Friday Frames | Animal Kingdom

Dear Foodies,

Cheetah - enjoying the Sun's warm rays

let me go play with my friends!

Flamingos

Mr.King Kong deep in thoughts

Up, Down, Left, Right!!
Meerkats - a photographer's dream, they just love the attention. These guys were standing guard, completely in sync with each other, while the others in the group were busy digging.

Muhammara - Roasted Red Pepper & Walnut dip

Dear foodies,

Last week on Thursday all of us here in Southern California were forced to break our bond with electronic gadgets and spend some quality time, well that's putting it lightly. Around 3:30 in the afternoon we lost power, I had left work just before the power was off and wasn't aware of it until I got off the interstate and found all the traffic lights out of service. Getting past busy intersections was tricky, I have to give credit to the majority of drivers on the road for being fair and calm but its those few weird, impatient ones that created a whole lot of mess on the road. Not willing to wait their turn they would zip through the intersection leaving others confused and irate. I was just glad that I left early before all the major trouble started. As the evening rush hour approached the traffic situation just got worse.

The reason I left work early was to keep my appointment with the dentist. Boy, am I glad the power went off before he started work on my teeth, I don't want to imagine what would have happened otherwise! I get to the dentist, open the door to the waiting room and to my utter surprise I see the doctor and the nurses sitting around enjoying ice-creams...ice-creams...at the dentists! ha! That's when I realized it was a major power shutdown and I happily accepted to have my appointment rescheduled and walked away with a chocolate-vanilla ice cream in hand. I wish every trip to the dentist is just as good, hehe :)

Once I got home I picked up a book, sat outside and happily spent the evening reading without any distractions. When it got dark outside I finally got to bring out all the little tea-light candles that I had collected over the last few years and it felt like Diwali for a while. I could hear everyone around us having fun and taking advantage of the shutdown. People got out and barbecued, our weekly farmers market stalls were serving food way past closing time until they had nothing left to sell. I could hear a few guitars strumming and friends sitting together having fun. If not for the emergency/service sectors also losing power and the traffic situation, everyone else had a good time. Taking a break from electronics and spending quality time is something we should be doing everyday, not because we are forced by a major power failure. On the flip side of all the fun you realize how crippled we become without electricity here. When in India, power cuts were a norm and life moved on smoothly for the most part without it. We could still cook, get other chores done, schools continued as usual, grocery stores did not face as much of a problem and people did not panic. In fact as a kid we welcomed the daily power cuts so we could escape from our books and go out to play.

Since I could not cook dinner that night and did not dare open the refrigerator door too long, I reached in and grabbed all the ingredients I needed for a sandwich in one quick raid. V bought bread and orange juice on his way home and we were well on our way to a good meal. This dip that I'm sharing with you today saved our dinner for us. I've been experimenting with sandwich options lately and had crisp cucumbers, roasted red pepper, delicious heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil on hand. I slathered bread slices with Muhammara, topped it with tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, roasted red peppers and basil. With a crackle of salt and pepper our gourmet no-cook dinner was ready in minutes.

Muhammara (Moo-HAHM-mer-ah) is a middle eastern dip made from roasted red peppers, walnuts, bread and pomegranate molasses. Its earthy, tart, spicy, nutty and slightly sweet all at once and anything that's topped with it turns instantly delicious. This dip is said to have originated from Aleppo, Syria and spread out to Lebanon and rest of Middle-east soon. Traditionally it includes Aleppo peppers that are moderately spicy and have a slight smoky, fruity flavor to them. Its a little tough to find them but a Middle-eastern store or a well stocked spice store should have some. I love sprinkling it on hummus, grilled vegetables and cous cous salads. Just like hummus, Muhammara can be used as a dip for pita chips or regular chips, vegetables, topped on grilled vegetables, kebabs and in this case as a delightful spread for sandwiches too.

