Cooking from the blogs

Indianadoc's delicious carrot halwa! (It is a microwave recipe, but I made it on the stovetop using the same ingredients.).

LG's Karinaaranga Curry(left) & Manisha's Lemon Pickle(right). While LG's recipe brings back memories of my grandma's naaranga curry, manisha's lemon pickle really kicks it up a notch!

Vineela's "little hearts". Big hit for a kid's party!

No pictures, but I have also successfully tried out the following:

• Indianadoc's Padavalanga-parippu Erissery
• LG's Rava unniappam , Egg Puffs & 5 minute shrimp express(Yeah! I have been hypnotized by this girl.)
• Tanuja's Masala Peanuts
  

Thank you all for such wonderful recipes!

Previous episode of Cooking from the blogs.

Pan Roasted Potatoes with Fresh Herbs!

After posting a comment at LG’s blog regarding my plants’ poor performance, I took a scissors and went out to see my plants. I wanted to see if anyone was ready for the green blog project. I cut some rosemary and sage leaves because those were the only plants with enough leaves! First I thought I would make some herbed butter as I saw in TV a few weeks ago. Then I thought about another TV show where they showed roasted potatoes with fresh herbs. I wasn’t quite sure about how we would like herbed butter. So I chose to make pan roasted potatoes. I didn’t watch the show completely. I think they roasted in the oven.

Here is how I did it:
Small red potatoes – 8
Fresh rosemary leaves, chopped – ½ tbsp
Fresh sage leaves – ½ tbsp
Salt – to taste
Extra virgin olive oil – 1 tbsp
Pepper powder or crushed red peppers – to taste

Heat up a well seasoned cast iron pan on medium heat. Cut the potatoes into quarters and mix with salt, extra virgin olive oil, and chopped herbs. Sprinkle pepper powder. Add it to the hot pan. Cook covered and undisturbed until it turns golden brown. Turn the potatoes and cook again until the other sides turns brown. Serve hot as a side dish or a snack.

This is my first entry for dear LG’s Green Blog Project.

Simple Meals and Malabar meen pathiri(not so simple)

Malabar recipe queen shaheen of Malabar Spices has started this meme in which she requests us to list simple everyday meals. I think most of my blogged recipes are simple for I have two playful kids and have no help from anyone except my husband. So it has to be simple. We do cook something elaborate on weekends if we feel like to. For breakfast items, I think idlis, dosas, appams, uppuma and puttu are all so simple. My egg curry is so simple and can be made within 30 minutes (goes well with puttu, appam, and idiyappam). I make sandwiches too. I even use any leftover dry curries from the fridge as a sandwich filling along with any type of cheese. Another easy breakfast option is oatmeal. It is filling and nutritious. Add dried fruits to it at the end of cooking. Also try molasses with oatmeal instead of sugar. For lunch, one of my easiest preparations is moru kachiyathu to go with rice. I just do a tadka of mustard seeds, red chillies, garlic, onion, and curry leaves, and add turmeric powder and yogurt to it. You can have broiled chicken or fish with it. If I have time, I make chapathis for dinner, otherwise we just have what is leftover from lunch. Also check out: Kale thoran, Spinach Dal, Baked potatoes, Liver fry, Baked vegetables, and Vegetable fritatta.
If any of you would like to participate in this meme, please consider yourself tagged. It would be a big help for shaheen.

Now, a Malabar recipe to me is not simple at all. It is time consuming and tricky. But the end result is always delectable and all my family loves it. So I attempt Malabar recipes once in a while from a cookbook I have. Meen pathiri is a delicious meal that can be served as a lunch or dinner. It is filling and tastes exceptional. I have never seen nor had a real meen pathiri made by Malabaris. So, I am not quite sure if the outcome looks like this or not. I would appreciate if Malabar recipe queens indianadoc and shaheen could comment on this. I did make a few changes in the original recipe.

Malabar Meen Pathiri/Steamed Rice Pie with Fish Filling

Here is how I made it:

For the pathiri:
Soak 2 cups of parboiled rice (I used kuthari/brown parboiled rice) in hot water for 4 to 6 hours. After soaking, wash the rice and grind with salt, shallots or onion (about 2 tbsp) and fennel seeds (1/2 tsp). Use very little water for grinding. The ground mixture should not be too watery. We need to make pathiris out of it, so it needs to be a tad softer than chapathi dough. I had to use more water for grinding in my blender, so I added some roasted rice flour to the ground mixture to get the right consistency. Add salt while grinding. The original recipe of meen pathiri in my cookbook requires adding coconut while you grind the rice. I omitted it this time. You can also use rice flour to make the dough as explained in this recipe. I think grinding the rice is more traditional and tastier. Cover the dough and keep aside.

