Full Tummy

Fall Fresh Fruit shopping

2006-12-04T13:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Husband and I went to our neighbourhood european style produce and cheese store: Milk Pail. We always have fun going there, looking at the abundance of fruits and vegetables, and picking out something new each time we go there. Here is all that we got this time...

Granny Smith (green) and Gala apples (red).. The Grannies are going to make a yummy apple cake, with NO oil/butter, sometime this week.. The Galas will go into some fresh apple juice.

Pumpkin... the symbol of fall... this mini one will make some sweet pumkin sabzi, indian style, maybe over the weekend.

Persimmon.. to me, it is yet another symbol of fall.. I totally adore this fruit, not too sweet, not sour, perfect crunchiness... Ahhh!! Half of these have already been devoured since this picture was taken.

Oranges... yet another orange colored purchase for this weekend's groceries... These will serve as dessert on some dinner nights, and may make some yummy juice over the weekend.

Avocadoes... did I ever mention that husband loves them, he eats them raw, right out of their skin!!! These will make some yummy guacamole, or I might try that Mexican soup we had in a restaurant the other day.

Bananas... we have been craving some good oatmeal in the mornings these days, since its so cold outside.. These will top our oatmeal for breakfast!

Thats the arrangement in my kitchen utility cabinet...

Russian Meal: Pelmeny [Tortellini]

2006-12-04T12:48:00.000-08:00

Pelmeny is as Russian as food can get. These are soft little dumplings filled with a variety of usually bland possibilities, usually its beef, sometimes pork, rarely chicken or cabbage. I dont really know about the smaller cities, but in Moscow nobody I knew would make it from scratch. We used to buy it frozen. So, I figured it really was not that bad a deal that out here in Palo Alto, California I can still get the frozen Pelmeny. In fact - I could get a much healther version of them - the Chicken variety!

These are the Pelmeny I buy from either the Russian Store Samovar or the european market Milk Pail in Mountain View. These are just plain old Tortellini - little tiny dumplings with a filling inside. so you could easily substitute them with any store bought tortellini - cheese / spinach / meat ... etc.

Popkoff's Pelmeny with Chicken - frozen

Russians eat these Pelmeny totatlly un-glamorized, of course. Boil pelmeny in salted water, drain, pour in a bowl, dollop of sour cream, dill leaves, ready to eat. Yes, it would taste heavenly, but my taste buds now dont find that too appealing, so I make a whole meal out of them in a different way...

Pelmeny (Tortellini) with Zucchini

2 small zucchinis - thinly sliced up in semi-circles
1 onion - thinly sliced up in half of semi circles
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 packet Pelmeny / Tortellini, boiled in water with 1 tspn oil till al dente , drained
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bunch of dill, finely chopped

* Heat oil in a pan
* Add onions and stirfry til 3/4th done
* Add zuchhini and stir fry till 3/4th done
* Add soy sauce, salt , pepper to taste, add dill leaves. Stir fry for 3-4 minutes.
* Add the drained pelmeny/tortellini
* Switch the flame off and cover, stir in between a couple of times. You want to keep them moist, so dont stir fry further.

I vary the veggies lots of times, but the trick is to keep the veggie mix simple, so that the taste of the tortellini / pelmeny shines through. Never forget the dill though, this is a very Russian herb, and gives a lot of the dishes their Russian flavor.

The result is yum-yum-yummy.

Pelmeny/Tortellini with Zucchini / Onion / Dill

Russian Meal: Vegetarian Borscht Soup

2006-12-04T12:36:00.000-08:00

Since husband and I have both been recovering from cold and sore throat, we have been having a lot of soups / fluids. Today I decided to make it a russian affair - Borscht soup and Pelmeny (russian tortellini filled with meat usually).

Borscht is characterized by its deep red color. So the main ingredient is of course - Red Beet! It is made in a variety of styles depending on the region you are from. It is usually made with Beef in Moscow, usually made with chicken in Ukraine, and I mostly make it vegetarian to make it in a jiffy.

Here is my vegetarian version of it, followed by the non-vegetarian version for those who are interested.

Vegetarian Borscht

1/2 cabbage - finely sliced
1 raw beet - peeled and grated
1 big russet potato chopped into 1 inch of bigger cubes (dont make the cubes too small)
6 cloves of garlic
1/2 onion - chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil (Russians would never use anything other than butter, but I am a health-izer)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 large cube of beef buillion (optional, can replace with veg stock or omit altogether)
salt
1 tablespoon of lemon pepper salt mix [I get mine from costco]
1 tspn black pepper
1 big bunch of dill - finely chopped

*In a soup pot, heat oilive oil.
* Add garlic cloves, fry till pinkish.
* Add onions, and cook till transparent.
* Add potatoes, saute till edges are transparent.
* Add cabbage and beet, and around 1 cup of hot water, let the volume of cabbage reduce a little.
* Then add more water to cover up the soup.
* Add red wine vinegar, beef buillion (optional), salt, lemon pepper mix, black pepper.
* Let it all simmer for around 10 minutes or so.
* Add the chopped dill and let simmer for another 10 minutes.

