Happy Sankranthi & Breakfast time

Dear foodies,

Happy Sankranthi/Pongal to all of you!

It’s been a while, a loooong while since I posted a recipe here. Life has changed so much since the last granola post, and I keep pinching myself to to see if its not all a dream. Last year I was in Hyderabad for Sankranthi, with my parents. My brother and I were to board our flight to the airport in a few hours, but we could not leave without flying kites! So we pushed all the packing aside and spent a good couple of hours on the terrace trying to recollect the kite-flying techniques. We were a family of four then, and now … its six of us, with many new sisters/brothers attached. With all this new excitement, a trip to India, and the holidays, this blog did not get all the attention it needed. The last few weeks I’ve dreaded even opening the page on my browser, and each time I did push myself to see it, I was hoping against hope that it would’ve miraculously updated itself :D

I had even gotten out of the habit of cooking a decent meal and photographing it! So this past week, I nudged myself to cook something good instead of just throwing things together in a bowl, and took my time to photograph it too. aaah! the joys of blogging :) So starting afresh in 2010 with the first meal of the day - Breakfast. Nothing beats steaming idlis paired with dollops of chutney’s and a piping bowl of sambar.

I haven't mastered my idli recipe well enough to write a detailed post about it, so its all about the chutnies today. But I'll give you the measurements I used - 1 cup -idli rava to 3/4 cup - whole urad dal + 1tsp methi seeds. I added a few green peas and shredded carrot to the steamer plate before ladling the batter adding color to the white beauties.

Basic Coconut Chutney

(2-3 servings)

Ingredients:

to grind -

• 1 cup - fresh/frozen grated coconut
• 1 Tbsp - Dalia/putnala pappu
• 2 nos - Green chillies (adjust to taste)
• Salt to taste

Seasoning -

• 1 Tbsp - Oil
• 1/2 tsp - mustard seeds
• 1 tsp - Urad dal
• 5-6 nos - Curry leaves, roughly chopped

Method:

1. Take the ingredients under the 'to grind' list and well, grind them together :) (this hardly counts as a method!) Add a few tablespoons of water as needed to help the process go along.
2. Heat a tadka pan with oil, add the mustard seeds and urad dal. Once the seeds start to splutter and the dal changes color to a light orange, add the curry leaves. Pour the hot tadka over the chutney and serve :)

Add-on's: A few drops of coconut oil drizzled on top before serving would enhance the coconut flavor. You can add a small handful of cilantro or 1/4 cup grated carrot ground along with the coconut for a nice color/flavor variation. For some extra tanginess, add about 1/4 tsp of tamarind extract.

Tomato & Peanut chutney

(3-4 servings)

Ingredients:

to grind:

• 4 nos - ripe Tomatoes
• 1/4 cup - Peanuts
• 3-4 nos - dry Red Chillies (adjust to taste)
• 1/2 Tbsp - Urad dal
• 1/2 Tbsp - Chana dal
• 1/2 tsp - Jeera/Cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp - Methi/fenugreek seeds
• 1/2 tsp - Tamarind extract or a tamarind piece
• 1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
• 2 tsp - Oil
• Salt to taste

Seasoning:

• 1 tsp - Oil
• 1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
• 1 tsp - Urad dal
• 4-5 - Curry leaves, roughly chopped
• pinch of hing/asafoetida

Method:

1. Heat a tsp of oil in a pan and roast the peanuts on a low-medium flame until the start turning a nice orange color. Transfer to a plate and set aside to cool. I don't bother with removing the skins on them.
2. Add another tsp of oil and add the cumin seeds. As they heat up, add the dals and saute till the start turning a light orange. Crush the red chillies lightly and add to the pan along with the fenugreek seeds & tamarind piece (if using extract, add directly to the grinder bowl). Transfer all of them to the same plate as the peanuts and allow to cool.
3. Quarter the tomatoes and add them to the same pan. Cook for about 2-3 mins until they start to soften slightly and lose shape. Set aside to cool.
4. Transfer the roasted dals, peanuts and tomatoes to a grinder bowl, add salt and blend to get a smooth consistency. Add a few tablespoons of water as needed. Check for seasonings and transfer to a serving bowl.
5. For the seasoning, heat the oil in a tadka pan, add the mustard seeds, as they splutter add the dal and roast for a min. Finally add the curry leaves and hing powder. Pour it over the chutney and serve.

