Seasoned with love

I believe cooking does not stop with preparing the meal, washing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen. People who love food and who are great cooks can be recognized with one trait, they love to feed people. They feed them with love, when they explain recipes your mouth starts to water, when they offer food you cannot refuse. I have known many who can differentiate, the elachi in the muthusarai,who can identify a dash of kasoori methi as a finishing touch to dhal, who wouldnt let someone to serve on their own and who would make you want to eat when serving and a Grandma who would ask " enda sweet pidikalaya?  ( Dont you like it?)" after one gobbles three badam cakes and refuses the fourth one !, the ones who have mastered the art of making perfect chais and coffees. All these people have increased my love affair with food and with cooking and eating.

This post is an ode to one such person Adina, who has taught me to appreciate and love food outside of  India. She looked at me like an alien, when I ordered veggie pizza with no broccoli, no mushrooms, no olives, no artichokes please. She asked me why don't you order plain cheese pizza? Mushrooms some one told me tastes like chicken, I am not a big fan of cauliflower so the green sister does not tickle my taste buds. Olives...oh no, I had them from a can once on a subway sandwich....it tastes rubbery!. Her reply was you will come one day to my home for dinner.

The couple were perfect hosts, the dinners usually started at 2:00, with chips & dips, feta cheese and tomatoes, eggplant salads and so on... Sergiu constantly filled the glasses with the red liquid when his better half made sure that the plates were always filled. We breathed, talked and ate food and the air was filled with aroma of olive oil and laughter and happiness. I have never declined an invitation to their home... what usually started at 2:00 PM will go on till 12:00...1:00.. and my dear friend would say make sure you pack some home... when we had no more to pack in our tummies. Such people not just fill your tummies but also your hearts.

Here are a few recipes from her kitchen:

Brocoli Baked:
Cut brocoli into florets, drizzle with olive oil, season with red pepper flakes and bake them at 350 in the oven. The crunchy Brocoli is hard to refuse

Mushrooms:
Slice the button mushroom into two, slice juicy campari tomatoes and place on top. Drizzle with olive oil, sea salt and bake at 350 and then broil for 10 mts till all the juices evaporate.

Varieties of Olives and Cheese:
She taught me to appreciate the cheese and made me stop buy the pre-cut cheddar cheese slices and enjoy Brie, Feta, fresh Mozerella to name a few...My love for olives began at her place too, Black olives, Olives with feta cheese, Olives with red pepper stuffing, feta cheese with tomatoes (I can eat that the whole day).

She made home made lima bean dip, hummus and Sergiu baked bread and pizza. I have tried all of these at home, but it never tasted the same, I have increased olive oil, increased pepper, decreased salt tried umpteen things, only to realize that the taste will never be the same as it was never seasoned with "Adina's love".

Spinach Pulav

A healthy nutritious and yummy dish that takes under 10 minutes to prepare. A blessing in disguise for a working mom, especially if your kids like it and are willing to take it for lunch.

Ingredients:

2 packs chopped spinach (I like either the Birds' Eye brand or the Lucerne/Dominicks brand organic chopped spinach)

1 cup basmathi rice (regular white or brown rice is fine too, but the basmathi gives the pulav a special flavor)

2 spoons of sambar, or rasam powder, or vathakozhambu powder (using each of these gives the pulav a slightly different taste)

salt to taste, a tsp of ghee or oil to saute

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 onion chopped

Deep fried paneer cubes (optional).

Preparation method:

Saute the cumin seeds in ghee or oil.

Add chopped onions and saute for a couple of minutes.

Add the basmathi rice, spinach, salt, sambar/rasam powder, and two cups of water.

Cook either on open flame (with the stockpot covered) or transfer contents to a rice cooker.

Serve with yoghurt, raita or any sabji, if a side dish is considered necessary. My kids eat this without anything on the side.

Optional: Adding deep fried paneer pieces after the rice is cooked gives this a rich taste.

A variation to this is carrot-peas pulav, made with frozen peas and carrot combo packets (replace spinach with carrots & peas in the above recipe).

Lemon Pickle - The easy way !

With the name of the blog being thachi mammu, I realized that there is not a single post for the most important accompaniment that goes with thachi mammu.