Russians would serve this with a dollop of sour cream, along with buttered dark rye bread.

Vegetarian Borscht, simmering away in the pot

Ultimate melt-in-your-mouth pancakes

2006-12-03T20:25:00.000-08:00

Who said a pancake mix cannot make yummy fluffy pancakes???? Not my box!!! My box makes the yummiest lightest pancakes!!! But, with a little help...

1 cup pancake mix [I use Bisquik Buttermilk pancakes' Complete mix, the one in which you have to add just water]
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tspn sugar
1 tspn baking powder
1 egg

* Blend all the above ingredients using a blender or whisk or hand immersion blender.
* Pour ladlefuls on a hot greased griddle.
* Cook on that side until bubbles form and edges look a little dried up (around 1 min).
* Turn and cook on other side for around half a minute.

Yield: 6-8 regular sized pancakes

Pancakes are ready to turn, when bubbles form and edges look dry-ish

Pancakes, stacked up, waiting for some maple syrup

Back from a blogging break...

2006-12-03T20:21:00.000-08:00

Yes, for those of you who noticed, I have been on a blogging break for the last month. Husband quit his startup job at the end of October due to lots of politics at work, that left him mostly at home when he was not in his meetings and interviews. So he did a lot of the cooking at home, while I was at work. A lot of travelling was happening too, went to Denver to my sister, nephew and niece for an elongated Thanksgiving break - which was so much fun!!! :-) And the 11-month old nephew gifted husband and me some of his little little germs which left the two of us sick for a whole week!!!

So here I am now, thanksgiving break is over, we are both recovered, and husband is on the verge of accepting an offer from another fun startup!!! Back to blogging....!!!

Paalak Saag

2006-11-07T22:51:00.000-08:00

We had a very sweet family as our two-floors-below-us neighbor, back in Moscow. Roshni aunty. With two very cute little daughters. They were from Delhi. Aunty's food was very different from Mom's. Mom's was always focused on nutrition, health, etc. Aunty had a lot more of a free hand.

Here is one of her healthy recipes that Mom (and eventually I) adopted into our regular menus. This recipe is to Roshni aunty, and all the love she has given to our family over the years.

Paalak Saag

1 packet Frozen spinach (Deep brand's frozen spinach works best for this recipe, you can find it in indian stores)
1 onion chopped
1 tomato chopped
1/2 cup yogurt
2 tablespoons besan
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1 teaspoon garlic paste
2-3 green chillies, chopped
jeera
red chilli powder
turmeric
salt

1. Pressure cook the spinach cubes (no need to thaw) with 3/4 cup water for 1 whistle.
2. In a bowl mix yogurt and besan until smooth.
3. When steam of the spinach pressure cooker settles down, open it, and add to it the yogurt-besan mix. Keep stirring with a whisk, while heating on medium flame.
4. In a separate pan, heat oil, add jeera. Then add onions and green chillies. Saute till brownish. 5. Add the ginger and garlic pastes, fry for a couple of minutes.
6. Add tomatoes, red chilli powder, turmeric and salt. Cook till mixed up well, and tomatoes get tender.
7. Add this mix to the spinach pressure cooker, and give yet another whistle.
8. Serve with rice or rotis.

Paalak Saag

Grainy Low-fat Cranberry Nut Bread

2006-11-07T22:30:00.000-08:00

To satisfy my immensely large sweet tooth, I try to incorporate fair amount of healthy sweets into my diet. This keeps me away from the unhealthy stuff that I keep on eyeing in the cafeterias at work :) I like easy baking recipes too. Quick sweet breads are my favorite. I had already posted my banana nut bread recipe last week, here is yet another. I made this yesterday for husband and me to have for breakfast / afternoon snack.

This bread is loaded with antioxidants and Vitamin C, because of all the cranberries and orange juice that goes into it. Cranberries are very good for women, they help us with our menstrual health - they reduce cramps, help in yeast infections and UTIs, etc.

I buy cranberries in fall when they are abundant in local european-style produce store Milk Pail. I then transfer them in freezer ziploc bags and freeze them. They last me all the way until the next fall!

Grainy Low-fat Cranberry Nut Bread

This is my submission for Saffron Trail's WBB# 7: Baking for Breakfast

1 .25 cups all purpose flour
0.75 cup whole wheat flour (substitute with all purpose flour if not on hand, reduce baking powder by 1/4 tspn too in that case)
1 cup sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
0.5 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup orange juice (no or low pulp)
1 tbsp grated orange peel or orange extract
2 tbsp shortening
1 well beaten egg
1.5 cups fresh/frozen cranberries
0.75 cups nuts (walnuts / pecans)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a bow mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda.
3. Stir in Orange juice, orange peel / extract / shortening / egg. Mix well with hand whisk until blended
4. Stir in cranberries (I dont even chop them) and nuts (I get the halves from costco, and dont chop these either)
5. Turn into a greased (with butter) 9 x 5 inch loaf pan
6. Bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean
7. Cool in the pan on a rack for 15 mins, then remove from pan. This is important, this resting time eases the loaf out from the pan.
8. When cooled down, cut into thick 1 inch slices. I individually wrap these up in sandwich ziploc bags for easy portability to work for breakfast with some yummy soymilk.

