Edible Garden

Mullangi Sambar / Radish Sambar Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:00:00 +0000

A trip to Little India is always much looked forward to, especially because of the fresh and cheap 'Indian' vegetables that are available in every nook and corner of the place. A typical trip to Little India will comprise of a 1-hour long elbowing through the grocery section of Mustafa, a good Indian dinner at Murugan Idli Kadai, Anjappar or one of those super-crowded Indian restaurants in Little India.

The last time we went, I saw some freshly dug up radishes in the Indian vegetable store (this pic was taken 3 days after the shopping day so the shoots have wilted) and I had to buy them. I was thinking mooli paratha when I bought some, but the moment TH saw them, he said "ahh, we can have some nice mullangi sambar tomorrow!"

So mullangi sambar it was! Check out the lovely patterns on the radish pieces, they are so pretty!

Sambar is a very popular South Indian dish that is primarily toor dal and tamarind pulp and sambar powder (a blend of spices, sambar powder recipe here). Depending on what vegetable(s) you add to it, the flavour changes. In Kerala, there is only one kind of sambar because we believe in using mixed vegetables in it and this joins the other curries and theeyals that we keep rotating through the week.

In Tamil Nadu, the story is entirely different since sambar is often made on a daily basis and the vegetables rotated for some variation. Arachuvitta sambar is one of those variations that also has coconut added for a kick.

This is the first time I am making and tasting mullangi sambar and let's just say the radish added a lovely flavour to the versatile sambar!

Mullangi Sambar / Radish Sambar Recipe
Preparation time: 30-40 mins
Serves: 4

What I Used:

1 cup toor dal
2 white radishes, cut into 1" thick discs
8-10 shallots / pearl onions (or 1 red onion cut into chunks)
1 lime-sized ball of tamarind
1 tbsp sambar powder
1 generous pinch of hing / asafoetida / perungaayam
1 pinch of turmeric powder
1/4 tsp sugar or 1/2 tsp grated jaggery

For tempering:

1 tbsp oil or ghee
A few curry leaves
2 shallots/pearl onions cut into long slivers
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp jeera / jeerakam / cumin seeds

How I Made It:

1. Pressure cook the toor dal with 2 cups water, the radish pieces and pearl onions for 3 whistles. Make sure that you regulate the cooking time depending on your cooker because otherwise the radish will get mushy and mix with the dal. Mine's an ooold cooker so no risk of that ;)

2. Soak the tamarind in 1/2 cup warm water for 10 mins and extract the juice, discarding the pulp.

3. Once the pressure leaves the cooker, open and add the tamarind juice, turmeric, hing and sambar powder. Bring to boil on a medium flame, stirring gently just to mix the ingredients. If the sambar seems too thick at this point, add some water.

4. Let the sambar boil for about 7 - 10 mins until it all comes together and switch off fire.

5. Heat the oil/ghee for tempering and add all other ingredients. Once the mustard pops and the shallots turn a light brown, remove from fire and add to the sambar. Mix well.

6. Optionally, you can garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves. This changes the flavour of the sambar and takes it in a different direction :)

Serve hot with steamed rice and appalam/vadaam.

Giveaway for Picking Favourite Recipes!

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:32:00 +0000

Actually, the title says it all! I am getting a bit stuck with what new recipes to post. I know Edible Garden is far from being a comprehensive database of any one category of recipes but I keep getting different feedback from all of you, mostly good. I know you guys love step-by-step recipes and I know some of you would love to see more bachelor-friendly recipes. Microwave recipes is another category I haven't ventured into.

So just to give some direction to my thoughts here, I'd like to take your help. For your effort, I have this.

I only have three words to describe how this smells. Heav-en-ly! There words - three syllables - all the same! ;)

What you need to do:

1. Pick out three favourite recipes from this site and list them out in the comments section.

2. Tweet about this giveaway. Here's what you need to say:-

Pick 3 fave recipes and win B&BW Body Lotion! @bindya909 and link to this post.

3. Link from your latest blog post to this post with the words - Pick 3 fave recipes and win B&BW Body Lotion on Edible Garden!

If you do all the three above, then you will be counted thrice for the raffle! I will ship worldwide.

Contest ends Friday, November 6th, 2009 - 12:00 midnight Singapore time.

Looking forward to being reminded of some old recipes in here and curious to see what recipes make you happy :)

Prize sponsored by Nags

Potatoes in Red Coriander Sauce Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:59:00 +0000

This is a quick and easy Potato Recipe from Complete Indian Cooking by Mridula Baljekar, et al. I have tried quite a few recipes from this book with good success and this one was a must-try for two reasons.

1. Its the simplest recipe in the book!

2. It has the least number of ingredients and still looks so good.

Actually, there's one more reason: I love coriander. I hardly ever use coriander seeds in anything other than vatha kozhambu and the like but this recipe calls for whole coriander seeds. The flavour was delightful.

Potatoes in Red Coriander Sauce
Serves: 2
Preparation time: 15-20 mins
Source: Complete Indian Cooking by Mridula Baljekar, et al.

What I Used:

A dozen baby potatoes (or 3 potatoes, cubed)
1.5 tsp coriander seeds / malli
1.5 tsp cumin seeds / jeera / jeerakam
4 garlic cloves
3 tbsp thick tamarind juice (or 1 tbsp readymade tamarind paste)
1 pureed tomato (or chopped fine)
A few curry leaves
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp oil
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves / kothamalli to garnish

How I Made It:

1. Boil the potatoes in water until they are cooked yet not mushy. You can pressure cook for 1 whistle to make the job easier.

2. Grind the coriander seeds with the cumin seeds and garlic cloves to a coarse paste using a pestle and mortar or your small mixie jar.

3. Heat oil in a pan and add the ground paste with the tamarind juice, tomato puree, curry leaves, salt and sugar. Lower fire to medium-low and cook until the oil separates (about 7-10 mins)

4. Add the potatoes and stir well until coated with the sauce. Cover and simmer for about 5 mins. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot.

Note

- Instead of using whole coriander and cumin seeds, their powders can also be used. This will help you avoid the grinding, although the flavour will change a bit. It still tastes good, I have tried it both ways :)

Its been ages since I sent entries to any events so I am glad this fits in perfectly with Sunita's Think Spice event hosted by Priya, this month featuring coriander seeds.

