When Jayasree posted Cornmeal Kozhukattais, I had to try it out because I always like the idea of using American ingredients in our Indian cooking. (Example: Zucchini Daal, Grits Pongal, Grits Adai).  I had bought cornmeal to prepare bread, but somehow did not even get close to finding an eggless cornmeal bread recipe. 

I tried the recipe with 1 cup of yellow cornmeal, which is available in the baking aisle in the US.  I got 12 dumplings for this measurement.  Next time I’ll be sure to use another cup of cornmeal, because it was so tasty.  Thank you very much for the recipe Jayasree, your recipe rocks!

Dear JZ of Tasty Treats had passed me the Friendship Award a couple of days back.   Somehow I lost track of it.  I’m very sorry JZ.  Thank you for passing me the award.  I extend my frienship to all my food blogging buddies.

Last week I tried Cham’s Wheat Idlis and it came out very well.  Thank you very much for such an easy and healthy recipe Cham.  Your recipe rocks!  Needless to say this is going to be a regular in our house hereafter.

This Saturday I borrowed 2 books from the library on baking cookies. The following macaroons recipe is based on Key Lime Coconut Macaroons, from Jill Snider’s Cookies book. That recipe caught my eye because it was eggless originally, when the macaroon recipes I’ve seen so far used egg whites and I had all the ingredients at home. Since I don’t like lime/lemon flavoring in cookies/cakes, I omitted it. The original recipe called for key lime juice, so I substituted it with milk. Then only I realized that how similar it was to the south indian “thengai-coconut burfi“. So to get that taste I decided to add some cashews and cardamom powder. I also ended up using lesser amount of coconut and all purpose flour, so the final batter was watery. Then I remembered how my grandmother used to add rava (semolina) while making the burfis, so I also added a couple tablespoons of it, to make the dough firm. Inspite of all these changes, the end product tasted very good.

Ingredients
Sweetened condensed milk - 1 cup
Milk - 1/4 cup
All purpose flour - 1/4 cup
Sweetened shredded coconut - 2.5 cups

Optional:
Semolina - 3 tablespoons
Cashew nuts, broken into pieces - 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder - 1 teaspoon

Procedure

(Click on the thumbnails for a bigger view)

1. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350F (180C).
2. In a large bowl, combine sweetened milk and milk, whisking until blended.

3. With a wooden spoon, stir in flour, mixing until thoroughly blended.
4. Stir in coconut, cashews and cardamom powder.
5. After combining all the ingredients, the batter was a little bit watery. So I test baked just 1 tablespoon and the cookie spread so much.

6. So I added 3 tablespoons of semolina (sooji/rava) to the batter and combined it well and now the batter was nice and firm. Again I test baked another tablespoon of the dough and the macaroon came out perfect.

7. Then I went ahead and dropped tablespoonfuls of dough about 1 inch apart and baked it in the oven until it was golden around the edges (which approximately took 15 minutes). I got 24 (plus 2 test bake) macaroons for the above measurement.

8. Cool for 10 minutes on the sheet. This point is very important. Don’t try to remove the macaroons from the sheet once it is out the oven because it will be very flimsy. Again don’t put it back in the oven to harden it. Just leave the macaroons on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes and it will harden by itself.

9. Then transfer to a rack and cool completely.

Ingredients
Beets cooked water
Tamarind - 2 teaspoons or sour tomatoes (I used 2 tablespoons of crushed tomatoes)
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Ghee - 1/2 tablespoon
Red Chillies - 1 (or as per your taste)
Mustard Seeds
Cumin - 1 teaspoon
Garlic cloves - 2

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Ever since I came to know that beet greens were edible and prepared Beet Greens Daal, I have wanted to use it more often. Recently I prepared usili using beet greens and beets. Initially I thought of using beet greens alone, but once I cooked it, the quantity was very less, so proceeded using the beets also. I increased the quantity of chillies while grinding the daals, to offset the sweetness of the beets. This was the first time I was preparing beet usili and we all totally loved it.

Ingredients
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds
Urad Daal - 1 teaspoon
Channa Daal - 1 teaspoon
Beet Greens - 1 Bunch
Beets, small - 5
Usili - as required (procedure to prepare usili in My Notes)

My Notes
Half a cup of daal is enough for a family of 3. But I soak 1 cup of daal and prepare the usal as always and use it 2 days. Prepare the usili as per the instructions. Use as much as required and freeze the rest in a ziploc bag. When you want to use it, empty the contents in a microwave safe vessel and either defrost it or cook for a minute and fresh usili is ready.

How to prepare Usili?

Ingredients:
Channa Daal - 1/2 cup
Toor Daal - 1/4 cup
Masoor Daal - 1/4 cup
Green Chillies - 1 (or as per your taste)
Red Chillies - 2 (or as per your taste)
Hing - 1 teaspoon

Procedure:
1. Soak the daals and chillies in water for atleast an hour. (I usually soak it the previous night itself before going to bed.)

2. Now grind the above, adding salt and hing.

3. Grease 2 idli plates and divide the mixture among the 8 moulds.

4. Steam it, as you would do for idlis, maybe couple more extra minutes. A knife/toothpick inserted should come out clean.

5. Once it is done, remove the daal idlis, cut them into small pieces, keep it in a plate, cover it with plastic wrap and keep it in freezer for 10 minutes. (Don’t forget that you have kept it in the freezer, then it will become rock hard)

6. After removing from the freezer, place the contents either in a blender or a food processor and powder it. The texture will be so good, if this method is followed. (Now you would understand why I have mentioned to keep it in the freezer. If it is ground as soon as it is steamed, it will have a lot of lumps)

7. This powder can either be used on the same day itself with vegetables of your choice (beans, carrots or a combo of both, in my case even beets) or it can be freezed for later use, so that you can have usili on a busy work day too.

