EgglessCooking.com | Eggless Recipes | Eggless Baking » cumin

Moroccan CousCous

Madhuram — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:05:59 +0000

It’s long time since I cooked couscous, so when I googled to find out the ratio of water to the pasta (yes, it’s a pasta. Check here for more details), I landed on this Moroccan couscous recipe. I had some of the ingredients to prepare the dish, so tweaked it a little bit and was overjoyed when my son devoured it.

Ingredients

Couscous, dry 3/4 cup

Water 3/4 cup

Oil 2 teaspoons

Cumin seeds 1/2 teaspoon

Onion, big, thinly sliced 1

Yellow, Orange and Green pepper 1/2 each, cut into strips

Soy Chunks, dry 1 and 1/2 cups

Coriander powder 1/2 teaspoon

Garam masala powder 3/4-1 teaspoon

Chili powder 1/4 teaspoon

Salt as per taste

Lemon juice few drops

Cilantro, finely chopped 1/4 to 1/2 cup

Yield: Serves 3 people.

Procedure1 In a medium size sauce pan pour 3/4th cup of water and let it boil.
Once the water is boiling, switch off the stove and remove the pan from the stove and set aside. Now add 2 drops of oil, pinch of salt and the couscous; stir it with a fork and close the pan with a lid.

2 Cook the soy chunks/nuggets as per the package instructions. (In a medium pan add about 4 cups of water and let it boil. Once it boils, switch off the stove, add a teaspoon of salt and the soy chunks and leave it aside for 15 minutes. Then drain the water and squeeze out the excess water from the soy chunks and keep it ready). The soy chunks will be very hot, so pour some cold water and leave it for sometime before squeezing.

3 In a large skillet add the oil. When the oil is hot enough add the cumin seeds and let it crackle.

4 Then add the sliced onions and a pinch of salt. Fry the onions and then add the cut peppers and the seasonings. Also include the soy chunks and sautee it a couple of times.

5 Now depending on the size of the pan you are using add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water to the vegetable mixture and let it cook. The water should be absorbed and the vegetables should also be cooked.

6 Now add the cooked couscous to the vegetables and mix it well.

7 Drizzle few drops of lemon juice, cilantro and mix it once again.

My Notes1 I used soy chunks to substitute the beef in the original recipe. Other protein alternatives can be soy nuggets, chickpeas or even tofu.

2 I have used three color bell peppers because I had it, but you can use just one too.

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.

Low Fat Samosas in a jiffy!

Madhuram — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:07:35 +0000

Can you believe if I tell that you can make tasty samosas in just 15 minutes? Thanks to the mini fillo shells, these bite size samosas are low fat and also very easy to prepare. I have used these shells to make instant baklavas, but the idea of samosa did not occur to me until I saw Red Chillies’ low fat pani puri recipe. Thank you very much RC for another interesting recipe.

Low Fat Samosas

Ingredients

Mini Fillo Shells as needed

Any Potato curry as needed

Procedure

1 Preheat the oven for 15 minutes at 350F.

2 Place the fillo shells in a cookie sheet and bake it for 7-8 minutes.

3 Take the shells out of the oven and let it cool for at least 2 minutes. Then spoon in the prepared potato filling in the shells and serve it. Crispy samosas are ready to be eaten.

My Notes

1 The potato filling can be prepared ahead of time. If you have not cooked it already, prepare it while the oven is preheated. It takes only 15 minutes to prepare the stuffing if you cook the potatoes in the microwave oven.

Potato Filling Recipe

Ingredients

Potatoes, medium size 3

Onion, medium size, finely chopped 1

Green peas (fresh or frozen) handful

Oil 2 teaspoons

Cumin seed 1/2 teaspoon

Coriander powder 1 teaspoon

Turmeric powder a pinch

Red chili powder as needed

Salt as needed

Lemon juice little

Cilantro/Coriander leaves to garnish

Procedure

1 Peel the skin, cut each potato into 4 pieces and cook it.

2 Heat oil in a frying pan and add the cumin seeds. Once it splutters add the onions and fry it until its soft.

3 Also add the green peas, salt, turmeric powder, chili powder and coriander powder and fry it for another 5 minutes.

4 Now add the cooked potatoes and mix it well, coarsely mashing the potatoes. Cook it for 2-3 minutes and switch off the stove. Add the lemon juice (if using) and coriander leaves and mix it well. The potato filling is ready.

