Banana Squash fry:





I tried to bake banana squash with salt and pepper. It took a long time and I wasn't really satisfied with the taste. Then I decided to try it the Indian way. It tasted great!

Ingredients:

Banana Squash - 2 cups chopped
Onions - 1/2 - finely chopped
Chilli powder - 1 tspn
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt
Curry Leaves
Water - 1/2 cup

How to:

Take off the skin of banana squash and cut them into 1 inch pieces. Heat a kadai, add heat 1 tbspn oil and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal. Add onions and curry leaves and fry for 5 minutes. Add squash, turmeric, chilli powder, salt and water and mix well. Close the lid and let it cook until the squash is tender. Stir gently once in a while. Serve with sambar and rice.

Green Tomato chutney:

This is a yummy chutney and the recipe comes from Mom. It tastes delicious with chapathi or just with plain hot rice. I have tried this recipe with tomatillos, but it doesn't taste quite right. So, if you get hold of green tomatoes, give it a try. I'm sure you'll enjoy.

Ingredients:

Green tomatoes - 3 medium or 2 big
Green chilles - 6 or 7 (adjust to your taste)
Garlic - 3 pods
Cilantro - 1 cup
Tamarind paste - 1/2 tspn ( or tamarind - little)
Cumin seeds - 2 tspn
Coconut - 1 tbspn


Method:

Heat a kadai, add 2 spns of oil. Add chopped green tomatoes, green chilles and fry.
Wondering about red chillies in my snap? I have a red chilli plant in my yard and I used them.

You just let them fry and get cooked and slightly browned, stirring once in a while. This takes about 30 minutes. Do not add any water. This will take some moisture away from the tomatoes actually. Now, add cumin seeds and stir for 2 minutes and take it off the stove and let it cool.

Grind the following first : Green chillies, garlic, salt, tamarind. (Just run the blender or mixie for a minute). Then add the green tomatoes, coconut, cilantro and grind well. You are done!

Nature's Colors:

I picked these colorful bell peppers by myself from the farm. They had U-pick this weekend and I was so excited to see so many colors and such huge ones.










Bell Pepper Fried rice:

Real tender beauties:

Last weekend we had been to a nearby farm and I was really amazed to see these yellow beans. A real love at first sight.

Appam and Kurma:








Appam:

This is mom's recipe and it is different from most of the ones I have seen. The result is heavenly soft appams.


Idli rice - 1 cup
Raw rice - 1 cup
Urad dal - 1/2 cup
Coconut Milk - 1 can


Soak the above ingredients for 4 to 5 hours and grind adding coconut milk. It takes about 1/2 cup maximum. Add salt and mix well and let it ferment. Next day, add the rest of the coconut milk and mix well. Heat the appam pan to medium to high heat. Pour a ladle of the batter and hold the pan handles and rotate the batter so that it spreads into a round shape. Close the lid and let it cook for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Remove the lid and take the appam off the pan. Appam is cooked only on one side. Serve hot with kurma or sweetened coconut milk or any other curry.

Cauliflower Kofta:


This recipe was adapted from Indian Breads, Rice and Curries. I made couple of changes to suit my family.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower - 1/2 - cut into large florets
Garlic - 3 - chopped finely
Salt
Green Chillies - 2 - chopped finely
Garam masala - 1 tspn
Turmeric - 1 tspn
Cilantro - 2 tbspn - chopped finely
Bread crumbs - 1/2 cup
Oil - for deep frying

Steam the cauliflower florets for 4 - 5 minutes and cool. Mash the cauliflower with the rest of the ingredients except oil. Make them into balls and deep fry. Serve hot. It tastes delicious on its own.

Rava Kesari:

This is our usual kesari, but I made with brown sugar, rather than white!!!
One of my friend told me that she tried it, so did I. It was very tasty.




Ingredients:

Rava - 1/2 cup
Brown sugar - 1 cup
Elachi powder
Cashews, Raisins - fried in ghee
Hot Water - 1 cup

Method:

Heat a pan, add ghee, and add rav and fry for few minutes. Now add hot water and mix well till the rava soaks up all the water. Add sugar and mix. Add elaichi powder and then fried cashews, raisins. The whole dish will come together. Transfer to a serving bowl and enjoy!