Masala Kuzhi Paniyaram Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:00:00 +0000

I thought I had posted this recipe yesterday but looks like I was dreaming while working - again! Anyway, here it is, my quick fix masala paniyaram recipe that gets made each time I have leftover dosa maavu. Originally part of the Chettinad Cuisine, its quick to prepare, easy and a very nice snack for evening tiffin. I love Chettinad recipes! Their love for food shows in their recipes, I feel.

You will need a paniyaram chatti/aebleskiver pan to make this, unfortunately, so if you don't have one yet, please do something to fix the situation ASAP.

Masala Kuzhi Paniyaram Recipe
Preparation time: 15 mins

What I Used:

Dosa/idli batter - 3 cups
Onion - 1, minced
Green chillies - 2, sliced round
Halved urad dal/split black gram/ulutham paruppu/uzhunnu parippu - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 pinch (I add it for the colour)
Hing/asafoetida/kaayam - a generous pinch
Greated coconut - 1 tbsp (optional)
Curry leaves - a few, torn into small pieces (optional)
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 to 3 tbsp

How I Made It:

1. Mix all ingredients except oil into the dosa batter.

2. Heat the paniyaram chatti and add 3-4 drops oil into each hole. Once it heats, add spoonfuls of batter into each hole until its more than 3/4th full. Let it cook until the bottom is browned and crisp.

3. Turn over and cook the other side. Make sure that the stove is at medium-low so that the inside also gets cooked without burning the outside.

4. Once both sides are brown and crisp, drain on a kitchen napkin.

Serve hot with chutney and hot tea/coffee.

Thakkali Muringakka Aviyal Recipe / Tomato and Drumsticks in Coconut

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:00:00 +0000

I don't know if this a common Kerala recipe but ever since I can remember amma has been making this a quick side dish for Chicken Biryani. Her rationale is, biryani is intense and doesn't have coconut and any Malayali should know that we always pair curries with coconut and without coconut together, to balance the flavours.

Amma sent me the recipe through my uncle who typed it out while she listed the things to be done. The picture was taken in Kottayam when I was there this August and amma made it, not me :)

Thakkali Muringakka Aviyal Recipe

Source: My mom

Preparation time: 30 mins

What Is Needed:

4 tomatoes, sliced into six long pieces

1 drumstick / muringakka, cut into 3" pieces

1/2 cup grated coconut

12 peeled shallots / chinna vengaayam / cheriya ulli

2 flakes garlic

1/4 tsp jeera / cumin seeds / jeerakam

1 tsp red chilly powder

A few curry leaves

1/4 tsp mustard seeds / kaduku

1 tbsp oil (preferably coconut oil)

How Its Made:

1. Add the chopped drumstick to about 1 cup water with with some salt and the chilly powder. Keep on a medium flame and cook until soft. The mixture shouldn't be too watery, so if it is, boil some more on a low flame.

2. To this, add the cut tomatoes and cook some more until the tomatoes begin to soften.

3. Grind together - coconut + jeera + garlic to a coarse paste.

4. Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add the shallots and curry leaves. Fry for about 2 mins, until the shallots soften.

5. Next, add the ground coconut paste and fry for another 1 min. To this, add the drumstick and tomatoes. Mix well. Simmer for 2-3 mins until well combined. Adjust salt.

Serve hot with steamed white rice or chicken biryani.

Condensed Milk Pound Cake - Step by Step Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Its Friday and I am quite exhausted. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind at work and I haven't been able to do things outside of it as much as I'd have liked to. But let's talk about some condensed milk goodness and work on the stress, shall we?

I can't begin to talk about how much I love condensed milk. When I was small, I used to add it to toast, dip plain vanilla cake in it, top my cupcakes with it, have it with roti, dosa, you name it! Even now, I almost always have a tin of condensed milk in the pantry, ready to get added to anything that takes my fancy.

That's a lot of talk for a tired girl so on to the recipe now. This condensed milk pound cake clearly won over a fool-proof one banana-banana bread I made recently, in this poll, so on to the recipe, one step at a time.

As always, a dish of the final good stuff. There's a reason why my cake looks a bit dense and hole-y. More about that in a bit.

Let's the flour first. 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour or maida.

Add that into a sieve with 3/4 tsp baking powder.

Sieve about thrice until the baking powder and the flour are well combined.

Bring together the sieved flour from all four corners of the paper. Yes, that's the paper we get every morning. TH and I can totally read Mandarin (not!).

Next, we need 1 cup powdered sugar. I used brown sugar but white will work just fine. Add this to a bowl.

Top this off with 1 cup soft butter. I slightly melted it because I forgot to keep it out before baking but butter at room temperature is what we need here.

Beat the butter-sugar mixture well using an electric beater for 2 mins until fluffy. If using hand, beat well for about 5 mins.

Open the milkmaid can. Lick off the excess on your fingers, smell it, lick some more. Come on, I insist.

Once you are done with the above, measure out 1 cup of it and add it to the butter-sugar mixture.

Beat for another 2 mins (or 5 mins by hand).

Break 2 eggs in another bowl and whisk for 2 mins using a fork. Set aside.

Add the whisked butter-sugar-condensed milk mixture to the flour mixture with one pinch salt. Mix until just combined.

Top it off with the whisked egg. Combine gently without beating.

Add 1 tsp vanilla essence to the batter and swirl around a few times.

There we have our batter.

Pour into to a greased loaf pan or cake tin.

All set to go into the oven. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for about 30 mins until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

The top will turn golden brown and the cake will rise to almost double the amount of batter.

Ok, now the story of my cake. I forgot to set my oven temp to 180C so the cake baked in a really hot 220C oven for 30 mins and the sides started burning while the center was still fudgy. I had to take it out at that time so the cake wasn't as soft as it can be.

Still, this was one good cake, have to say!

Here's the recipe, all in one place.

Condensed Milk Pound Cake
Recipe adapted from here.
Makes an 8" square cake or one standard sized loaf

What I Used:

11/3 cups all purpose flour or maida
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 scant cup powdered sugar (I used a little over 3/4 cup)
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2 eggs
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essense
1 pinch salt

How I Made It:

1. Sieve the flour and baking powder until well combined. You can also whisk it well in a bowl until combined, if you don't have a sieve.

2. Beat butter and sugar together until soft and fluffy - 5 mins by hand, 2 mins by electric beater. Then add the condensed milk and repeat for the same time, until well combined.

3. Whisk eggs in a bowl for 2 mins with a fork and set aside.

4. Add the flour to the butter-sugar-condensed milk mixture and mix until just combined without beating too hard.

5. Add the eggs, vanilla essence and salt and combine well again.

6. Transfer to a greased cake tin or loaf pan and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C/325F for 30-35 mins. Insert a toothpick at the center to test if the cake is done.

