Banana Orange Walnut Bread

My head always starts spinning while looking at spotty banana on my kitchen table. Then my hubby and little one start show their faces if you give them to eat or even tell my hubby to have that bananas. How many times you can make banana bread in a month? Possible once or twice, but not more than that! 

The chef in me woke up after thinking a lot on how to find a way to use them: Banana bread again or pancakes. Banana bread has more of a fan base than pancakes in my house. So Banana bread, then what? Just make same old banana bread or try to add some extras make it more tasty and flavorful. 

This time I had a few oranges also accompanying my bananas in the fruit basket, waiting for use. So I decided to make banana bread with orange. That is with orange zest and orange juice. This is the extremely intoxicating banana bread I have ever made and I love it. I am finally happy to find one more variation of banana bread. Banana made the bread soft, citrusy flavor gives it a zest; cardamom and vanilla give a nice aroma. You can call my husband, bananabreadphilic, who loves to eat banana bread more than banana itself. He told me this is the best bread with excellent ingredients. Here is the recipe.

Print Recipe from here
What you need

 All purpose flour: 1 cup
Wheat flour: ½ cup
Sugar: ¾ cup
Egg: 1 no
Orange: 2 no (orange zest: 1 teaspoon and orange juice about 1/3 cup + half of 1/3 cup)
Banana: 3 no
Baking soda: ½ teaspoon
Baking powder: ¼ teaspoon
Vanilla: 1 teaspoon
Salt: ¼ teaspoon
Walnut: 1/3 cup (Lightly toasted and crushed)
Cardamom: 3 pods
Canola oil : 1/3 cup 


How I made

Preheat the oven to 350  Fahrenheit.

Lightly grease the bottom and sides of an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan with oil. Line the bottom with parchment paper, and then flour the sides of pan.

Set aside orange zest and juice from two orange. Mash bananas using a fork or potato masher and keep aside.

In a large bowl sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, crushed cardamom and salt. Keep aside.

In a medium bowl beat egg with sugar and add orange juice, orange zest , oil and vanilla extract and mix everything incorporated well.

Gradually add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix everything well.

Finally fold in mashed banana and add crushed walnut and fold once again gently.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smoothen the tops with a spatula. . 

Bake for 55 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. 

Cool the bread in the pan for 5 minutes and remove it and cool in the wire rack for another 1 hour.

Cut into slices and enjoy  as afternoon snack or Breakfast.

Preparation time: 60 minutes
Serving: 8 serving
Verdict: Yummy. Keeper recipe
Will you make it again: I will




Swathi

Kurumulagu rasam/ Spicy black pepper drink

Curing cold with shots? You will be wondering what shots is the dry shots (drinking one) or injection. Don’t worry they are not dry shots or injection just our age old favorite; Kurumulagu rasam /Pepper rasam. I doubt can if I can call it soup so I prefer to call them drink.

Every mom in India has their own version of this rasam. Some will add some extra add on where as other won’t add anything, but all of them will contain, pepper, coriander, red chili, cumin, tamarind, salt and touch of jaggery. Amma makes it without adding garlic, where as my mother-in-law adds garlic to that. She grinds everything into a paste. On the other hand amma ground everything into a powder. I makes amma’s version most of time.

My hubby if he is with his mom, he would say my mother-in-law version of rasam is good. If he is here in US he will say you are making good rasam. I think he is balancing between two women in his life, third one (little princess) not yet ready for making him rasam, then he will change his opinion according to that also. He is nice guy, knows which move to make when and where.

If you have a daring cold, stuffed and runny nose, and want to kill everybody on your way, try this. After drinking two three sips magically your stuffed runny nose will open. However, this is not permanent solution; you need to drink more often, three times a day.

Black pepper is known to break the congestion. Cumin seeds are known to have antiseptic properties, so it is helpful in treating the throat irritations associated with cold . Coriander acts as an expectorant; Tamarind can help in reducing fever during cold.  Jaggery is considered to be whole sugar as it contains both sucrose and glucose. It known prevents dry cough as well as cough with sputum. Read more from here.

After reading all the health benefits of ingredients used in the rasam, once again I was amazed by home remedies prepared by mom and grand moms. So whatever they say it is good for you. Pay attention, they are good indeed. Here goes my mom’s rasam recipe. You can make either double or triple make in bulk. However, I prefer to make fresh and this recipe yield for 2 time use. I don’t think this rasam can be served along with rice. It is good as drink. 