For the fish masala:
Grind ½ a cup of coconut with shallots (1 tbsp) and fennel seeds (1/2 tsp) with a little water. Set aside. Clean the fish. I used 3 big slices of king fish. You can use other fish too. Remove the skin and bones, and cut into big pieces. Marinate in salt, ½ tsp each of chilli powder and turmeric powder for 30 minutes. Heat 2-3 tbsp of oil in a pan and shallow fry the fish pieces until done. Remove fish from the oil and add chopped onion (one medium sized onion) to the oil. Cook until they are translucent. Add 2 cloves of garlic (crushed), 1-inch piece ginger (minced), 4 slit green chillies, and a few curry leaves. Cook for a couple of minutes. Add ½ tsp red chilli powder, ¼ tsp turmeric powder and one big tomato chopped. Cook until the tomatoes are soft. Add the ground coconut mixture and bring to a boil. Add salt. Let it boil for a couple of minutes and add the fried fish pieces. Mix it very gently and bring to another boil. Simmer for 5 minutes and remove from the stove. The original recipe calls for coriander powder and cilantro as well. I omitted it because I don’t usually add coriander powder in fish. I also adjusted all other masala powders to our taste.

Get a steamer ready on the stove. I used a pressure cooker without the whistle.
Take two pieces of wax paper (or banana leaves if you are lucky to have it). Apply some oil on wax paper and on your hands. Take a small orange sized ball from rice dough and place it on a wax paper. Using your hands, flatten like a chapathi of ¼ inch thickness. Make another one like this on the other piece of wax paper. Place some fish masala on one pathiri and cover with the other one. Seal the edges. Slowly transfer it to the steamer/pressure cooker. Steam cook until done. It took about 15 minutes for me in the pressure cooker. I cooked one pathiri at a time. It will take longer in a regular steamer. Remove from the steamer and serve hot.

Pizza 101

Pizza dough:

Whole-wheat flour – 1 ½ cup
All purpose flour – 1 ½ cup
Extra virgin olive oil – 1 tbsp
Salt – to taste
Yeast – 1 ½ tsp
Warm water – 1 cup
Sugar – ¼ tsp

Take ¼ cup of warm water in a cup. Add sugar and yeast. Mix with a spoon until the yeast and sugar dissolve. Keep it in a warm place. The yeast will become active in about 5 to 10 minutes. You need to use good quality yeast to get good results. The best tool in the kitchen, your hands, is all what you need to make a good pizza dough. But I used a food processor. Add flour, salt and olive oil to the food processor bowl and run it for 30 seconds. Add more warm water to the yeast water to make it one cup. With the food processor running, pour the water slowly through the opening of the food processor cap. The flour will slowly form dough in a couple of minutes. Once it starts forming dough, turn the food processor off, and pulse it a few more times. Add more water if needed. Take out the dough from the food processor, and press it to a ball shape using your hands. Smear olive oil over the dough ball and place it in a large mixing bowl. Cover it with a clean damp kitchen towel. Keep it in a warm place to rise. After an hour, check the dough. It would have doubled its size. Punch it down and let it rise for another 45 minutes covered in a warm place.

You may substitute whole wheat flour with all purpose flour. But adding whole wheat flour makes it more nutritious and tasty.

Place the dough on a flat surface. Sprinkle the dough and the rolling pin with flour.

Roll out into desired shape and thickness. For me, this recipe will make 3 medium size pizza crust, not so thin, not so thick. If I have leftover dough, I refrigerate in a zip lock bag and use it the next day. I have heard that it freezes well too, but I haven’t tried it yet. You can make focassia or pizza pockets/calzone using the same dough.

Tomato sauce:

You can use a store bought tomato sauce or pizza sauce. Easy cheesy!!
You can also make homemade tomato sauce. I use this recipe of Giada De Laurentiis’ to make a simple tomato sauce. For using in the pizza, you may add dried herbs to this sauce.

Simple Tomato Sauce: (Tomato sauce Recipe Courtesy: Giada De Laurentiis)
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 (32-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
2 dried bay leaves
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, optional
In a large casserole pot or Dutch over, heat oil over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until soft and translucent, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add celery and carrots and season with salt and pepper. Saute until all the vegetables are soft, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and bay leaves and simmer uncovered on low heat for 1 hour or until thick. Remove bay leaves and check for seasoning. If sauce still tastes acidic, add unsalted butter, 1 tablespoon at a time to round out the flavors.
Add 1/2 the tomato sauce into the bowl of a food processor. Process until smooth. Continue with remaining tomato sauce. If not using all the sauce, allow it to cool completely and pour 1 to 2 cup portions into freezer plastic bags. This will freeze up to 6 months.

Spread the tomato sauce evenly on the rolled out pizza crust.