Grainy Low-fat Cranberry Nut Bread

Aloo - Zucchini Sabzi

2006-11-07T22:22:00.000-08:00

We lived in Moscow (Russia) for a long-long time. The most popular and readily available vegetable out there is Potato! A close second are cabbage, carrots and beets. Russian food is predominantly potatoes and meat.

No wonder that my Mom had to find out newer ways to keep us busy with potatoes. This is one of her dishes. I vaguely remember her picking this up and adapting from an ages old Sumeet food processor's accompanying cookbook.

Aloo - Zucchini

2 medium sized white potatoes
1 medium or 2 small green zucchini
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 chopped onion
2 chopped tomatoes
1/2 tspn kalonji seeds (black onion seeds, they look very similar to black sesame seeds)
hing
salt
turmeric
red chilli powder
garam masala
amchur

1. Clean potatoes. No need to peel if using white potatoes. Slice into thin slices with a slicer.
2. Slice zucchini using a slicer too.
3. Heat oil
4. Add hing and kalonji seeds.
5. Add onions and saute on medium till 3/4 done.
6. Then add potatoes and cook covered on medium till 1/2 done
7. Add zucchini, and cook covered
8. In a separate small pan, saute tomatoes till they are soft.
9. Add to the potatoes-zuchhini pan, add salt, turmeric, red chilli powder
10. When almost done, add some garam masala and amchoor.

Aloo Zucchini

Eggplant Raita

2006-11-07T21:28:00.000-08:00

Eggplants have hardly any nutritional value. They are low in calories, and in fat, and in sodium. They have not much vitamin content, some cancer fighting minerals in under-decent quantity. Not a major source of protein either. If you take the skin off the eggplant, there is hardly any fiber content to boast about either.

Having said all of this, we still happen to like eggplants. A lot. Here is one of our favorite ways to cook eggplant.

Eggplant Raita

1 big eggplant
pinch of hing
1 tspn jeera
1 tspn rai (smaller mustard seeds)
1/2 tspn urad dal
1/4 tspn chana dal
7-8 curry leaves
3 green chilles
1/2 onion - finely chopped
chopped cilantro
2 cups yogurt
1 tablespoon canola oil

1. Roast baingan like for baingan bharta. I do this in my oven at 450 degrees F. I rub a teaspoon of oil on the eggplant's skin, and put it on a foil-lined tray for around an hour, turning once in between.
2. When done, peel and take the inside stuff out, mash it. I also use any water that got drained from inside the eggplant, adds to the flavor.
3. In oil add tadka of hing, jeera, rai, urad dal, curry leaves, chana dal, chopped green chilles
4. Mix the the tadka in dahi. Add mashed baingan to dahi too. Add salt.
5. Add finely chopped onions for crunch. Add chopped dhaniya.
6. Mix and serve as a thick raita.

Eggplant Raita

Menu for the week of Nov 6 - Nov 10

2006-11-07T11:40:00.000-08:00

Here is something new about me that my fellow bloggers didnt know so far. I am a Bollywood dance teacher. Yes - the bollywood kinds. This takes up a lot of my time. I teach for 2 hours each on two weekday evenings, after my regular work day. So I dont get any time to prepare a healthy meal on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as I am not home until 9pm !

But this is the last week of classes... the big dance show is this weekend. So its the last week until January when I need to plan really well for the week day menus.. So here we go...

Monday Oct 30: (I have 2 hours to cook)
- Aloo - zuchhini sabzi
- Guvar with chana dal from Indira's blog
- Paalak Saag (for Tuesday)
- Asparagus sabzi (for Tuesday)
- Eggplant raita (added to the menu on husband's request)
- Toor dal - Sada Varan
- Rice
- Also bake Cranberry Nut Bread for breakfast for the week
- Husband to cut apples and pears and make juice

Tuesday Oct 31: (No time to cook)
- Left overs

Wednesday Nov 1: (No time to cook)
- Leftovers
- Husband to make fresh dal: sada varan
- Husband to make rice

Thursday Nov 2: (30 minutes to cook)
- Borscht soup
- Garlic bread
- Cut carrots and make carrot juice

Asparagus Soup

2006-11-03T16:57:00.000-08:00

At our home, we have one day every week which is a soup or salad or sandwich night. This keeps us from getting bored of the regular indian fare, as well as adds a healthy light point to our weekday diet.

This week, it was Asparagus Soup with Ham/Cheese/Basil Paninis.

