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 :-)

HHDD #27 - Voting begins

Dear foodies,

I'm back with the refreshing round-up of Hay Hay it's Donna Day # 27. We were celebrating Donna's summer salads all this month. I tried out a recipe for a lime & mint noodle salad which was wonderful and you guys have come up with many interesting variations to this recipe and others. Without further delay lets move to the list of entries I got...

Vote for your favorite Summer salad

Stephanie who blogs at Dispensing Happiness sent us a

Sugar Snap Pea, Cucumber, Mint & Tofu Summer Salad





Tartasacher who blogs at Mil Postres which means 1000 desserts

sent in Skewered fruit salad with chocolate sauce, from Spain.





Zaira who blogs at La Cocina de Zaira made a

tomatoes, watercress & Manchego cheese salad in olive oil





Dennis added a creative spin to recreate a

Cauliflower & Feta salad





Suzie who blogs at Munch+Nibble made a

Witlof with Zucchini, mint & feta salad







Our previous host, Soma from Ecurry sent us a colorful

Summer Salad with Citrus Lavender Dressing










Arfi from the blog HomeMadeS sent in a de-constructed salad for

Pear and Blue Cheese with Crispy Wontons






Barbara of the blog Winos and Foodies made

Zucchini Salad







My entry for a Lime & Mint noodle salad.








Denise who is the current facilitator of HHDD made a fabulous looking lime & mint noodle salad.





Now its time for you guys to choose your favorite summer salad. The winner will get to host the next round of HHDD, so make your pick now :) To place your vote, send me an email at akshayapaatram [at] gmail [dot] com within the next 5 days (Aug 22nd, midnight EST).
The entries have come in from all over the world and the innovation in each of these is fabulous! I huge thank you to everyone who participated :-) A special thanks to Denise for bringing back the HHDD event.

Cherry & Peach Crumble

Dear foodies,

The summer heat hasn't come to see us this year, but the fruits haven't been as mean to us. Strawberries, blueberries, pineapples, mango, cherries, peaches & nectarines have made their way into my kitchen. Eaten as is or cooked up in jams, compotes, cakes and muffins, I tried to enjoy the bounty as much as I could. Sometime I ended up being greedy and bought more than I could eat. A few sadly made they way into the bin, but the rest became gifts to friends :)

Cherries troubled me the most by going bad really fast, theres only so many I could eat in 2 days! So this time I made a quick and incredibly good dessert called crumble. The first time I made this dessert was from Sug's blog, last year. I've made numerous variations since and have loved all of them. I called it a crisp, but its also very similar to a crumble, an English dessert made with apples or any stone fruit. The original has a butter laden topping made with all purpose flour and sugar. I changed things up based on the crisp I've been making and turned it into a much more tasty and healthier dish.

make-shift cherry pitter - oil bottle lid

Pitting cherries can be a task you would wish you could avoid. There are some fancy gadgets that you could buy to help you out, but you could find similar stuff right in your kitchen. I used the lid of an oil bottle, you could also use a sturdy straw with a wide enough opening I guess. The hole was the perfect size and it was fun pitting cherries this way :D

Cherry & Peach Crumble

Ingredients: fills a 6-inch square dish

• 3/4th cup - Sweet Cherries, pitted & halved
• 3/4th cup - Peaches, cut in chunks
• 1/2 tsp - Cornstarch (or all purpose flour)
• 1/2 Tbsp - Sugar
• 1 Tsp - Lemon juice
  

crumb topping

• 1/4th cup - Pistachios
• 1/3rd cup - Rolled oats
• 1 Tbsp - Whole wheat flour
• 11/2 Tbsp - light, Brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp - Olive oil
  
• a pinch of salt (skip this if the nuts are salted)

Method:

1. Combine the first 5 ingredients and allow to sit for 20-30mins. Pre-heat the oven to 375F.
2. For the topping, coarsely powder the pistachio's and oats. Combine it with the whole wheat flour, sugar and olive oil to get a crumbly mixture.
3. Transfer the fruits along with the juices to the baking dish, top it uniformly with the crumble topping and bake for 20-25mins or until the juices start to bubble and the topping gets a brown shade.
4. Cool a bit and serve warm with a scoop of your favorite ice cream flavor or on it own :)

Note: Almost everything in this recipe is interchangeable. You can use any stone fruit, and switch pistachios with your choice of nuts. Jaggery or white sugar could be used as a sweetener. Add some vanilla essence or lemon/orange zest to the topping for another variation or some cardamom powder perhaps ?