7. Cool, slice and serve.

A bunch of us are having some fun on the Edible Garden fans page on Facebook where I occasionally treat members to some giveaways. Want to join us? Click here!

Paneer Butter Masala: Restaurant-Style Recipe - Step by Step

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:00:00 +0000

Let's talk about Paneer Butter Masala today. Not just any kind, the kind that you get in Indian restaurants. Why? Well, I've already posted the Paneer Butter Masala Recipe I usually make, long back. Its also one of the most popular recipes on this site for two reasons:

- since its a popular Indian dish, a lot of people have tried it from my site and sent me feedback.

- this is the only recipe that has received as many good feedback as disappointing feedback.

Most people said this or a variation of this - "I tried your paneer butter masala recipe today. It came out nicely, I did everything you mentioned but it didn't come out like the one we had in that North Indian restaurant last weekend and my husband/wife/mom/dad/sibling loved! Help!"

I guess they found my Paneer Butter Masala Recipe too homely!

In most Indian restaurants, dishes are more creamy and have thicker gravy. The reason is very simple - they use cream. They use it as the base of every dish you order and it may make the dish arguably tastier. This is not hard to whip at home provided you have no qualms about adding that bit of cream and kicking up the amount of oil a notch.

So here it is, my second Paneer Butter Masala Recipe, like they serve in Indian restaurants!

Oh did I mention its going to be step-by-step? Also, a huge thanks to my cousin Divya for giving me the basic recipe. Ok here goes, a picture of the final dish.

I'd say the only thing that's different from this dish and the one you get in Indian restaunts is the difference in the colour. That's because they add red food colour and I didn't.

Ok, let's get started.

Add 2 tbsp oil to a hot pan and swirl around until the base of the pan is well coated.

Add in cubed paneer pieces.

(Sidenote: Let's please pretend these are paneer pieces 'cuz its actually tofu. I was out of paneer and couldn't go all the way to get some. Also, it tastes as good with tofu, trust me!)

Lightly fry the paneer cubes until golden brown on all sides.

Drain and set aside on a plate lined with a paper napkin.

Add 1tbsp oil to the same pan and thrown 1 medium-sized chopped onion.

Fry until golden brown. To this, add 1 tbsp freshly minced ginger-garlic paste. (Ok fine, use your bottled paste, it just doesn't taste as good)

Fry for a minute.

To this, add 1 tbsp dhania powder/malli podi, 1 tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp garam masala and 1/2 tsp salt. Fry for 30 seconds until the masalas are well combined.

Next you need 1 tbsp tomato paste. I used the same kind I used for the Tomato Spinach Pulao. If you don't have tomato paste handy, just puree 1 medium-sized tomato and add it at this stage.

Next we need tomato ketchup or tomato sauce, the bottled Maggi/Heinz kind. Add in an almost-1tbsp of this.

Bring out your kasuri methi next. A generous pinch of this needs to go in.

(This picture makes my heart break, btw. The focus should've been on the kasuri methi but its actually on the blob of tomato sauce in the pan. Well, I took only one shot and my hands were smeared with oil and ketchup and I had to balance.. oh never mind!)

To this mixture, add 1/2 cup milk. Mix well and cook covered for about 5 minutes on low fire.

Meanwhile, bring out the secret ingredient for making restaurant-style paneer butter masala (or any Indian curry for that matter). CREAM!

I used Nestle cream but if you have fresh cream, please oh please use that. Just open the can and set aside or get your fresh cream ready.

Once the tomato sauce mixture has cooked covered for 5 mins, open and add the fried paneer.

Top this off with 1 cup cream. Mix well and simmer on low fire for 3-4 mins. Adjust salt.

The recipe again, all in one place.

Paneer (or Tofu) Butter Masala: Restaurant Style Recipe

What I Used:

Paneer/tofu - 1 block, approx. 2 cups of cubes
Onion - 1 medium-sized one, chopped fine
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Dhania powder/malli podi/Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Tomato paste- 1 tbsp (or 1 tomato, pureed)
Tomato sauce/ketchup - almost 1 tbsp
Kasuri methi/dried fenugreek leaves - 1 generous pinch
Milk - 1/2 cup
Cream - 1 cup
Oil - 3 tbsp
Salt - to taste

How I Made It:

1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and fry the paneer/tofu cubes until golden brown. Drain and set aside.
2. In the same pan, add 1 more tbsp oil and fry the onions until golden brown.
3. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute.
4. Next, add the dhania, garam masala, chilli powder and some salt. Fry for 30 seconds.
5. To this, add the tomato paste/puree, tomato sauce and kasuri methi. Mix well and add the milk.
6. Lower fire and cook covered for 5 mins.
7. Open lid, add the fried paneer/tofu and the cream. Mix well and simmer for 3-4 mins.
8. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves if you have any.

Serve warm with rotis/pulao/jeera rice.

Its yummy, no doubt. Probably not something you want to make every weekend but its good when you entertain guests and people end up having only 2-3 spoons of one dish anyway. Its also a good recipe to "wow" your non-Indian friends.

Because when they Paneer Butter Masala, this is what they expect!

The 'Fans' Giveaway Winners

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:40:00 +0000

I am so late to post this that I am too embarrassed to even come up with an excuse. All I can say is, I drew an extra winner and hope this makes up in a way for the delay.

Thanks for being so awesome to me nevertheless. Here are the winners and here's what they won!

Susan Cherian

Mrinalini Chakrabarty

Emma Jackson

Valar Mathi

Winners, please send me your postal address with phone number (preferably mobile number) to naagu.v@gmail.com.

Thanks a ton for joining me on Facebook. There will be another giveaway as soon as I come up with a nice gift :) Until then!

Sweet Corn in Rich Onion Sauce - Step by Step Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:44:00 +0000

I took this picture recently.

Yes, I take all the pictures for this site but this one is easily the most delicious looking, according to me. If you don't agree, its because you don't know how good this dish tastes, so let's do something about that, shall we?

2 corn cobs from the super market and I was good to go.

First step is to chop them up corn cobs into 1" long pieces. I want to be honest with you here - you need a mighty sharp knife for this. I only have wuss-knives and it was a very tough task. I did the best I could and then shaved the rest of the corn off the cob. That will get added to the sauce gravy. Nice, eh?

Speaking of the sauce, let's get started with that. Chop up 2 large onions, 2 pods garlic and a 2" piece of ginger and throw them into the mixer.

Grind to a coarse paste like so.