I should've called this Cream of Asparagus soup, but it really has no cream even though it is a lovely creamy texture. So lets just drop the whole "cream" thing and call it plain ol' asparagus soup :)

Asparagus Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion - chopped roughly
2-3 cloves garlic (optional)
1 white potato - chopped roughly
1 bunch of asparagus - buy the one which is thinner stalks, wash them in cold water, chop off the end 1/4th of throw away (The thicker white part). Chop the rest of it into 1-2 inches spear-lets.
1/2 tspn black pepper
salt
1 tspn chicken stock powder, optional, replace with any other kind of stock if you wish
1 cup milk
1 can corn, drained

1. Heat oil in a pan.
2. Add onions and garlic and saute till transluscent
3. Add potatoes and saute for 5 minutes
4. Add asparagus. Add around 4-5 cups hot water.
5. Add black pepper, salt, chicken stock, optionally add 1/2 tspn red chilli powder
6. Boil for 10 minutes or until everything is tender.
7. Blend this whole thing in a blender or an immersion blender along with half the can of corn.
8. Return to the pan adding the rest of the corn kernels. Add milk.
9. Let simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Asparagus and potatoes floating away

Asparagus Soup

Guilt-Free Banana Bread

2006-11-01T23:21:00.000-08:00

So I have said it a million times - I am a health-izer! I try to make every recipe healthy. To me the nutritional value of food takes higher priority over its presentation. For example, I wont add 1/2 a cup of oil to give a glossy-separated look, when only a tablespoon is enough.

So here is yet another of my own recipes. This time, a baked goody. The classic banana nut bread. Believe it or not.. it has no extra fat added to it!!! So it is as healthy as it can get. Also, I have fortified it with more fiber, by adding some whole wheat flour (sometimes I add oat flour instead).

This is a guilt-free dessert you can have to satisfy your sweet tooth cravings. I bake it once every few weeks and take it along with me for breakfast.

Guilt-free Grainy Banana Bread with Nuts and Raisins

This is my submission for Saffron Trail's WBB# 7: Baking for Breakfast

4 egg whites
1+ 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour OR oat flour [i use whole oats that i ground in my coffe grinder to make a flour out of it - use 1 cup whole oats to get 3/4 cup oat flour]
3/4 cup sugar
3 very ripe bananas, well-mashed
1.5 tspn baking powder
1 tspn salt
1/2 cup walnuts chopped
1/2 cup black raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9x5 bread loaf shaped pan with oil/butter/. This is the only fat that goes into the recipe.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites using a whisk / electric mixer. Add bananas to this and mix again.
3. Add sugar, baking powder, salt - mix well.
4. Add white flour, whole wheat/ oat flour. Stir well with spatula till all the batter is wet, dont over stir.
5. Stir in raisins and nuts
4. Pour this batter into the loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for around 50 minutes to an hour. Test with toothpick for checking if ready.
5. Run edges with a knife and take the loaf out on a cooling rack. Let sit for 10 minutes.
6. When not hot to touch, slice the bread. I put each slice into individual sandwich ziplocs, for easy portability to work for breakfast each week day!

Grainy Banana Bread with nuts and raisins

Dill Potatoes

2006-10-31T10:37:00.000-08:00

Dill is a really popular herb where I was brought up - in Russia. In fact it is the most popular green thing out there :-) I make a few russian things with it... the Borscht soup (ooh, lets put it on the menu for next week), sauted/steamed cabbages, russian dumplings Pelmeny. But had never seen it being used in Indian cuisine, though it is always sold in the Indian grocery stores out here in California. I figure some Indian cuisines do use it, maybe I never got exposed to it.

Here is my dill take on aloo-methi :)

Dill Potatoes

Another entry for Saffron Trail's WBB# 6: A Twist in the Plate

4 medium size white potatoes
1 big bunch of dill
1 tspn cumin seeds (jeera)
1 tspn rai seeds (looks like a smaller and red mustard seed)
pinch of hing
salt to taste
1/4 tspn turmeric powder (I go low on turmeric in my cooking)
red chilli powder to taste
1 tspn dhaniya-jeera powder (Coriander / cumin - coarsely ground in 1:1 ratio)
1 tablespoon canola oil

1. Boil the potatoes till tender but not mushy. Cool, peel, and cut into cubes.
2. Wash the dill bunch as is, hold the bundle from the thick stalks and keep chopping finely until you start reaching the thick stalks.
3. In a pan add the canola oil, heat it. Add hing, jeera and rai and let them dance around.
4. Then add the salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, dhaniya-jeera powder directly in the oil and stir for a minute
5. Add the potatoes, cook uncovered for 5 minutes, stir frying to get the browned up a little
6. Add the finely chopped dill leaves. Stir fry for 2-3 minutes.
7. Then sprinkle around 1/4 cup or less than that water and cover and cook for a little bit.

