Good Buy : GO Mozzarella Cheese

I visited the SPAR Hypermarket located on Inner Ring Road, Koramangala, Bangalore today and grabbed a packet of GO Mozzarella Cheese - shredded and ready to use. This product rated at Rs 70, to be used in a time span of three months, provides really light and stringy cheese, apt as a topping for delectable pizzas. Once opened the cheese in shredded form has to be consumed within 7 days. I picked up the "Pizza Italiano" option (as shown in the picture above) , there are many other varieties too - Mexican style shredded cheese, Italian Pasta style shredded cheese and Natural Shredded variety. The zip pouch packaged cheese comes with a mini recipe booklet. I made Pizza at home using this cheese and I must say this mozzarella cheese was stringy; definitely the best, in my opinion, of all options available in Bangalore. There are many imported varieties of this cheese but they are hefty costly. Also one never knows how old these imported stuff actually are, pretty risky to play with an expired dairy product.

I fetched some parsley, capsicum and wheat pizza base from the stores. At home, I brushed the wheat pizza base with some olive oil, dabbed some tomato sauce on it (no special sauce for this -mixed little oregano into our dear Maggi Tomato sauce and done with it), heaped lots of veggies like sliced onions, tomatoes, capsicums, finely chopped parsley and green chillies (for that extra spice) and sprinkled the "ready to use, shredded" cheese. The quantity of cheese used per pizza might appear tad less, but that's precisely the way I like it. I baked the pizza in Microwave plus Convection mode till the veggies were baked and all of cheese melted well.

Here are some more pics of the work slab in my kitchen and the final dish (after a drizzle of mixed Italian herbs on them when out of the oven) -

Christmas time .. Cake time :)

Ok ... so the year 2011 is coming to a quick end. Days are getting colder and shorter. With the mercury dipping outside, isn't the time perfect to heat the oven inside home to high and higher temperatures and bake something special? 

On Friday evening, I was browsing through updates on blogs I follow and I landed at the recipe of Carrot and Walnut cake - http://www.padhuskitchen.com/2011/12/carrot-cake-recipe-how-to-make-carrot.html 

Very simple recipe, easy to follow and the result is an awesome cake with an even more awesome aroma :) 

I will surely keep baking this many times over. Thanks a lot Padhu :) for sharing this recipe with one and all. 

I halved the ingredients mentioned in the parent recipe as I was planning to bake a smaller cake in a 6' round tin. I omitted salt addition. For the 1/2 cup vegetable oil I was to use (ingredient after halving) - I used 1/4 cup vegetable oil and 1/4 cup milk instead. These are the only revisions I made to the recipe. 

Here are some pictures of this very delectable cake - 

The sweet carrots, nutty walnuts and aromatic cinnamon went in together well and provided this little dense, and tasty cake. The second picture might reveal some grated carrot pieces and nuts on careful observation. 

I had to take the pictures really quick because the digging and devoring process went on too fast. 

I wholeheartedly thank Padhu for providing me this wonderful recipe and making my kitchen smell sweet on Saturday :) 

Some Dry Grinding there .....

This weekend I decided to grind some dry powders which can be stored for a good time in air tight containers.
These serve as a great accompaniment for dosas, akki roti and warm rice.

1) Kollu (Horse Gram) podi -
Recipe is as stated here  - http://www.kamalascorner.com/2009/08/kollu-horse-gram-podi.html

I face the problem of water retention in my body at times. This mostly happens when engrossed in work at office, I do not get up at regular intervals to drink water. Regular exercise helps avoid this problem largely. When it boils down to the question of how one can cure this problem through ones' diet, the answer I found from my mother is Horse Gram or Kollu (in Tamil).

Horse Gram is known to remove the excess water retained in body and aids substantial weight loss. However, elders state consumption of horse gram also generates heat in the body and thereby restricts its usage/intake to weekly once. Please consult elders in your family before eating horse gram on a regular basis, they may give specific and apt advise that fits your personal health conditions.

I took to eating horse gram, not for the weight loss reasons but in an attempt to try out how it tasted, like any other pulse I wanted its protein component. I made a simple dal using horse gram, onion and tomato and had it with rotis. Horse gram is very tough and needs to be soaked for 12 hours and then pressure cooked.
I would not say the dal made from horse gram was very tasty - not as much as the moong, masoor and arhar (toor) varieties that I generally cook and eat.

I decided to make a powder out of the horse gram left at home following the recipe from Kamala's Corner. This powder tasted very delicious and it went well along with warm rice and little ghee.
I intend to add a spoon or two of this Kollu Podi prepared while I make rasam. I am sure it will help enhance the flavor of the rasam and add goodness to it.

2) Flax Seeds Dry Chutney Powder - 
I had some flax seeds left at home and here comes the preparation of another dry powder using it.

The recipe to be referred is at  - Indian Food Court, link below -
http://cuisineindia.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/alsi-seeds-flax-seeds-dry-chutney-powder/#comment-9126

I used the same measure of ingredients and followed instructions Prathiba Aunty has provided in her site. I did not add copra, the chutney powder sans copra was also tasty. I did not have Byadgi chilli powder at home (Byadgi chilli is a variety of chilli grown in Haveri, Karnataka) , so I roasted and ground 8-10 Byadgi Chillies to make up for the quantity of chilli powder used.

Flax seeds have many essential fatty acids in them and are considered vital for healthy skin and hair growth.  Try checking out the benfits of Flax seeds/alsi seeds. I intend to use this powder as an accompaniment for dosas and akki roti. I also intend to slit brinjals (small, purple ones), stuff them with this powder, then fry them with little oil on a tawa, guess this will make a yummy, dry curry.

