Peda: A Milk Sweet

My Blog Baby Turned One Year Celebrating With Peda

Yes today exactly become one year since I started blogging. I used to write recipes in notebook and had filed quite a few of them. One day around 6 month after my delivery my hubby told me why don’t you start a blog? I told him no one is going to read it. He told me you do it for your own satisfaction and not to worry about whether anybody is going to read it or not. He said if you put really good quality work there will be an audience for you. Gradually I got visitors to my blog. 

Blogging did a lot of good things to me, it improved my writing skills and I am continuing to improve every time I write. It gives me an opportunity to explore various world cuisines, gave me the courage to try baking with yeast, and also introduced me to lot of friends. Then I realized one thing, whatever I am doing it is like a droplets in the world cuisine which is like an ocean. Every day is a learning process, and it amazes me to no end to the many ways you can cook, simple or complicated. I prefer to cook simple always; sometimes I do try complicated dishes also. 

I don’t want to count about how many post I did as it might mean nothing at the end of the day to me. Quality of my work means everything to me. My blog has become a platform to write my everyday life. My hubby says that he like if an actor act in one great movie and gets an Oscar, rather acting in thousand of rubbish movies like our Bollywood heroes do. It is perhaps better to be part of a Dirty Dancing or The Secret in Their Eyes (Best foreign movie Oscar winner 2009, Argentinean film. If you like thrillers try to see this movie). Patrick Swayze  acted only few movies, and he has few hits too but his acting in Dirty Dancing will always stand out and will always be remembered for it, similarly the actor in The Secret in Their Eyes, Ricardo Darin,  has acted only 26 films in 30 years of career, but does a great job in the few movies that I have seen of his.

I have to thank my hubby who is taste tester, my food critic and photographer. Poor guy has to work long enough to get a good click, even if he is hungry. He sometimes would say why I suggested that you start a blog, because of the blog I have to wait to eat. He is also my best supporter too. My little one also does some taste testing. 

I started blogging with first recipe of Banana walnut oatmeal muffin on October 29 2009. I want to recreate all the dishes I tasted during my childhood, as well as the taste I have acquired over the period of time. Heartfelt thanks, to blogger friends, and visitors who take their valuable time to visit this blog. My heartfelt thanks to all, who try my recipes, and give me the feedback, when somebody says me they tried the recipe and it came out good, it gives me the feeling of having won an Oscar. I hope there will be continued support from you guys and that will help me to improve my blog as much as possible. Every suggestion can make a big difference. 

Since next week is Deepavali/Diwali (Festival of lights) , I thought I will make some Peda today. It will be like Oru vediku randu pakshi (means with a single bullet you get two birds), I can use this peda for celebrating my blog anniversary as well as sweets for next week Deepavali. Peda is milk based sweet meat, famous in Northern part of India, rather than the southern part of India. It originated in the city of Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. Diwali without peda is unthinkable in northern India. Yesterday I was reading a newspaper where in Dehli government officials captured about 10 tons of adulated Khoya. Peda, gulab jamun, and certain halwa contain one of ingredients Khoya (thickened milk products/after heating milk for long time in open flame). So you can imagine the demand. Depending upon demand, and when there is not enough products available, adulteration is taking place. My hubby is absolute fan of peda, and since he is diabetic consumption of pedas has been reduced drastically. This time when I went to India, I asked Sulekha (my mother-in-law’s domestic help) can you make and show me how to make Peda. She told, she does not make it as it won’t come out properly and I don’t want waste the materials. I like her, because of the frank answer she gave me, even though she is good at making lot dishes, different kinds of ladoos and so on. The preparation of Peda looks simple but getting the right taste is difficult, it require lot of practice.

I don’t want to make Khoya at home (it is tedious, time consuming process I done it earlier) so I decided to find some other ways to make Peda. On searching with internet, I found lots of peda recipes, some using ricotta cheese and milk powder, milk powder and heavy cream, milk powder and condensed milk. I am not fan of condensed milk or milk powder. I like to use condensed milk only in Payasam. Otherwise I feel they overpower the taste. That is my view only. So I decided to make with ricotta cheese. I came across this recipe in Vaidehi’s blog Chakali. She used ricotta cheese and milk with no condensed milk or milk powder, so I decide to give it a try. I followed her recipe exactly except for adding some yellow color because of Halloween. 

I made Khoya with ricotta cheese and used milk, saffron, cardamom pistachio and yellow food color. They came out really well. I didn’t go through microwave route, because I am not comfortable cooking with microwave and used the stove top. The cute little pedas have a melt in the mouth texture. I love it. At first my hubby told me it is really good, though still not attained the mithai guys taste, but I saw him going for second one ( that means he really liked it). Give it try if you can. Here is the recipe.