To this, add 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp jeera (cumin), 1 tsp red chilli powder, 1/2 tsp onion seeds (optional, cuz I didn't have any!), 1/2 tsp sugar and 6-8 curry leaves.

Something about the above picture makes me smile. I think its those fresh curry leaves. Fresh curry leaves always make me smile.

Mix well. If you are anything like me, you would smell this mixture before keeping it aside. Go ahead, do just that!

Heat about 1 cup oil in a pan.

Gently place the corn pieces in the hot oil. Take care not to splash oil on yourself. It burns!

Turn and fry the other side, until its golden brown all over.

Drain and set aside. (Sidenote: using steel ladles on your non-stick cookware and taking a picture with your right hand while dealing with hot stuff with your left is to be done at your own risk. )

When the oil has cooled down a bit, remove the excess. We want only about 1 tbsp oil for the sauce.

Start up the stove again and when the oil heats up, add the mixed onion-spices paste.

Fry for 8-10 mins and then add the shaved corn pieces. (An extra step because I don't have sharp knives in the house - refer above). Mix well.

Now add the fried corn cobs.

Lower fire to minimum and top it off with 1 cup scant curd/yogurt. I added 1/2 cup water to 1/2 cup curd and beat well before adding (make sure your heat is at low and you use scant yogurt, otherwise the mixture will curdle and that will just not be a good thing to happen at this stage!)

Let it simmer on a low fire for 2-3 mins. Add salt and mix well before removing from fire.

Its absolutely yummy. If you like corn, this is super delicious - hot and sweet!

Here's the recipe again, all in one place.

Sweet Corn in Rich Onion Sauce
Recipe Source: Complete Indian Cooking by Mridula Baljekar, etc.
Serves: 2

What I Used:

2 corn cobs
2 large onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves
A 2" piece ginger
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp onion seeds (optional)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp chili powder
6-8 curry leaves
1/2 tsp sugar
1 cup scant yogurt
Oil
Salt

How I Made It:

1. Cut corn cob into 1" pieces.
2. Grind onion, garlic and ginger.
3. To the above, mix in the spices, curry leaves and sugar.
4. Heat 1 cup oil and fry corn pieces until golden brown. Remove excess oil and fry the onion paste mixture until oil separates (8-10 mins). Add the shaved corn pieces and the fried corn cobs. Mix well.
5. Lower heat and fold in the curd/yogurt. Simmer for 2-3 mins. Add salt and remove from fire.

This may be a good combination with roti. Or maybe even rice. We have no idea because we ate it as is. We bit into the juicy corn and licked the sauce until the plate was clean.

Since this is just not any other dish, it seems like a good entry to Hb's event. Some interesting recipes are sure to show up on her blog very soon!

Giveaways and Gratitude

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:27:00 +0000

Earlier this year, I created a fan page on Facebook for Edible Garden. The main reason is because I saw so many people becoming fans of so many websites/people/places/products and I wondered if this little site of mine should also have one. So I created one and then duly forgot about it.

Recently, a good friend of mine nudged me back into reviving it, and I did. One huge advantage is that this way, I needn't spam all my friends with food and recipe updates - I can do that to just the 'fans' of Edible Garden - other food crazy people like me :)

Current stats say Edible Garden has 181 'fans'. To me, that's a huge number and it makes me blush and stammer and feel all proud of myself and this lil space of mine.

To celebrate, I am giving away one of my favourite things in the world - perfumed candles! The ones I have come in small boxes with a lid and this time, I have three of them to giveaway. All those who don't like these cute little things that smell divine and light up your house, raise your hands. Yep, that's what I thought!

All you need to do to enter is be a fan of Edible Garden on Facebook. That's right, this is exclusively for those special people in there, with a warm hug and a thank you from me.

Its not too late to join in, justfollow this link right here.

I will be randomly picking three winners on Monday, Sept 28th at 10:00pm Singapore time. I will ship these beauties globally so let's get started shall we?

Baingan Bharta - Recipe with Grilled Eggplant & Spices

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:38:00 +0000

I don't what it is about Punjabi recipes that is so alluring. Both TH and I, though born South Indians, have a huge affinity towards North Indian food. His favourite meal of all times would be garlic naan and palak paneer (which he orders in every Indian restaurant we every go to!) and I love my khadis, and khichdis and paneer butter masala too.

This is another recipe I'd been meaning to try forever. I had bookmarked a lot of variations from different sources but ended up making it my way. The ingredients list is basically the same across all baingan bharta recipes I saw online but I largely adjusted the amount of spices to suit our taste. Please be mindful of that when you try our your version.

Baingan Bharta Recipe
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 15mins grilling eggplant + 45mins for chopping and cooking

What I Used:

1 eggplant, grilled on stove top/oven
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 medium onions, chopped fine
3 green chillies (adjust to taste, I used Indian green chillies)
1 tsp minced ginger
1/2 tsp minced garlic (optional)
1 tsp of Kashmiri chilli powder (for the deep red colour. If using ordinary red chilli powder, please be mindful of the extra heat)
1 tbsp coriander powder / malli podi
1 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp oil
1 lime wedge
Fresh coriander leaves for garnish
Salt

How I Made It:

1. Grill the eggplant, cool, peel, mash and set aside.

2. Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds. Once they sizzle, add the chopped onions, green chillies, ginger and garlic with a pinch of salt.

3. When the onions turn pink (don't brown it too much), add the garam masala, coriander powder, turmeric and chilli powder. Fry for 10 seconds and then add the chopped tomatoes. Mix well and cook covered for about 10 mins, stirring once or twice in between.

4. Once the tomatoes are cooked soft, add the mashed grilled eggplant and mix well. Adjust salt and let it simmer for 5-7 mins, stirring occasionally.

5. Remove from fire. Squeeze some lime juice and mix well. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot with rotis/phulkas/jeera rice.

This has become our favourite side dish with phulkas. If it didn't take this long for the eggplant to grill + make the baingan bharta, we would have this for dinner every other day.

How to Grill an Eggplant (Stove Top Method)

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:54:00 +0000

I don't own a grill. The grill where you can do your barbeques and make paneer tikka and garlic bread? Yeah, I don't have that. Not even an anti-social sized one that helps me make portions enough for two. And before you ask, no, my microwave does not come with a grill.

But, does that stop me from grilling? Hell no! Being a self-confessed eggplant lover, how can I not grill it and make those yummy grilled eggplant recipes?

So I got an eggplant one Saturday.

