Sending this couscous recipe to

1. Priya’s AFAM-Bell Peppers. AFAM originally started by Maheswari.

2. Lavi’s IAVW-Moroccan. It’s a Vegan World originally started by Vaishali.

SunshineMom’s Recipes for the rest of us – Starters event. The event originally started by Ramki of One Page Cookbooks.

Happy Ugadi to those who celebrate Ugadi! Even though I bake a lot of sweet stuff I usually prefer savory snacks. So when Red Chillies (RC) posted a recipe for savory onion crackers (nippatu) I wanted to try it immediately. She had prepared this from Ramya’s blog. So I would like to thank both of them for this awesome recipe. RC mentions that Nippatus are very famous in Bangalore but I have never heard of it until now, even though there are a lot of Bangalore Iyengar bakeries in Chennai, where I grew up.

The procedure for making/baking these cookies is as simple as kneading dough for rotis but the taste is too good for such a simple process. The taste is really addictive. These crackers have a melt-in-your mouth texture and you can’t stop with even 2 or 3.

I made two batches of the recipe as in RC’s blog. I was sending it with my husband (who was traveling to India) for my mother and in-laws. Everybody there loved it so much. I wish I remember how many crackers I got for the 4 cups of flour I used! It definitely made a huge batch of cookies. I made one batch at a time.

I wanted to try substituting half the flour with whole wheat flour but did not want to mess it up. So I will be trying it the next time. I would also try reducing the amount of oil and butter.

Changes I made:
1. Used red chili powder instead of green chillies, white onion instead of red onion.
2. Also I used “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter’s” cooking and baking blend instead of real butter. The ICBNB has 50% less saturated fat than butter, and 0mg cholesterol.
3. I didn’t use the entire 1/4 cup of warm water mentioned in the recipe. Use little by little as needed.
4. I omitted the sugar too.

This is my entry for this month’s MBP – Snacks and Savories event hosted by Ashwini. MBP originally created by Coffee.

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Recently I have been seeing a lot of Indian/Indianized recipes in the Western cookbooks. The Curried Pasta and Vegetables is one such recipe from the book “1001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes”. As the name suggests the book has 1001 low-fat vegetarian recipes; from appetizers to desserts the recipes are classified under 17 categories. I think I have to keep renewing this book in the library at least for 2-3 months.

Coming to this recipe, I adapted it from one of the recipes in the book. This is also a vegan pasta dish, without any cheese. Since the pasta gets it’s flavor from the curry sauce, the taste gets even better the next day. So you can prepare this on Sunday evening and have it for Monday’s dinner. The curry sauce can also be prepared ahead and it’s also versatile. Just throw in the vegetables you have at hand, the curry sauce and the pasta, you have a wholesome and nutritious meal ready in no time.

This is my entry for the following events
1. Suganya’s Vegan Ventures
2. Mansi’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving

Sometime back I purchased readymade brown rice which cooks just in 5 minutes in the microwave. I made Chinese fried rice and it tasted very good. It had a nice chewy texture and was also very filling. So I wanted to try the regular brown rice and got it from the grocery store last week. While at the store I compared both brown rice and white rice and found that both have same calories, carbohydrates, fat and protein. This really made me wonder what’s the difference then. I bought it anyway thinking that I’ll do the research later.

I found some interesting facts about brown rice. Below is the synopsis:

Now let me proceed to the Dosai recipe. The original recipe is from a Tamil magazine. I’ve changed it a little bit. These dosas/adai can be prepared immediately after grinding the batter. Fermentation is not necessary.

This is my entry to the following food blog events:
1. Aparna’s WBB – Grains in my breakfast. WBB created by Nandita.
2. Suganya’s JFI – Whole Grains. JFI created by Indira.
3. Siri’s Herb Mania – Coriander. Herb Mania created by Dee.
4. Sunshine Mom’s FIC – Green.