3) Paruppu podi - Ahh.. here comes my quintessential favorite - Paruppu Podi. Nothing can beat this in taste when mixed in warm rice with little ghee. This dry powder is one of the main reasons why I find Andhra meals very inviting, Paruppu podi is provided liberally in an Andra meal; in restaurants, it is called Gun Powder :) 


The recipe below which I follow without modifications has helped me churn very fine Paruppu Podi - so delicious that my mother loves this version thoroughly. Made from wholesome toor dal, the recipe in the link below is sans garlic (one in Andhra restaurants have liberal dose of red chillies and garlic in them)
Link - http://lakshmisindiancurry.blogspot.com/2010/08/paruppu-podi.html

End of my post .... I am sure, most of you would be getting ready with a fry pan and a mixer to churn out some dry powders :) Have fun .. GRINDING !! 

Karthigai Deepam

Happy Karthigai Deepam to one and all :)

One of the important festivals celebrated in Tamil Nadu fell on Dec 8 this year. 

Casual browsing on details of the festival, a little about its history etc brought me to the link below - 

http://www.kamalascorner.com/2010/11/karthigai-deepam.html 

This is a wonderful website on cooking and has archives of information on many South Indian recipes. Most importantly, I liked the organisation of information on this website. In the link provided above, there is a section on Karthigai recipes and there are some new ones I noted -Sooji Appam and Panaolai Kozhakattai. 

Yes, coming down to what I prepared for the festival - Adai, Appam and Vella Aval were prepared for the occasion. I am sure most of us already know the recipes of Adai and Appam. People usually prepare vella poree or poree urundai using puffed rice which are crispy. I prepared Vella Aval (one using beaten rice flakes), I had it as a prasadham in an Ayyappa temple in Bangalore last week, liked it, guessed what could have gone into making it and prepared along that thought. 

Recipes: 

Vella Aval (Jaggery with Jada Poha) 

1 cup Jada Poha (thick Aval/beaten rice flakes) 

1 cup Jaggery (powdered) 

2 tsp Til seeds (I used brown til)

1 tsp Cardamom powder

1 tbsp Ghee 

2 tbsp Cashewnuts (broken) 

2 tbsp Grated coconut 

Take required quantity of poha/aval in a bowl and wash it well with water. Drain any excess (free flowing) water and let the poha/aval rest in the bowl. The latent moisture in the bowl will cause the poha/aval to swell. The basic intention is to infer the quantity of swollen poha and take equal quantity of jaggery. This proportion would provide the right sweetness to the dish. 

In a pan, heat ghee, add broken cashews and roast well till they are golden brown. Add the til seeds now and roast till they crackle.Take care to maintain distance from the pan as they splutter. 

Now into this, add the powdered jaggery and on light heat, mix the contents of the pan well. The jaggery will melt into a syrup slowly. Add the poha (swollen - Usually, this swelling process takes about 5-7 minutes) into the pan and give a thorough stir. Once the contents of the pan are evenly mixed, add the cardamom powder and turn off the stove. Vella Aval is ready and it came close to the prasadham I had in the temple :) 

Adai 

For 1 cup idli rice - 

Little less than 1/4 cup Urad dall (whole)

1/2 cup toor + channa dal mixture (both dals constitute this mixture equally) 

5-6 red chillies

2 tsp black pepper

All of the above are soaked overnight. These are then ground to a fine batter with sufficient water, salt to taste and a pinch of asafoetida in a wet grinder. The batter is left for 2 hours to ferment, then used to make adais on a hot tawa just the way we make dosa. 

ready to be made into adais. Best served with a dollop of butter/spoon of ghee, can use molagai podi (chutney powder) as an accompaniment. Powdered jaggery as an accompaniment stands out as it complements the peppery taste in adai. 

Appam

1 cup of raw rice in soaked in water overnight. 

1 cup of powdered jaggery (rice and jaggery equal proportions for the right sweetness) 

1 small banana (yellow variety) 

1 tsp cardamom powder

3 tbsp grated coconut or 2 tbsp finely chopped coconut pieces 

The soaked rice is ground in a mixer (after carefully draining water completely) with powdered jaggery and one banana mashed into it. Cardamom powder is added to the mixer contents. Again, one more run of the mixer to ensure all contents are mixed well. Leave the appam batter to rest for 6 hours at least. This resting time is mandatory to get soft appams. If you have time, then grind the rice with jaggery in a wet grinder, this will yield super soft appams when compared to using mixer. 

When the batter is ready to go into the fry pan specifically used to make appam - Paniyaram pan, add the coconut pieces or grated coconut. 

Set the paniyaram pan on stove. In each of the pits in the pan, pour sufficient oil, lace it with small quantities of ghee. I refrain from frying the appams entirely in ghee, though if my maternal grandmother saw this adulteration, she would kill me :) 

Pour a ladle of batter into each of the pits, ensure the batter covers the pit well and does not overflow outside. Cook appams in the pan on medium flame, turn them over after some time to ensure they are evenly cooked. This proportion yielded me 18 appams. 

Mashed banana's addition to the batter makes appam take in a little more oil. But you can pardon yourself once in while as banana adds an unparalleled sweet and fruity taste to appam. 

Hypermetropic Cooks

Another update on my blog ... may be a post that can fit in here and my other blog on cooking - Foodies' Sphere. 

A thought struck me as I was watching an episode of Master Chef India 2 on Sunday - Dec 4, 2011. Four contestants were fighting out an elimination round. I have noted, be it Master Chef India - the first or second season, top contestants are experts in Awadhi, Gujarati, Rajasthani cuisines, they have toiled with the extremely hot Bhut Jolokia chilly from north eastern states, tossed many fishes in kasundi (mustard paste) much in Bengali style, rolled out sheek kababs and patiently cooked flavorful biriyani. 

In the arena of desserts and baked goodies, they are kings and queens. Adept at making mousse, artfully using mascarpone cheese, baking pies, tarts, quiches, meringue cookies and macroons, they also churn out desi sweets like Ghewar, intricately shaped Jalebis and Rasagulla cake in remarkable style even when provided very little time. Simply stating, they know it all. 