It is pickle....usually avakkai (Mango pickle), Vadumangai (Tender mango), Mixed vegetable go higher up in the order of preferences. Lemon pickle...is savored generally when nothing else interesting is available. I made my first attempt at this one and it came out pretty well.

When made in this method, the pickle does not last long. So make it in small quantities and enjoy it fresh !

Ingredients:
Lemons - 2 (big ones)
Salt - 2 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tbsp
Gingely oil - 3 tbsp ( if you are not diet conscious, be generous with this one)
Fenugreek powder - 1.5 tbsp
mustard, asafoetida ( to season)
Chilli powder - 3 tbsp

1. Cut lemon into small pieces. Heat kadai in medium flame, and add the cut lemons with salt and turmeric and mix well
2. Keep the kadai closed with lid for 2 minutes, you can see that the mixture starts to get a little gravy
3. In a separate kadai, heat gingely oil, add mustard, asafoetida powder
4. Add chilli powder and fenugreek powder to the lemons. Before mixing, add the seasoned hot oil and mix it all together and leave it for a couple of minutes.
5. If you think there is not enough juice in the mixture, you may boil a little bit of water in the same kadai in which you heated the seasoned oil and add it to the mixture.
6. Leave it out for 8 hours or so and then refrigerate.

With this method, the pickles turn out spicy and tangy without tasting bitter !.

Enjoy with thachi mammu!.

Garden Vegetable and Bean soup - Indian Style

Ingredients:

Soak overnight
chick pea - 1 table spoon
red beans - 1 table spoon
rajma or kidney beans - 1 table spoon (any beans you want to add)

1 onion - finely chopped
1 small carrot - cut into large chunks or cubes
1/2 capsicum
1 pod garlic - crushed
1 inch ginger - crushed
2 green chillies - slit
3 large tomatoes - cut or can of crushed tomatoes

some pasta - either spaghetti or linguine anything just for starch
half potato for starch (not required)

Garnish:
cilantro finely chopped
grated parmesan cheese or powdered parmesan cheese

Spices:
Salt to taste
red chili powder (I even used little sambar powder :) )
coriander powder
oregano
pepper


Prep:

Add oil in a pressure cooker and add the onion, garlic and ginger. Saute until transparent and cooked. Then add the capsicum and saute them and add tomatoes and let it cook for a bit. Add all the spices and salt to taste except for the oregano and pepper. Until all the tomatoes cook, then add the vegetables, the pasta and the soaked beans. For how many ever cups of beans add 3 times the measure of water. Mix them all and check taste and if required at this time you can adjust the salt and spice according to your needs. Pressure cook them all.

Serve them in a bowl and sprinkle pepper and oregano to your taste. Garnish with Parmesan cheese and cilantro. Have it with a bread toast.

Healthy tasty food down your tummy.

Spring Rolls and Momos

Veg Momos/ Spring Rolls

Things Required:

Spring Roll wraps. You get it in many grocery shops. You should find it somewhere near the tofu and/or salad section.

1/4 Cabbage
1 Carrot
1 small Onion or 1/2 big onion - I prefer red onions
2 small Chillies
1 Garlic
1 inch Ginger

All these need to be very finely chopped. I grated the carrot in the big sized grater.

Spices:
1) Coriander powder - 1/4th to 1/2 tea spoon
2) Pepper powder - to taste
3) Turmeric powder - 2 pinch
4) Chilli powder - to taste
5) Salt to taste
6) Lemon juice

Mix all the veggies and spices together.

For the Momos:
Place a small portion of the mix on the middle of the wrap. Moist the 4 ends with little water and fold them to the center and make it like a kozhukattai.
Use the idli plates and steam them. Done!

For the spring rolls:
Place a small portion on the wrap and moist one side of the wrap. Roll it like a letter and stick them. Fold the other open sides and stick them with water. Place them in a greased oven tray. Grease them on top. (I used the oil spray.)

Preheat the oven to 350 F and then time it to 35 mins. After 20 mins flip the spring rolls over and place for another 10 to 15 mins until it all turns golden brown. Done!

Enjoy Momos and spring rolls with chilli and soy sauce. I liked them with Maggi hot and sweet sauce. :)

Oats Dosa - A healthy alternative.