I saw this recipe in Woman’s Day magazine under Heart Healthy Recipes category.  I wanted to try this recipe because it had bulgur wheat as the main ingredient, which I have not tasted before.  I use cracked wheat regurlarly, so I always have it in home.  I thought that both were same.  So before using it in the recipe, I wanted to be sure and check if there was any difference between bulgur wheat and cracked wheat and found out the following; (Source: www.epicureantable.com)

Bulgur Wheat:
Partially hulled whole wheat kernels that are soaked, then steamed (hence pre-cooked if you will), dried and then crushed are called bulghur.  It requires no or little cooking.  Though modern processes involve oven drying or roasting some villages still sun dry bulghur on their rooftops. 

Cracked Wheat:
Raw whole wheat berries that are crushed to varying qualities of texture are called cracked wheat and require cooking.  These are also found in 3 grades of coarseness: fine, medium and coarse, the choice of which depends on use and preference.

To simplify it even more bulgur is wheat cracked after cooking and drying, whereas the wheat is cracked in raw stage for cracked wheat.
 
Are they interchangeable? 
This depends on whether the recipe requires cooking or not and your own degree of purism.  A salad recipe such as tabooli is uncooked, and so requires true bulghur as do recipes where bulghur is brought to the boil, cooked for a moment then left to rest off heat to swell as in a pilaf.   Recipes requiring longer cooking times or coarse grain bulghur can be replaced with cracked wheat, but will need more cooking time.
 
But both bulghur and cracked wheat are excellent sources of fibre, minerals and vitamins for your diet.

Moving on to the recipe,  I have scaled down the measurements given in the original recipe; still we had a lot of chili.  I made it for dinner and it was very filling.

Ingredients:
Water – 3 cups
Bulgur Wheat – ½ cup
Olive Oil – 2 teaspoon
Onion, chopped – ½ cup
Red Pepper, chopped – ½ cup
Chili Powder – 1 tablespoon or as per taste
Garlic, minced – 1 tspn
Ground Cumin – 1 tspn
Water – 2 cups
Crushed Tomatoes – 1 cup
Pumpkin Puree (canned) – 1 cup
Zucchini, medium, diced – 1
Frozen Corn, ½ cup
Black Beans (canned), drained and rinsed – 1 cup
Cilantro, chopped – ¼ cup

Accompaniments/Optional:
Reduced-fat Cheddar
Reduced-fat sour cream

Procedure:
1.  Put 3 cups of the waer and bulgur in a medium microwave-safe bowl.  Cover and microwave on high until bulgur is tender, about 13 minutes.

2.  Meanwhile, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet.  Add onion and pepper; saute 5 minutes.

3.  Add chili powder, garlic and cumin; saute until fragrant.

4.  Add remaining 2 cups water, the tomatoes, pumpkin, zucchini and corn; bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

5.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender.

6.  Stir in beans and bulgur; heat through.

7.  Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.

My Notes:
My husband loved the chili.  The only thing I didn’t like was the flavor of the red pepper.  I will be trying it without the red pepper next time.

Last Tuesday I prepared Priya’s Rava (semolina) Idly for dinner.  It’s so much easier than the traditional idli recipe which requires soaking of idli rice and urad daal, grinding them and then fermenting the batter.  No doubt that the traditional idlies are soft and tasty, but rava idly is a quick fix breakfast/dinner.  Even though I was born and raised in southern India, I have not tasted these earlier.  We all loved the taste.  It’s definitely going to be a regular in our house.  Thanks for the recipe Priya.  Your recipe rocks.

My Notes:
For the side dish I prepared coconut chutney.  Always in my chutney I also add half a carrot, grated and lot of coriander (cilantro) reducing the quantity of coconut.  As I have mentioned earlier in my Beet Greens Daal recipe, carrot is a very good substitute for coconut.  Instead of grinding grated coconut, cumin, chillies for the masala for any kootu (daal) recipe, you can simply replace it with carrots.