Watermelon Salsa:

This recipe is from the magazine called "Healthy Living" published by Register-Guard newspaper. The article begins like this - "Mixing onions and watermelons?.....It sounds...bizarre....."
It concludes that guaranteed I'll like it. So, I went ahead with a minor change. I'll post the original recipe and my version. The salsa was really really delicious. It was hot and sweet and out of this world.

Original recipe:
Watermelon - 2 cups chopped (seeds removed)
Walla Walla Sweet Onion - 3/4 cup chopped
Canned black beans, rinsed and drained - 3/4 cup
Jalapeno chilies - 1/4 cup chopped, seeded
Fresh Cilantro - 1/4 cup chopped
Brown sugar - 1 tbspn Salt - 1/2 tspn

Stir together all the ingredients in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour to blend flavors. Stir before serving. Makes 6 servings. Serve with corn or tortilla chips.
Recipe courtesy of the Walla Walla Sweet Onion Marketing Committee.



My Version:

I mixed watermelon, red onions, green chillies, cilantro and salt.

So go ahead and give it a try, I'm sure you'll like it.

Tomato Pickle:


Tomato Pickle boiling away.....



Pickle ready and cooling off...





DONE!!!

I dedicate these 2 bottles of pickle to Indira of Mahanandi. I followed her wonderful recipe and of course the result was amazingly delicious. Thank you very much Indira for the great recipe.

Egg Curry:


This is such a fun dish to make. Once you try it, you'll know what I mean. When I get tired of boiling eggs to make a dish or whisking them, I do this.

Ingredients:

Onion - 1 chopped
Tomato - 1 big chopped
Garlic - 3 or 4 - chopped
Chilli Powder - 1 tbspn
Coriander powder - 1 tbspn
Turmeric
Salt
Eggs - 2


Method:

Heat a kadai, add oil and add onions and fry it till light brown. Add tomatoes and let them cook and become mushy. Add turmeric, chilli powder, coriander powder, salt and let it cook well. Taste for spiciness and salt. Break the eggs directly onto the curry and gently spread it a little on top. Do not mix it. Close the lid and let the egg cook. Check in after 7 or 8 mins to see if the egg is cooked. Take it off the stove and garnish with cilantro. Have fun!!!

Mango Salsa:



This is my first snap I ever took of my food. It is more than a year old. Finally I felt really bad for not posting it so long.

Ripe Mango - 1
Tomato - 1
Red Onion - 1
Green chilli - 1/2
Cucumber - 1/2
Cilantro
Lemon juice - 1/2 lemon
Salt

Finely chop mango, tomato, red onion, cucumber, green chilli. Add lemon juice, salt and garnish with cilantro. Serve with tortilla chips.

Coconut Milk Pulav:



This is one of my favourite dish and it is the best match for any spicy chicken curry.

Ingredients:

Basmati rice - 1 cup
Coconut Milk - 1 cup
Onions - 1 - cut into thin long slices
Green chillies - 3
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tspn
Cloves - 4
Cinnamon - 1 stick
Bay leaf - 1
Salt
Carrots, Peas, Beans - chopped - 1/2 cup (Optional)
Mint, cilantro - chopped - 2 tbspns

Procedure:

Wash the rice and soak it in water for 10 minutes. Heat a pressure pan, add 2 tbspns of oil and 1 tbspn butter. Once it is hot, add cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf. Add sliced onions, chillies, ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell goes. Add mint, cilantro leaves and fry for few more minutes. Add veggies (if using) and fry. Mix 1 cup coconut milk with 3/4th cup of water and add it to the pan. Add salt and let it come to a boil. Now add the rice and stir and close the lid. Close the lid and pressure cook for 10 minutes on medium flame and for 5 minutes on low flame.

You could cook this in a rice cooker too.

Fish Curry/ Chapala Pulusu/ Meen Kozhumbu:

The older the wine, the better it tastes. Same could be told about fish curry. It tastes heavenly the next day than the day it is made. That's why I always make sure I make this atleast 12 hours before serving. All the flavors seep into the fish well.