Potatoes with dill

Menu for the week of Oct 30 - Nov 4

2006-10-30T11:23:00.000-08:00

Me and my husband - we like to eat in on weekdays, and out on weekends. This way we get our share of nutritious healthy food, as well as get to have fun. Our weekday lunches are at work - I hit the salad bar, he hits the deli sandwiches. When both of you are working and still want to eat healthy yummy dinner at home, it needs planning. If you plan it out, you can get it right.
I have always been taking notes on my laptop in a Text file about whats the menu for this week, I usually do that either before or after grocery shopping, and mostly on Sundays. Now that I am in the world of blogging, I decided to make my menu planning public and share with all of you as well.

Monday Oct 30: (I have 1 hour 30 minutes to cook)
- Chicken 65 from Past Present and Me's blog
(already marinated the chicken yesterday, on Sunday)
- Mushroom and Peas sabzi
- Toor dal with green chillies and garlic
- Rice
- Also bake Banana Nut Bread for breakfast for the week
- Husband to cut apples and make Apple juice

Tuesday Oct 31: (I have 45 minutes to cook)
- Roasted indian style Tilapia from Towards a better tomorrow's blog
- Green bell peppers with Besan
- Potatoes with dill

Wednesday Nov 1: (No time to cook)
- Leftovers from Monday and Tuesday
- Husband to make fresh dal: sada varan
- Husband to make rice

Thursday Nov 2: (30 minutes to cook)
- Asparagus Soup
- Panini sandwiches with ham, cheese and basil
- Cut carrots and make carrot juice

Coconut pudding with split yellow peas

2006-10-29T23:42:00.000-08:00

I am not a big fan of coconut, in fact I really dont like it much. But, I have a sweet tooth, in fact 28 of them ;-) So coconut with sugar is totally acceptable to me !! But I like my sweets a little less sweet than the regular American or Indian fare.

Coconut Pudding with Split Yellow Peas

My entry to My Dhaba's Virtual Cooking Competition: VCC Q3 2006.

1/2 cup corn starch
1.5 cups cold water
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons split yellow peas (matar dal)
2/3 can of coconut milk
3 tablespoons milk

Corn Starch, Coconut milk, Split Yellow peas

1. Boil the split yellow peas tell tender-ish. Should not get mushy. When you pick out and eat one, it should still have a bite feel to it.
2. Mix corn starch with the cold water using a whisk in a stainless steel pan. When lump free, put it on medium heat. Keep stirring constantly.
3. Add sugar, coconut milk and regular milk.
4. After around 10-15 minutes of being on heat, it will start thickening up into a more transparent and glossy thing. Add the peas at this point, and keep stirring with a spoon now, as a whisk will not hold in this consistency any longer.
5. When it is at a spoonable consistency, spoon it out into a 1 inch thick layer into any container. I use the mini-muffin baking pan.
6. Referigerate for 2-3 hours.
7. Run a knife along the edge of each mould and the cocunut jewels will come out easily!

Coconut pudding jewels resting in their moulds

Coconut pudding with split yellow peas

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

2006-10-29T16:15:00.000-08:00

When I came across Saffron Trail's Weekend Breakfast Blogging #6 - WBB#6 - a Twist in the Plate, I thought a L O T !!! I had no clue what to make for it. I do a lot of changing of recipes, usually to make them healthier and more nutritious, but this needed something regular turned into something really not regular!

Ahh... and then I knew it... we have these "pancakes" at least twice a month at home for breakfast. Cottage Cheese pancakes. What better to submit for A Twist in the Plate than this dish.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

This is my submission for Saffron Trail's WBB# 6: A Twist in the Plate

1 big tub (approx. 500g) low-fat cottage cheese (I use the fruited ones - peach / pineapples)
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1/4 tspn of baking powder
pinch of salt
2 eggs (I use 1 full egg, and 1 egg white)
4 tablespoons white flour
3 tablespoons whole wheat flour (can replace this with regular flour too)

Yield: 8 small pancakes

Lowfat Pineapple Cottage Cheese

1. Mix all the ingredients other than the flours in one big bowl.
2. Keep adding the flour a couple of tablespoons at a time, and keep mixing. The consistency you want to reach is that of a lump that is coming together, and not liquid-y.
3. Heat a griddle on Medium High, and drizzle with canola oil.
4. Scoop out small pancake size thin dough and cook on that side for 2-3 minutes. Turn, cook on the other side for 1-2 minutes. These do turn more black than brown, but they dont taste burnt.
5. Serve with home made fruit preserves.

Sizzling on the griddle

Ready to serve

Ghutti Coffee

2006-10-27T12:18:00.000-07:00

When my sister (didi) and I were teenagers, back in Moscow, we used to have these "bhaiyas" visit often - a couple of times a month. These "bhaiyas" were college students in Moscow that Mom-Pop seemed to know somehow through their connections back in India. When they would come over, we would always have this Ghutti coffee (beaten up coffee). Really frothy and tastes so different from the regular coffee.