It was nice and fresh and fat when I bought it on this particular Saturday. Unfortunately, I didn't use it for a whole week and when I took it out the next Saturday morning, it had slightly begun to wilt and rot at the stalk. Just slightly though.

That's ok. Just chop off a bit from the stalk part and place it on a plate.

Stick a thick wooden skewer or slim spoon or something similar through the middle of the cut portion.

Take 1 tsp oil and coat the eggplant well. Go on, don't be a wuss and use your hand to do the oil massage.

Switch on your stove and keep it on low fire. Hold the wooden skewer firmly and place the oiled eggplant near the fire. Keep rotating slowly making sure all the sides get even heat.

The skin will being to shrivel and the skin starts getting charred. Make sure no sides burn by evenly distributing the heat.

Place on a plate and let it cool a bit.

Peel the charred skin and remove completely. The resulting eggplant meat will be soft, semi-cooked and very fragrant because of the stove-top grilling.

We can make a bunch of interesting stuff with grilled eggplant. Watch this space for the recipes :)

Khadi Pakora / Kadhi Pakoda Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:00:00 +0000

I like dumplings in gravies. Its nice to have a curry base and have these cute balls floating in it. This goes for anything, actually, and Punjabi Khadi Pakora has been in my head since forever. I had bookmarked the recipe on many sites but finally ended up making an adapted version from Nita Mehta's Punjabi Recipes book, the same one I made the Paneer Peas Curry from.

Since a lot of you may feel this is a bit of work, I took step-by-step pictures. Its not that difficult actually. The recipe has two distinct sections - making the khadi and making the pakoras. Let's make the pakoras first.

Take 1.5 cups of besan in a bowl.

Add 1 finely chopped onion of medium size.

Then add 1 finely chopped potato. I used my chopper that I used in the Gobi Paratha Recipe to chop the onion and potato so fine but you can do it by hand too, just takes longer.

Throw in 1 tsp red chilly powder, 1 tsp jeera, salt and a pinch of hing.

Next comes baking powder. This helps to make the pakoras crisp. You can avoid this but use it if you have it.

Almost done. Add in 1 cup water.

And mix well to get a batter of dropping consistency. Make sure the batter is not too lose.

I used my spanking new paniyaram chatti / aebleskiver pan to fry the pakoras. You can also deep fry them in a kadai by dropping them in using a spoon.

Excuse the super bright pic! Its my kitchen light :D So, the paniyaram chatti is nice to use for mainly two reasons. You use very little oil in the process, especially if the chatti is non stick and also, the pakoras come out very uniformly shaped.

See, nicely browned and very pretty. Set them aside on a kitchen napkin.

Now for the khadi.

Take 2 cups of curd / plain yogurt in a bowl.

Add 1/3 cup besan to the curd.

Throw in 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp red chilly powder and salt. Mix well.

Add 1 cup water to this mixture.

Mix well and get ready to temper this.

For tempering, heat 2 tsp oil in a kadai. Add 1 tsp jeera and 1 red chilly torn into pieces.

When the jeera splutters and turns brown, lower the fire to sim and add the curd mixture. Mix well for about 5 mins until the khadi thickens. Adjust salt. Set aside.

Add the pakoras to the khadi just before serving. Garnish with coriander leaves and some red chilly powder.

Here's the recipe again, all in one place.

Punjabi Khadi Pakora Recipe
Source: Nita Mehta's Punjabi Recipes
Serves: 4 as a side
Preparation time: 45 mins

For the Khadi:

2 cups curd / plain yogurt
1 cup water
1/3 cup besan / kadala maavu / gram flour
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilly powder

For tempering:
1 red chilly, broken into half
1 tsp jeera
2 tsp oil
Salt

For the Pakoras:

1.5 cups besan / kadala maavu / gram flour
1 onion, finely chopped
1 potato, finaly chopped
1 tsp red chilly powder
1 tsp jeera
A pinch of hing
1/2 tsp baking powder
Salt
1 cup water

How I Made It:

1. Mix the ingredients for the pakoras to form a batter. The consistency should be that of bajjis, not too loose.

2. Deep fry the pakoras in hot oil or use a paniyaram chatti / aebleskiver pan. This should help reduce the usage of oil and give you uniformly shaped pakoras.
Set aside.

3. Beat the curd well. Add besan and other ingredients and beat well.

4. Heat oil and add the jeera and halved red chilly. When the jeera splutters and turns brown, lower heat to minimum and add the curd mixture. Bring to boil stirring continuously. After 5 mins, remove from fire.

5. When you are ready to serve the kadhi, add the dumplings, mix once through and serve.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve with chapatis / roti.

Fortified Curd Rice Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:33:00 +0000

The most striking thing about being married to a Tamil Brahmin is the addition of curd rice to my daily diet. TH cannot do without at least a spoonful of curd rice at the end of each meal, if we are having rice and curry. He is not very particular about rasam and is fine if I make only one kozhambu and two side dishes but curd is not subject to compromises, ever!

So I always have a good amount of curd in the fridge and proceed to make the next bowl if the current one is depleting. This is extra-advantageous after a long day at work and neither of us feel up to cooking or going out for dinner.

I don't find just curd and rice with pickles a justifiable meal because I feel it doesn't have even nutrition, comforting as it is. So I have a 'fortified' version adding as much vegetables as can be eaten raw.

Here's my standard version that I stick to more or less each time we have only curd rice for dinner.

Fortified Curd Rice
Serves: 2
Preparation time: 15 mins

What I Used:
4 cups cooked rice
1 cup thick curd / plain yogurt
Half cup or so water
1 grated carrot
1/4 cup grated cucumber
1/2 tsp grated ginger
A bunch of fresh coriander leaves, chopped fine
A pinch of salt

For tempering:
2 tsp oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp urad dal / ulutham paruppu
A pinch of hing / asafoetida / perungaayam
2 red chillies, torn into small pieces

How I Made It:

1. Mash the rice with a potato masher. Add the curd and water and mix well.
2. To this, add the chopped coriander and grated vegetables and mix well.
3. Heat oil in a pan and add the ingredients for tempering. When the mustard seeds pop, remove from fire and add to the rice. Mix well with salt.

If the consistency is too thick, add some more water / curd. If you keep this for long, the rice will absorb the water and make it thick, so adjust accordingly.

Isn't this so much nicer and prettier than normal boring curd rice? ;)

Vegetarian Burger - Step by Step Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:53:00 +0000

TH: "I miss the Mc Aloo Tikki and Paneer Burgers in McDonalds back home. Here, there's no way for us to get vegetarian burgers unless we ask them to remove the patty and eat the burger bun with cheese and lettuce. Damn!"