The contestants of Master Chef India are unparalleled experts in international cuisine - Risotto, Ravioli, Lasagna, Tortilla, Quesadilla - from Italy to Mexico to China, name it and they present them matching international standards. Be it Galangal ginger, Pad thai, Sushi or other tongue twisting names, these are no surprises to them. The thought process and creativity these people put in, their knowledge of ingredients, quality and taste of end products they create have always startled the three judges on the show and many lucky ones who have had a chance to taste their platter. 

This Sunday, however, I realised, they are all what I can call Hypermetropic Cooks, a new term I have coined to describe at least those who were fighting out the elimination challenge. These hypermetropic cooks  have abnormally above average, in fact, supreme distant vision, in this context, technical know how of recipes made in regions of the globe, miles away from India. When a banana tree came bang in front of them - more precisely, its various parts - banana stem, raw and ripe banana, banana flower were presented as the core ingredient to be used, they were all flabbergasted. If it had been only an expression of shock, I could quite understand it.Their expressions were like all hell broke loose on them on Sunday.  

The four contestants had to prepare a complete platter using raw banana, banana leaf and ripe banana in the first round. The second round involved usage of banana flower and the last one required contestants to prepare a starter using banana stem.

Raw bananas make yummy dry curry, especially when mixed with grated coconut. Ripe bananas could be steamed with honey laced water to provide a simple, delectable dessert. Steaming in banana leaves added an extraordinary flavor to any dish. Ample knowledge can be derived on how to use all of the above elements of a banana plant from Canara coast, states of Kerala and Tamil nadu (as far as I know). Banana flower beats the rest when it comes to taste factor though it is quite meticulous to clean it. Finely chopped banana flower could be mashed with potato and used to make cutlets or mixed with channa dal to make vadas. Banana stem is a miracle ingredient, rich in roughage, yielding tasty dry and yoghurt based curry. The core ingredient is quite common place in the southern states of India and very vital in nutritive aspects too. People who cared to know about global cuisines could have had an easy take that day had they turned a few pages of any South Indian cook book.

I felt a strange sense of ignorance looming in them and I have seen this in most cookery shows aired in India.    There is much more in South Indian cooking than only idli, vada and dosa.Whilst the whole nation has adopted the tandoor, naan, kulcha, paneer butter masala, concepts of weaving magic with a wet grinder and simple fermentation techniques have gone amiss. It is very appreciable people put in sincere efforts to master things that are cooked and served in far off corners of the world, but why some take a huge leap before they are even aware of indigenous lessons is not clear.

I realized that day - to be a key contender in Master Chef India, it is mandatory one excels in North Indian cooking and be a clone of Nigella Lawson in baking. Churn out a 1000 recipes with olive oil but remain blissfully ignorant of the fact that even till oil can be used for cooking. Be crafty with the pasta maker even if you haven't (even once) skillfully squeezed out murukkus and chakalis. With an overdose of enthusiasm, there are takers for the far fetched Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Thai and Japanese, but even indirect references and simple awareness of completeness and diversity in Indian cuisine strangely goes for a toss. 

Feasty Yeasty Experiments - 2

No Knead Focaccia Bread 

Another post stating many thanks to Cakes and More blog. I just could not stop playing with yeast and roller pin and flour last weekend. After baking two batches of rolls, I went ahead with confidence and picked up this quick and easy recipe. It is very quick, requires less effort and yields a super tasty flat bread that goes very well with tea. 

As already mentioned in my previous post on no knead rolls, Suma's blogposts offer a direct "put-to-practice" recipes. The link leading to the recipe on her blog is given below -

http://sumarowjee.blogspot.com/2011/05/no-knead-focaccia-super-quick-easy-easy.html 

Not much I altered in the parent recipe, I followed the ingredients as is. Minor modifications are as below- 

• I omitted grated fresh coconut. I didn't have any at home. 
• I used only 1 cup of APF and altered all other ingredients accordingly. 
• I used a 6' round tin for baking the flat bread. 
• I fried the finely chopped green chillies and coriander with hing, salt and sugar in oil, added required quantities of water and coconut milk to this. Then I added yeast upon hitting the right luke warm temperature. Into this, I incorporated the flour. We enjoy spicy stuff at home, enjoy spicy stuff, therefore I added the chillies directly to the batter and mixed it well. 
• I sprinkled little rosemary, thyme and oregano (mixture) as a final topping before sending the tin into the oven. 
• I baked in my Samsung microwave convection oven at 180'C for 35 minutes. I didn't use the grill option for more browning. I checked for the hollow sound trick, it worked and I stopped at that. 

Nice, tasty flat bread and my weekend went well with fruitful experiments with yeast. My fascination for such yeasty experiments continues ... it is only Tuesday and I am already waiting to get my apron, gloves on and bake more goodies :) 

A big note of thanks to Suma and her blog (http://sumarowjee.blogspot.com) again for all valuable and truly delectable recipes. Many more thanks to you, I get to score many brownie points with friends and family with these recipes.  

Feasty Yeasty Experiments - 1

No Knead Choco Chip Rolls

Come weekend, my head is full of ideas, to cook something special. There are two worlds in cooking, broadly (in my opinion) - one is the routine, daily world, one full of veggies, pulses and spices that drives daily life. The other is this intriguing world of baking which poses interesting challenges and tempts one to keep on trying and improving. I was vehemently pulled into this second world by following the blog - Cakes and More. This blog is authored by Suma Rowjee, frankly and simply stating, my Baking Guru :) 

I attribute my entry into the world of baking goodies, the sudden drive to procure an oven and a constant enthusiasm to learn many neat tricks to churn out perfect goodies to her blog. There are many elements that make this blog very special for a reader. From the write up that leads to the recipe, measurements of ingredients (which one can blindly trust and follow), many important tips and clear instructions, out-of-the-world pictures of baked goodies, a supreme baker cum chef like presentation of final products - be it Graham crackers tied with a red ribbon, chocolate ganache spilling out of a cup, olive oil in an Arabian Nights style glass bottle :) - the many brilliant aspects of this blog instilled and maintains my passion for baking. 