Print recipe from  here

One year ago: Banana walnut oat meal muffin

What you need

 Ricotta cheese: 15 oz/ 425 g ( I used original)
Milk: 1 cup (I used whole fat)
Sugar: ½ cup / 100 g
Ghee/clarified butter: 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon
Yellow food color: 4 drops (I used liquid one)
Cardamom crushed: 3 nos
Saffron: 10 stigmas
Pistachios: 15 no










How I made

In a small sauce pan heat milk to warm not boiling( if using microwave heat milk for 1 minutes and 5 seconds at high) and add saffron and set aside. 

Heat a non stick pan and add 1 tablespoon Ghee/ clarified butter, when it starts melting add ricotta cheese and stir continuously. At first it become uniform mixture (around 4 minutes) then on further cooking it starts getting thick ball when all the water content in ricotta gets evaporated and it becomes khoya and a thick ball and starts leaving the sides of pan. It takes about 19 minutes in medium flame. 

In the same pan add sugar and food color (if using) to the above khoya and again heat it. Mix well while sugar gets incorporated first and then it starts melting. To this add milk -saffron mixture and stir continuously for another 32 minutes, so that khoya- milk - sugar- saffron mixture gets thickened once again. Add cardamom and mix well just before you switch of flame. 

When the above Khoya-milk-saffron-sugar mixture is warm enough touch, grease your palm with rest of ghee and make small balls first and slightly flatten in the middle and place pistachio while it is warm. If you want to make design in peda you are free to do so. 

Enjoy as much you wish. 

Preparation time: 51 minutes
Yield: 15 no
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: Yes I will.

Swathi

Chana Masala/Chickpeas coated with curry masala

If asked my mom or mother-in-law is chana masala curry a easy one to make? They will say no, because it requires over night soaking chana dal and pressure cooking them for making curry. However, if you ask same question, I will say yes because I always have canned chana and rajma in my pantry, hence I can make chana dishes at any time.

One thing I found out that chana masala goes well with everything, including Algerian flatbread, Trinidad Doubles, Russian blinichki , Sardinian flat bread and Indian paratha and chapathi. I try to experiment my chana masala with switching the masala used to make them, such gram masala sometime, chicken or meat masala some time. Even though I won’t cook chicken and meat I buy the masala combination so that I can try with various veggies. I usually want different taste for each meal; my hubby is fine if he has chapathi and a curry. He will happiest person when he can eat them 3 times a day. I can’t, and need some changes. My baby is also like me, she doesn’t like to eat the same dish every day, and she wants to explore the new tastes. One more thing chana masala from every kitchen is different in taste and appearance. 

I make Chana masala two ways: the first one is cooking chana with half of mashed chana. Other one without mashed chana, usually mashed chana makes the gravy thick. Here goes the recipe. 

What you need

 Chick peas: 2 can (cooked)
Onion: 1 no
Tomato: 2 no
Potato: 1 no
Ginger garlic paste: 1 tablespoon
Green chili: 1
Gram masala: 1/2 teaspoon
Red chili powder: 1 teaspoon
Coriander powder: ½ teaspoon
Cumin powder: ¼ teaspoon
Cumin seeds: 1/2 teaspoon
Fennel seeds: 1/4 teaspoon
Mustard seeds: 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder: 1/8 teaspoon
Salt: 1 teaspoon
Olive oil : 2 tablespoon
Water : 4 cup
Chopped coriander leaves: 1 tablespoon

How I made

Heat olive oil in a medium sauce pot and add mustard seeds, fennel seeds and cumin seeds, when mustards seeds starts spluttering add chopped onion, chopped green chilies and 1/8 teaspoon of salt and fry until onion becomes translucent it takes about 6-7 minutes.

To this onion mixture add ginger- garlic paste and fry them for another 3 minutes. To this add turmeric powder. Chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala and fry for another 2 minutes, add chopped tomatoes and cook until tomato become tender and soft, it takes about 3 minutes. To this add chopped potato and 1 ½ cup of water, let it cook for 8 minutes or until the potato cooked tender not mushy.

To onion –tomato potato masala mixture add ¾ of the chick peas along with ½ cup of water.

Mash the rest of chick peas into a fine paste using blender or food processor and add this paste to the above onion-tomato potato chickpeas mixture and rest of water cook for 6-8 minutes or until reach the exact consistency of gravy. Switch of the flame and chopped coriander leaves. 

Enjoy with Rice vermicelli, rice or chapathi.

Preparation time: 35 minutes
Yield: 7 serving
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: Making more often.

Swathi

Announcing Bread baking day -34: Bread with Grains

I am extremely happy to announce that Bread Baking Day-34 edition will be hosted by me of Zesty South Indian Kitchen. I am happy to be a part of the bread baking event by Zorra of Kochtopf. It has been going strong for last 3 years. When I asked her if I can host one of bread baking day event she immediately agreed. Currently she is working on the round up of  5th World bread day celebrated on October 16 2010. Last bread baking day BBD #33 Bread with Booze had been hosted by Adriana of Baking powders and roundups you can see from here and here.