Nags: "Ok don't fuss. I will make you a burger at home. Its not that hard."

TH: "Ah! Ok, tell me what all stuff we need for it"

Nags: Here's the list of things we need to serve 2 people.

Vegetarian Burgers

4 burger buns
A box of baby greens
4 cheese slices or shredded cheddar cheese
2 tbsp mayo (any kind)
Half an onion, cut into rings
One tomato, sliced into circles

For the patties:
1 large potato
1 onion
1 carrot
10 French beans
1/4 cup green peas
1/4 cup sweet corn
2 green chillies or 1 tsp red chilli powder
Fresh coriander leaves
1 tsp jeera
1 tsp masala powder (any kind)
6 tbsp oil to shallow fry
Salt

For the French fries:
2 large potatoes
Salt
Oil to deep fry

TH: "Err.. that's a lot of stuff just to make us two burger meals each".

Nags: "You want it or not?"

TH: "I do, I do! Ok, let's get started"

Nags: "As always, let's use a picture of the final dish to keep us motivated"

TH: drooool

First, boil all the vegetables except onion until soft. Pressure cooking them for about 2 whistles should do the trick.

Mash up the potato real nice. Cut the other vegetables into tiny pieces. Mix in salt, jeera, green chillies/red chilli powder, chopped coriander leaves and the masala powder. Shape into big-ish patties.

Shallow fry the patties until golden brown on both sides. Set aside.

Now comes the bit where we assemble the vegetable burgers.

We start with a burger bun, of course.

Cut it into half. Hopefully you can do a better job of cutting it evenly than I did.

Grab the box of baby greens or any lettuce you have in the fridge.

Lay it out on the lower half of the burger bun.

Top it off with some shredded cheddar cheese or one cheese slice. This is beginning to get yummier, eh?

Take one vegetable patty and place it on the cheese and greens, pressing down gently without crumbling it.

Spread some mayo over this. Between you and me, I ran out of mayo so I used thousand island dressing here. Use whatever you fancy, its your burger.

Onion rings are next. Aren't they pretty?

Tomatoes. TH's burger has an extra slice and mine has just one because raw tomato really doesn't do it for me.

Now bring in the other half of the burger, place it on the pile and press down gently. You can use a toothpick inserted through the center to hold it all together. We didn't really do all that. Just bite, chomp, gulp and go for the next bite if you're anything like us.

If you feel there is no burger experience without French fries, quickly make some. All you need to do is peel and slice potatoes into long thin slices. Mix in some salt.

Deep fry in oil.

There you go, a homemade vegetarian burger meal.

TH: "I think we should make this a monthly regular like our Pizza Friday"

Nags: "Sure! Now that you know how its done, go ahead. The kitchen is all yours"

TH: "Errr.. gulp.. o..k"

Condensed Milk 'Cupcake' Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:52:00 +0000

I think I should call these condensed milk 'chews' because they were quite chewy and don't really follow a cupcake recipe. I was wanting to make Mom's Delight but ended up mixing up the ingredients and baking them in muffin cups. The result was delightful.

I love desserts made with condensed milk or marie biscuits. The combination definitely makes it better! A quick evening snack for kids if you have all the ingredients in hand.

Condensed Milk Cupcakes or Chews
Makes about 10

What I Used:

Powdered Marie biscuits - 2 cups (you can also use digestive biscuits)
Sweetened condensed milk - 3/4 to 1 cup, depending on how sweet you sweet tooth is
Butter - 1 tbsp
Cocoa powder - 3 tbsp
Coarsely powdered almonds - 1/4 cup (use any dry nuts you have in hand or a mix of them)
Grated coconut - 2 tbsp
Milk - as required
A pinch of salt

How I Made It:

1. Mix butter into the powdered marie biscuits with your fingertips. You will get a crumb-like mixture. To this, add the powdered almonds, coconut, salt and cocoa powder and mix well.

2. Add condensed milk slowly to the above. Mix well using fingers until well incorporated. Don't worry if its sticky, its supposed to be.

3. If the above mixture is a bit too dry, add 1 or 2 tbsp of milk to loosen it up just a bit. The mixture shouldn't be too lose, just of scooping consistency.

4. Grease muffin cups generously and add one spoonful of the mixture to each. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 20 mins.

Enjoy warm!

By the way, winner of Rujuta Diwekar's book has been announced here. Congrats winner! :)

Mushroom Peas Curry / Matar Khumb Curry Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:29:00 +0000

I love those small recipe booklets by Neeta Mehta. They are nicely themed and mostly have traditional and easy recipes. This particular one where I got this Matar Khumb recipe has Punjabi recipes that are extremely popular yet I've never tried before, except maybe the Paneer Butter Masala recipe.

I've already tried two recipes from the book and loved them both. Here's the first one.

Mushroom Peas Curry / Matar Khumb Curry
Adapted from Neeta Mehta's Punjabi Recipes
Serves 4

What I Used:

200gm/about 4 cups mushrooms, washed and chopped into 6 (I used white button mushrooms)
1 cup green peas
2 cardamoms/elaichi/elakka
2 cloves/laung/grampoo
1 tbsp dhania powder / malli podi
1 tsp red chilli powder
2 tsp garam masala
A pinch of turmeric powder
4tbsp oil

Grind together to a puree
2 large tomatoes
1 green chilli

Grind together to a paste
1 large onion
6-8 flakes garlic
1" piece ginger

How I Made It:

1. Heat oil. Add the cardamom and cloves. Fry for 1 min.
3. To this, add the onion-garlic-ginger paste. Cook stirring continuously until light brown. Remove from fire.
4. Add the masalas now - dhania powder, red chilli powder, garam masala and haldi with some salt.
5. Return to low heat and cook for a few seconds. Add 1 tbsp water.
6. Add the tomato-green chilli puree. Cook till dry and oil separates from the gravy (about 10 mins)
7. Next, add the mushrooms and peas. Stir fry for 5 min.
8. Add 2 cups water. Cook on low medium heat for about 15 min till peas turn soft and oil separates. Adjust salt.

Serve curry with rice or chappatis. I served mine with some jeera rice.

Another Onam, Another Sadya Opportunity Missed!

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:16:00 +0000

This is the fourth consecutive year that I'm not home for Onam. Will miss the sadya that I definitely cannot put together on a weekday, a Wednesday to boot!

I do have some Onam Sadya recipes sprinkled here and there in the blog so thought of putting it together in one list in case any of you are looking to make some.