A key ingredient in Muhammara is Pomegranate Molasses. The name sounds intriguing and exotic but simply put its nothing but pomegranate juice reduced to a thick, finger licking consistency along with some sugar. Food Network fans will remember Aarti Sequira making a batch of pom molasses for a challenge and getting rave reviews for it by the judges. I'm guessing they din't know how simple it is to make it. Pure Pomegranate juice is not a pleasant drink to have and needs help tempering its flavor. This molasses on the other hand is addictively tart and sweet, almost candy-like with a deep reddish purple color. Once you take a lick taste there's no going back. You'll come back for seconds and thirds and try hard to reserve some for the original dish. You can use it as a sweetner in sauces, barbeque sauce, ketchup, dips and I think it would be great on Indian chaats as well taking the place of the ever popular imli-khajur chutney. I don't really think you'll need me to give you ideas... once you have a taste of it you'll come up with your own ideas because its that good. If you are lucky enough to have a middle eastern store close to you, get there as soon as you can to acquire your own.

Muhammara - Roasted Red Pepper & Walnut Dip

Yield - 2 cups

Prep time-20mins

Cook time - N/A

Ingredients:

• 3 - Roasted Red bell peppers
• 1/3 cup - Walnuts, gently toasted
• 1 - garlic clove, crushed
• 4-5 chunks of fresh bread
• 1.5 Tbsp pomegranate molasses
• 1 tsp - Tomato paste (optional)
• 1 Tbsp - lemon juice/lemon vinegar
• 1 tsp - Aleppo pepper or Crushed Red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp - Cumin powder (toasted and ground cumin seeds)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Method:

Bring together all the ingredients except the oil in a food processor or blender jar and process until combined. Gradually stream in olive oil until you get a creamy, smooth consistency. Taste test for balance of flavors adjusting proportions to suit your tastes.

Notes: You can use store bought or home made roasted red peppers here. Roasting red peppers is quick and easy on a gas burning stove, if not coat them lightly with oil and broil in the oven for 8-10mins.
- Take great care while roasting the walnuts always using medium low heat and tossing them frequently until you can smell them and they are lightly browned.
- You can also add a few chunks of onions to this dip and increase the amount of garlic. I'm not a fan of either in their raw form and so avoid using much.
- A few more recipes for dips - Cannellini Bean Hummus & Tomatillo Salsa Verde

With football season in full swing this is the perfect dip to get into circulation at your next game day spread. We enjoyed this with chips, spread it on sandwiches and the next day I topped it with some heirloom tomato & basil salad on bread and it tasted great every single time. With so many complex flavors brought together harmoniously in one dip every bite remains just as interesting as the last. I added extra pom molasses in mine because I was in love with the tart sweet flavor. The molasses is a perfect counter balance to the earthiness of walnuts and bread and elevates the flavor of all the other ingredients. When you try it at home make it your own by adjusting the different elements in the dip.

I added a brand new page for a Glossary of Indian ingredients mentioning English/Telugu/Tamil/Hindi names where possible. Do take a look and share your suggestions! A link to the page is now included in the Tabs right below the header

Friday Frames | Weekend Getaway

Dear Foodies,

last weekend began with me being stuck in a plane, as usual! This time it was due to a sudden afternoon thunderstorm in Denver, CO. But atleast I got to see a few rainbows, there was also a double rainbow after this...

and then the whole family transformed into Mizzou Tigers supporters to kick off the college football season.

My brother went to school here and the gorgeous campus always leaves me wanting to stay back.

by evening the temperatures had cooled down and it was time for barbeque

We decided to keep it all vegetarian - burgers with grilled veggie patties, grilled marinated veggies, corn (bestseller!) and zucchini. Dessert was grilled pineapple slices. And we also had a scrumptious bean & corn dip with chips. All I did was photograph and eat everything :)

Lentil & Veggie Burger

 Dear foodies,

I hope all of you enjoyed the long weekend, its always too short when spent with family and friends. I know that this past weekend was an unofficial-official end of summer but I am not willing  to let go of the season yet! Burgers are considered a quintessential summer food here. It’s perfect for picnics, camping, grilling outdoors and can be made as casual or gourmet as desired. A meal that fits right into your palms and encourages you to be messy! But when it comes to veggie burgers you hit a wall more often than not. Most store-bought frozen patties are just a chewy, brown mass made up of mysterious ingredients that usually have no taste or flavor whatsoever. Douse it with enough ketchup, mayo and layers of lettuce and tomato and you can almost forget you have the patty in between. In the last few years there have been many new products taking up shelf place but very few have made me go look for them a second time. My favorites have been a spicy black bean burger and a garden veggie with the masala burger patties from TJ’s being the most sought after. I’ve been creating veggie burger patties at home over the last few years so I can avoid the overdose of soy & mushrooms in them. Potatoes, lentils and beans are my got-to choices to form the bulk of the patty and seasonings vary based on my mood and what is available in my kitchen that day.