Things required:

3 cups - plain oats (I used Quaker oats)
1/2 cup - wheat flour
1/2 cup - all purpose flour
2 or 3 - teaspoons Jeera or Cumin seeds
1 or 2 - teaspoons Crushed black pepper.
1/2 cup - Butter milk or curd
Salt to taste


Preparation:

1) Soak oats for around 1 hour until it gets soft.
2) Grind all ingredients listed above along with the soaked oats in a blender.
3) Make into a nice batter, not too thick or loose. Consistency like a dosa batter.
4) Pour batter in hot greased tava and make the dosas.
5) Have it with your favorite chutney or dosai molagai podi. Enjoy!



Variations: Add finely chopped onions and green chillis to make like uthappam. :)

Tip: Do not try to make the first dosa thin. Once the first dosa is made, you can make thin crispy dosas thereafter.

Idli

Idlies are the most favorite of all the south indian tiffins. Steaming hot idlies any day any time !

Ingredients
1. Idli Rice - 4 cups
2. Whole white ural dhal - 1 cup and a little
3. Fenugreek seeds - 1 tbsp

Steps:
1. wash and soak Idli rice in hot water for 1 hour
2. wash and soak the ural dhal with fenugreek for 45 minutes in hot water
3. Grind the urad dhal without water in mixie or grinder. In grinder it comes much more fluffier and softer than in the mixie. In mixie it takes a longer time, in my grinder it takes about 15 mts. You should not add water while grinding this one.
4. After this is done, remove the ural dhal mavu from the grinder and empty it in a container.
5. Add the rice and grind it, you can add a little bit of water to this.
6. After the rice is ground, add the urad dhal mavu and add salt. 1 spoon for 1 cup of rice and grind together. I do this as I am lazy to mix the salt, outside as it takes quite a bit of effort.
7. Put the entire mixture in a container . The container should only be 75% full. The rest of the space is for the maavu to pongify.
8. Keep the container in the oven. It takes about 8 - 10 hrs to pongify.
9. After the maavu pongifies the top portion can be used for idli and the bottom portion for dosais.
10 . Save the maavu in fridge for future use

Variations:
For folks, who dont have a grinder, instead of using rice, use rice rava. You need not soak rice rava for an hour and all. Just for 10-15 minutes and take it out and mix it with the urad maavu.

For making idlies:
Take the top maavu, add a little water, not too much. grease the idli plates.
Pour the maavu and steam and enjoy the idlies.

For me the joy of eating idlies is worth all the effort !!!

Upma Kozhakkattai

First post in 2009 !!! Yippee... After months of hibernation, I have started to gain enthusiasm in cooking again. Arisi upma is one of my favorite tiffins, upma kozhakkatai is just another form of arisi upma that I love. The traditional way of preparation starts with soaking the rice, drying the rice on a cloth, grinding the rice into coarse powder..... okay thanks to the Indian stores for coarse ready made idli rava, the preparation time is reduced !. Sorry for the bad picture, I was too eager to eat the dish and didnt concentrate on the quality of the photograph !

Ingredients
1. Coarse Rice rava 1 cup
2. Grated Coconut - 1/4 cup
3. Bengal gram dal - 1tbsp
4. Red chillies - 3-4
5. Curry leaves
6. Asafoetida
7. Little bit of pepper powder freshly ground (optional)
8. oil - 2 tbsp
9. mustard seeds- 1/2 tbsp
10. split urad dhal- 1tbsp
11. Water in the ratio of 1: 1.5

1. Take oil in kadai, add mustard seeds when it splutters add the urad dhal chenna dhal, when they are roasted add curry leaves, dried red chillies, asafoetida.
2. Add water and salt and let it boil
3. Add Grated coconut and the coarse rice rava. Mix it well so that it does not form lumps. Different rice ravas may require different amounts of water, microwave a cup of hotwater and keep it ready. Incase you feel that all the water is absorbed and the mixture is getting dry you can add the same. Cook on medium heat, keep it closed for a couple of minutes.
4. When the mixture is cooked , let it cool for a while
5. Make balls and keep it on a idli plate and steam cook the same
6. When the kozhakkatais are done they will have a glassy finish.

Steaming hot kozhakattais are ready !
Enjoy with a dash of ghee on the kozhakkatai and a side of chutney , pachidi or sambhar. I had left over vengaya sambhar and had the kozhakkatais with that.

Optionally you can also soak 1/5 cup of toor dal and coarsely grind it and add it to the rava mixture and cook.