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Earlier last week, I stumbled upon Rachna’s blog and found a an interesting recipe for preparing laddus using peanut butter.  It’s such an easy recipe, with no cooking at all.  Surprisingly I had all the ingredients at home and moreover it was my friend’s daughter’s birthday, so I went ahead and made it immediately. 

First I tried it with peanut butter.  One thing I forgot to notice was, the peanut butter had sodium in it, so the laddus were both sweet and salty.  But we did like the taste. 

Later I remembered about the almond butter which was lying in my pantry after using it for the almond butter bread.  Immediately I checked the nutrition label and I saw 0gm Sodium.  So I made the ladoos again with almond butter and it was absolutely delicious.

For my laddoos I used 1/2 a cup of almond butter, 1/4 a cup of regular icing sugar, 1/4 cup of khoya and a pinch of cardamom powder.  Simply combine all the ingredients and shape it into balls.  I got 13 small ladoos for this measurement.

This is my entry for Nupur’s Less is More MBP event.  MBP was originally started by Coffee to give credit to fellow food blogger’s efforts.

Ingredients
Water - 2 cups
Tea powder - 2 teaspoons
Ginger, grated - 1 small piece
Sugar - 3 teaspoons or as per your taste
Lemon juice - 2 tablespoons
Mint, finely chopped - 10 leaves

Step-by-Step Procedure with Images

(Click on the thumbnails for a bigger view)

1. Boil water in a saucepan.
2. Add the tea powder.
3. Grate the ginger root and let it boil for another 5 minutes.

4. Add the sugar for your taste.
5. Let it simmer for another 2 minutes.
6. Filter the tea.

7. Let it cool at room temperature. Add the lemon juice.
8, Then add the mint leaves and chill it in the refrigerator.
9. Serve it cold.

My Notes
1. Above I have reproduced the recipe as it is in the magazine. I followed the recipe and found that the tea was little bitter to my taste. So I added a couple more teaspoons of sugar.
2. The tea tastes good even when it is hot, but is excellent when it’s cold.
3. Check out the health benefits of mint here.

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Ever since I started baking, I have used only bananas as a substitute for eggs. Bananas definitely give the moist texture for cakes and breads, but the drawback is the flavor of bananas is dominant in those baked goods. So whatever changes you make otherwise in the recipe, the end product tastes the same. For example my carrot cake and zucchini bread tasted similar. It was definitely very good, but we need some change right!

Step-by-Step Procedure With Images (Click on the thumbnails for a bigger view)
1. Preheat oven to 350F (325F for glass pans)
2. Empty brownie mix into bowl.
3. Add 1/3 cup cold water.
4. Add 3 tablespoons oil. (Actually 1/3 cup of oil was mentioned in the packet)

 

 

 

 

 

5. In a small cup add the flax seed meal and slowly add the water and whisk it with a fork and add it to the brownie mix.
6. I chose to add vanilla extract also.
7. Stir everything until well blended (about 40-50 strokes)

 

 

 

 

 

8. Now add the nuts and combine it once again.
9. Generously grease the brownie pan. I used a non stick 8″x8″ pan.
10. Spread the mixture in the pan.

 

 

 

 

 

11. Bake it anywhere between 30-38 minutes. (Check the instructions in the package for detailed baking time). I baked mine for 40 minutes. But I think I should have taken it around 38 minutes itself, because I had little cracks on the top. That was the only negative thing with these brownies, otherwise they were unbelievably moist and gooey. We did not taste the flax seed at all. Just be sure that the brownie cools out completely before you can cut into squares.

 

 

 

 

 

Food blogging has given me a lot of new friends.  One such very special person is Dee.  Sometime (actually very longtime) back she had sent me a BIG package for the Arusuvai Friendship Chain.  She had sent her delicious home made granola, koora podi, aam papad and a gorgeous Kitchen Aid Recipe Box.

The granola tasted unbelievably good, I was munching it on throughout the day and did not have anything left to prepare a dish using it. Sorry Dee it was not my fault that the granola was so delicious.  The koora podi is also so good, it enhances the flavor of any dish it’s added to.  It also tastes good by itself as a side dish for Idli/Dosa.  I use it in all my curries.  Above is the picture of the Potato Roast and and below is the Coconut Rice that I prepared using the podi.

Recently I also prepared her Broccoli Patoli/Usli.  It’s something I have never tried before, so I was really skeptical about the taste.  But I tried it anyhow because it’s my husband’s favorite vegetable.  We were not at all disappointed, because it tasted very good and I’m going to make this one regularly.

Thank you so much Dee for your recipes, friendship and more!

Uma has given me a Giant Bear Hug.  Thank you very much dear, hugs to you too. 

Hetal and Ranji have passed me the Friendship Award.  Thank you very much girls, I’m so happy that you thought of me. 

It’s very difficult to choose only a few people to extend my hugs and friendship.  Anyhow I extend it to

Dee
Akay
Roma
Laksh

Recently I also tried 2 other recipes from other blogs and this is going to be a regular in our house.  

Kalva’s Gongura Pachadi: It was my first try with gongura leaves and we loved the chutney very much.  Thank you Kalva.

Laavanya’s Bhindi Masala: Although I have prepared bhindi masala a lot of times earlier, the tip which Laavanya has given to microwave the okra for 5-7 minutes before sauteeing it is such a wonderful idea.  Try it out ladies, the okra does not get slimy at all.  Thank you very much Laavanya.  Can’t wait to try your oven baked Idli Manchurians.