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

Healthy Brown Rice Pongal

Madhuram — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:29:03 +0000

We have started using brown rice quite often these days. The first dish I ever tried with brown rice was pongal and I have to agree that I did not get it right. Only after 2 failed attempts I figured out the ratio of water and brown rice. Cooking brown rice in a pressure cooker is a breeze. The brown rice, water ratio is 2 and 1/2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice, if you are preparing dishes like pongal, bisi bele bath etc. For these dishes the rice has to be cooked well, so leave the cooker on for 5-6 whistles. If you are going to make fried rice or any other dish which doesn’t require sticky rice, the ratio of water is 2 and 1/4 cups of water and leave it just for 1 or 2 whistles and remove the cooker from the stove.

These days I prefer brown rice pongal to the traditional white rice pongal. This is healthy and definitely very filling. The only one negative thing I observed with brown rice is, it may give stomach cramps initially. Let me stress here again on “may”. My husband did not have any problems at all. On the other hand I developed severe stomach cramps on the second day after eating brown rice consecutively for two days. I spoke with my nurse to find out the reason and she explained that since brown rice is whole grain, drinking more water would help with easy digestion of the fiber. Now don’t make this an excuse to avoid using brown rice because it’s not the case with everybody. Since our(my) body is used to white flour and rice, it may take some time to tolerate the extra effort it has to put to digest whole grains. So increase your consumption of brown rice gradually and also drink a lot of water.

Ingredients

Brown Rice 3/4 cup

Moong Daal 1/2 cup

Water 3 and 1/4 cups

Black Pepper powder 1 teaspoon

Cumin 2 teaspoons

Ginger, grated 1 tablespoon

Salt as per taste

Ghee 1 tablespoon

Curry leaves 5 to 6

Cashews, broken into small pieces optional

Procedure 1 Wash the rice and daal together a couple of times. Add the rice, daal, water, pepper powder, cumin and grated ginger in a pressure cooker directly and let it stand for at least 30 minutes. Soaking brown rice in water before cooking is suggested for added health benefits. You need not do this if using white rice.

2 Cook it in low-medium heat and leave it for 6 whistles. Switch of the stove and remove the cooker from the stove.

3 Meanwhile in a small frying pan heat the ghee, add the curry leaves and fry the cashew pieces (if using) until golden brown.

4 Once you are able to open the cooker add required amount of salt and pour the heated ghee and mix well.

5 Eat it hot with chutney, sambar or the traditional accompaniment Eggplant Gojju or Gothsu.

My Notes 1 Pongal is made with white rice (preferably ponni raw rice or even sona masuri). To adopt a healthy lifestyle I have used brown rice instead.

2 Traditionally rice and daal are cooked first. Then ghee is heated, to fry cumin, pepper, ginger and cashews, which is added to the cooked rice. You could do it either way.

3 Also whole peppercorns are used for pongal. In our house we don’t like biting full peppers, so I use black pepper powder.

Beet Greens in Spicy Yogurt Sauce (Mor Kootu)

Madhuram — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 12:33:32 +0000

(Click on the image to see a bigger view)

Beet greens are versatile like spinach, it can be used in so many different ways. Yesterday I tried it in the traditional “Mor Kootu” recipe. “Mor” is the Tamil word for Buttermilk and Kootu or Koottu refers to a dish with stew like consistency. Koottu can either be prepared with a combination of vegetables and lentils (like toor daal, channa daal or moong dasl) or without any lentils. This Mor Kootu falls in the latter category.

Beet greens are cooked well and mixed together with a spicy yogurt/curd sauce. It is served as an accompaniment for rice and is also a very good side dish for Adai. Mor Kootu is generally prepared using any greens, chow chow (chayote squash), green cabbage.

Ingredients

Beet Greens – 1 bunch (The one which I got had 3 big beets with lot of greens)

Yogurt – 1.5 to 2 cups (Depending on the consistency you want)

Green Chillies – 4

Chickpea flour/Besan – 2 tablespoons

Cumin – 1.5 teaspoons

Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon

Coconut, grated – 1/4 cup

Salt – As per taste

For Tempering:

Coconut oil – 2 teaspoons

Mustard Seeds – 1 teaspoon

Curry leaves – 5

Procedure 1. Finely chop the beet greens, both the leaves as well as the stems. Place it in a big bowl and fill it with water and let it stand for atleast 5 minutes. By doing this any dirt/sand in the greens would settle down in the bottom of the vessel. Now remove the greens and rinse it in cold water again.