Wishing all Malayali readers of Edible Garden a Wonderful and Prosperous Onam this year :)

Also, here's a reminder to take part in the giveaway to comment and win Rujuta Diwekar's nutrition book - Don't Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight. Click here to learn more!

Another Giveaway - A Book This Time!

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:43:00 +0000

**Lucky winner of the book is Sharmilee :) Sharmilee, please get in touch with me at naagu.v[at]gmail.com at the earliest**

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had a splendid two weeks in India this time. I went to Chennai, Bombay and Kottayam, stayed with family on all three occasions and was pampered beyond what I felt I deserved at 27! A highlight of the trip was this book I was reading all through it - Don't Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight by Rujuta Diwekar.

Rujuta is Kareena Kapoor's dietician and usually celebrity endorsed products get ignored by me. However, this book was recommended by Marie, a regular reader of this blog, when she saw my 3-day diet post and how I struggled through it. I just can't do diets.

I read this book in about 5 days and its probably the only non-fiction book that has had me this hooked. Far from a diet regime, what she gives is an insight into eating right. There are no 'don'ts' in the book and that works perfect for me.

To share the goodness, I am giving away a copy of Rujuta Diwekar's Don't Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment in this blog post and tell me what you think of diets, names of any diets you have tried or about the book, in case you have already read it, before September 4th, Friday, midnight Singapore time.

Winner will be chosen randomly and I will ship worldwide. Good luck!

Tomato Spinach Pulao - Step by Step Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 05:58:00 +0000

Whenever I post step-by-step recipes for baking, most of you love it, try it and give me your thoughts. I have been itching to do the same for normal recipes too, but the only reason stopping me was the poor lighting in my kitchen. After many months of giving myself this excuse, I decided to go ahead and do it anyway.

Because of this, you will see pictures with different lighting in this post, so bear with me. Hopefully you find it useful (not the lighting, the recipe!)

After all that talk, I'm hungry. Let's have a nice bowl of hot tomato spinach pulao, shall we? If you want to skip the pictures and yada-yada, scroll to the end of this post for the recipe in one place.

Ok. First, chop 4 cups of green spinach, 2 tomatoes and grate 1 carrot and set aside (ignore the green chillies, we don't need them, unless you want to use them and reduce the amount of red chilly powder in the recipe).

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a kadai.

Add 1 sliced onion and 3 cloves of chopped garlic to this.

Fry until the onions turn transparent and brown slightly.

Time to bring out the 2 chopped tomatoes. Add these to the fried onions.

Cook well until the tomatoes have wilted and turned soft.

To this, add 1 tbsp coriander powder and 1 tsp jeera. Mix well.

Time to spice things up a bit. Bring out your red chilly powder and add about 2 tsp of that. Go on, dare yourself and add another tsp if you wish ;)

We've already added 2 tomatoes but since this is tomato spinach pulao, we will need a more dense tomato flavour. Canned tomato paste works best.

Add 1 tbsp of that and mix well. If you don't want to use the paste, add 1 more large tomato in the first step.

To this, add the chopped spinach and..

.. grated carrot and mix well.

Close the kadai and let it cook on medium-low fire for about 10 mins. Don't add any water, the spinach will give out its own water while cooking making the mixture soft.

Open kadai carefully after 10 mins and add salt.

Add about 3 cups cooked rice to this mixture. I used basmati rice but any rice will do, even warmed leftover rice.

Gently fold from one side so that the rice isn't mashed up too much.

Garnish with some roasted cashwes and serve hot. I roasted the cashewnuts in the microwave on medium power for a minute. Saves time and oil.

Here's the pulao recipe again, all in one place.

Tomato Spinach Pulao
Serves: 3 to 4

What I Used:

3 cups cooked rice
4 cups chopped green spinach
1 grated carrot
2 chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste (or add another tomato)
1 sliced onion
3 cloves chopped garlic
1 tbsp coriander powder / malli podi / dania powder
1 tsp jeera / jeerakam / cumin seeds
2 tsp red chilly powder
1 tbsb oil
Roasted cashewnuts to garnish (optional)
Salt to taste

How I Made It:

1. Heat oil and fry the onions and garlic for 3 mins. Add the tomatoes to this and cook well until soft and mashed.

2. Add the coriander powder, jeera and red chilly powder. Mix well and fry for 2 mins. Add tomato paste to this, if using, and mix well.

3. Add chopped spinach and grated carrot. Close and cook for 10 mins until soft.

4. Add salt and cooked rice to this. Fold gently and serve after 3o mins, garnished with roasted cashewnuts.

Instant Sambar Powder Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:40:00 +0000

My mom-in-law has three sisters, each of them different and unique in their own ways. During this trip, TH and I stayed in Bombay with her elder sister, Geetha Perima. She is a cooking wiz, makes her own ghee in 10 mins flat, always has pickles, thokku and different kozhambu pastes in her fridge - all homemade, and makes ice-cream which makes one wonder why we ever buy ice cream! She makes all of this seem extremely simple too.

One recipe of hers that immediately caught my attention is the instant sambar powder recipe. Her son is studying in the US and recently, she sent him this powder. All you need to do is add it to boiling water with your choice of vegetable(s) and chopped onions if you like them. The powder has all other ingredients for a sambar, like toor dal, tamarind, chilly powder, hing, etc etc.

Here's how you can make this powder. Great for lazy people, working folks and of course, for you to pack it for your son/daughter who is moving abroad and needs a quick fix of homemade sambar in no time!

Geetha Perima's Instant Sambar Powder
Makes about 1.5kg powder

What She Used:

1kg toor dal
100 gm dhania / malli / coriander
25gm channa dal / bengal gram / kadala paruppu
50 gm dry red chillies
10gm fenugreek seeds / uluva / menthayam
A large lime-sized ball of tamarind
2 tbsp whole black pepper
2 tsp jeera
1 tsp hing / asafoetida / perungayam
1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder (optional, added for the colour)

How She Made It:

1. Heat about 2 tsp oil in a pan and lightly fry the red chillies. When they start to brown, remove and set aside to cool.

2. Remove all strings and other stuff from the tamarind. Separate into pieces. Add these to the same oil and fry by pressing down, making sure all the sides are roasted. Keep fire on sim and continue to roast for about 5 mins. It will be very soft at this stage. Drain and set aside to cool. You will find that the tamarind has gone crisp and brittle to touch.

3. The other ingredients don't need to be roasted. Starting with the dal, powder each ingredient separately and keep adding to a big bowl. The tamarind will powder nicely once its cool.