In Mexico these turnovers are also called Empanaditas.  This is a Mexican Appetizer.  I found this recipe in Better Homes and Gardens’ “Off the Shelf Baking” book.  The original recipe did not have a vegetarian filling.  So I decided to use black beans instead.  Added benefit, more fiber and protein than the original version.  My husband suggested to use soy granules, but what can be more Mexican than black beans?  I think I will try his suggestion the next time.

Dough for the outer cover:
Refrigerated Buttermilk biscuits 16.3 oz package(8 biscuits total) – 1

Ingredients for Filling (for 12 turnovers):

Black Beans 15.5 oz can – 1
Tomato Sauce/Crushed Tomatoes – 3 tablespoon
Chili Powder – ¼ teaspoon (I would increase a little bit the next time)
Salt – ¼ teaspoon (next time I would use even less)
Dried Oregano – ½ teaspoon
Garlic Powder – ½ teaspoon
Cilantro/Scallions – little
Oil – 1 tablespoon

Optional:
Milk for brushing
Salsa for dipping

Prepare the filling:
1.  Drain the beans from the can in a colander and wash it under running water.  Mash the beans with a potato masher or a fork.  My little helper was more than happy when I asked him to mash the beans for me. 

2.  In a skillet add the oil and after it heats add the mashed black beans, crushed tomatoes, chili powder, oregano and garlic powder. 

3.  Fry it for 2-3 minutes until all the ingredients combine well. 

4. Transfer it to a bowl and let it cool.  Stir in cilantro/scallions.  I didn’t have cilantro so I used scallions instead.  The filling tasted very good by itself.

Preparing the Empanadas:
1.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a large baking sheet.

2.  Remove the biscuits from the pack as the per the instructions and place them either on a floured surface or in the prepared baking sheet so that it doesn’t stick to the surface.

3.  The original recipe specifies to cut each biscuit in half horizontally (so you will have 16 circles for a box of 8 biscuits) and roll each piece of biscuit on a lightly floured surface into a 4-inch circle.  I did try this method but it was a bit difficult to get even shaped circles while cutting.

4.  Instead I cut each biscuit into 2 pieces using a pair of scissors and rolled them into balls.

5.  Then rolled it out into circles.

6.  I did have a doubt if handling the dough too much may make the end product very hard.  I tried with one turnover first to be sure and it baked very well and it had the same texture as the turnover which was cut horizontally.  So I followed the same method for the rest of the biscuits.  This method was so easy.

7.  Place about 1 tablespoon filling onto half of each circle.  Brush edges with very little milk.  Fold opposite side of circle up and over filling and seal edges with a fork.

8.  I also did not cut all the biscuits at once because I did not know if the filling would be sufficient.  So I dealt one by one.  I got 12 empanadas, for the filling, i.e., I used 6 full biscuits.  The remaining 2 biscuits I just baked it as it is.

9.  Place filled turnovers 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet, brush with milk.

10.  Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.   The aroma was so appetizing. Immediately remove from baking sheet.  Cool slightly on a wire rack.  Serving warm is key.  The turnovers tasted good later also, but it was best when warm.  We had store bought salsa at home and the turnovers tasted even better when dipped in salsa.

Freezing Tips:
These turnovers can be made ahead and frozen for later use.  Prepare it as per the above directions.  Let it cool completely on wire racks.  Place in an airtight freezer container; freeze for up to 3 months.  We ate only 6, so I froze the remaining 6 in Ziploc bags.  To reheat, transfer frozen turnovers to an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake, uncovered, in a 350F oven for 10-12 minutes or until heated through.

My Notes:
1.  Watch the amount of salt because the canned beans also has sodium and so does the refrigerated biscuits.  I used 1/4 teaspoon only, even then it was a bit salty.  Either I should have increased the chili powder or reduced the salt.
2.  I used reduced fat buttermilk biscuits.

I would like to send this recipe to DK’s AWED – Mexico event.  Thanks DK for giving us a nudge to experiment different cuisines.