I was content, for some time, with baking cakes without cream icing/topping. Sponge cakes, marble cakes, mawa cakes and fruit cakes were on my list of well accomplished dishes.  I forayed into the yeasty domain, for the first time, with these choco chip rolls (eggless and no knead). I am glad I performed my first experiments with yeast as baking with this elusive ingredient gives a unique sense of satisfaction, an unparalleled one I must say. Along with this smug happiness, comes a sense of fear. You want to outsmart yourself every time you use yeast and churn out consistently delectable and sponge soft goodies. Getting the temperature right, getting the yeast to bubble and froth is a pure adventure, fit enough to give an adrenaline surge in domestic environment itself. But the pretty outcome of baking with yeast is that the house turns into a sweet heaven with the smell of ambrosia from the oven, spreading all over and bringing lots of cheer and devilish hunger too.

Without further ado, I bring forth the link I referred to, the recipe I followed which helped me make these yummilicious, soft choco chip rolls. 

http://sumarowjee.blogspot.com/2011/11/no-knead-soft-cinnamon-rolls-eggless.html

I followed the ingredients (their measure) for dough as is in the blog. I used Gloripan yeast 1 1/4 teaspoons. For the filling, I used choco chips I bought from IBCA, Bangalore. 

I followed all steps as mentioned in the procedure, no digressions. I divided the dough into two batches - out of one I baked rolls instantly and the other batch, I refrigerated and used to make rolls the next day. I got a total of 12 rolls from this dough and we devored them happily with tea over the weekend. 

Here are few pictures of the photogenic rolls I made -

Big smiles on my face and waiting for the coming weekend to make more of these rolls with different filling and many more experiments with yeast.

Thanks (wholeheartedly) to Suma and her efforts :) 
Cakes and More !! (http://sumarowjee.blogspot.com/) rocks !! 

Weekday Baking : Eggless Mawa Cake

A quick post on baking - I tried out Eggless Mawa Cake yesterday and it came out super delicious. 

I followed the recipe provided in the link below - 

http://saffrontrail.blogspot.com/2007/11/diwali-delicacy-eggless-mava-cake.html 

I did not attempt too many modifications, just took note of below points - 

1) I used only 1/2 cup milk in total. This itself gave me cake batter of the right consistency. I did not require additional 1/4 cup of milk. 

2) I added 7-8 strands (pinch of) of saffron, no additional sugar with it. I added the saffron to the batter without pounding it. 

3) I baked the cake in a round 8' tin at 160'C for 30 minutes. 

The eggless version of this Mawa cake came out very well, nice brown and soft, with delicate taste of saffron, bites interlaced with crunchy cashewnut bits. 

Below are some pictures of the cake taken on my mobile phone - 

Picture of the cake (in true colors) taken using Nikon DSC 

Cake cut - picture taken using Nokia 1.3 MP camera

Thanks to Saffron Trail for providing me such a wonderful recipe. I will surely make this over and over again on many other occasions. Loved the cake completely! 

Wish you all a very HAPPY DIWALI :)

Recipe for Okkarai 

Diwali 2011 (26/10/2011)was spent in Bangalore. Simple celebrations marked the day, I made a flower Rangoli using marigold flowers (both orange and yellow), adorned it with a set of four decorative diyas/lamps. We had pretty noiseless fun with just two box of sparklers. I made a traditional sweet called Okkarai for the festival. This one is my favorite and my mother-in-law prepares it without fail during Diwali. 

Thanks to Saffron Trail for sharing the recipe of Okkarai on blogosphere - http://saffrontrail.blogspot.com/2010/11/recipe-for-diwali-okkarai.html 

I followed the recipe specified in the link mentioned above barring a few modifications specified below which I made after appropriate discussion with my mother-in-law. 

1) Instead of using 1 cup channa dal, I used equal measures of channa dal and moong dal (yellow) - 1/2 cup channa dal + 1/2 cup moong dal were used.

2) I did not make a syrup out of jaggery, the vella paagu as mentioned in the recipe on saffron trail. Instead, I add grated/powdered jaggery (measurement same as specified in the blog) directly to the wok in step 6. I mashed the crumbled dal and powdered jaggery in the wok on low flame and ensured they mixed well. Then I moved directly to step 9 - addition of roasted coconut, fried raisins and cashews and completed the recipe. 

3) I used little less than 1/2 cup (mentioned of Saffron Trail) of grated coconut for the recipe. 

The Okkarai smelt and tasted divine and had a nice, flaky texture. As mentioned in the blog, this recipe requires only 2-3 table spoons oil and 1 spoon ghee in total. I must admit it is quite minimal and with wholesome goodness of steamed dal, jaggery to add to taste, this traditional recipe is a safe bet and has become a huge hit in my list of favorites. 

With one cup dal or measurements as stated in Saffron Trail, much more than adequate quantity for two is prepared. The sweet can be stored for 2-3 days with appropriate refrigeration in an air tight container. 

Thanks to Saffron Trail! 

I did surprise my mother-in-law when I said I was going to prepare Okkarai for Diwali :) 

Okkarai made at home 

Pure Serendipity

Recipes for Corn Usli, Peanuts- Alsi seeds Ladoo and Paneer Bhurji

I made an incredible discovery when I landed at this blog - http://cuisineindia.wordpress.com/ on cooking. 

The website is a true haven for people interested in cooking vegetarian recipes. 

There are a variety of recipes that suit my interests particularly - lot of dry chutney powders, vegetable curries and wet chutneys, those that provide an insight into many traditional aspects of cooking. The blog is authored by a very senior person - Prathiba Rao who has served her family's gastronomical interests for over 30 years. 