Trifle Pudding

This was my first attempt at Trifle Pudding. Looked & tasted yummy. I remember it from Dibba times. Amma's a fantastic cook. She used to invite 2 dozen people and cook all day and churn out these unbelievably tasty dishes. Trifle was one of them. We had a potluck today and I'd decide to give this fav dessert of mine a shot. Its fairly simple and cannot really go wrong. Holiday season = 5 extra pounds already. I better hit the gym before I gain back all those fat cells I'd struggled to lose.

Here you go:

Ingredients:

Sponge/Pound Cake - 1

Whipped mixed fruit jam - 4 tbsp

Sugar Syrup/Orange Squash - 2 Tbsp

Bananas - 3

Apples - 2

Seedless Grapes - 100 gms

Lemon Juice - 1 Tbsp

Fresh Cream - 250 gms

Powdered Sugar - 3 tbsp

For Custard:

Milk - 1/2 Cups

Vanilla Custard Powder - 1 Sachet

Sugar - 1 Tbsp

For Jelly:

Cherry or Strawberry flavored

Jelly Packet - 1

Water - 1 1/2 Cups

Sugar - 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Take a glass dish of 3 inches deep.

2. Cut cake in to thin slices and arrange a thin layer inside the dish.

3. Sprinkle little syrup or squash or milk to moisten the cake.

4. Apply jam evenly on top of the cake.

5. Cut apples and bananas in to thin slices, apply little lemon juice to prevent discoloring and arrange half of the pieces on top of the jam layer.

6. Mix custard with half a cup of cold milk.

7. Heat rest of the milk with sugar till dissolved.

8. When it starts boiling, pour dissolved custard and keep stirring in medium flame till thick custard is formed. Remove from fire.

9. Keep stirring to prevent skin formation.

10. Pour half of that on top of the fruit layer.

11. Repeat the layers once again on top, first cake, jam, fruits and then custard.

12. Keep it in the fridge to set.

13. Decorate with grapes, whipped cream using piping bag.

Variations:

• tinned fruits (drained) instead of the fresh fruits.
• Used the syrup from the tinned fruits to soak the cake instead of orange squash/milk.
• Used Vanilla Pudding Pie/Filling instead of the custard
• Set the Jelly separately and cut it into diamonds and used it at the top of the layers (Remember: Jelly takes about 4 hours to set)
• Used cherries to decorate the pudding after spraying dollops of whipped cream over the jelly. I did this at the end just before serving.

Jalapeno corn soup

On a rainy friday, wanted to have some soup. Was staring at my fridge for a while and came up with this concoction and this turned out to be good.

Ingredients:

Frozen corn - 1.5 cups
Vegetable stock - 2 cups
Fresh Jalapenos - 2 (You may also substitute with green chillies , I guess!)
Tomato - 1

Optional:
Chilli sauce
Soy sauce
Bread fried in olive oil

Method:
1. Microwave corn for a couple of minutes
2. In a blender add frozen corn, tomato and chopped jalapenos and blend well. The husk of corn stays little bit, you may either filter it or leave it like that for fiber :-).
3. Microwave the blended mixture for 5 mts
4. Add the vegetable stock and microwave for another 5 mts, stirring inbetween
5. Add one spoon of chilli sauce , soy sauce and salt and stir well

Garnish with bread fried in olive oil and finely chopped jalapenos. If you like it a little tangy you may also add a little bit of lime juice. Enjoy steaming hot soup with freshly ground pepper !!.

Ulundu Paruppu Sadham

I got this recipe from my best buddy Deepthi's, mother. When we were in hostel during our undergrad, her mom used to prepare this and bring it whenever she comes to visit Deepthi. The entire wing would crowd in our room. We all used to savor this dish and scrape the container till the last bit.

Ingredients
Sadham :
1 cup rice
1/3 urad dhal (black whole)
salt + little grated coconut
little bit of vendayam

Chutney:
red chilli - 2
coriander seeds- 2 tbsp
Tamrind,
grated coconut

Method:
1. Wash rice and black whole urad well. Add enough quantity of water. And some grated coconut, vendayam and pressure cook the same.
2. When it is cooked add salt and mix well
3. For chutney, dry roast red chilli, corriander seeds. Add coconut and a little bit of tamarind paste, salt and grind together.