2. I pressure cooked the beet leaves and beet stems together. Add water just enough to cover the greens and little salt too. I left it for 2 whistles.

3. Now grind together the coconut, cumin, chillies, besan. Add little water if required.

4. Mix this mixture with the yogurt and add enough water. This should be in the consistency of pancake batter or even thinner.

5. In a saucepan add the cooked greens, salt and yogurt sauce. Remove the pan from the stove after the first boil.

6. Add coconut oil in a small frying pan. Once it heats add mustard seeds and curry leaves. Once it splutters pour this in the kootu.

My Notes The greens which I got this time had very thick stems. So I did remove some fibrous strands while chopping it. Usually I pressure cook beet greens and stems for 1 whistle only, but this time I left it for 2 whistles for the same reason.

I’m submitting this to Sunshine Mom’s FIC – Green event.

Vegan Kidney Bean Burgers – Your Recipe Rocks!

Madhuram — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:55:05 +0000

For long time now, I have wanted to prepare vegetarian burgers, or rather it was my husband’s long pending request and I finally made it yesterday from Jai and Bee’s blog. Their Spicy Kidney Bean Burgers is a fantastic recipe. I was able to prepare it for dinner in no time.

I used canned and drained kidney beans (2 cans, 15.5 oz each). It was also the “No Salt Added” store brand canned beans, this allowed me to control the sodium content in the burgers.

I don’t have a food processor, so at first I just drained one can and rinsed it well and mixed all the other ingredients listed in the recipe and blended it using my Indian mixer. And let me tell you, it was little tricky to get the right consistency. Initially it did not grind at all and once I added a little water it became very mushy. I was glad that I reserved the other can. Now I opened the 2nd can, drained and rinsed it and mashed the beans nicely with a potato masher and mixed the ground mixture to this. Even then I was not able to make balls out of it. So instead of adding flour to the mixture as they had mentioned, I added a handful of quick cooking oats and I got the desirable consistency to shape them into burgers.

I also used curry powder and Maggi’s tomato chili ketchup to give it a desi taste. The original recipe mentions to use either ajwain (omam) or cumin, but I strongly suggest to go with ajwain, because I felt that it gave a very good flavor and aroma to the burgers. I also did not have nutritional yeast, so used roasted chick pea flour (besan) instead. Also don’t forget to add the 1/4 cup of chopped almonds, because this gives a nice crunch to the burgers, which you don’t want to miss.

I used a stove top non stick griddle to cook the burgers. Sprayed the grill with non stick canola oil spray and placed the burgers on it. It took around 8 -10 minutes for one side. Let it cook completely on one side, don’t be in hurry and bother to turn them immediately, because it will lose it’s shape. After 8 minutes or so, slowly flip it over the other side and let it cook for another 7-8 minutes. For 2 cans of beans I got 8 medium size burgers.

For the buns, I used Arnold’s Select 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Thins. It is a mere 100 calories, with 6gm fiber and 5gm protein and it doesn’t taste like mulch also

We had our burgers on a bed of iceberg lettuce, grilled zucchini with a side of potato/sweet potato fries. (Ya I know, was trying to reproduce their original menu!)

Jai and Bee we loved them absolutely. Thank you very much for such an easy and healthy recipe. Your Recipe Rocks!

This is also my entry to Zlamushka’s Tried and Tasted event.

Simple Zucchini Koottu without Daal/Paruppu

Madhuram — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:26:28 +0000

I was on a short break and am back with an easy recipe for zucchini kootu. I learnt it from my mother-in- law. Using rice rinsed water, this simple and tasty side dish can be prepared in no time. I guess this is similar to the Eriseri which is prepared in Kerala, using plain water. Usually when I use an electric rice cooker I wash the rice and soak it for 30 minutes and then cook it, to get a soft texture. So whenever I use my electric rice cooker, I make this kootu with the rice soaked water, because I don’t want to use the regular pressure cooker also just to cook daal for sambar/kootu. My mother-in-law prepares this kootu with cucumber. I had only zucchini that day, so I tried it for the first time and it tasted so good.