Ghutti Coffee

1 tspn Nescafe instant coffee granules
2 tspn sugar (adjust for your taste)
1 tablespoon warm water
1 cup milk (I use 1% low fat lactaid, if you are using higher fat milk then you might need to mix it with some water for better coffee consistency)

Instant Coffee and Sugar

1. Add coffee and sugar to a cup. Add the warm water and start stirring with a spoon vigorously. Keep stirring for a couple of minutes, the color of the mix will change to a light brown from a dark dark brown.

Coffee, stirred up - has changed its color to light brown

2. Heat milk in the microwave in a separate cup, and pour it from top into the stirred up coffee cup. Mix slowly so that froth retains itself.

Frothed ghutti coffee

Sweet Lassi

2006-10-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

me: "I have this urge"
him: "oh no, not again!"

me: "no, i really have this urge"
him: "to have sushi?"

me: "that too, but i really really want to have some sweet lassi"
him: "Yikes. I'll have some iced-tea."

Husband doesnt like Yogurt, unless it is in the form of Raita. I love yogurt so much that I go through the pains of making it at home (see previous post) just for myself! And I had made up a fresh batch of 1% low-fat yogurt just two days ago, and my senses were fresh with its aromas!!
So here I was, taking out of the referigerator, a new batch of yummy looking firm yogurt. I scoop through it, and it is heavenly.

Sweet Lassi

1 cup cold yogurt (I use home-made yogurt, made from 1% low-fat milk)
1/4 cup cold water
4 teaspoons sugar
pinch of cardamom powder (optional)

Blend it all together in a blender at low speed. Lassi is ready. Enjoy right away for the freshest taste!

Sweet lassi

Home-made Yogurt

2006-10-24T13:51:00.000-07:00

Since I left home back when I was 19, to pursue higher studies and venture out for a career, I have missed the smell, taste and texture of mom's home made yogurt. The flavors just arent the same, the way it feels in the mouth just isnt the same. I used to love any dry sabzi with rice and yogurt, but I seemed to have not tried that for a long long time.

Then I finally decided to give it a try. I thought how difficult can it be if Mom can do it :-) So the next time that I visited her in Toronto, I got back with me a bowlful of this sinfully yummy homemade yogurt from her - this would be my starter.

I made it a few of times, but then gave up, it seemed to be too much of a hassle to keep it in the oven with the light on, sometimes it would thicken up fine, sometimes it wouldnt. Maybe it wasnt warm enough! And then...

I researched online and found out that they have these things called yogurt incubators, which are a very dumb unit. Plug it into the electricity outlet, it just warms up inside to a slightly warm temperature. This helps maintain the temperature you need for the yogurt to set well. As simple as that! I leaped onto it and bought one from amazon a couple of years ago.

Salton yogurt maker

So I was back again experimenting with my yogurt making! I tried first with whole milk, as I wanted to get the technique right. Once... amazing results! Second... amazing results! Third... amazing results! I had reached "consistency"!

Those of you who know me well, will also know very well how much of a health-izer I am. I try to lighten recipes up all the time, and try to healthy and nutritious most of the times. So, of course I couldnt stick to whole milk. In fact, whole milk was on the grocery shopping list just because of the yogurt!

And then I got to 1% low fat milk. Thats what I always have at home for the husband. I am lactose intolerant so for me it is 1% Lactaid milk. But the funny thing is that yogurt doesnt seem to bother me, even though milk does.

Anywayz, I have been making yogurt at home from 1% regular milk for a long time now. And it has been going great. Here is how I do it...

1% Low-fat milk being used for yogurt

I use one of the regular store bought yogurt containers since they fit perfectly well in the Salton yogurt maker. In fact I tossed away the container that came with the maker. Make sure your container is really really clean, and make sure no remains of the foil cap is remaining on the edges, as the microwave will not take it well.

1. Plug in your Salton yogurt maker.
2. Pour around 3 to 4 cups of 1% low-fat milk in a yogurt container, and microwave for about 4 to 5 minutes. That is how long my microwave takes, but it is a low power one. The aim is to get it to a scalding but not boiling level.

Microwaving the milk in a clean store-bought-yogurt container

3. Take it out from the microwave, and stir occasionally.
4. Keep checking every 5 minutes what the temperature of the milk is like. No science here, or at least I don't use any. If you can comfortably hold your pinky in the milk for 4-5 seconds, then it is ready.
5. In a separate bowl, take 2-3 tablespoons of the yogurt from the previous batch (or borrow from a friend, or use store bought active culture yogurt as a starter), and smoothen it out stirring with a spoon. Add 1/2 cup of the milk from the other container to this and mix it up gently. Now add this yogurt mix into the rest of the heated up milk, and stir gently and thoroughly.
6. Now cover the lid of the yogurt container, and transfer it to the Salton yogurt maker which is already pre-heated. Cover the lid of the yogurt maker, and let it hang out overnight. I leave it for around 8 hours usually. The important thing is to not let the yogurt maker be disturbed, so it should be left in a less intrusive area of the room. My husband is over-pokey, so nights work best for my yogurt to set.
7. When done take the transfer carefully into the fridge, and leave it in the fridge until ready to use. This helps it get a little more firmer.