Ingredients:
Fish - 1 (I used one big trout - cleaned and cut into 5 or 6 pieces)
Tamarind paste - 2 tbspns
Onion - 1/2
Salt
Curry leaves
Oil - 3 or 4 tbspn
Sesame Oil - 1 tbspn (optional)

Grind :
Onion - 1/2
Tomato - 1
Chilli powder - 1 tbpn
Dhaniya powder - 1 1/2 tbspn
Coconut - fresh - little
Garlic
Pepper - 5
Cumin - 1/2 tspn


Method:

Heat a pan, add your usual cooking oil. When the oil is heated up, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds. Then add chopped onions and fry for 4 mins. Add the masala paste and fry till the oil comes out. This may take some time. Meanwhile, mix the tamarind paste in 2 cups of water. (Alternately, you could soak lemon sized tamarind in water and extract the juice.) Now add the tamarind water, add turmeric and salt. Let it come to a boil and
let it thicken. Now add the fish pieces and very gently try to move around and accomodate all the pieces so that they all get soaked in the curry. Close the lid and let it cook for 6 to 7 minutes. Check if the fish is cooked and take it off the fire. Let the curry rest well before serving. Enjoy it with rice.

After a long break....

I 'm back from a wonderful 2-month trip to India. Finally I'm settled and up and about cooking and snapping pictures of my dishes and my garden too.

As soon as I came back, it was time for harvesting my veggies. I planted 6 potato bulbs in March and I harvested them after I came back. Boy, I kept digging out potataoes like crazy. There were so many, in all sizes and the final result was approx 5 pounds of potatoes.
I happily distributed them among our friends. I have enormous number of chillies and I keep plucking them fresh whenever I need. I have lots of tomatoes growing too. They haven't ripened yet.

My first post after my long break is dedicated to my garden. It is potato fry made with home-grown potatoes. It is a simple and well known recipe.

Potato fry:


Ingredients:
Potatoes - 4 or 5 - cubed and boiled
Onion (big) - 1/2 - chopped into thin long slices
Chilli powder - 1 tbspn
Salt
Turmeric - a pinch
Curry leaves


Method:

Heat a frying pan, add 3 tbspns of oil and once it heats up, do the usual tadka - add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal, channa dal. Add curry leaves and onions and fry till light golden brown. Add turmeric, chilli powder and salt and mix well. Add potatoes and mix it gently. After 5 minutes stir it once with care, so that the potatoes don't get mashed. And do this couple of more time at 5 minute intervals till the potatoes are fried to your taste. Enjoy!!!

Cheddar biscuits:

AP Flour - 1 1/2 cups, plus extra for dusting
Sugar - 1 1/4 tbspn
Baking powder - 3/4 tbspn
Salt - 1/2 tspn
Cold unsalted butter - 4 tbsp (1/2 stick) - diced
Buttermilk - 1/3 cup
Low-fat or whole milk - 1/4 cup, plus extra for brushing

Makes 6 to 7 biscuits

Preheat the oven to 425 degree F

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt. Cut the butter into the flour until it forms pea-sized pieces.

Add the buttermilk and the milk. Mix well to combine.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a 1 inch thickness, and fold in half, turn and repeat 3 or 4 times for a final thickness of 1 inch.

Cut the dough into rounds using a 3 inch cutter. Re-roll the remaining dough and cut it again.
If you don't have a cookie cutter, use a drinking glass (just dip the edge in flour) to cut it.

Place the biscuits on a ungreased baking sheet. Brush the tops with little milk amd bake till for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown.

Recipe Source: Baking at Home with The Culinary Institute of America

Strawberry jam:


Our favorite jam ever. But I don't like it too sweet. All the recipes I read, called for lots of sugar. So, I came up with my own measurements and the result - delicious.

Strawberries - 3 cups - chopped
Sugar - 2.5 cups
Butter - 1 tspn
Pectin - 1/2 packet

Keep a small metal plate in the freezer.

Heat a deep bottomed pan and add butter and strawberries and stir for few minutes.

Slowly add pectin and continue to stir.

Slowly add sugar and stir well.

Cook till the jam comes to a boil.

To check the consistency of the jam, take the cold metal plate from the freezer and spoon a little jam onto it and check the consistency of the jam. If you are satisfied with the consistency, take it off the heat and spoon into sterilized jars. If not, add little more pectin and bring it to a boil for 1 minute.