Her mom used to tell us that the dish is to be eaten by mixing the chutney well with the rice and not by having the chutney as a side dish. ( Nalla pesanju sapdanum, chutney chumma thottu sapda koodadu !).

Orange peel gothsu

Ingredients:

1. Orange peel (- from 1 small orange , fleshier the better) or Narthangai salted and dried
2. Tamarind paste
3. Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
4. Rice 1 tbsp
Seasoning:
Mustard seeds, curry leaves, Gingely oil (preferable not must)

Method:
I will start the recipe with orange peel as it is readily available

1. Collect those orange peels and wash them well
2. cut the orange peel into small 1cm square
3. Put puli paste + 1 cup of water . Add the orange peel and boil everything together well. Add salt and chilli powder . If you are making this with salted narthangai , do not add salt.
4. Dry roast rice and sesame seeds, add 1 red chilli and grind it into a coarse powder
5. Add this to the boiling mixture and keep it in a low flame till everything comes together
6. Season with mustard seeds, curry leaves

This tastes yummy with idli, dosa, ven pongal etc. You may also mix it with rice and eat. This recipe is spicy and has a nice tangy,sour and bitter taste combined together.

Channa

Ingredients

1 can chick peas [ Which is already cooked and salted]
1 large tomato
2 large onions
1 1/2 tbsp. chopped coriander
1 tsp. ginger grated
1 tsp. garlic crushed
1 tsp lemon essence
2 tbsp. oil
1 tbsp. ghee
4 green chillies slit
1 tsp. cumin seeds


Dry masalas
1 tsp. red chilli powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp clove powder
1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
1/4 tsp. channa masala
salt to taste

Method
Chop the tomatoes and onions fine.Heat oil in a large skillet.Add cumin seeds to splutter.Add ginger-garlic and fry for a minute.Add chopped tomatoes, onion and little bit of salt.Fry till tender.Add all dry masala except cinnamon-clove powder.Stir and fry till oil separates. Empty the contents of the can which has the salted chick peas to the skillet.Stir and bring to boil.Move this to a serving dish.


Heat ghee in a small sauce pan.Add the chillies and cinnamon-clove powder.Add chopped coriander and pour this hot over the serving dish.Pour lemon essence over channa.Stir in seasoning gently.


Serve it with chappathi or even tortilla


Making time :- 15 mins

Semiya upma with a dash of mint

Ingredients

Vermicelli - 1cup
onion - 1 large
carrot - 1 grated
peas - 1 cup
tomatoes - 1 large
pudhina chutney - 2 tbsp
red chilli - 2 (the dish tastes good spicy)
Ghee 2 tbsp

You may also add green peppers, beans and other veggies of ur choice.

Method:
In a tawa dry fry semiya till light golden brown and keep it aside.
Add a little bit of oil, add mustard when it splutters add chennah dhal, urad dhal, red chillies (2).
add the onions and fry till golden brown. add tomatoes and when they are cooked add the other vegetables and salt. The veggies should be crunchy. add 2 cups of water and boil it well (water quantity is based on the vermicilli that you buy). Add the roasted vermicilli and cook for two minutes. When the veggies and vermicilli are mixed well, add 2 spoons of pudhina paste and mix again. Tasty veggie semiya upma is ready to eat !!!.

Kadai Vegetables

Ingredients:

3/4 packet mized veggies (around 0.75 pounds) (microwave to remove ice)
2 onions (medium)
2 tomatoes
Red chillies (1)
green chilli (1)
capsicum (1) (chopped medium size)- microwave for 45 sec
jeera
garammasala
corriander
ginger -garlic paste (or use fresh and grind)

1. grind corriander, red chilli and jeera (w/o water) into coarse powder
2. grind ginger garlic paste and green chilli together
3. heat oil, put powder from step 1, put onions and fry till golden brown
4. put paste from step 2 and fry for a minute, then add the mixed veggie and cook till all masala coats. add turmeric powder, salt, chilli powder (if you want more karam)
5. add cut tomatoes, add water (use water to clean mixie in step 1 &2 into this), cook till tomatoes are cooked well and coat with the mixed veggie6. add capsicum + lill bit of garam masala and keep till everything comes together.7. garnish with freshly chopped corriander leaves and eat.
Prep time is just 15mts !!!!.