The main reason for exploring burgers for me is because they are a wonderful lunch option. It gets tiring looking for something to pack for lunch every day for us. Most days its chapati’s with sabji/dal, when I get lazy it’s a rice variety, tiffin’s and salads find a place now and then. I cook in the evenings after I get back from work and trying to plan dinner and lunch is a challenge. If I make something light for dinner then I have to cook separately for lunch the next day and I want to avoid having to cook many things. This is where the idea of a burger/sandwich begins to sound really attractive, as long as I have a stock of good burger patties and condiments in the my refrigerator, all I will need on a day-to-day basis is get some good bread and we are all set for lunch.

I love the concept of a burger because it allows you to get creative with not only the burger patty but also the toppings that go with it and the kind of bread used. Switching between them will give you a different end result and this lets one customize them to their own tastes. In my quest to find flavorful toppings for our sandwiches, I made sauces and spreads and experimented with different combinations over the last few weeks. And I’ll be posting our favorites in the weeks coming up.

Today’s burger is all about the feisty spread from North Africa called Harissa. It’s a blend of hot dried chillies, tart sun-dried tomatoes and aromatic spices like cumin, coriander, caraway spiked with a few cloves of garlic. Getting a store-bought blend is just as easy as making it at home and 100 times more flavor. Make it once and you’ll be hooked for life. I read about it for the first time on Luisa’s blog, The Wednesday Chef and again on Deb’s blog Smitten Kitchen as part of her Carrot salad post. Their high praise for this spicy condiment was all I needed to get started on my own home-made harissa paste and the result was outstanding. The first time I made it I sneaked it into everything I ate for the next 10 days – stirred it into soups, added it to stir fry’s, spread it on sandwiches, stirred into yogurt to spread on my tortilla wrap and many such excuses.

Lentil & Bean Burger

Yield - 8-10

Prep time - 45mins

Cook time - 30 mins

Ingredients:

• 2 cups – Brown/Green lentils, picked and rinsed in multiple changes of water
• ½ cup – Chickpeas, pre-soaked and cooked with a bay leaf and a few cloves
• ¼ cup – Walnuts, roasted and coarsely chopped
• ¼ cup - each of onions, carrots, green/red peppers, finely diced
• 1-2Tbsp - Cornstarch or ½ cup – Potato, mashed and boiled
• 2 Tbsp – Harissa paste
• Salt & Pepper to season
• ½ cup – Bread crumbs
• 1 Tbsp – Sesame seeds
• 2-3 Tbsp – Vegetable Oil

Method:

1. In a saucepan combine lentils (reserving ½ cup) and 2.5 cups water along with a couple of cloves and a bay leaf. Bring it a boil, lower the heat and simmer covered for about 25-30 mins until done. About 10mins in, add the reserved ½ cup of lentils and continue to cook. At the end of cooking time when the initial batch of lentils are tender & yield when pressed between your fingers, the ½ cup added later will retain some bite and add texture to the burger. Drain the lentils into a colander and set aside to draw out any leftover cooking liquid.
2. In the mean time, heat 1 Tbsp of oil and sauté finely diced onions, peppers and carrots until slightly softened. Add salt and red pepper flakes to taste.
3. To a mixing bowl add the cooked chickpeas and mash them completely using your hand or a potato masher. Add salt, pepper, harissa paste, cooked lentils, sautéed veggies and mash them together to form a dense mixture. If you feel that it’s a little loose add corn starch, a Tbsp at a time or mashed potato as needed to get the desired consistency. You should be able to form a patty that holds together.
4. Mix bread crumbs, sesame seeds,a little salt and pepper and spread evenly on a plate. Coat the formed patties lightly on both sides with this mixture and arrange them on a plate to rest.
5. Once all the lentil patties are formed cover the plate with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15-20mins. This will help the lentil mixture to bind and hold together when cooked in the next step.
6. Heat a cast iron/non stick sauté pan with some oil and working in batches of 2-3 patties at a time crisp them slightly on both sides until the breadcrumbs are golden brown and toasted. Since all the ingredients in the mixture were pre-cooked a few minutes on each side will do.
7. Use the patties to assemble a burger or cool completely and transfer to freezer bags and freeze for later.