Toppings:
The variety of toppings you can put on a pizza is endless. Onion, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, pineapple, fresh tomato, fresh basil, minced garlic, sautéed mushrooms, meat cut into small cubes and precooked with your favorite marinade, ground meat, toasted tofu, black olives, green olives, fresh or dried herbs……..try fish or shrimps if you dare. This is the first time I have tried tofu. I marinated tofu cubes in salt and pepper, and toasted it in a skillet greased with olive oil.

Today's toppings: Red onion, Red pepper, Green pepper, Tofu marinated in salt and pepper and toasted in EVOO, minced garlic, dried basil, and black olives.

Add the toppings over tomato sauce.

Sprinkle mozzarella cheese, or pizza cheese evenly over the toppings. You can use less cheese if you are dieting, or make it extra cheesy by adding more cheese.
It is good to have a pizza stone for baking the pizza, a pizza peel for transferring the pizza to the oven and to remove pizza from the hot oven, and a pizza cutter for cutting the pizza. A baking stone will give you a nice crispy crust. If you don’t have one, you can try a big cast iron skillet, or a cookie sheet.
Place the pizza stone on the center rack of the oven and preheat it to 475 degree F. It is important that you preheat the oven at least 30 minutes before baking the pizza. Don’t put the pizza into a cold oven and start it. It won’t come out right. Transfer the prepared pizza to the pizza stone and bake it for 8 to 12 minutes. The time varies depending on the performance of your oven. So watch it carefully while you make it the first time. The pizza is ready when the cheese is all melted, and the crust turns golden brown around the edges.

Pizza cut into wedges, and ready to serve!

A special pizza with just olives for my olive loving(and onion hating) daughter.

Gooseberry Pickle

Gooseberry Pickle/Nellikka Achar

Gooseberries – 20 fresh or frozen
Salt – to taste
Red chilli powder – 2 tbsp (adjust to your taste, I used Kashmiri chilli powder, the less hot variety)
Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp
Garlic – 3 tbsp, chopped
Ginger – 3 tbsp, chopped
Green chillies – 6 to 8, sliced
Curry leaves – a few
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Gingelly oil – ½ cup
Vinegar – 4 tbsp or more

Roast and powder the fenugreek seeds.
Wash the gooseberries and steam cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Or you may cook them in boiling water. Let them cool. Remove the seeds and cut into pieces. Sprinkle salt and set aside.

Heat gingelly oil and add the mustard seeds. Let them splutter. Add garlic, ginger, green chillies, and curry leaves. Stir and cook for a minute. Add chilli powder and fenugreek powder. Add gooseberries. Stir well and turn off the stove. Add vinegar and mix well. Let the pickle cool, and transfer into a dry glass jar.

Uppilitta nellikka/Salted gooseberries

Double Baked Potatoes

Here is a quick one. Double baked potatoes stuffed with cheddar cheese and broccoli. Enjoy!!

Potatoes (Russet or Idaho) -2
Broccoli – ½ cup, chopped
Salt to taste
Cheddar cheese -1/2 cup or more

Sprinkle lightly salted water on broccoli and cook until done, just 2 to 3 minutes. You may cook these in a microwave or on a stovetop.
Clean the potato skin very well using a vegetable brush. Poke the potatoes a few times with a fork. Arrange them on a baking sheet and bake until fork tender (about 40 minutes in a conventional oven, or about 6 minutes in a microwave oven). When the potatoes are cold enough to touch, cut them lengthwise into two. Scoop out the inside part without breaking the skin. Mash the scooped out potato and mix with broccoli and half of the cheese. Add salt if needed. Divide this mixture into 4 and stuff in the reserved potato shells. Sprinkle some cheese on top. Bake again until cheese is melted. Serve hot as a side dish or a snack.

How to bake potatoes?

Chicken Tikka Masala

This is an adaptation of Suvir Saran’s Chicken Tikka Masala recipe.

Here is how I made it:
Puree 1 small onion, 4 garlic cloves, a piece of ginger, ¼ tsp each of kashmiri chilli powder and garam masala, salt, and ¼ cup of buttermilk in a blender. (Original recipe calls for yogurt and cayenne pepper. I preferred kashmiri chilli powder. I didn’t have enough yogurt, so I used buttermilk).
Cut boneless skinless chicken breast into desired pieces (4 chicken breasts) and marinate in the pureed mixture overnight in the refrigerator.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Spread the chicken pieces on an oven safe tray. Cover with a foil and bake for 40 minutes. (Baking time in Suvir’s recipe is 20 minutes. I tend to overcook meat always, just to be sure.)