4. Mix all ingredients well with salt. Store in an air tight container and use to make easy and quick sambar.

To Use:

To serve two, boil about 3 glasses water and add 2-3 tbsp of the instant sambar powder. Add chopped vegetables and onions. Let it boil on sim until the vegetables are cooked. Serve hot. This powder will make sambar that's a bit watery. If you want it thicker, also add some cooked toor dal while preparing it.

Godumai Adai / Godambu Ada Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:30:00 +0000

Godambu ada was a favourite snack while I was young. My grandmom used to make it with tons of ghee, tons of jaggery and tons of love! One Sunday, I had the hugest craving for this so I dialed home to find out the exact recipe from amma. She had gone out to meet some friends so I dialed the next best person - the sister!

After 15 mins of talking (of which 3 mins was dedicated to the recipe!), I started off. This is an easy snack for kids for their after-school hungry times. Its quite healthy too and can be easily made with the ingredients available in your pantry.

Godumai Adai / Godambu Ada
Makes - 6

What I Used:

Wheat flour / atta - 2 cups
Jaggery / sharkkara / vellam - 2/3 cup, grated (Adjust if you like it not too sweet)
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Powdered cardamom - 1/3 tsp (2-3 pods)
Salt - one pinch
Ghee - to cook

How I Made It:

1. Transfer the jaggery to a bowl and add about 2 tbsp water. Keep on low fire until it starts melting. Let it boil for about 5 mins. Strain to remove impurities and set aside to cool.
*Note that this step is necessary if you are using Kerala sharkkara. If using the lighter coloured Tamil Nadu version, sis says there are no impurities so you can just use the grated jaggery and mix in with the atta. The TN version is salted so make sure you adjust the addition of salt to the dough.

2. Mix the atta, salt and cardamom until well combined. Add the coconut to this and mix well.

3. Add the cooled jaggery mixture to the atta and combine with finger tips. Add enough water and keep combining until you get a sticky, slightly elastic, loose dough. It should neither be watery nor hard like for chapatis. The consistency is not super important but make sure you don't go to either extreme. Also make sure not to knead too much.

4. Heat a griddle and add some ghee. Scoop out some dough with your fingers, place on the pan and smooth out into a circle using your fingertips. Let it brown (1 min).

5. Turn and cook the other side until nicely browned. Tastes good both hot and at room temp.

Note

If you want some melted jaggery in the ada (which I LOVE), reserve some grated jaggery before melting and add this to the dough while mixing. The jaggery pieces will melt and form nice patterns on the ada. Hmmm.. heaven!

Stir Fried Bok Choy with Cabai Merah

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 02:00:00 +0000

Bok choy, also known as Pak choi or Chinese cabbage, forms a small but elongated head with plump white stalks and deep green leaves. The vegetable is very common in food courts in Singapore and the first time I tried stir fried Bok Choy, I fell for it. Green have always been a weakness and this was definitely a winner with me.

Cabai Merah red chillies, also known as Cabe Merah are fresh red chillies that are most popular in Malaysia and Indonesia. They are a deep red, thick and long and are only slightly hotter than the capsicum, the family to which they belong. I have used them in fried rice recipes and mushroom stir fry. The flavour is superb when stir fried and they go extremely well with Bok Choy.

Let's stir up a recipe with both of them, shall we? This recipe is very simple and easy since too many flavours take the focus off the Bok Choy.

Stir Fried Bok Choy with Cabai Merah
Serves: 2

What I Used:

Bok choy - 8 stalks, washed and chopped (both stem and leaves)
Cabai Merah (fresh red chillies) - 6 to 7, chopped
Garlic - 3 pods, minced
Soy sauce - 1 tbsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste

How I Made It:

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add the minced garlic and fry until golden brown. Keeping the fire on high, add the soy sauce and stir until it bubbles (1 min).
2. To this add the cabai merah and the chopped bok choy. Reduce fire and stir until the boy choy wilts. Add salt.

Serve hot with fried rice or plain rice with some curry.

Click Entry - August '09

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:27:00 +0000

This month, I managed a new picture for Click and also learnt a new food-related word - Allium.

Shallots and Garlic

(because I am too lazy to think up a snazzy name for the picture)

Chakkakkuru Parippu Curry / Jackfruit Seeds in Lentils

noreply@blogger.com (Nags) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:31:00 +0000

I love chakka kuru aka jackfruit seeds. In Kottayam, where I grew up, most houses have a backyard with various trees, most popular being jackfruit, banana, mangoes and of course the staple curry leaves plant. We've always had generous neighbours who share the fruits during season time and during summer, there's always a sack of some fruit or the other from friends and family around.

My mom makes the maximum use of any vegetable or fruit. She makes kumbil / varatti with the ripe jackfruit and reserves the seeds for aviyal or mezhukkupuratti, the two most popular chakkakkuru recipes in our house.

During a recent trip to KL, I bought a box of jackfruits. It had precisely 10 pieces inside which TH and I polished off in 2 mins. I washed and kept the seeds outside and once they dried, wrapped them in a shower cap and brought them back to Singapore. I had 10 seeds which meant there wasn't enough to make aviyal or mezhukkupuratti. I browsed around and finally zeroes in on this recipe from Sunita's blog. Her last post made me sad.. So here's wishing her all the very best in life.

Jackfruit Seeds in Lentils
Serves: 2
Recipe adapted from Sunita's recipe.

What I Used:

1/2 cup split red lentils / masoor dal, washed and drained
1/2 cup toor dal, washed and drained
10 jackfruit seeds / chakkakkuru, soaked, peeled and halved
1 tomato, chopped
3 pods of garlic, chopped
1 tsp finely chopped ginger
1 tsp chilli powder
1/3 tsp turmeric powder
A pinch of hing
Oil and mustard seeds, for tempering
Salt to taste

How I Made It:

1. Place the dals and the jackfruit seeds in a pressure cooker with 5 cups water. Cook for 3 whistles and let it cool.

2. Heat oil and add the mustard seeds. Once they pop, add the ginger, garlic, hing, chilli powder and turmeric. Fry for 1 min.

3. Add the tomatoes and fry for another 2-3 mins. To this, add the cooked dal and jackfruit seeds. Mix well.

4. Add salt. Remove.

I served the dish with some warm chapatis. Sunita's version has vegetables too but I wanted to keep it simpler and give more 'importance' to the jackfruit seeds.

On a different note, thank you so much for taking part in my b'day giveaway. The winner has been announced :)