Note: The consistency of the home made yogurt, especially if made with 1% milk, might not be the same as what you have been used to if you are having store bought yogurt. Store bought yogurt is usually set with additives like gelatin (animal based thickener) or pectin (fruit based thickener), milk powder, etc.

Now we enjoy home-made low-fat yogurt whenever we want to. Will I try fat-free milk... nah! Low-fat is good enough :-) But yeah, next on my list is yogurt made from Lactaid..

A taste of Mediterranean

2006-10-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

After all the Indian food devoured over the weekend as a part of the Diwali festivities, we decided to take a break from Indian for today. So here I was, thinking about something nice and light, but still yummy. Nothing spicy, please!

I recalled the Noe Valley deli in San Francisco that husband (then-boyfriend) and I used to go to every weekend so so religiously and would order a big eggplant wrap, and a plate of majudarah with yogurt sauce. It was out of this world for a lazy weekend brunch.

So I stopped by on the way back from work at the Aladdin mediterranean deli/store in Foster City to get some greek yogurt sauce and some eggplant moussaka. But I left the Majudarah to be made at home.

Majudarah

3 medium sized onions, vertically sliced into semi-circles
1 cup lentils, soaked overnight
3/4 cup basmati rice, soaked for 15 minutes
4.5 cups hot water
1/2 a cube of Knorr's beef bouillon (optional, or you can use chicken / vegetarian bouillon cube / stock. Be aware that stock / bouillon has some salt in its own, so watch for how much additional salt you add)
3 tspn salt
0.5 tspn black pepper
0.5 tspn red chilli powder
1 tspn dhaniya - jeera powder (corainder seeds and cumin seeds ground in 1:1 ratio in a coffee grinder)
0.5 tspn powdered roasted cumin seeds (bhuna jeera)
3 tablespoons olive oil

1. In a pan, heat the olive oil, and add onions. Saute for 15-20 minutes until browned up.
2. In the meantime, in another big pot, add the water, lentils, rice, and all the spicesm and the bouillon cube. Let boil on high uncovered.
3. When the lentil - rice combo is tender and the onions are done, stir the onions into the rice-lentil mix.
4. Ready to eat!

Rice, Lentils, Onion

Majudarah

Post-diwali comfort food

2006-10-22T22:23:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the big diwali menu. Today was diwali lunch at a friend's place. Usual stuff - ate too much, too much sugar in the system as well! So dinner was simple, light, nutritious, comfort food - my favorite Khichadi.

Split green mung dal Khichadi

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons split green mung dal (with husk still on)
1/2 cup minus 2 tablespoons basmati rice
4.5 cups water, heated
2 tspn salt
1 tspn dhaniya (coriander) - jeera (cumin) coarsely ground powder
0.5 tspn red chilli powder

1. Soak the dal and rice in water for 15 minutes.
2. Rinse and drain a few times
3. Put the dal, rice and all other ingredients, including water in a pressure cooker.
4. Pressure cook on medium high to high for 15 minutes. Turn off the flame, and let stay until steam cools off.
6. Serve in bowls topped with a little ghee.

Mung dal and rice, soaking

Delicious Khichadi, ready to eat

Diwali Menu

2006-10-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

So last weekend was Diwali, our first diwali since we got married back in May. We had a few diwalis together before, but this was the first since we had gained the status "married". So there I was, trying to recall our diwali menu back in the days when it was Mom's cooking feast. I came up with the following menu for our first special Diwali. It would be Pooris of course - any festive occasion was always marked by pooris, and being a health freak, pretty much now we make it at home only a couple of times a year! And for dessert, my new husband had already made up his mind - he wanted Sevain Kheer (vermicelli kheer/pudding). Now for the main dishes, I flipped through the pages of my memory and nailed down one dish that we couldnt have had Diwali without - "Poori wale Aloo" :-) And added dry Kala Chana to the menu that will go very well with the pooris.

Poori

3 cups durum wheat flour
1 tspn salt
1/2 tspn ajwain
warm water
2 tspn canola oil

For the dough:
1. In a big mixing bowl, mix together the flour, salt and ajwain.
2. Add to this 1 tspn of canola oil, and rub it into the dry flour mix with your clean hands.
3. Keep adding warm water in small quantites, and keep kneading the dough with your fingers and knuckles and fists until medium hard consistency and smoothness is reached.
4. At the end, put 1tspn of oil on your fingers, and do a final kneading.
5. Keep the dough covered until ready to make pooris, best after half an hour of keeping aside.

For turning dough into pooris:
1. Heat some canola oil on High heat in a small wok or in a pan that you can deep fry in.
2. Take small key lime sized balls of the dough, smoothen it out into a circle with your fingers and palm, and dip half of it in the heated oil, roll with a rolling pin into a circle.
3. Put it in the hot oil in the wok and deep fry, turning once in between to get both sides brown.
4. Take out with a slotted spoon to get as much oil out as possible, keep pooris on layers of kitchen tissue to absorb more of the oil out of it.

