Jihva - Wedding Feasts Round-up

Dear foodies,

Finally, the much delayed and promised round-up is here. I thank all you of who made time to cook a recipe dear to your heart and write about your memories and stories. I feel guilty for not having done justice to them by presenting the round up earlier. It was great to read all the blog posts and also the comments and good wishes left here on my blog while I went MIA. I hope the wonderful delicacies below, and the lovely stories around them will appease you :)So without further ado, I present you the round-up. There is a link at the bottom of the images stating the name of the dish and the link to the recipe. Bon Appetit!

Jihva - Wedding Feasts

Dear foodies,

I mentioned the soon approaching wedding celebration in the last few posts, but April is host to another celebration of sorts around here - Jihva arrives at Akshayapaatram :) Last year when Indira opened up the hosting for '09-'10, I eagerly sent her an email hoping to host it real soon. But in the two days that it took me to communicate with her, the slots filled up at lightening speed. Indira emailed saying April 2010 was the only one left and if it would work for me. I was not going to turn down the wonderful offer but I had also never planned for anything so far into the future, ever. I had no clue what awaited me a year ahead and committed to take it up with a little uncertainty in mind. Exactly a year later, holding true to that thought of mine, I'm getting married this month!

Food is a very integral part of our culture. Be it a small family gathering, one our many festivals or a wedding gala, they are all incomplete without food. We are a people that discuss dinner while having lunch, huge fights can spawn from a cup of bad coffee :D Every festival and event has a unique food preparation or menu style accompanying it. Some from habit and some passed down from years of family tradition. The food blogging community with its rich diversity in culture would be a perfect way for us to learn about all these various traditions. So Jihva will be celebrating Wedding Feasts this month! :)

Bring out your wedding finery and cook up a recipe fit for a wedding this month. I would also love to read about your wedding memories, be it your own or one dear to you. What makes up a wedding feast in your family, is there any specific dish that just has to be served and is there a specific order to serve them ? What is your favorite wedding treat ? Please do write about it and share with us your beautiful memories and experiences.

JFI - Wedding Feasts

Guidelines for participation:

• Cook /share a recipe that forms part of a wedding feast. Memories, stories, folklore - anything related to weddings can also be included and will be greatly appreciated!
• My request would be that all dishes sent to the event are vegetarian.
  
• Post about it and link to this announcement page and to Indira's Jihva for Ingredients post. Feel free to use the logo for the event in your post if needed.
  
• Send me an email at 'akshayapaatram dot gmail dot com 'with the subject line - "JFI - Wedding Feasts"
• Within the email, include:
  Blog name:
  Blog URL:
  Recipe Name:
  Post URL:
  Your name:
  Photo of the dish (any size)
• The deadline for the event is April 30th, 2010.
• Non-blogger entries are equally welcome, just send me an email and I will post your recipes on the blog prior to the round-up.
  

Please come and join in! There is no restriction on the number of entries, more the merrier! If you think you already have something in your blog that relates to this theme, re-post it on your blog, or link to it in a current post using the above guidelines. I might have a special gift in store for one lucky entry, will add in the details soon :)

Its going to be a huge celebration here, and I am eagerly looking forward to all your posts! If possible do share the event on your blogs to spread the word, thank you! :)

Happy Ugadi!

Dear Foodies,

Happy Ugadi/Gudi Padwa

A very Happy New Year to all of you who celebrate it today. This year promises to be one of the most exciting ones for me. The wedding is just a few weeks away and as expected I am a complete mixed bag of emotions right now :))) There are loads of things I'm looking forward too - a new family to meet, new experiences to cherish and newer memories to create, memories that are going to last me a lifetime! I am nervous and I'm excited and I know its going to turn out fabulous :D I just can't wait to get on the plane and go meet my parents!

I made some rava kesari and masala vada to ring in the year. Ugadi at home meant my mom would treat us to a complete hotel style thaali/plate meal. I am not as fast as her nor as patient, so while I got busy making these two dishes, I skipped making a proper lunch :)) I'll come back with the recipes later :) You guys have a fabulous day and even more fabulous year ahead.

Sprouted bean salad

Dear foodies,

Close on the heels of the sweet & savory chickpea and sweet potato salad, I have another salad recipe for you. This one uses a different set of beans and fresh veggies in it. I've been trying to add more protein in my diet. For a vegetarian, beans and legumes are an excellent source of protein, apart from soy and dairy products. Instead of using canned beans - which are more expensive, may contain high amounts of sodium, and not always the right texture for your recipe - re-hydrating dried beans at home is a far better option. You also get the added advantage of sprouting them when you do this and can control the texture of the final product.