Print recipe from here

What you need

 For rasam powder
Cumin seeds: 1 tablespoon
Coriander seeds: ½ tablespoon
Red chilies: 4 no
Whole Black pepper/Kurumulagu: ¼ teaspoon
Asafetodia: ¼ teaspoon

For rasam

Rasam powder: ½ tablespoon + ½ teaspoon
Salt: 1 and 1/8 teaspoon
Turmeric powder: 1/4 teaspoon
Tamarind: small ping pong ball size
Mustard seeds: ¼ teaspoon
Cumin seeds:1/4 teaspoon
Jaggery:1/2 teaspoon
Coriander leaves; 1 tablespoon
Water: 2 cup
Oil : 1 tablespoon






How I made

First dry roast the ingredients for the rasam  expect asafetodia and set aside( Be careful not to burn anything, only fry until raw smell is removed and aroma starts coming, coriander ,cumin seeds  and chili become slightly brown and black pepper become plum up). It will take about 6 minutes. Once it is cool enough to touch add asafetodia and grind them into a fine powder. It yield about 2 1/4 tablespoon.

In a small bowl add 1 cup of water and tamarind and microwave for high at 15 seconds and extract the juice and set aside.

Heat oil in a sauce pan add cumin and mustard seeds once mustard seeds starts spluttering add tamarind juice and rest of water along with rasam powder, turmeric powder and salt. Bring it to boil then add jaggery and let it boil for another 2 minutes. Switch off the flame and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Enjoy hot as much you can tolerate.

Preparation time: For rasam powder: 10 minutes
Making rasam: 7 minutes
Yield: 4 serving
Verdict: Tasty
Will you make it again: Yes I will whenever we get cold.

 I  am sending this delicious Kurumulagu rasam to Back to Basics :3 hosted by Sra originally started  by Desi Soccer Mom.

Swathi

Baked ulli vada/ Baked onion fritters

Ulli vada/onion fritters is one of my childhood favorites, the name itself makes me feel nostalgic. Appa would buy parippu vada (Lentil fritters), ulli vada (onion fritters) for me and sister, Uzhunnu Vada (Black gram fritters) for mom from a Thattukada near his office. Every day while coming back from his work, he will bring some goodies, so once he is home, both I and my sister would search his bags, and sure we will find something. Even now if he goes out for getting something (now days to get his pension) he will bring some chocolate, vadas etc, but nowadays his bags are searched by his granddaughter and grandson. Only the generation has changed, but not the expectation of a tasty food in his bag.

I can’t forget the taste of vadas we used to get from “Thattukada” (local fast food joint; roadside eatery). Golden brown colored crispy onion vadas are usually enjoyed with tea( that is also famous 5 feet tea, take a look at this video

). Whatever I try I am unable to replicate the exact taste and the crispiness of the onion vadas they make. The ones I make are really tasty; though I won’t pass a chance to try the ones from Thattukada. Yesterday for evening tea, I had only a few blue berry muffins in my hand, so I decided to make onion fritters, which my hubby likes a lot. As I was collecting all the items to make the vada, suddenly I had an idea why don’t I try it as a baked version, and then it also becomes a snack with fewer calories.

I haven’t seen any recipe for baked ulli vada, so I tried my own recipe. This time I added some breadcrumbs to it. They came out really tasty. Little one, hubby and I enjoyed it very much. If you are not able to get the Thattukada special ulli vada, try this one some time, it is guilt free snack. Here goes the recipe

Print recipe from here

What you need

 Onion: 2 ½ cups ( About 2 medium onion, chopped thin as possible)
Chana dal flour/Besan: ½ cup
Rice flour: 1/5 cup
Bread crumbs: 3 tablespoon
Salt: 1 teaspoon
Chili powder: ½ teaspoon
Fennel seeds: ¼ teaspoon
Asafetodia: ¼ teaspoon
Spring onions: 3 no
Curry leaves: 1 sprig (chopped finely)
Coriander leaves: 2 tablespoon (Chopped finely)
Olive oil: 2 tablespoon







How I made

Preheat oven to 410 Fahrenheit.

Peel and chopped the onions as thin as possible (It will cause tears, don’t worry end result is worth it with shedding of tears). Wash and chop curry leaves and coriander leaves finely and set aside.

In a bowl mix besan, rice flour, salt, chili powder, fennel seeds and asafetodia. To this add chopped onion, coriander, curry leaves mixture. Mix until everything incorporated well and add bread crumbs and mix once again to combine everything to form dough that you can make balls out of it.