Add-on's: A handful of coriander leaves added will be good in this chutney. You can skip the peanuts. Half a cup roughly chopped onion sautéed along with the tomatoes tastes really good too.

I bought a mini idli plate last year, and so had tiny idli's to dunk in piping hot onion sambar. To save this post from becoming never ending, I'll save the sambar recipe for later. The basic coconut chutney lets you enjoy the pure coconut flavor at its best. The tomato chutney was a little spicy to act as a counter point to the mild coconut chutney. A steaming cup of filter coffee to go along with the plate and you have breakfast nirvana :) Here is some sweet pongal to finish off the festive plate.

Thank You!

Dear Foodies,

My blog won the Best Indi Foodblog Award at Indibloggies !!

And I owe it to all of you who voted :) I was thrilled to even find my blog put up for nominations among so many fantastic blogs and..., to win the title...its just fabulous! This year is ending on a very sweet note, and I have you to thank for this one :)

I started this space with the thought of sharing my kitchen experimentations. The ones where I was following the instructions my mom gave over the phone and hoping that the dish would atleast be palatable :D I did not know who my audience was. All my friends were starting up blogs, I was too shy to write a personal blog and so food was a perfect foil to get me started :) It has come a long way since then, and love it :)

I've met many wonderful people through their blogs, made friends not just in fellow bloggers but a few readers too. And it may not be too far fetched to say that it may have had a teeeeny weeeny bit in bringing me my life partner :D I am thankful to you guys for all of this and much more! Its been great so far, and I hope to share many more recipes and stories with you in the future :)

Happy Holidays!

P.S: My family and I, thank you for all the lovely wishes sent our way through your comments in the previous post.

Updates! Updates!

Dear foodies,


Yes, lots and lots of exciting updates! This space has been silent and dull all of last month...but life outside has been full of activities and wonderful turns. Soon after my previous post I boarded the plane to India to attend my brother's wedding! I got there even before the bride, my dear sis-in-law, so I could shop, for them ;-) There was one round before my brother came, one after and many more in between :) My brother strictly warned me against getting the camera to the wedding hall, lest I disappear from his wedding pics :D We had a mehendi function at home and these photos are from the arrangements my aunt and I did for it.

Happy happy married life Vijai & Pallavi, love you!

A few weeks back I got an email from Indibloggies congratulating me on my blog being nominated under the "Best Food Indiblog" category! I am thrilled to see my blog share the space with so many of my favorite food blogs! My sincere thanks to the Indibloggies jury and to all of you who suggested my blog for nomination. You guys are fantastic! A huge thanks to each one of you dear readers. Its your kind words of encouragement that have kept this blog going for so long and brought it to its current state. Thank you, thank you soo much! :-) Now I request you to click on the icon below and vote for me and the other fabulous blogs that've been nominated in various categories. Vote for us and make our day so much more sweeter :) You have until the 10th of December to vote.

Vote here

Now for the biggest news of all.....I got Engaged! Today !! We decided to take the leap just last week and today we got officially engaged!! Well, e-engaged since the event took place in India :-P A month back if somebody had told me this was going to happen I would have laughed it out, but now its all fallen into place beautifully & I'm happy for it :)

Vamsi is blissfully dreaming of hot meals landing on his dinner table every day, I think you guys need to explain to him the travails of marrying a food blogger ;-) But I can promise you one thing, there's going to be loooots of cooking ahead, so stay tuned :)

Home-made Granola Mix

Dear foodies,

It's Fall already! And the weather outside isn't the poetic nip in the air' kind, its the kind that sends you rummaging deep into your closet for that heavy winter coat! The leaves have been changing color really fast, and I cannot wait for the rain to stop, so I can go out with my camera. Now the dear camera has been on a long rest, no recent dinners or lunches were offered to it first, instead it sat, neatly tucked in its bag. With the last weekend being a little cold I wanted to make amends, and bake something special. Most blogs I visited were serving bowls of delicious roasted stone fruit and muffins with cinnamon and spices....all of them ushering in the new season and the warm flavors it brings with it.

My apartment though was filled with the warm fragrance of vanilla and roasted nuts. For the longest time I've been planning to make my own granola mix/bars. I get a mini snack attack at 3 in the afternoon, and having something healthy and crunchy scores high. I tried making granola bars once, but failed miserably. I really don't know how I managed to do that! So I decided to made my own granola mix this weekend, and it really is one of the easiest things you can make, and one of the best too. I was soo excited after the first taste that I've put them on my Christmas gift list for friends. Its that good! You will want to share it with everyone you know....uh, or may be not, after the second bite...