I bought some garbanzo beans, kala chana, yellow and green split peas, kidney beans and some black eyed peas to kick start the dried bean collection in my pantry. The bulk bins at the store are a great boon here. I can pick 3-4 varieties and buy just a cup or two of each instead of investing on a whole bag of them. When I get into the mood of prepping the beans, I almost always over do it :D So on the same evening I'll have numerous odd sized bowls sprawled across the counter-tops, each holding a different kind of bean for soaking. And then for the next few days, I'll pressure cook them batch after batch, storing a few bowls of soaking beans in the fridge to stop them from spoilage after day 1. Changing the water every 10-12 hrs helps too. Once pressure cooked, I portion them out into plastic bags and send them into the freezer to await their cooking turn. I cannot tell you how convenient having a bag of these pre-cooked beans are when it comes to making a quickie meal.

I leave out a few handfuls of each bean to sprout so I can snack on them or to even use in stir fry's. (Sprouting guide from the Bee & Jai). Here is a quick salad that I made with a few of them.

Mixed Sprouted Beans Salad

(serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups - mixed sprouts (here I used yellow split peas, kala channa/black chickpeas)
• 3/4 cup - English cucumber, diced
• 1/2 cup - Red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup - Carrots, diced
• 1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
• 1/4 tsp - Cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp - Urad dal
• 1/4 tsp - Ginger, finely minced
• 1/4 tsp - Red chilli powder or to taste
• a pinch of turmeric
• 1/2 Tbsp - Olive oil
  
• 4-5 Mint leaves
• Salt to taste
• Squeeze of lemon juice

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan, splutter the mustard and cumin seeds, add the urad dal and allow it to turn a slight orange color.
   
2. Add turmeric and ginger, saute for a few seconds. The diced peppers & carrots go in next, cook just for a couple of minutes to get rid of their rawness.
3. Next add the sprouts, cover and saute about 2-3 mins.
4. Take off the heat, allow it to cool a bit and add diced cucumber, mint leaves, lemon juice, salt and chilli powder. Taste and adjust for seasonings. This salad can be served warm or at room temperature.

This is a nice crunchy salad with a tangy, fresh feel to it, and its mighty filling too. A pinch of roasted cumin powder or chaat masala would also be great here. I had found some fresh colored carrot tops at the store which were put to good use here. I am really looking forward to the fresh spring produce to get to the groceries stores here. Tired of looking at everything being shipped from Mexico or Peru or some place far far away, walking through the aisles feels more like a travel expedition now.

Sweet Potato and Chickpea Salad

Dear Foodies,

Spring is almost here at our doorstep and with the longer brighter days I almost forget grabbing my winter coat on the way out :D And with that, I've begun counting down to the D-day too, just a month away from today!! Its exciting but I'm also restless, since there's hardly anything I can get done from here :(

A few weeks back I decided I was going to have hearty soups to tide me through the snowy winter, so I brought out the huge soup books that I bought when I first moved to this winterland. I had fun trying out many different soup recipes and also added in a bunch of salads in between. This sweet potato salad was one of them, and its the best form of salad I have ever eaten.

I vaguely remember eating sweet potato when I was kid, the memory is too distant. In the last couple of years since I started cooking, I always saw the tubers in the bins at the store but never really ventured into cooking with them. Sweet and savory just did not seem comfortable. A month back when we were driving through Virginia, my colleagues and I stopped at a diner to grab some lunch. They were serving baked regular/sweet potato with the buffet and I ordered the sweet potato. It came accompanied with a huge dollop of butter and a mound of brown sugar. The first few bites were divine! The warm, tender potato mixed with the butter and crunchy brown sugar melts in your mouth. But after the initial excitement the cloying sweetness takes over. The good thing though was I was now ready to start experimenting with the sweet tubers again.

While going through Molly's blog Orangette I came across this recipe for a warm butternut squash & chickpea salad. It was the savory dressing that drew me to the recipe, it was like no other vinaigrette I had seen and I finally found another use for the huge tub of tahini that I have in the pantry. So when I brought home the sweet potatoes this was the first recipe that struck me, may be it was because the diced potato resembled the butternut squash in color ?! Or I was trying to mask the sweetness of the potato under the savory tahini dressing. No matter what the reason, you guys just have to give this one a shot. I added some warm spices like coriander, cumin and five spice to the mix, and the result was out of the world.