In baking sheet lined with non-stick aluminum foil, brush with olive oil and set aside. Scoop 1 tablespoon of dough and with hands form into a small patties or circular disc (mixture will be wet) and place on a well greased baking sheet leaving 2 inch space between each other. 

Drizzle olive oil on the patties so that it gets oil in both sides. Bake for 35 minutes or until they become golden brown, flipping in between every 15 minutes. Enjoy warm. If you have any leftover reheat them in microwave for 15 seconds at high Heat.( I don't think  there will any left over)

Enjoy with  hot  cup  of tea or coffee.

Preparation time: 1 hour
Yield: 12 no
Verdict: Tasty, Crispy
Will you make it again Yes I will.


Swathi

Omakka Thakkali Murangakkai pulissery /Papaya Tomato Drumstick in Yogurt coconut gravy

Pulissery is one of the curries amma used to make more often at home. Among the gravies that amma made such as sambar, Rasam and pulissery, sambar occupies the first position and pulissery and rasam running a close second. This dish is common in our feast menu also. Pulissery is usually made with cucumber, okra, and tomato and is a hot and sour curry. It is hot from chilies and sourness from the yogurt used. There are other kind of pulissery also where we adds fruits such as ripe mango, ripe plantain, ripe pineapple etc. I like fruit version compared to veggies one, because of balance of flavors between sweet, sour and spiciness.

After making stir fry with papaya and left with ¼th portion of it which was not enough for any curry I decided to add papaya and tomato to make a pulissery. While opening my freezer I also found a long lost pack of drumstick (Moringa oleifera read more from here), which had 4 pieces left (don’t get confused with our favorite chicken drumstick). I also incorporated drumstick into my pulissery. Drumstick is a very slender, slim looking vegetable. Among the vegetables, if a catwalk is organized, drumstick will be supermodel.  Finally I got a wonderful combo of papaya, tomato and drumstick in this pulissery.

Pulissery is yogurt based gravy with touch of coconut (off course we can’t live without them), cumin seeds and green chilies. Not similar but distant cousin of this curry you can see in Rajasthani cuisine where yogurt and chana dal flour is used where they are called Kadhi. However it lacks coconut. Sometimes, ginger is also grinded along with coconut. I used my mom’s recipe for making this delicious curry. Here goes the recipe.

What you need

 Papaya/omakka: 1 cup (chopped into bite size)
Tomato: 3 no (chopped into bite size)
Drum stick: 4 bite sized pieces
Yogurt: ½ cup
Salt: 1 teaspoon
Coconut: ½ cup
Green chili: 1 no ( I used hot Thai chilly)
Curry leaves: 1 sprig
Oil: 2 tablespoon (I used olive oil, use coconut oil for authentic taste)
Cumin: ½ teaspoon
Red chilies: 2 no (halved into two pieces)
Mustard seeds: ¼ teaspoon
Turmeric: ¼ teaspoon
Water: 2 cup for cooking + ½ cup for grinding





How I made

In a medium sauce pan add papaya, drumstick, salt and turmeric and cook for 15 minutes or until done with lid closed.

To this add chopped tomato and cook for another 3 minutes. 

In the mean time grind coconut, cumin and green chili with1/2 cup water for a fine paste and set aside.

Add the coconut paste to papaya, tomato, drumstick mixture and bring it to a boil. Reduce the flame and add yogurt to this mixture and let it simmer for 2 minutes and switch off the flame.

In a small pan add oil, mustard seeds, curry leaves and red chilies. Once mustard seeds starts popping switch off the flame add this mixture to cooked vegetable yogurt mixture. 

Enjoy with rice and stir fry.

Preparation time.25 minutes
Yield: 4 serving
Verdict: Tasty
Will you make it again: Making more often.

Swathi

Back from Vacation

We are back from a nice vacation to India. It was heavily raining the first two weeks making it virtually impossible to go out. Hence we stayed inside and ate really good food prepared by my mother- in-law (amma) and sister’s –in law. Little princess got her first visit to India and she became adorable to everyone in the family and to even outsiders. My nieces wanted to carry her all the time, but as they were afraid of her slipping out of their hands, they held her tight as much as possible while carrying her. She loves them at the same time but was afraid of their friendly squeeze. This time we stayed at home most of the time in Mumbai and three days in Delhi, no Kerala trip and no movies in the theater. 