By true serendipity, I landed at this blog and ever since the day of discovery, I have been itching to get back home in the evening post office work and aerobics classes, to try out some recipes from the website. 

I tried two of them from the blog on the same day in a span of two hours in pretty much a parallel computing and execution mode. 

I prepared Corn Usli and Flaxseed/Peanut Laddoo. Please feel free to access the complete recipes with illustrations at - 

1) Corn Usli - http://cuisineindia.wordpress.com/2011/09/04/corn-usli/

2) Peanuts Flax seed Laddoos - http://cuisineindia.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/peanut-flax-seeds-laddoo/

The Corn Usli, I used inside a dosa for filling and this made a superbly yummy combination. 

The Peanuts Flax seed Laddoo, I served as a prasadham for Ganesha idol at home, before his Visarjan (immersion) marking the end of Chathurthi festival. 

I used onion instead of mustard in Corn Usli as mentioned in the link above. I substituted Chat masala with Aamchoor powder in the list of ingredients. 

In making Flaxseed Peanuts Laddoo, I used lesser ghee (marked as optional in the recipe) than mentioned. I must say that I had to put some efforts to roll out the laddoos, they weren't as neat as seen in the source blog. My Philips mixer has got old after several years of use and I had to grind ingredients in batches.

There are the usual recipes of Dosa with Molagai Podi, Coconut Chutney, Tomato Chutney, Pudina/coriander Chutney and Sambar/Kothsu as accompaniments, then there is Masala Dosa with typical Potato masala as stuffing. I add little variations to dosa at home.

Below are pictures of Paneer Bhurji and Dosa roll using it as a filling I made during last weekend -

For Paneer Bhurji (quantity serves as stuffing for about 8-10 dosas) 
You need - 

250 g Paneer 

1 big onion 

1 ripe tomato (medium sized) 

5 green chillies 

Turmeric powder, chilli powder, dhania powder, aamchoor, garam masala and salt 

1 tsp Cumin seeds

Lots of coriander (finely chopped) 

Oil - 2 full tbsps

In a pan, add oil and wait for it to heat. Add cumin seeds, finely chopped green chillies, finely chopped onion and saute well. Add turmeric powder (1/2 tsp), 1 tsp chilli powder and 2 tsp dhania powder. Add finely chopped tomato with its juice into nicely fried onion in the pan. Mix well and add salt to taste. Saute well until the raw smell of tomato goes, the tomato and onion must shrink to make a nice mixture. 

Take 250 grams of cottage cheese (paneer, I usually buy it fresh from Karthik Mithai shop on New Tippasandra Main Road) and crumble it into small pieces using your hands. I personally feel there is no need to grate paneer. Use your both hands well to crumble up the paneer block. 

Mix well all the contents in pan and leave it for 3-4 minutes on less flame. Add 1 tsp of aamchoor powder and 2-3 specks of Garam Masala powder. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves, give a final mix and turn off the stove. 

The bhurji can be served with roti and a simple dal. This is a terrific combination for dinner. 

To give a twist to our usual dosa fare, we can use the bhurji  as a filling. Each filled dosa can be rolled over, cut into pieces and served hot with mint coriander chutney. 

Eating paneer occasionally/in moderation (say at least 2-3 times a month) is good and highly essential as it is a dairy product and provides the quintessential proteins, calcium and phosphorus.

In the last one week, there has been lot of learning as far as foodie's sphere is concerned, lots of experiments in the kitchen that turned successful and many more recipes in the "to-do" list. I would like to end with a note of thanks to Prathiba Aunty for the precious information she is sharing on her blog - Indian Food Court. 

Baking with Zest

Recipe for Orange Marmalade Cake 

After procuring a long list of baking essentials from Institue of Baking and Cake Art, Bangalore, I baked an orange marmalade cake during the weekend. 

(courtesy:  http://vegbowl.blogspot.com/2011/05/marmalade-bundt-cake.html)

I used a 6" round cake tin for baking the above cake. The procedure I followed is as prescribed in the above link/blog post with a change in that I did not add two eggs recommended. There were no eggs at home and after finishing the routine household chores marked for the weekend, I had no drive to go out to a shop and fetch them. I am sure I missed that extra fluff the addition of eggs provide me, nevertheless the cake came out nice golden brown and well baked. Water was added to get the cake batter to right consistency in the absence of eggs. Also, I added little extra (25g additionally) butter to the cake batter. 

I preheated the oven to 180'C and baked at this temperature for 35 minutes duration, a knife inserted came out clean as a check. I baked the cake post lunch around 3.30-4.30 pm and I must admit it turned out to be the perfect accompaniment for hot evening tea. 

Note: 

1) I used Kissan Orange Marmalade Jam to make this cake and I would like to point out that it has a strong smell of preservatives and taste of stabilising agents. This affects the taste of the cake mildly and can be noticed upon very keen taste analysis. Therefore, request readers to procure any other brand of orange marmalade jam and try out the cake. 

2) Here's a link to understand what is orange zest and how to acquire it - http://www.ehow.com/video_4790427_make-orange-zest.html . This link helped me lots.

To the set of gadgets in my kitchen, I added a NOVA N62M 250 watts, six speed hand mixer with whipping blades and dough hook attachments purchased from IBCA, Bangalore for Rs 850. This electrical hand mixer reduced my effort largely when folding in ingredients to make the cake batter. 

Below is the picture of a cake piece with a slice of orange on its top - 

I know it is a very very poor image, taken on Nokia 3110C mobile camera. I literally pulled out the last piece of cake to take a picture before the contents on the plate vanished.

The NOVA hand mixer N62M, my small, new baking wonder gadget looks like this  - 

Thanks to Mallika - owner of Veg Bowl blog on cooking for lending me this wonderful and zesty Orange Marmalade Cake recipe. 