To assemble the burger - Toast your choice of bread/buns with olive oil/butter. Stack a burger patty and a few spoonfuls of the carrot salad and you are done. You can add mayo, lettuce or pickled onions, but I liked it without them.

Notes: You could add sautéed spinach, chopped sundried tomatoes, and substitute other toaste nuts for the walnuts here. I usually tend to use Kaiser rolls or ciabatta for the burgers. Instead of the carrot salad you can stack grilled/sautéed veggies like zucchini, yellow squash, pepper and onions to create the burger and make a light spread using yogurt and harissa paste.

I was so eager to eat the final burger that I forgot to take photos of it! This burger patty is a power house of flavors and textures. The harissa paste does wonders with the earthy lentils making them spicy and delicious. The walnuts add a wonderful texture contrast with their crunch and nuttiness while the sautéed veggies amp up the flavor. These burger patties don’t really need much else to shine through. I had a few patties all by themselves as a snack with a squeeze of lime and chopped onions topped with some chaat masala. You can also make smaller patties and serve them as lentil tikkis for a great do-ahead party appetizer. As you can see from the recipe, the choices are endless and you can customize them to suit your tastes. These lentil patties make a great alternative to a regular veggie burger with loads of flavor paried the satisfaction of making them at home.

Whats your favorite lunch option and your favorite veggie burger ?

Tapioca/Sabudana Pudding with Mango

Dear Foodies,

Everyone who loves Thai food has heard or better yet, tasted one their most popular desserts - sticky rice with mangoes. The mangoes on their own are tempting enough to order a plate of the dessert. Its a simple combination of flavors yet uniquely different owed to the perfect balance between sweet and salty. Thai food, in general, is known for its play on various textures and flavors in each bite. There is sweet, salty, sour, bitter and spicy flavor components in almost all their dishes and they don't stop there. Yet another layer of textures is added by the use of sprouts, bamboo shoots, fresh herbs, fried onions and other such ingredients that make the meal a delight to the senses.

I've had this dessert on my to-do list for a very long time but it never got done. When I was hosting IAVW-Thai I was determined to make a dessert but got caught in the heady aromas of curries and curry pastes! It actually took me a long time to even try out a dessert while eating out because I'm always filled up with pad thai or a thai curry by the time I get to dessert. 

The rice component is made using a glutinous rice variety that cooks up to become a sticky, gooey mass. I've never been able to justify buying a bag just for this recipe because I don't prefer sticky, lumped rice in general. Sabudana/tapioca pearls, on the other hand are something I always have in the pantry. I usually buy the bigger pearls to make sabudana kichadi, a tiffin item that I love. When I ran out of them a few months back V could only find the smaller pearls and he got them home instead. It was a disaster trying to make the kichdi with the smaller ones, they take only a minute to get cooked and end up into a sticky, inedible mass within seconds...gah!

I found that the smaller pearls are best suited for payasam. Saggu bhiyam/Sabudana payasam is the only dessert that V has requested more than once I think. The last time that I started out making this payasam for him was right after we had enjoyed a great Thai dinner that ended with dessert. We liked it so much that I made a mental note to replicate the recipe for us at home. When I began preparing the payasam I decided to give it the Thai make-over and see how it tasted. I had all the ingredients on hand and it turned out absolutely perfect! That final sprinkle of salt takes the dessert to a whole other level. I loved this variation and have actually been adding a few grains of salt to all my desserts since. For those of you who love the original dessert and don't stock up on glutinous rice this is a quick and easy variation to address the cravings.

Once you've made the substitution for rice, the rest of the ingredients are easy to find. These demure ingredients create a final dish that is clearly more than the sum of their parts. The mangoes don't have to be perfectly ripe, infact a mildly tart & sweet mango would be my first pick. Frozen grated coconut, cardamom pods and sabudana are ingredients that I always have on hand and so its always easy to recreate this. You can make this starting from plain milk but if you can find evaporated milk then you are that much closer to the final prize. It cuts down on the cooking time by half and also takes away the stress of babysitting milk, phew!