IngredientsZucchini, medium, cut into small cubes – 1
Water/Rice soaked water – just enough to cover the zucchini
Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon
Salt – as per taste

For Grinding:
Coconut, grated – 2 tablespoons
Cumin – 1 teaspoon
Red Chillies/green chillies – 1/2 each or as per taste
Milk/water – little

For Tempering:
Oil – 1 tablespoon
Urad Daal – 1 teaspoon
Channa Daal – 1 teaspoon
Hing – a pinch

Procedure1. Wash the rice like you always do, but instead of pouring it down the sink pour it in a sauce pan and add cubed zucchinis, tumeric powder and close the lid. When it is half cooked add the required amount of salt and let it cook for another couple of minutes. It should not become very mushy.

2. Meanwhile grind all the ingredients together mentioned in the list and also do the tempering.

3. Add the ground mixture and tempering to the zucchinis and let it boil for another 5 minutes. Garnish it with cilantro.

A very tasty kootu is ready to be served with steaming hot white rice!

Cornmeal Dumplings/Kozhukattai – Your Recipe Rocks!

Madhuram — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:19:46 +0000

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!

My Notes1. It’s exactly the arisi upma kozhukattai recipe which is very famous in all South Indian households, but we are just substituting cornmeal instead of coarse raw rice and toor daal powder. So you can either follow her method of making these or use any other method which you are already aware of.

For instance, I don’t add whole red chillies and green chillies while seasoning. Instead I grind coconut, cumin seeds, green chillies and red chillies (as per taste) into a coarse powder and add it while the water is boiling. This gives a nice aroma and flavor to the steamed balls. For this kozhukattai you can also omit the toor daal and use cornmeal only.

2. Another point to be noted, cornmeal tends to lump quickly while adding it to the boiling water. So I had to mash it with a potato masher after removing the pan from the stove and then shaped them into oval shaped dumplings to steam it. I think we can avoid this by adding some water to the cornmeal, whisking it and then pouring this mixture in the boiling water (like preparing ragi kanji).

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.

Rasam/Soup Using Beet Cooked Water

Madhuram — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:59:43 +0000

Usually I add little sugar to the cooked beet water and give it to my son as juice. This time my mother gave the idea of preparing Rasam (Chaaru) using it. Back in India, my grandmother and mother used to prepare Goddu Chaaru, which does not require toor daal, rasam powder. It’s prepared when you want rasam immediately, or when you are not cooking daal that day. As simple as it may look, it’s very tasty though. I had some toor daal water so I used it in the rasam, but it’s not at all necessary for this rasam.

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

Procedure
1. In a vessel combine the beet water, tomatoes, salt and turmeric powder and let it boil.

2. Meanwhile do the tempering. In a small frying pan add ghee, once it heats, add mustard and cumin, once it crackles, add the chillies and garlic cloves and sautee it until the raw smell is gone.

3. While the mixture is boiling, add the daal water (if you have) and the tempering and let it boil once again for 3 minutes. Garnish it with cilantro and beet rasam is ready. The color was unbelievable, so was the taste too. This can either be had as soup by itself or mixed with hot rice.

Also check out the Beet Greens Usili recipe that I posted today.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Hominy Grits & Moong Daal Pongal

Madhuram — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:07:51 +0000

After my successful experiment with grits preparing Adai, I have started using it in various other recipes. Since I’m also watching our consumption of rice, grits and cracked wheat have become the key ingredients in my cooking. So recently I tried Pongal using grits, substituting it for rice. We absolutely loved the taste.

Ingredients
Grits, Quick cooking – 1.5 cups
Moong Daal – 1/2 cup
Ghee – 2 tablespoons
Oil – 1 tablespoon
Cumin – 1 tablespoon
Pepper powder – 2 teaspoons
Ginger, grated – 1 tablespoon
Hing – a pinch
Salt – as per taste

Procedure
1. Wash the grits and daal and keep it aside.
2. In a pressure cooker add 1 tablespoon of ghee and oil.
3. Once it gets hot add the cumin seeds, ginger, pepper powder and hing.
4. Then add the grits and daal and fry it for 2 minutes.
5. Now pour 7 cups of water and close the pressure cooker with its lid.
6. Once the steam starts coming, put the weight and leave it for 4 whistles, switch off the stove and remove the pressure cooker from the stove.
7. Let it cool for 15-20 minutes, then you will be able to remove the weight from the pressure cooker. Now add the required amount of salt and the remaining 1 tablespoon of ghee and combine it well. Grits pongal is ready. Enjoy it with your favorite chutney or sambar.