Puttu with Kadala Curry - my strong favorite

Recipe for Puttu and Kadala Curry
Preface 

During each summer vacation, when I would return home from college, even before I unpacked my stuff, my mother would ask me what I would like her to prepare. With twinkling eyes and an effervescent smile, I would immediately utter - Puttu and Kadala curry. 

Puttu is a dish from Kerala made of rice flour. Traditionally, it is made by steaming rice flour on a rocket-like apparatus - a pot containing water with a long cylindrical tube attached to its mouth. The cylindrical structure contains the moist rice flour mixture and  is covered with a lid with holes to let steam escape. 

Kadala curry is the side dish for Puttu, a gravy of black channa. Typically, people have this dish for breakfast and pair up puttu with ripe bananas going the simplest way. 

On Onam day - Sep 9, 2011, I made Puttu and Kadala Curry along with Palada Pradhaman payasam. The festival did not fetch a holiday from work and I had no time to prepare the complete Sadhya/feast. 

My mother got me a cute looking apparatus much like the Aladdin's magic lamp to prepare Puttu. This small cup shaped apparatus takes the rice flour (puttu mixture to be steamed). It can be placed on top of a pressure cooker or any steam vent/source. The steam from the pressure cooker cooks Puttu in about five minutes. 

Below is a picture that shows the apparatus at work in my kitchen -

Puttu preparation

All we need - Puttu podi, grated coconut, warm water with little salt added to it.

Puttu podi or rice flour used to make Puttu is available in most stores in major South Indian cities. In Bangalore, brands like - Double Horse, Nirapara and Manna are available. I prefer Nirapara puttu podi, and there are two versions I buy - white rice flour and red rice flour. I prefer mixing them and so my puttu comes out a little reddish in color and not snow white. 

I usually mix equal quantities of white and red rice flour in a flat, big plate. Mean time, a glass of water with 2 tsp of salt is heated on stove till little hot. This water is sprinkled over the rice flour to make it moist, ensure that you don't over wet or create lumps. This moist puttu podi is left aside for 10-15 minutes.

Place the mini plate with holes inside the cup apparatus at its bottom. Add a layer of grated coconut on this plate. Fill the inside of cup with moist puttu podi. Add another layer of grated coconut on top of the rice flour. Close the cup with the lid. Add few glasses of water to an empty pressure cooker and heat it till a prominent plume of steam comes out. The set up is ready, place the lamp on the pressure cooker, right where you would mormally place the whistle.

Leave the set up for 5-7 minutes. Remove the cup from pressure cooker and invert its contents onto a plate.
The puttu, if cooked well, will fall as a single entity without breaking up. 

Repeat this process to make as many pieces of Puttu as required. 

The volume of Puttu this puttu maker makes in a single attempt is less, therefore this works well for a small family.The conventional rocket apparatus would save lots of time if you were making for many people.

Kadala Curry

To soak overnight (preferably 8 hrs atleast)

1 cup black channa (black chickpeas)

1/4 cup green gram whole (this helps in adding volume to the gravy - optional)

To begin with, cook soaked black channa under pressure (5-6 whistles).

A pinch of turmeric, salt and little (1/4 tsp) ghee is added to channa cooking it in pressure cooker. Ghee ensures that channa is soft and well-cooked and leaves a nice aroma as well.

For Gravy

1. 5-6 red chillies (for medium spicy)

2. 3 tbsps full coriander seeds (dhaniya seeds)

3. 2 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)

4. 4-5 garlic pods  (add more if you like garlic)

5. 2 thin slices of ginger 

6. 1 medium sized onion (cut into big chunks)

7. 1 medium sized tomato (chopped into big chunks)

8. few sprigs of coriander

9. 3-4 full tbsps of grated coconut

Dry roast gravy ingredients 1-3 in a pan. Once the chillies change color and leave an aroma, transfer the contents of pan to mixer. Now in little oil, fry onion chunks with cut garlic and ginger until the raw smell goes. Add a pinch of turmeric and little salt. Once onion chunks are fried, add tomato pieces and saute well till the raw smell goes. Add coriander leaves. Transfer this to the mixer, allow to cool. Add grated coconut without frying. Add little water and grind well in mixer to get a smooth paste.

In the kadai

All we need- 1 small sized onion finely chopped, tamarind water, cumin seeds (jeera), oil, salt, chilli powder (if required), garam masala powder, finely chopped coriander for garnish, pressure cooked black channa, prepared gravy in mixer.

Process 

Add 3-4 tsp of oil, add little jeera/cumin seeds when the oil is hot. Add finely chopped onion into the wok and fry till golden brown. Add salt to taste.

Transfer the cooked black channa to the wok. Give it a good boil.

Transfer the gravy in mixer to the wok. Stir well and check for any adjustments in salt and spice.

Take a gooseberry sized ball of tamarind and makes its extract in luke warm water. Add this tamarind extract to the boiling mixture in the wok. Give the contents of the wok another boil.

Add just one pinch of garam masala powder. Garnish with finely chopped coriander and turn off the stove. Do not boil for a prolonged interval after adding tamarind extract, this increases sourness of gravy. Likewise, do not heat excessively after adding garam masala powder, it leads to loss of aroma.

Kadala curry is ready to be served with puttu. This gravy can also be served along side Idiyappam and Appam.

Footnote

My friends' mother has shared the recipe for kadala curry sans coconut in her blog with pictures, am sure i that will help too, please refer-
http://lakshmisindiancurry.blogspot.com/2010/08/kadalai-curry-black-chickpeas-curry.html

This is my first attempt in writing down a breakfast/main dish recipe. I work with hand approximations and barely use the spoon. So it was quite an ordeal to trace back/recollect how much tsp/tbsp of the ingredient I actually added. And for illustrations, I do not stop to click pictures while cooking. And even if I do, they are on my unimpressive Nokia 3110C mobile camera. 