Heat up 1/3 cup oil in a big sauce pan. I used a cast iron wok.
Add a piece of cinnamon to the oil, and cook it for a couple of minutes.
Finely chop 1 big red onion and add it to the oil. (Suvir’s recipe says to make a puree of onion, garlic, and ginger. I don’t like the taste of onion puree, it always taste bitter to me. So whenever a recipe calls for onion paste or puree, I use finely finely chopped onion, preferably chopped in a food processor.)

Chop 4 cloves of garlic and a piece of ginger in the food processor and add it to the pan.

Sauté until it turns golden brown.
Add the masala powders – 1 tbsp coriander powder, 1 tsp crushed cumin seeds, ½ tsp of turmeric powder, and ½ tsp of kashmiri chilli powder.

Cook for a minute.
Add tomato puree. (6 tomatoes pureed in the food processor)

Cook until the oil separates, about 10-15 minutes.

Now, the recipe says to add ½ a cup of heavy cream. I didn’t have heavy cream, so I substituted with a mix of whole milk and butter.

Add baked chicken to the sauce. Stir gently and bring it to a boil.
Cook for another 5 minutes and turn off the stove.
Garnish with cilantro.



Here is Suvir’s original recipe:
Butter Chicken / Chicken Tikka Masala
serves 4

Marinade:
4 garlic cloves
2" piece of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 TBL finely chopped fresh cilantro stems(tender, light green parts only; optional)
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (@2 lbs)cut crosswise into thirds

Sauce:
1 large red onion, cut into large chunks
4 garlic cloves
2 1/2" piece fresh finger, peeled and cut into large chunks
1/3 cup canola oil
1" piece cinnamon stick
1 tsp salt, or to taste
1 TBL ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 lbs tomatoes, pureed in a food processor
1/2 cup heavy cream

1) Puree all the marinade ingredients, then pour the puree into a bowl with the chicken pieces. Toss, coat, refrigerate from 1 hour to overnight.
2) Make a puree of the red onion, garlic and ginger. Set aside.
3) Set up a cup of water next to the stove.
4) In a large saucepan, heat the oil and cinnamon stick over medium-high. Stir until the cinnamon unfurls, 1-2 minutes.
5) Pour the onion puree and salt into the saucepan, cook and stir until light golden brown, around 20 minutes. Stir and scrape the bottom of the pan to prevent scorching. If needed, add water 1 tsp at a time to unstick the puree and prevent burning.
6) Add the coriander, cumin, turmeric and cayenne. Cook and stir for 1 minute.
7) Pour in the tomato puree, stir and simmer until the oil separates, around 10 minutes.
8) Add the cream, stir and bring to a simmer again, and remove the saucepan from the heat.
9) Heat the oven to 350F.
10) Take the chicken out of the marinade and arrange them on a drip tray or foil-lined baking sheet. Cover with foil and bake until tender, 15 - 20 minutes.
11) When the chicken is done, pour it and the juices into the sauce, and gently stir to incorporate. Bring everything to a gentle simmer for 5 minutes, taste for salt, and serve.

Moong Dal Payasam

For the past two JFI events, I cooked well in advance. I had the recipe and picture waiting in the draft ready to be published. But this time, when I knew it was dal, I thought it was going to be so easy since I cook several dal dishes during the month anyway. I thought I would just blog about any of those...no big deal! Boy was I wrong? June 30 afternoon – I have no picture, no recipe drafts…..zilch! I did cook several dal dishes, but each time I thought the next one is going to be a better entry for JFI. At least I could have taken pictures of something. I got panic....just like I have an exam tomorrow, and haven’t studied anything yet. I didn't want to miss JFI! Luckily, the baby was taking a nap. I disappeared into the pantry to get a dal, reappeared in front of the stove, running between the sink and the blender……. this is what I ended up with.

Moong dal paayasam

Moong dal - 1 cup
Grated coconut – 1 cup(I used dry grated coconut)
Brown sugar - 2/3 cups (Use more or less depending on how sweet you want it)
Ghee – 3 tbsp
Cardamom – 3
Salt – a pinch
Cashew nuts & raisins – 1 tbsp each for garnishing.

Wash and dry the moong dal.
Add 1 cup of water to the coconut and blend it for a minute using a blender. Extract the coconut milk. Keep aside.
To the same coconut, add 3 cups of water. Repeat the process and extract the second milk.
Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and fry the moong beans until a nice aroma is released. Add the second coconut milk and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook until the dal is soft. Do not let it get too mushy. Gently mash the dal with a spoon. Add the brown sugar and cook until it is all melted. Stir and make sure the dal won’t stick to the pan. Now add the coconut milk you first extracted and bring it to a boil. Add cardamom powder and turn off the stove. Let it rest for a couple of hours. The payasam will thicken during this time. Roast cashews and raisins in 1 tbsp ghee until golden brown. Garnish and serve.

I like to have this with a ripe banana. This is a wonderful combination.

This is my entry for JFI-Dal