This makes about 2 - 16 ounce jars.

Spinach Pulav:


From the time I heard about this month JFI, I wanted to do something new and different. After much research, I found my recipe. I'm not a great fan of greens, unlike my husband. But this dish has made me want for more. It is delicious.
Recipe Source: Madhur Jaffrey's Step-by-Step cooking. But I made few changes to suit my family.

Long-grain rice or basmati rice - 1 cup
Fresh Spinach - 3/4 lb (cleaned, washed)
Onions - 2 (medium)
Garam masala - 1 tspn
Cloves - 3
Salt

Wash the rice well and soak it in cold water with 1 tspn of salt. Let it soak for 2 hours.

Bring little water to a boil in a pan , blanch spinach just until wilted. Drain and let it cool a bit and press down to remove excess moisture. Save the liquid. Chop the spinach finely.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Chop onions into thin long slices. Heat a pan, add oil, cloves and fry. Add onions and fry till light golden brown. Add the chopped spinach and garam masala and cook for 5 minutes.

Drain the rice and add it to the spinach mixture and add 1 1/2 cups water (use the reserved liquid). Add salt and bring it to aboil. Lower the heat and simmer it for 15 minutes stiring occasionally. By now, all the liquid would have evaporated.

Transfer the rice into an oven proof dish and cover it with foil and cut an 1/2 inch hole in the center so as to let th steam to escape. Place it in the middle of the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Serve hot!

Note: If you have a a flameproof and oven proof casserole, you could cook and bake in the same.

This is my entry for JFI - Going Green with Green Leafy Vegetables hosted by Indira.

Onion chutney:

Onions - 2 medium
Tomato - 1
Red chillies - 4 to 5
Tamarind paste - 1 teaspoon
Salt

Chop onions, tomatoes into big chunks. Heat a kadai, add 1 tbspn oil and add red chillies and fry for 2 minutes. Add onions and fry for 6 to 7 minutes. Add tomatoes and fry for another 5 to 6 minutes. Remove
from heat and let it cool. Put this mixture in a mixie or blender, add salt, tamarind paste and grind it coarsely. If you prefer finer chutney, grind it further. Do tadka with oil, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and serve with Idli or Dosa.

Mysore Pak:

Krishna sweets in Chennai is my favourite. Their "Mysore Pa" is unbelievable. I miss it very much. I happened to come across this recipe in the book "Curried Favors" by Maya Kaimal. It is a bit tiring, but well worth the efforts.
You don't have to feel guilty of eating this ghee-rich sweet, because you would have burned enough calories while making it. So, sit back and enjoy!!!

1 cup - Besan (chickpea) flour, sifted
2 cups - Sugar
3/4 cup - Water
Ghee - prepared from 12 ounces of unsalted butter and kept warm

I divided the ingredients into half and made the recipe and ended up with 25 pieces.

Butter a 9 inch square baking pan.

In a frying pan, Stir the sifted flour over medium heat until it turns light golden brown and keep it aside.

In a heavy pot, combine sugar and water and let it come to a boil until candy thermometer registers 220 degree F (104 degree Celius). When you sample the syrup it should feel quite gummy.

Add half of warm ghee and keep stirring as mixture starts to bubble. Gradually add beasn, stirring constantly with a wire whisk to break up lumps and to prevent burning.
Turn down the heat to medium and continue to stir until the mixture thickens, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add remaining ghee and keep stirring.

Continue stirring as the mixture gets thicker and airier. As you stir, the mixture will start to pull away from the sides of the pan until one point it foams up, expanding to twice its original volume.

Now quickly pour the mixture into the baking pan. It should fall out as a mass without sticking to the pot. Gently jiggle the baking pan to spread the mixture around. After 15 minutes, cut into squares or diamonds and then allow it to cool completely before removing from the pan.

The author has given a Note:
"Timing of removal of mixture from the pan is critical, so watch carefully for signs. If frothing and expansion have not started in the earnets, finished product will have a dense consistency like fudge. If the frothing has passed its peak, product will be too crumbly. It should harden to consistency of shortbread."