I really appreciate the patience and efforts with which my friends' mother and owners of many food blogs I follow post their recipes with clearer details of ingredients and better illustrations I hope to churn out more recipes with more precise details and lively illustrations in future.

Additions to my Baking Paraphernalia

Information about IBCA, Bangalore, important for bakers in Bangalore

On Saturday, Sep 10, 2011, I made a visit along with my husband to the Institute of Baking and Cake Art, Bangalore. I wanted to purchase a few items that will help me bake better and more. The institute is well known in Bangalore for providing excellent courses in baking for both novices and experts. Through Suma's blog - Cakes and More, I learnt that the institute sells all essential elements for baking goodies.

I am providing the link to the post on Suma's blog below - http://sumarowjee.blogspot.com/2010/05/institute-of-baking-and-cake-art.html

The institute is tucked near and behind the Richmond Road flyover, on Mission road, in the direction one would take from Richmond Circle to approach KH road/Lalbagh, in the first floor of an old building.

When I first purchased my Microwave/Convection/Grill combi oven, I grabbed an aluminium square cake tin, an aluminium brownie tray, a hand/manual egg beater (coil shaped) and a sieve from a nearby Casio supermarket on New Tippsandra road. Most shops in Bangalore are well stocked with basic supplies like baking powder, cocoa powder, vanilla essence and self raising flour. With a limited inventory to start with, I made vanilla butter sponge cake, dates and fruit cake and chocolate brownies a couple of times, over and over again. All of the above were a thorough hit with my friends at work and my relatives.

I wanted to experiment more now and mature as a baker at home. Suma's blog provides diverse baking recipes with appropriate illustrations and can bring out the budding Nigella in each one of us.

Below is the list I prepared before hitting IBCA stores. It helped me as I did not test the patience of vendors at the store, the customer who went in before me had driven them nuts by guessing indefinitely on what she wanted.

1) Round cake tin - aluminium - 6 inch
2) Round cake tin - aluminium - 8 inch
3) Bundt cake tin - aluminium
4) Muffin moulds (single * 6) made of aluminium
5) Pie mould with removable base in aluminium
6) Bread tin (with lid made of tin) - makes bread 400g
7) Chocolate chips - 100g
8) Chocolate vermicelli - 100g (I bought the chocolate brown colored ones, these are available in many other colors and flavors too)
9) Cream of Tartar - 100g (this is the minimum quantity available)
10) Wheat Gluten 100g (minimum quantity available)
11) Gloripan yeast - 100 g
12) Morde compound dark chocolate (bar)
13) Morde compound milk chocolate (bar)
14) Vanilla super essence
15) Almond essence
16) Cling wrap foil (1 box)
17) Butter paper (5pcs)

Items 16 and 17 can be procured from most shops, I added them to the above list for convenience.
The purchase of all above items listed was made for a total of Rs 1300.

To have an insight into the courses that IBCA offers to a commoner, please refer to - http://www.ibcablr.com/school.html


Baker smart is the online stores of IBCA, Bangalore - http://www.ibcablr.com/bakersmart.html

You may refer to this link to have an idea of what the stores at IBCA sells, but the listing here is not exhaustive. Lots more is on offer at the stores, it is good to visit the place in person if you stay in Bangalore.

Caramel - is the cake store/outlet of IBCA located in Shanti Nagar - http://www.ibcablr.com/cakeorder.html. One can place an order for cake at this site as per ones' requirements.

IBCA can be followed on Facebook, they have a blog - iBake and a issue a publication - Bakery World  that provide vital information related to baking.

I would like to thank Suma (http://sumarowjee.blogspot.com/) heartily for providing me the right direction both in baking lessons and in procurement of baking essentials. Now, the baking mania shall begin!

Weekend Baking - Fruit n Nut Cake

Recipe for Eggless Fruit and Nut Cake 

Some time to spare in the weekend and thus comes the scope for experiments in the kitchen.

Below is the recipe I followed for Eggless Fruit n Nut cake. It worked well for me.

One needs little less than 3/4 cup of demerara sugar, 1/4 cup to prepare caramel and rest to be added to the cake flour mixture as is.

Why: Little less than 3/4 cup as we will add 1 mashed ripe long banana (that adds much needed sweetness)

What: Demerara sugar is natural brown sugar that caramelises fast. Gives the rich, brown color to our Fruit n Nut cake. Available in most provision stores in Bangalore under Eagle brand.

How: Heat little less than 1/4 cup of water in a fry pan, add 1/4 cup of demerara sugar to it, stir constantly to prepare a caramel syrup.

Now in a bowl, take 1 and 1/2 cups of All Purpose Flour - add to it 1 tsp Baking powder, 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder, 1/2 tsp dry ginger powder, 1/2 tsp shajeera powder and 1/2 tsp salt.

Sieve the contents together so that they mix thoroughly and evenly.

To this flour mixture, add 1 ripe mashed banana, 1 cup of broken cashew, walnuts, unseeded dates (cut and sliced) and dry, black raisins. All these put together must comprise 1 cup.

Add remaining sugar (little less than 1/2 cup that we are left over with) + 30 g of unsalted butter (melted in a pan) + 1 tsp vanilla essence and pour in the caramel syrup prepared, giving all contents a careful and thorough mix.

Grease the baking tin and dust it with little flour on the inside. Pour in the cake batter.

Preheat the oven to 180'C and bake the contents at 180'C for 40-45 minutes (a toothpick inserted at the end of baking must come out clean)

Once baking is over - turn the tin upside down on a flat plate, let the cake cool down.

Tap gently and remove, the cake is ready for cutting.

From across several websites, it was suggested that the tin with cake batter in it be covered with alumimium foil and then put into the oven for baking. Guess this will ensure uniform and thorough browning of the cake surface.

I baked for about 35 minutes with the foil, removed it and baked again without foil for the remaining time. I had a perfectly baked cake after 45 minutes time.