My Notes
1. Usually in pongal, whole peppercorns are added. Since I have a toddler at home, I used pepper powder instead.
2. I get fresh ginger in bulk here. To store it, I peel the ginger and cut into small pieces and store it in a ziploc bag in the freezer. Whenever I want ginger I take one piece and grate it using a lemon zester. The gratings are so fine and paste like.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Are the tops of Beets Edible? Beet Greens Daal

Madhuram — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:30:29 +0000

Are the tops of Beets Edible? Until recently I did not know that beet greens were edible. During her last visit here my mother-in-law only mentioned it and cooked it for us. I don’t know why I hadn’t googled earlier to find more about these greens. Better late than never, right?

I found out that Beet greens contain a large amount of vitamins A and K and anti-oxidants Beta Carotene and Lutein. For more detailed information about the nutrient value click here.

My mother-in-law mentioned that the stems are not edible, so she used only the leaves. But later I searched in the net and found that the stems are edible, healthy and tasty too. Check it out here.

This Kootu is like preparing any other greens/vegetable kootu. It’s very simple to prepare and goes well with both rice and chapatis.

Ingredients
Beet greens 1 small bunch (we bought a bunch which had 3 beets with greens)
Moong Daal/Toor Daal 1/4 cup
Turmeric powder 1/4 teaspoon
Hing a pinch
Salt as per taste

For Grinding:
Coconut 4 tablespoons
Cumin 2 teaspoons
Red chilli 1/2 and Green chilli 1/2 (or as per taste)
Milk/Water 2-3 teaspoons or as necessary

For Tempering:
Oil 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds 1 teaspoon
Channa Daal 1 teaspoon
Urad Daal 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves (optional)

Procedure
1. Simply tear the leaves and rinse it thoroughly. We did not use the stems this time, because we did not know that it was edible.

2. The daal and greens can be either pressure cooked together adding enough water for 1 whistle or it can be cooked in a vessel directly on stove top itself, if you are using moong daal. In case you choose to go with the latter method, first add the daal, turmeric powder, hing and enough water in a vessel and don’t close it with a lid. If you close the vessel with the lid, the water will start overflowing while boiling and you will have to spend the next 5 minutes cleaning the range. Once the daal is half cooked add the cleaned greens and cook it tender adding water as required. Once both the daal and greens are cooked add enough salt.

3. While the daal and greens are cooking add all the ingredients mentioned for grinding in a blender and grind it to a fine paste using milk/water.

4. Add this paste to the cooked greens and let it boil for another couple of minutes, while you prepare the tadka.

5. In a small frying pan add oil and after it heats add the remaining ingredients and fry until the daals turn golden brown and add it to the greens and remove it from heat.

My Notes
1. I have mentioned to grind the ingredients with milk because, while cooking any greens adding a very small quantity of milk will enhance the flavor of the greens. This is my mother’s tip. So you can either grind using milk or first grind it with water and after adding the paste to the cooked greens add some milk and let it boil for another 3-4 minutes.

2. Another tip, while grinding for any kootu/daal using a combination of red chillies and green chillies gives a better taste than using either one of them alone.

3. Find some more beet greens recipes here.

New Updates
1. While grinding the ingredients for the daal, you can also use coconut milk powder instead of coconut. It gives an excellent taste to the daal.

Similarly if you don’t have coconut at home, you can also use carrots instead. This works in any kootu/daal recipe and also in mor-kuzhambu (but you will have an orange color kuzhambu). The end product tastes as good as using coconut itself. This was my mother’s discovery. Back in South India, there is a practice that they don’t want you to eat coconut for atleast 2-3 months after delivering a baby, especially if you are breast feeding. The elders say that it will create digestive problems in the newborn. So my mother experimented using carrots instead of coconuts in daals and other stuff and it came out very well also. Even yesterday I didn’t have enough coconut for grinding chutney, so I used half a carrot. But you will have to increase the quantity of chillies to offset the sweetness of the carrots. The chutney had a light orange color, but no difference it taste whatsoever.

2. Spring onions/scallions daal can also be prepared in the same way as above. This is one of my favorite side dish for chapathis. This is my grandmother’s recipe, which I had mentioned in my tribute to her.

Also check out other Beet Greens/Leaves recipes:

Beet Soup/Rasam

Beet Greens Usili

Beet Leaves Sambar

Beet Greens in Spicy Yogurt Sauce