Back when I was in India before my marriage I rarely cooked because my grandmother and mother took care of it. I knew few basics like kootu, rasam and some poriyal (dry curry), so that was enough to help them out occasionally but certain things I did not know. One such thing is the procedure for cooking banana flower (vaazhai poo). Although my grandmother used to make usili and poriyal out of it I never bothered to learn how to prep the flower for cooking. After coming to US I did not see it in the local markets so I literally forgot that such a thing existed.

Last summer we went to New Jersey to see Dasavatharam. Yes, we drove 2 hours to watch that movie because my DH is a movie-enthusiast (that’s my “good” me trying to sound poise but actually biting my teeth!). That experience by itself should qualify for another post of ranting. Anyway the only good thing from that trip (at least for me) was the visit to the Indian grocery stores there. I felt like I was in India and was so excited to see all the vegetables and greens, the variety of of flours, grains and nuts and more all laid out neatly. You should have seen the look in my face! For those of you who have come to NJ directly from India, you cannot relate to me, because in the place where I used to live (suburbs of Philly) we didn’t have that many desi stuff and choices. I was so excited that I was asking my husband to look for a job in NJ and I started looking for apartments too. Really, I’m not kidding. So we (read it as I) literally filled up the car trunk with groceries and veggies including the exotic banana flower.

I didn’t know how I was going to cook it but bought it anyway. Most of my purchases are like that only since I started this food blog! With the help of technology I learned how to prep it. No, no, no I did not Google it. I video chat with my mother everyday, so I had the banana flower in front of me and she was giving me the instructions. So finally it was done. My goodness it’s a lot of work and takes so much time. (The how to’s in another post.) She also had asked me to soak the chopped flower in buttermilk with little turmeric powder mixed to it, so that it would remove some of the bitterness. Yes, it’s slightly bitter (thuvarpu in Tamil). Did everything as she said (a teaspoon of sugar can also be added while cooking) and prepared usili the next day as usual and it tasted so good, worth the trouble taken to prep it.

Fast forward one year, I’m in Canada now and happened to see banana flower in the store here. Brought it home with the same excitement, sat down patiently to prep the flower, chopped it and made the poriyal (dry curry) which my grandmother used to make, tasted a spoonful and yuck! It was so bitter and I was wondering what I did wrong. After talking with my mother I realized that I did not soak it in buttermilk this time. I tried every possible trick to make it right, but the bitterness was like a tough grease on a pan, it would not go. Even the thought of throwing it away was making me feel very guilty. It’s not that I have not thrown away anything but to throw something as healthy as this and also after spending so much time on preparing it, it did not feel right. So I was just moping around until I saw the lentils I had soaked to prepare usili for the following day’s lunch. Aaha! the light bulb went on!

I’m sure you would have guessed it by now. Vaazhaipoo vadai (banana flower patties) is the solution. Though I have heard about these vadais we have not prepared it in our home and I have not tasted it elsewhere too. Proceeded anyway because I know that anything deep fried in oil will definitely taste good!

So took about 1 cup of the soaked lentils (approximately 3/4 cup of chana daal, 1/4 cup toor daal and masoor dal or red lentils together ), drained the water and processed it in a food processor with 1 red chili and mixed the banana flower curry and finely chopped onions with the lentil batter. I even fried one batch of vadais and that’s when another idea came. Why not bake it instead? I have seen a couple of recipes for baked falafel, so decided to give that a try and it worked too! Yay!

Preheat the oven at 375F for 15 minutes. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat it with cooking spray. Take a ping pong ball size of dough, roll it between your palms and place it on the baking sheet. You can either flatten it or leave it as it is. Repeat the same for the entire dough and spray the tops with non stick cooking oil spray and bake it in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until its golden brown. Check once in between and you may flip the patties. The only thing to be noted is that while grinding the lentils, be sure that the water is drained completely and sprinkle water little by little if necessary. If you add too much water, you will not be able to handle the dough and you would have to add rice flour or corn starch to bind it.

Surprisingly the oven baked vadais were crisp too. Crisp on the outside and soft inside. I had my doubts whether the lentils would be cooked inside because unlike falafel where cooked (canned) chickpeas is used, the lentils in this recipe was not cooked prior to the baking. So if you have that doubt too, don’t anymore because it gets cooked. The vadai was not bitter also. It tasted very good the next day too. Of course not crispy as the the first day but definitely tasty.

