Mor kaalan

1 green plantain, white pumpkin or zucchini (cooked separately in water with some turmeric and salt)

1 cup Buttermilk
1 tsp or more ground pepper
3/4 cup grated coconut
4-5 green chilies

Heat buttermilk in a kadai on a high flame. It will split and boil. Don't worry. Continue to reduce till it reaches 1/4 th the original quantity. Add turmeric and pepper. Gring coconut with chilies into a thick paste. Add cooked vegetable and paste to reduced buttermilk. Add salt and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.

Season with mustard seeds, red chili and curry leaves preferably using coconut oil.

It is a spicy dish but you can reduce green chilies if you like. Normally, you should be able to taste the pepper.