Apart from being easy to make, you are also in full control. I usually have atleast one kind of nut or fruit that I don't like in the store bought granola mix. Most mixes either have too many peanuts & cashews or sun flower seeds. Now, I like these, but they need to be balanced with the rest. At home though, I am the boss. I can choose the quality of ingredients that go into it, the quantity and also the combination of flavors. The recipe below is more a method for you to experiment with, my only request will be that you come back and share your combination with me :-)

I shopped for all the ingredients at our local organic store which has a pretty good bulk section. For recipes such as this that need a long list of ingredients, but in small quantities, the bulk bin is your friend. You can buy small amounts of a variety of nuts and still not spend a fortune. I used hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans (my current fav), dried cherries and plump golden raisins. Almonds were a huge favorite in most of the recipes I found online, so while digging deep into my refrigerator looking for them, I found a bag of ruby red Goji berries instead! Looking thru the refrigerator is almost like a treasure hunt sometimes ;-) Most recipes also used Wheat germ, I could barely recollect that at the store. I found some Wheat bran next to the flax seed I was buying and so got some of it too. Wheat bran is the outer cover of the wheat kernel and is a source of magnesium and iron, about a quarter cup also has about 6gms of fiber. Some wild flower honey, and locally made maple syrup added the sweetness to the enticing mix.

Bejeweled!

Home-made Granola mix

Ingredients:

• 2 cups - Rolled oats
• 1/4 cup each (unsalted)- Walnuts, Pecans, Hazelnuts - coarsely chopped
  
• 1/4 cup - Wheat bran
• 2 Tbsp - Flax seeds
• 1/4 cup each (packed) - dried Cherries, plump Golden raisins - coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup - Goji berries
• 1 Tbsp - Butter
• 2 Tbsp - Oil (I had olive oil, but any vegetable oil works too)
• 2 Tbsp - *Maple Syrup
• 2 Tbsp - *Honey
• 1/2 tsp - pure Vanilla extract

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 325F
2. In a microwave safe bowl, combine the butter, oil, honey and maple syrup. Microwave for a minute and whisk them all together. Add the vanilla extract and mix.
3. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spread the oats, chopped nuts, flax seed and wheat bran. Slowly add the liquid mix and combine with your hand, coating all the ingredients. Use just enough of the liquid mix to help form a rough ball of the mixture when held firmly within your fist.
4. Spread the mix evenly on the baking sheet and place in the center rack of the oven. Bake for 25-30 mins, flipping it every 10mins.
5. The nuts will soon fill the kitchen with the smells of their roasted goodness, and the oats will turn a slight orange-brown color. Bring the baking tray out, mix the chopped dried fruits and allow to cool. The oats will not appear to be crunchy when brought out of the oven, but they will get there on cooling.
6. Store in an clean and dry air tight container for upto 2 weeks, it won't last that long though :-))
   

Notes: * You can also use a combination of brown sugar and honey for sweetening the mix. Add the sugar while microwaving the rest, so it melts into liquid mix. or simply use only honey or maple syrup, instead of both.
Any combination of nuts and dried fruits can be used. I added some chopped crystalized ginger to a tiny portion. Dried apricots, papaya, mango, pineapple, candied orange peel, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, almonds, peanuts, cashews, pistachios.....this list is endless!
If using dates or prunes add them during the final 5mins of baking time to dry them out a bit. Or the moisture in them could soften the oats during storage.
You can also add a tsp of cinnamon or ground cloves or nutmeg to spice things up a bit.

The smell of warm vanilla and the nuts that was filling the kitchen while baking the granola, is in itself a great reason to make this at home! Seriously! I was amazed by how good this turned out. the chunks of nuts and fruits were a delight to bite into. I have been eating it not just at 3 in the afternoon, but at every excuse I can find to get into the kitchen. I have a bag of it in my desk at work too. When I looked at the amount of granola I had, I expected it to last a few weeks, but I might have to make another batch this weekend. The honey and maple syrup on their own do not contribute to the needed sweetness, its the dried fruit added at the end that complete it. The raisins and cherries I used were tart and sweet and along with the chunks of nuts and crispy oats, you will not want to stop munchin & crunchin. I purposely left the nuts in bigger chunks so you can taste the individual flavors when biting into them. The butter and oil help in crisping the oats, you could substitute the quantity with either one too.