This goes to my Low Fat Baking Event.

Last week I tried Pongal with brown rice and it came out very well, which made me think why not bisi bele bath with brown rice? Earlier I was very hesitant about using brown rice, wondering if we would like the taste or not. To my surprise both of us like it very much. I think this is one of the few things we both agree upon! Brown rice when cooked has a rubbery (is it even a word?) texture. Or simply it is not as soft as its white counterpart. You feel very full after eating a cup of rice, as against wanting more after eating white rice. I made zucchini raitha to go with the bisi bele bath. That’s easy to prepare too. You can find other facts about brown rice here.

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.

My grandmother used to prepare a sambar using methi (fenugreek leaves) leaves called “Pulla Keera” meaning tangy greens. It requires little more tamarind than the regular sambar and a tempering of mustard seeds, fenugreek (methi seeds) and green chillies which gives this side dish an unique flavor. Toor daal rice mixed with ghee, spicy potato roast and this sambar is simply a heavenly combination.

I had a bunch of beets with the greens. So I decided to prepare the sambar using beet greens instead of methi. The beet leaves sambar tasted very good and comforting. Grandmothers’ recipes are always versatile and foolproof.

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.

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

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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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Thanks to each and everyone of you for the words of support and wishes.   My mom made the journey without any problem.  The only negative thing was her flight was delayed by 2 hrs due to bad weather.  

We made the mistake of not checking the flight’s status before leaving to the airport.  My mother was taking the British Airways flight from Chennai via London and it was supposed to reach here at 7.30pm.    We started around 6.15pm, but that day the traffic was unbelievable and we reached the airport only at 8.30 pm.  I was worried that my mother would get panicked that we had not come.  Only a handful people were there in the arrival hall and my mother was not there.  Is this not enough to panick me?  Then we saw the message board where they have the list of flights coming into the airport with their arrival time and status.  We were so tensed that we could not locate my mom’s flight.  Then after a couple of minutes we located it and confirmed that the flight had not yet arrived and was delayed by 2 hours.  Then only I was able to breathe.  By the time we reached home it was 1.00 am.

My son is already having a blast with her.  When she was in India she used to come online daily and we used to have conversation via web camera.  So he easily recognised her and yesterday night he slept with her only.  It’s like he has totally forgotten me.  He wants his grandma to do everything for him, from brushing his teeth, giving him a bath and what not!

I wanted to bake something for my mother, but she has brought us a lot of sweets and snacks from India.  I think I’m gonna put on a couple of pounds easily.

For dinner yesterday I made adai using corn grits.  I usually prepare adai using Idli rava, instead of rice.  So I thought why not try it with grits, which has a similar texture.  I used Quaker brand, quick grits, which cooks in five minutes and enriched with hominy.

Ingredients:
Quick Grits – 1 cup
Channa Daal – 1/2 cup
Toor Daal – 1/2 cup
Moong Daal – 1/2 cup
Urad Daal – 1 tablespoon
Green and Red chillies – as per taste
Ginger, grated – 1 tablespoon
Coconut, grated – 1/2 to 3/4 cup (preferably fresh)
Salt – as per taste
Coriander/curry leaves, finely chopped, for garnishing – optional

Procedure:
1.  Lightly rinse the grits and soak it with 1.5 to 2 cups of water.
2.  In a separate bowl add all the daals, rinse it and soak it in 3-4 cups of water.  Also add the red chillies with the daal.
3.  After 4 hours either using a blender or wet grinder first grind the daals (adding water little by little) along with the chillies, also add the green chillies, ginger and coconut.
4.  Once it is grinded coarsely add the grits also and grind it for another couple of minutes.  The batter should not be very smooth and also not very corase.
5.  Transfer the batter to a bowl, add salt and coriander leaves.
6.  Now prepare the adais as usual.

I got around 14 medium size adais for the above measurement.  It was so delicious, especially with avial.

My Notes:
1.  I usually use a combination of red chillies and green chillies in my cooking.  The taste is definitely different and very good when compared to using either one.
2.  Using fresh coconut and a lot of it really enhances the taste of adais.
3.  Check this recipe for preparing adais using sweet corn. 
  
This is my entry for Sangeeth’s Eat Healthy – Protein Rich, event.