Note: Pooris reheat very well in a toaster, and taste nice and crisp and freshly made. So I usually make the whole batch of pooris in one go, and store the extra foiled up in the fridge, and reheat in the toaster for the next meal.

Freshly made pooris

Masaledar Kala Chana

For "Kanchaken" which is also "Navratri", our punjabi neighbors would call me and my sister (didi) to their place for lunch or after-school meal. On this day, the punjabi aunties get all the little girls (mind you, no boys) and feed them food. A typical meal for this day is pooris with Suji (semolina) halwa and these masaledar kale chane. A combination of sweet and spicy with the yummy pooris... Yummy!!!

This is one of my savory entries for JFI for Diwali.

1.5 cups dry kala chana
3 cups hot water
2 tspn salt
1 tspn jeera (cumin)
2 tspn chole masala (I use Everest brand)
2 tspn freshly ground coarse dhaniya (coriander seeds)- jeera (cumin) powder (I grind in 1:1 ratio in a coffee grinder and store for 3-4 months)
1.5 tspn red chill powder
1.5 tablespoon canola oil

1. Soak the kala chana in water overnight or at least for 6-8 hours. You can rush this process up by soaking in warm/hot water. They should puff up a little and come alive.
2. In a pressure cooker, boil the kala chana, water and salt for 20-30 minutes at medium high flame.
3. In a pan (I prefer a small diameter but deeper pan, versus a large diameter and shorter pan), add oil. When hot, add jeera, then add the chole masala, dhaniya-jeera powder, red chilli powder.
4. Stir for half a minute, then add the boiled chana with all its water directly into the pan.
5. Let this cook on medium high uncovered.
6. When most of the water is evaporated / absorbed, cover and cook.
7. Turn the stove off when there is around 2 - 3 tablespoons water still left, as this will get abosrbed by the chanas in the next 10 minutes anyways.
8. The end result will be dry chanas with masalas around them.
9. You can garnish with finely chopped cilantro leaves.

Dry Kala Chana

Poori wale Aloo

Yeah thats a wierd name for a dish, but thats what we have called them all along while growing up. They were a must at our house when pooris were being made! No festival is a festival without Pooris and poori wale aloo!

This is one of my savory entries for JFI for Diwali.

4 white potatoes boiled
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tspn jeera (cumin)
1 tspn rai (small reddish brown mustard seeds)
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
4 green chillies, finely chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
0.5 tspn red chilli powder
1/4 tspn turmeric powder
2 tspn salt
1.5 cups of water, heated

1. Peel the boiled potatoes and crush with your hands in small to medium sized pieces. Do NOT chop, just crush messily with your hands.
2. In a pan (use a small diameter and deeper pan versus a large diameter and shallower pan), add oil, let it heat.
3. Add jeera and rai, let it crackle.
4. Add ginger and green chillies.
5. When brownish, add tomatoes and fry till they most of the water is gone.
6. Add salt, turmeric powder and red chilli powder and stir.
7. Add in the potatoes and fry for 2-3 minutes with the tomato mix.
8. Add the hot water and let it all boil for 10-15 minutes on medium flame.
9. Garnish with finely chopped cilantro.

Poori wale aloo

Sevain Kheer

Sevain is vermicelli that you get in the Indian stores. When we were little, we used to call this "line wali kheer". Still enjoy it as much as I used to back then!!

This is my "sweet" entry for JFI for Diwali.

1/2 cup vermicelli
1 tspn ghee
1/2 gallon 2% reduced fat milk
1/4 cup raisins (golden / black , any will do)
1/4 cup almonds, sliced finely
1 cup sugar
1/2 tspn cardamom powder

1. In a heavy bottom stainless steel pot, add all of the milk and let it boil on medium high for 15-20 minutes.
2. In another pan, heat ghee. Add to it the vermicelli and stir till it is reddish brown, about 1o minutes on medium high flame.
3. Add this vermicelli to the milk. Add sugar, the cardamom powder and the almonts and raisins.
4. Keep cooking on medium and medium-high heat for around an hour. Dont stir too often, stir when you see cream settling down at the top, this makes the kheer thicker.
5. Final result will be around 1/2 or 1/3 the amount of milk you used initially. The kheer will also have turned to the color of a latte.

Note: I usually do not have cardamom powder at home, so I subsititute this with the chai masala, and it tastes wonderful, no worries :)

Sevain Kheer

Inspired

2006-10-20T16:27:00.000-07:00

It seems that for the past many years I have been trying hard to find a way to organize all the recipes that I have tried and liked. Not just organizing, but sharing these with my mom, my sister and my friends. I had gone through cycles of installing and eventually getting frustrated with various recipe software as well!

Off late I was getting a lot of cooking ideas from recipes from various blogs. I figured, it was high time to try this world of food blogging as a way to not just organize my recipes but to share them with the world as well!!

So voila, here I am, inspired by various aromas and flavors I experience.