You can top some on your yogurt or cooked oats porridge for breakfast, or eat them as is for a snack. While baking the granola I also tossed in a few bowls of chopped plums and apricot drizzled with a little of the extra liquid mix I had, into the oven. After the oats were out, I let them roast for an additional 10 mins. Out they came oozing out all their sweet juices, topped with some of the fresh granola it was a perfect end to the cold weekend :) Happy Fall season!

Sunday Snacks -Spill the Beans Round up

Dear foodies,

I know I've been MIA, guilty as charged, more so because I've greedily kept some really scrumptious snacks away from you. Far back in July I requested you to come up with snack ideas using beans. Spill the beans, is what I named it, and that's exactly what you did. I got many lovely recipes from you to kick away the snack cravings. Thank you! But before I leave you with a list that will have you rushing to grab a snack, check out the current Sunday Snacks -Snacks with bread, hosted by Priya of Easy & Tasty Recipes.

Sunday Snacks - Spill the Beans

Garbanzo Summer picnic salad
from Sreelu of Sreelu's Tasty Travels

Tortilla Bajji
and

Urad dhal Vada
from Divya of Dil Se...

Fried Chickpeas
from Soma of eCurry

Amritsari style dal
from Sudha of Malaysian Delicacies

Rajma Dip
from Padma of Padma's Recipes

Mixed beans & Sweet potato cutlets
and

Chickpea & Urad dal vadai
from Aarthi of Aarthi's kitchen

Baked Pakoda
and

Oats peanut butter Cookies
from Sadhana of A2Z Vegetarian Cuisine

Ambode/Masala Vadai
from Anu of My Scrawls

Rajma Patties
from Shubha of Munch, Crunch & Such

Spicy Daal Chaat
and

Kolhapuri Misal
from Meera of Enjoy Indian Food

Potato Patties
from Rupali of Chak...le...re!!

Golgappas
from Prathibha of The Chef & her Kitchen

Chickpeas Sundal
from Ashwini of Ashwini's Spicy Cuisine

Moth/Matki usal
from Jaya of JayaSpace

Rajma Rasmisa
from Pari of Foodelicious

Moong Bhaji
from Preeti of Khaugiri

Baked Sweet potato & chickpeas cutlet

Baked Chickpeas & Bread Rolls

Whole greengram kunukku
from Priya of Priya's Easy & Tasty Recipes

Ugrani
from Srinithya of Andhra Spice

Pattani Sundal
from Lata of Flavors & Tastes

Senagalu fry
from Kalyani of Kalyani's kitchen

Magic Masoor dal

Lobhiya chaat
from Deepti of Dips Kitchen

Misal Pav
from Jyoti of Panch Pakwan

Moong dal dosa
from Renu of Renu's Kitchen

Chana Chaat
from Shri of Tasty Touch

Green moong chutney
from Nivedita of Nivedita's kitchen

Misal
from Bhagyashri of Taste Buds

Medhu Vadai
from Lissie of Salt & Spice

Green Moong & Cabbage pakora
from Indrani of Appyayan

Rissoles
from Minu of Chettinad Fiesta

I hope I din't leave out any of your entries, let me know if I did and I'll promptly include it here. Thank you! :-)

Here are the previous editions of Sunday Snacks
Sunday Snacks - Chaats
Sunday Snacks - Grab & Go
Sunday Snacks-Hot & Spicy
Sunday Snacks - Fix It
Sunday Snacks - Fry It
Sunday Snacks - Bake It

HHDD # 27 - Winner

Dear Foodies,

Enough of the enticing salad list and time to announce the winner of the HHDD -Summer Salads you say ? Here we go.....Firstly, Thank you all for participating in this beautiful event and for sending in your votes. After looking at the votes I got via the emails, I could'nt conclude a clear winner! Almost all of you had an equal number of votes!! So I asked Denise to make the winning call. This being the first edition of HHDD with her as the facilitator, it seemed apt to have her pick the winner. Thank you Denise.

And now drumrolls for the winner ...

Stephanie's Sugar Snap Pea, Cucumber, Mint & Tofu Summer Salad

Stephanie, you sure did come back to blogging with a perfect entry :-) Congratulations!

Head over to her blog in a few days to hear about the next HHDD :-)