This is a fabulous way to enjoy seasonal fruit when you get tired of eating them on their own. Not much work involved but the results are great. I sent this bowl to my neighbor and she called back as soon as she tasted it saying she wanted the recipe immediately. All the ingredients used in the topping are good for you, so anyone watching their diet can feel good about this one dessert atleast, don't count the ice-cream on the side though ;-)

I also made small cherry cakes following Deb's recipe for raspberry buttermilk cake. It turned out fab and the neighbor who got one of the cakes had compliments waiting for me when I met her next :) I skipped the eggs in the recipe and used flax seed powder instead.

The Cherry crumble if off to Vaishali who is celebrating British cuisine in It's a Vegan World July. She was kind to accept my last minute entry :) Simran is hosting AWED this month and has chosen British cuisine, so here's some for her too :) AWED also travels around the world each month and was initiated by DK. Thank you lovely ladies. Have a great week ahead all.

ICC - Dhokla

Dear foodies,

I'm sure you guys have already seen many dhokla filled posts coming up on many blogs today, and here is another to add to that list. Srivalli initiated the Indian cooking challenge a month back and this is the first official outcome of the event. She picked Dhokla's for this round and gave us a tried and tested recipe to recreate at home, thank you! I've made Dhokla before but it was never a full-fledged effort. The right tempering on the dhokla's and the fixings on the sides add a lot to its taste. On it own it does not create the same magic for your taste buds.

Dhokla - Steamed lentil cakes

Ingredients:
Batter

• Besan – 1½ cups
• Curd – ½ cup (not sour)
• Water – ½ cup
• Cooking soda – ½tsp

Seasoning for the batter:

• Oil – 1tbsp
• Turmeric – a pinch
• Green chili – 2, coarsely crushed
• Sugar – 1tsp
• Citric Acid – ¼ tsp
• Eno – 1tsp

Tempering:

• Mustard Seeds – 1tsp
• Coriander leaves – 2tbsp
• Curry leaves – 6

Method:

1. In a bowl, mix curd & water. To this add the besan and mix well to get a lump less batter, the consistency should be of idli batter, more of dropping not pouring consistency. Slowly add more water if needed. Add soda and keep it aside to rise for 1 hour.
2. Add the seasonings - citric acid, oil, salt, sugar, green chili paste and turmeric powder - and mix well. Heat water in a pressure cooker. When it comes to a boil, add eno to the batter, sprinkling some on the steaming dish & immediately transfer to the cooker. The batter should be filled to only 1/2 as it will rise up. After adding eno the batter should not rest. Amount of sugar can be increased on preference. Steam for 5-7mins.
3. After 5 -7 minutes, remove the lid and proof it using toothpick or knife. If the knife comes out clean and does not have any batter sticking, then its done. Cover back and let it remain on flame for 1 min and switch off the gas and allow it for 5 minutes. Note: Dhokla can also be steamed in kadai filled with water and a plated titled over it.
4. In a bowl, mix 3 tsp of water along with a tsp of oil. Remove the plate from the pan, pour the water and oil mix over the top.
5. For seasoning, heat a pan with oil, add curry leaves, sesame seeds, mustard seeds and finely chopped green chilies. When mustard starts popping, remove and pour over the dhokla

Green chutney

• Coriander - 1 bunch
• Mint leaves - 2-3 sprigs
• Green chili - 4-5 no
• Coconut - 4- 5 pieces
• Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
• juice of 1 Lime
• Salt to taste

Blend all the ingredients except coriander & lime juice in a food processor. Grind to a smooth paste. Finally add the coriander and again grind. Remove to a bowl, add the remaining lime and serve with Dhoklas.

I made a make shift arrangement for the steamer dish. I did not have one that would fit into my pressure cooker and so I wrapped two layers of heavy (thick) aluminum foil around a stainless steel lid and created a ~3" edge with it.

These came out really well, and the best part for me was the tempering. It gives it the perfect taste that you get from the good store bought ones. I also made the green chutney and had some store-bought sweet tamarind chutney. Was too eager to eat these that I forgot to get a shot of the dhokla's with the chutney's :) Go make your own now.