Tapioca Pudding with Mangoes

Servings: 2-3

Prep time: n/a

Cooking time: 30-40mins

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup - Tapioca pearls
• 1/2 cup - ripe Mango, peeled & diced
• 1/4 cup - Coconut, freshly grated
• 1 can - Evaporated milk
• 2-2.5 cups - Milk (Whole milk for a richer version, I used 2%)
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup - Sugar
• 2 - Cardamom pods, de-seeded
• Pinch of salt

Method:

1. In a saucepan, bring together evaporated milk and 1.5 cups of milk. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reduces by a third, about 15 mins.
2. In the mean time, soak grated coconut in a few tablespoons of water/milk and grind to a coarse paste. Using a mortar & pestle coarsely powder the cardamom seeds, adding a little granulated sugar to help grind them.
3. Once the milk is reduced and thickened, add the tapioca pearls and cook for a few minutes. Add sugar, coconut paste and cardamom powder next and stir gently to incorporate the ingredients.
4. As the pearls cook they will thicken the payasam so add more milk as needed to get the desired consistency. They take only a few minutes to cook and will turn translucent when ready.
5. Finally finish off with a pinch of salt and taste to check for balance of flavors. You want just a subtle hint of salt when tasting the pudding, nothing too obvious.
6. Turn off the heat and serve warm/cold garnished with diced ripe mango. As the payasam cools, it will thicken and set-up, so if you want a looser payasam/pudding add more milk right before serving.

Notes: Evaporated milk is milk with 60% of its water content removed and is unsweetened. If unavailable, begin with 3 cups of regular whole milk and reduce it by half by cooking on medium-low heat and stirring frequently to avoid burning the milk solids.
If you have coconut milk on hand you can add it right after the tapioca pearls to enhance the coconut flavor.

And there you have it, all the flavors that you like in the Thai dessert but with a twist. The pearls almost disappear into your mouth as you eat the pudding and the evaporated milk gives it a rich milk flavor that I love in payasams. The mild hint of cardamom that to me makes an Indian dessert and the tropical coconut flavor bring in comforting flavors. The final hint of salt is what differentiates this from being a regular Indian dessert and takes it to the realm of exotic. It's weird how the salt actually enhances the sweet flavors in the pudding and slight tartness in the mangoes. Hope you get to try it out and enjoy these flavors.

Happy Ganesh Chathurthi  to those who celebrate it and
I wish you all a safe and fun long weekend!

Dum Paneer & Rumali Roti

Dear Foodies,

Paneer is a huge favorite of mine and in an odd way signifies a special occassion or a reason to celebrate in my mind. Whenever we eat out a paneer dish is a must on the order and being vegetarian almost an obvious choice. With its nuetral flavor and creamy texture there is hardly anyone who can say they hate it, just not possible. Made entirely from milk with no confusions about rennet or animal enjymes used in the process, its the most vegetarian friendly cheese available. Its the best use of milk thats close to its expiry date and sitting smugly in your refrigerator... but ofcourse that never happens in my place. (heh!)

Most regular north Indian restaurants here have a banal list of paneer dishes on their menu. I categorize them as Green/Orange/Red, and they progress just like the traffic signals, green you may take a chance, orange - give it a second thought, red - stay away! They taste of nothing familiar and are doused with ridiculous amounts of cream/grease and spices. The paneer also is often a chewy, rubbery mass and the whole purpose of eating out to enjoy a meal is lost right there. With such poor examples its hard explaining to the locals here that Indian food is nothing close to what these greasy/bland dishes represent. I was watching Gordan Ramsay's Great Escape on Netflix this past weekend, he sets out on a tour of India to learn about its curries and see what was done wrongly in UK kitchens. Though he does try some pretty dramatic variations of curries the show does focus on the true charm of India's cuisine. Each one has a rich culture and history associated with it based on where it comes from. Each curry has a pedigree of sorts attached to it and you can track down the various influences on the recipe. Its a shame that such rich heritage is then thrown out the window by these restaurants.