Have a happy weekend !!

Pics: Taken on Nikon 3110 C Camera

Out of HIBERNATION !!

Review of Restaurant - Sanjeevanam, Bangalore

A brief hiatus of one month is over and I am alive, back to my blog in full vigor.

Away from e-mail, Facebook, blogosphere, summarily to say, the Internet accompanied by minimal mobile communication, my hibernation phase appears to have got over. Re iterating one of the well known dialouges in my head, from one of my Bollywood favorites - Jab we Met - I feel, I missed a train over the last month. However, such significant gaps are necessary and enjoyable in a way and I have caught my train back, finally :)

It is monsoon time in Bangalore but rains are sparse and scanty. A brief shower blessed the  Bangaloreans yesterday evening. We armed ourselves with our umbrellas and set out to explore a new eatery. Personally, it appeared as if life got stuck and moved slowly in May-June 2011 - may be due to  long, summer days or better said, the summer solstice effect.

The pretext of walking down avenues with tree cover (amongst the few that are left currently in Bangalore) and having sumptuous meal in an eatery offered great scope to break from the mundane set up. Over 5 years of stay in Bangalore, we have become regulars at the Konark,a vegetarian restaurant on Residency Road; Adigas, opposite Indiranagar BDA complex and small eateries on Tippsandra Main road. The advertisement on Times of India newspaper dated July7, 2011 pulled us to a new place - Sanjeevanam in Koramangala. Located on the Inner Ring Road, opposite Kendriya Sadan, close to Madiwala junction, this place offers healthy and unique vegetarian delights. The restaurant is run by makers of "Medimix soap" - the Cholayil. We visited the place at 8 pm and there were a variety of dosas, a meal combo, many soups, juices and desserts on the menu.

We binged on a roasted garlic dosa, a ragi keerai (ragi-spinach) adai, vazhapoo (banana flower) cutlets, ela adai (a dessert from Kerala), ginger coffee (that used no coffee beans) and banana-wheat pudding. The offering on the menu is completely different and highly delectable. The ginger coffee knocked out in one shot, the sinus headache and sore throat I nursed carefully for over a week. I bought some ginger coffee mix and palm candy from their stores/outlet, outside the restaurant, as a weapon against future instances of sinusitis and dry cough.

I would suggest that one visits this place to experiment with unique, healthy yet tasty vegetarian dishes. Sanjeevanam will make you believe that when a dish becomes healthy, it actually does not miss out its taste quotient. I picked up a few cues for culinary experimentation from the menu in Sanjeevanam. The meal above cost us Rs 387 inclusive of all taxes. So that sufficiently explains the fiscal outcome of the visit.

Sanjeevanam cannot be made as regular an affair like visits to Shanti Sagar for a singleton in Bangalore but it offers a great and genuinely different experience, a well deserved break from boredom/routine stuff. Much like the Bournville chocolate, a visit to Sanjeevanam points out - "you need to EARN IT" :)

Bocuse d'Or - I

Recipes for Corn Vada and Butter Sponge Cake 

A long weekend and at home in Bangalore, thanks to Good Friday! I came across on TV, a cooking competition/reality show -Top Chef hosted by Padma Lakshmi. From the show, I learnt of a biannual international event - called Bocuse d'Or, based at Lyon, France - considered an equivalent of olympics in culinary skills/art. Though I barely knew the names of recipes and ingredients that appeared in the Top Chef show, I watched it with interest as the format of the show reminded me of my once favorite cooking show on TV - Master Chef India.

I decided to name this post on my blog, related to cooking with this new found word - Bocuse d'Or.
I follow a couple of blogs on cooking ardently and enjoy cooking thoroughly. I added to my kitchen paraphernalia, a Microwave-Convection-Grill combi oven - Samsung CE 104 VD-B this February. In immediate aftermath of the purchase, I carefully investigated the usage of all modes in the oven with a variety of recipes -
Microwave - Veg Pulao
Microwave + Convection - Veg Pizza
Convection - Choco Walnut Brownie (I used the ready mix available in stores from the brand - Fun Foods)
Grill - Pudina Baby Corn
Micorwave + Grill - Tandoori Stuffed Aloo

This long weekend was a joyous one due to heavy, incessant rain. In fact, Bangalore recorded its heaviest rainfall in the month of April this weekend for the first time in 40 years. With rain comes the unquestionable right to binge on some deep fried short eats with hot tea to wash it comfortably down the food pipe.
I made corn vada and pressed them between toasted bread slices, placed few onion rings and gave a dash of Maggi Hot and Sweet Tomato Chilli Sauce to complete the dish.

Thanks to Tamalapaku - a blog on cooking from which I picked up the recipe of Corn Vada.

You may access the recipe of corn vada at - http://tamalapaku.blogspot.com/2010/03/corn-vada-makai-vada-mokkajonna-vada.html

Along with hot tea, I now wished to have some fluffy, baked stuff. The aroma of baking in home would sure complement the smell of fresh earth drenched in rain outside.
So I went out to make a simple, basic baking dish - Butter Sponge Cake and I referred to Suma's blog - Cakes and More for this. I revere her completely for her expertise in baking.
Here's the link to the recipe - http://sumarowjee.blogspot.com/2010/10/butter-sponge.html
The only modification to the above recipe - I reduced the number of egg yolks to 4 (from 6 mentioned on the source blog). The number 6 for egg yolks seemed a bit too boggling for me to handle.

And here's how my cake looked, yummy it was along with hot tea.

Thanks to Harini and Jaya - the authors of Tamalapaku for the corn vada recipe. I have tried the Bread Uthappam and Black Urad dal idli too from their blog. I loved the former a lot and in case of latter, I would still rate our normal idli (not using whole black urad dal) taste wise unparalleled.
Thanks to Suma for the recipe "Butter Sponge Cake" , I have a long way to go in baking lessons and hope to acheive it with her blog :)