Sweet Potato and Chickpea salad with Tahini dressing

(Serves 3-4 as a side)

Ingredients:

• 1nos - Sweet Potato, peeled and cubed into 1" pieces ~ 2 cups
• 1 cup - Chickpeas, pre-soaked and boiled (or) canned, rinse and pat dry
• 3/4 cup - Red onion, diced
• 1/4 cup - Cilantro, roughly chopped
• 4-5 nos - Mint leaves, roughly chopped
• 2-3 nos - Sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1Tbsp - Olive oil
• 1/4 tsp - Chinese five spice powder (or your fav spice mix)
• 1/4 tsp - Coriander powder
• 1/4 tsp - Smoked Paprika (or) regular paprika/chilli powder to taste
• Salt to taste

for the dressing:

• 3 Tbsp - Tahini
• 2-3 Tbsp - Lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp - Olive oil
• 1 nos - Garlic clove, finely minced
• 1/4 tsp - Cumin powder
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400F
2. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. In a bowl toss the sweet potatoes with salt and spice powders. Drizzle the olive oil and mix to coat the cubes well. Spread them on the baking sheet and let the roast for about 25-30 mins. They will shrink a little in size and get soft and tender, yummm!
3. In the mean while, heat a wide skillet, add a tsp of olive oil and toast the chickpeas. You could also do this in the oven. Make sure that the chickpeas are dry when they hit the pan. Toast them for 5-6 mins till the skin starts to crisp a little.
4. Start making the dressing in the same bowl you used to toss the sweet potato. Whisk together the tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, minced garlic and cumin powder. Adjust the amounts by tasting the dressing, some brands of tahini tend to be bitter (not good!) If the dressing is too thick, add a few spoons of warm water to loosen it.
5. Once the sweet potatoes are ready, try not to snack on them! Instead, toss them into the dressing bowl along with the toasted chickpeas, diced onions, sun dried tomatoes, cilantro and mint. (I used the sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, if using the dry kind, reconstitute them by soaking in warm water for a few minutes.) Mix well to blend all the flavors together and check for seasonings.
6. The salad can be served warm, but I liked it even at room temperature the next afternoon.

As you may have noticed, I ran out of red onions and used white ones here. Don't let any excuse of this sort stop you from trying this recipe! The nutty tahini with the warm tones of the cumin and coriander reminded me of bagara baingan. All the flavors mingle so well together in this salad that it will have you craving for more n more. Every bite is delicious and filled with so many different notes that seem perfect together. I made this about a month ago, and just writing this post makes me want to have some right now. Lucky me, I have a sweet potato waiting in veggie basket :D Most of the other ingredients in this salad are regular/pantry ingredients. So don't waste any more time, make some for yourself asap! :) O, Happy Womens day to all you gorgeous ladies :)

Kick start...

Dear foodies,

...your day with some Jalapeno-cheddar scones,

homemade butter and freshly squeezed orange juice

I need a kick too, for not coming back here for soo long. I am not going to start with an excuse, I have tonnes, but none really matter.... Instead I'll sneakily pass on this wonderfully buttery scone recipe that packs a punch in it....its dotted all over with some spicy jalapenos.

I came across the recipe for these fiery delights on Deb's blog, Smitten Kitchen. I nearly have half her recipes bookmarked! I don't know when I will get through all of them, but this particular one said it wouldn't wait any longer :D So here's the recipe. I stuck to the whole thing, just added half an extra jalapeno (it could have used more) and topped the scones with some Parmesan cheese before sending them into the oven.

I bought some heavy cream in the hopes of making panna cotta, but that did not happen. The agar-agar flakes have been sitting in my pantry for almost a year now, sigh. I used some of the cream in the scones and while they were baking, I got a brilliant idea of whipping up the rest of the cream into fresh butter. I brought out the blender jar, tipped the contents of the cream can into it and whizzed it around. In a few minutes I had light and airy buttahh! Sprinkled with some salt and sugar you'll have the most wonderful stuff to spread over the warm scones.....yummmm. Here's a detailed how-to on Kay's blog (half her recipes are bookmarked too!) If you want to get some exercise done before you feast on the divine stuff, then skip the blender and try the hand-shake method :D Don't blame me if you get addicted to making flavored butters at home from now on... :D

On another note, it been almost a year n a half since I bought the domain name for my blog, but haven't used it. The first time I tried to re-direct the blog, it did not transfer the photos. Now the photos are displayed, but the comments on the posts did not get transferred. I followed all the steps listed in the blogger site, should I be doing something else ?

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 - old fashioned 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!