With my parents here as an excuse I got a telugu channel package installed at home and along with my mom we cover all the cooking shows on TV. Lots of new ideas with a good dose of weird combinations have filled up our recipes books, and by 'our' I mean my mom painstakingly writing them down and then re-typing them on the laptop for a soft copy! :D One of shows (Abhiruchi/Etv) now has a Iron Chef styled secret ingredient cook-off as one of its segments. The inspiration for this recipe came from one such episode that had paneer as the ingredient of choice. I have since modified the recipe a bit to suit our tastes but the basic idea came from the show. One ingredient that I think was missing in the original is Kasuri methi. It may sound insignificant but when used will surely trigger the 'aha! so this is what they use' moment when it comes to replicating restaurant favorites at home.

Kasuri Methi is regular methi leaves in their dried form. From wiki I learned that it gets its name from Kasur a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan, that grows methi in abundance. A small spoonful, crushed between your palms and sprinkled over the curry close to the very end of the cooking process will add an additional   layer of flavor to the dish. The leaves have a strong bitter/sour flavor and fragrance to them and when added to a gravy they compliment the strong spices really well.

Dum Paneer

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 30mins
Cooking Time: 30-40mins

Ingredients:

• 1 - Onion,large ~ 3 cups, sliced
• 3 - Tomatoes, medium sized
• 2 - Green chillies
• 12-15 - Cashews, whole
• 2-3 Tbsp - Oil
• 1/4 tsp - Turmeric
• 1 tsp - Ginger-garlic paste(~ 1 big garlic clove & 1" round of ginger)
• Whole Spices - 1 bay leaf, 2-3 1" shards of cinnamon stick, 2 Green Cardamom pods, 4-5 Cloves
• Spice Powders - 1/2 tsp each of - Garam masala powder, Dhania powder, Cumin powder, Red Chilli powder (optional)
• 2 Tbsp - Curd/Yogurt
• 1-1.5 cups - Paneer cubes
• 1 tsp - Kasuri Methi
• few leaves of Mint/Pudina (optional, I skipped it) and Coriander
• fresh/heavy cream for garnish (optional)
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Make a shallow plus slit to pierce through the tomato skins and drop them in boiling water for about a minute to loosen the skin. When cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and grind them to a paste along with green chilies. Use some of the hot water to give the cashews a quick soak for a few minutes and grind to a fine paste.
2. Heat a tbsp of oil in a pan and add the sliced onions. Cook them on medium heat until browned evenly. This takes about 8-10mins, a few charred bits is totally fine, you don't have to slow cook them as you would for caramelized onions. When cooled, blend it to a fine paste too.
3. In a deep saucepan, heat 2 Tbsp of oil/butter and add in the whole spices and turmeric. Once they become fragrant carefully add ginger-garlic paste and cook for 15-20secs. Add brown onion paste and tomato-chilli paste next and cook on medium heat for 5-6 mins until the moisture is cooked out of it.
4. Reduce the heat a bit and stir in the yogurt. Bring the heat back up to medium and continue to cook for a few more minutes until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan as one mass. This is where you would also see the oil separate if you used more but the 2 Tbsp isn't quite enough to do that for the amount of gravy.
5. Add in the spice powders, salt, cashew paste and about ~11/2 cups of water to achieve  desired consistency. Make it a little looser than you would want the final gravy as it will continue to thicken a bit.
6. Taste test for seasonings now, once the paneer is added you don't want to stir it much. Toss in the paneer cubes, kasuri methi, pudina(if using) and coriander leaves and cover with a heavy lid to ensure that moisture does not escape out of the pan. (This step is crucial step in the recipe, the Notes section has more details.) Heat on the lowest setting on your cooking range for about 15mins.
7. Transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with fresh cream/coriander leaves and serve hot with roti or rice.

Notes: For the 'dum' part of the cooking process, I used a cast iron lid and it did a pretty good job of trapping steam. Another option is to cover the whole pot with aluminum foil and then press it down with the regular lid. If not try the traditional method by making chapathi dough, roll it out like a thick rope and seal the edges of the pan with the lid covered. - Make extras of the browned onion paste and freeze it for a quick gravy another night. - Instead of paneer you can try other veggies like potatoes, capsicum, cauliflower.

The flavors in this dish will take you by surprise. The browned onions that form the base of the gravy add a wonderful richness and depth. Cashew paste and curd mellow out the sharp flavors of the spices with the curd adding a tangy note at the end. Most recipes that use paneer call for it to be added at the very end. In this one though, paneer cubes blend into the whole dish instead of standing out like an after-thought. Cooking it in 'dum' forces all the flavors in the gravy to be absorbed by the paneer making them wonderfully moist and flavorful. If you are feeling awfully indulgent you can add cream and khoya to the gravy, both used in the original, but to me it was rich enough without them.