My niece introduced me to lot of sas bahu (mother-in-law and daughter – in-law) serials and to Facebook, she types everything very fast, at the speed of lightening. I was also amazed to see how my mother-in- law cooks very fast. She always get a big menu list and completes everything according to everybody‘s taste and wishes. Elder sister-in-law cooks very nicely and made Aloo matter paneer and Pani Poori for us. She gave a box of Churma laddoo ( Wheat jaggery balls). Younger sister-in-law who visited Kerala for Onam bought back mold for acchappam , chakka varatti and beautiful frock for little princess. Our aunt in Kerala sent us some home grown tamarind. 

Appa gave some gifts to little princess and did some special pooja for little princess in the temple. We got to stay with him only for 3 days.

My sister gave some gifts to little princess and we were able to see my only nephew for the first time. He is cute naughty little guy who is always active with something. 

My little princess got dresses and other gifts from her two aunties and our friend Vineetha. 

I and amma went out a lot for shopping without informing my dear husband who hates to carry anything in his luggage as well as anything to do in the crowd. We bought a manchatti (earthen pot), motor and pestle made with stone, roller for making chapathi (flat bread), and mold for making samosa, modak and a boondi laddle.

She gave us box of Rava ladoo and made puran poli (Sweetened chana dal stuffed flat bread) aloo paratha along with lot of Kerala dishes. I will try to recreate each and every dish as much as possible. She has a wonderful gravy recipe, which goes well with any vegetables and grains. She also did special poojas for little one in all the temples near the house. 

This time watching TV became a difficult task, I thought I am going to watch lot of movies and serials while there. It didn’t happen. Not because I didn’t have interest, it was killed by innumerable number channels and advertisement after every 10 min lasting up to 2 – 3 minutes. I understood that I need special degree of patience to watch anything in the TV whether it is movie or even news. At the end of the day you get a hand ache from changing channels and head ache from watching all kinds of ads. Another disappointment we got was from eating out. We did eat out only a few times and we were perhaps looking for magical authentic taste about lot dishes like Kadai paneer, mutter paneer, dal makhani , pav bahji, vada pav, bhel poori and malai kofta . All we got was heavily masala ridden spicy tasteless stuff.

However the taste and flavor of dahi (Yogurt) and ice cream, fresh fruit is amazing and wonderful. Cost of living in Mumbai and Delhi is every expensive, everything from milk to fruits cost almost same as here. 

High rise building in Indrapuram, Uttar Pradesh

Adakka(Arecanut)plant in  Mumbai

 

While we were in Mumbai, we got to participate in two festivals, Krishna Janmashtami( festival of God Krishna’s birth) read more about here. and Vinayaka chathurthi( Birthday of lord Ganapathi) read more about from here.  In Maharashtra Janmashtami celebrated as Dahi Handi. I was also able to see that for the first time.

Dahi Handi in our building

In Maharashtra, Vinayaka chathurthi is celebrated with great pomp and festivities for 10 – 12 days and it is a famous regional festival there. I was happy to be part of it this time and as he is my favorite God. We were able take some pictures of idols.

Ganapathi  at Gaurv garden

Ganapathi outside blue ocean

Ganapathi at Blue ocean

One bad incident happened while coming back; a taxi driver whom we booked to the airport did not show up, he kept telling us he was just five minutes away from 9.30 to 10.30 PM when he was quite far away. I just hated the unprofessionalism of some business. 

In the eleventh hour we had to search out for new taxi, luckily we got two taxis that sped through the busy Mumbai traffic on account of Ganapathi immersion, and was able to catch the flight. In hurry burry we forgot the bag containing my princess milk and diapers, however we were able adjust with a sippy cup in hand luggage, the guy at the coffee shop at the Mumbai International airport who gave milk for the baby and refused to take any money and the amazing crew of Air France flight who came up with two baby bottles and provided every assistance including warm milk. 

On a earlier trip to Mahalaxmi temple and Siddhivinayak  temple we had a cabbie who had a simple outlook towards life. He worked in Mumbai for 8 months at a time and then quit his job to be with family for 3 – 4 months until his savings ran out. They had a farm and lived off the land with simple needs, unlike our constant needs for latest gadgets’. With his meager saving he was also building a temple to Lord Ram, a promise to his dad. He had a B.A in Hindi but had to drive cab in Mumbai as his family in Allahabad had no money to bribe to get good jobs.

All in all a great trip.

Swathi