Feeling really adventurous I looked for a recipe for Rumali roti to pair with dum paneer. If I had to pick just one, then rumali roti will surely top the list of Indian breads for me. Being thin as a rumal/handkerchief it is the perfect vehicle for a rich gravy as it does not over power the flavors in anyway. It's rarely found in restaurants even in Hyderabad these days. I had requested our wedding caterer to make this for the reception dinner but he refused saying it would be tough to make them fresh for the crowd. No regrets though since I hardly got to enjoy a meal that day. It would have been distracting to think about the rumali rotis while sitting through the wedding ceremonies :D

Rumali/Roomali Roti

Serving: 12-14 rotis

Prep time: 10mins

Cooking time: 30mins

Ingredients

• 1 cup All purpose flour/Maida
• 1 cup Whole Wheat flour/Atta
• salt to taste
• 1 Tbsp oil
• Milk and Water to make dough (~ 1.5 cups total).
• Rice flour for dusting ~ 1/2 cup
  

Method:  Make a moist dough and knead it for 3-4 mins until soft and pliable. Cover the dough ball with a moist cloth and allow to rest for 1-2hrs. Roll two small dough balls the sixe of a key lime and stretch them to the size of a small poori. Spread oil on one side of each round and dredge/dust evenly with rice flour. Place one round over the other with floured sides facing each other and press around the edges to form a rough seal. Using a rolling pin stretch the dough to make a very thin roti, as thin as you can get without tears. Heat a wide, shallow pan on high heat and cook the roti for 20-30secs on each side until you see little brown spots on the surface. Any longer and you'll have papads! Transfer to a covered, serving dish and about a minute later when cool enough to handle, separate the two layers to get individual rumals!

Source: barely modified from here

The roti's are soft and melt in your mouth. You are gauranteed to lose count of how many you devour so make extras! I made this combination twice this month already and cannot wait to repeat it again. I served it alongside a salad of ripe tomatoes and onions sprinkled with salt, pepper and chaat masala because chaat masala makes everything better :)

Friday Frames | Solitary

Dear Foodies,

blissfully floating around

a giant blue whale comes up to say hello!

Peoria, AZ

rising above to get the big picture

wings spread out

enjoying the golden hour in peace

Mullangi/Daikon Radish Sambar

Dear Foodies,

In most South Indian homes sambar is a dish that finds a place on the meal table almost every day. Its a simple recipe that provides vegetarians our daily dose of protein without much effort. Everyone knows that Madras is ever so popular for its Sambar but almost every region in the South has its own adaptation of the recipe and the variations are endless. Some like it spicy while others add a touch of jaggery to sweeten it, in our home sambar does not contain tomatoes as a rule while it could be common ingredient in other homes. Ground coconut, freshly ground vs pre-ground sambar powder, simple onions to a whole array vegetables - pick a variation and you have a completely different flavor profile to relish.

No matter what the version though, Toor dal/kandi pappu/pigeon peas is the lentil of choice for sambar and also the most commonly used dal in the South. During the busy week day mornings, my mom had her routine perfectly planned. My dad left for work at 7:50AM on the dot and breakfast had to be made and a complete lunch packed for him. My brother and I left at 8:30AM and she left home at 8:50AM. It was rush hour every morning and just like the famous Mumbai dabbawala's, our very own dabbawali never missed a beat either. Every move in the kitchen was streamlined in order to get wholesome meal prepared for us. The cooked toor dal served two purposes  - the thick mashed dal was added to the sambar while the dilute cooking liquid found its way into a warming rasam. My mom always adds a pinch of turmeric while cooking the dal in a pressure cooker but here it stains my stovetop and being the lazy one I avoid it altogether and add a few methi seeds and a pinch of asafoetida instead. A few drops of oil to the cooking water helps minimize foaming.

All you need for a comforting pot of sambar is a vegetable component which could be one or more of these - regular onions, pearl onions, carrots, bottlegourd(sorakaya), lady fingers (bhendi), brinjal, pumpkin, capsicum, potatoes, daikon radish (mullangi), drumstick (Munagakaya), chickpeas, fresh shelled broad beans, green peas. From the pantry you'll need tamarind, toor dal and some fragrant mom-made sambar powder! Thats it, you are just 30mins away from a bubbling pot of delicious sambar. Serve it simply with warm rice, dunk your idli's and vada's in it or serve it alongside hot upma or pongal and you have a wholesome meal to wrap your family around. I usually cook a double batch of toor dal and store it in the freezer so that on a busy week night dinner is really quick to put together.

Mom's Sambar Podi

Serving Size: ~2 cups

Prep Time: 20mins

Ingredients

• 1 cup - Coriander seeds/Dhaniya
• 1 Tbsp - Channa dal/Senaga pappu
• 1 tsp - Fenugreek seeds/Menthulu
• 1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds/Aavalu
• 1" piece of dried turmeric root (optional)
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 the amount of spice powder got from blending the above ingredients

Method

1. Dry roast coriander seeds on medium heat until fragrant. You don't want to brown or darken their color, once they become fragrant transfer to a plate to cool.
2. In the same pan add the channa dal and dry roast until it begins to change color, transfer to the plate and cool. Repeat the step with fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds and turmeric root, roasting each individually.
3. Once all the ingredients have cooled down, transfer to a blender jar and finely powder.
4. Transfer to a air-tight jar, add in the chilli powder and blend it in with a spoon. It's going to be a challenge, but avoid taking a close whiff of the powder or you'll end up in a sneezing marathon!

Notes: It you don't have dried turmeric root, skip turmeric all together and add a pinch of it when making sambar. The purpose of channa dal is to thicken your sambar.
- Don't let the fenugreek seeds turn dark or it'll make the powder bitter! Dried curry leaves can be added when preparing smaller batches.
-For my mom's rasam powder recipe check this post

Mullangi /Daikon Radish Sambar

Servings: 4-5

Prep time: 30mins

Cooking time: 30mins

Ingredients

• 1 cup - Daikon radish, peeled and sliced into rounds
• 3/4 cup - Toor dal, cooked and mashed
• keylime sized ball of tamarind pulp or 1/2 Tbsp store-bought tamarind extract
• 1.5 Tbsp - Sambar Powder
• 1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
• 1 - Green chilli, slit lengthwise (optional)
• Salt to taste
• 2-2.5 cups water

Tadka/Seasoning

• 1 tsp - Vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
• 4-5 - Curry leaves
• pinch of asafoetida/hing 
• Optional - 1/4 tsp Cumin seeds & a dried red chilli
• Coriander leaves for garnish (optional)

Method:

1. In a deep saucepan, add a cup of water, sliced daikon, slit green chilli. Cover the pot and cook on medium heat until the radish slices soften a bit. You can use a microwave for this step.
2. In the meantime, place tamarind pulp in 1/4 cup water and nuke it for 1 min. This makes the extraction of the pulp easier. Alternatively, soak the pulp in 1/2 cup water for 30-40mins. Using your hands, squeeze out as much of the pulp as possible and reserve.
3. Once the radish slices are soft, add the tamarind extract, sambar powder, turmeric powder, salt and cook uncovered for 10mins or until the raw smell of the tamarind is lost.
4. Mash the dal well and add it along with a cup of water to the sambar pot. Taste test for salt and cook for 8-10 mins more until slight foam forms on the top and you can smell the comforting fragrance of the sambar. Adjust the consistency by adding more water as needed and taste test for salt.
5. For the seasoning, heat oil in the tadka pan, add mustard seeds, cumin and once they begin to splutter carefully add curry leaves and a pinch of hing. Pour this over the sambar and keep covered until its time to serve. Garnish with coriander leaves right before serving.

Notes: If using vegetables like onions/brinjal/capsicum start by sauteing them in a Tsp of oil instead of cooking them in water in step 1. I like a really a tangy sambar and tend to use more tamarind extract, customize the recipe to suit your taste.

Served with warm rice, a tiny drop of ghee and crispy popadams/vadiyam on the side will send me to a very happy place. Those who fear the smell of raw daikon will have no worries enjoying this sambar. The soft daikon becomes mellow in flavor and are a delight in the sambar. You can sneak in almost any veggie into a sambar and make it taste good.
                                          Now you tell me how you make sambar at home ?