Bread baking area was new to me until a few months ago, now I can say I am addicted to fresh bread smell for my little oven. Earlier yeast doesn’t want to establish much friendship with me. Slowly I gained their confidence and developed friendship. It is getting strong and stronger every day. I welcome everybody to bake yeasted bread with me. 

Theme will be  Bread with grains  Make yeast  bread with Grains. Such (a) Rye(b) Barely (c) Oats (d) buckwheat (f) corn. You can choose single grain or in combination.

Rye Bread

Honey wheat and oat bread

Braided  Rye bread

How to participate in BBD #34

• Bake a yeasted bread with one of the grains or in combination ((a) Rye(b) Barely (c) Oats (d) buckwheat (f) corn )
• Post it on your blog with a link back to this post
• Send in one recipe from each blog please.
• Write recipe in English
• Non-bloggers can also participate by sending details about your recipe with a picture to following email.


• Email me at iyerswathi9@gmail.com and include
o Your name
o Your location
o Your blog’s name and URL
o The name of your bread and the post URL
o A picture of the bread 250 x 250 pixels
o Subject line: BBD#34: Breads with Grains 

• Deadline for submission is December 1st, 2010. 


Looking forward to delicious breads from all of you. Lets starts baking.



Swathi

Creation of Baked Ulli Vada by Kareena

I am happy to present this picture from Kareena, who tried my recipe of baked ulli vada. She said that they turned out well.

Swathi

Bulgur wheat Upma/ Bulgur with mixed vegetables salad

 

I am always thinking about our dinner menu starting from the morning. For me it is easy to put together breakfast and lunch. However dinner dish is always complicated means I need something different. How can you discover different food every day? That is my problem. So I am always on the lookout for new dishes.

I bought some parsley and bulgur wheat from a store which sells Middle Eastern stuff, thinking that I am going to make Tabbouleh,  a Levantine salad. However I just could not find the time to make the salad, parsley become yellow in color after sitting quietly for 2 weeks in my refrigerator and told me to put it in the garbage bin. I was so upset, but still had no choice, but to obey the words of parsley. Then what do I do with bulgur wheat? I decided to make some soybean burger using soya beans and bulgur wheat similar to famous Burger king’s Veggie burger. What happened in the end is I got some tasteless stuff, which tempted me to say that Veggie burger from outside, is far better than this.

I still needed to use the remaining bulgur wheat, and decided to give them an Indian outlook by changing them into Upma, famous breakfast dish of south India. If you can make upma with rice, semolina, cracked wheat then why not try to make upma with bulgur wheat. Bulgur wheat is rich in fiber and has more nutrients and minerals than brown rice. While searching using Google I found Madhuram had done a bulgur wheat upma. So I got some confident, and tired it using the vegetables that I love. Yes it turned out to be really good with nuttiness from the bulgur wheat and sweetness from red bell pepper and carrot. It is a easy breezy upma or salad with only cooking is the sir frying the vegetables and rest part soaking the bulgur wheat in hot water. You can skip the green chili and substituted with black pepper to make it less spicy.  Here is the recipe.

Print recipe from here
What you need

Bulgur wheat: ¾ cup
Water: 1 ½ cup
Salt: 1 teaspoon
Olive oil: 2 tablespoon
Red bell pepper: ½ cup (Chopped into small cubes)
Green bell pepper: 1 cup (Chopped into small cubes)
Onion: ½ cup (chopped finely)
scallion: ½ cup ( Both green and white parts chopped finely)
Carrot: ½ cup (chopped into small cubes)
Mustard seeds: ½ teaspoon
Urad dal: 1 tablespoon
Green chili: 1 (I used Serrano pepper)
Red chilies: 2 no ( Halved into two)
Coriander leaves: 1 tablespoon (Chopped finely)



How I made

In a medium bowl place the bulgur, and add salt to taste. Cover with 1 1/2 cups hot or boiling water, and allow to sit for 20 to 25 minutes until most of the water is absorbed and bulgur gets swelled up. Drain the excess water through a strainer and squeeze out the water if any.

Mean time, heat oil in skillet and add mustard seeds, urad dal and halved red chilies. As mustard seeds starts popping add chopped onion and green chili and fry for 6 minutes or until onion become translucent or change color. Then add all the vegetables one by one along with salt and cook until they are soft and well done. Switch off the flame and set aside.

To the above vegetable mixture add cooked bulgur and mix everything until all the ingredients gets combined well.

Enjoy warm.

Preparation time: 30minutes
Yield: 4 serving
Verdict: Nutty yummy
Will you make it again: Yes I will

Pasta with mixed vegetables and Poblano pepper and mozzarella ricotta cheese sauce

We are not pasta persons; it is not because we don’t like pastas. But, it is because I don’t know to make variation in the pastas so that it tastes different always. My pasta always smells, looks and tastes like pasta dredged in Ragu Garden vegetable sauce. My little one like pasta, she loves to eat small pasta pieces when we give her. 

This time during our weekened grocery shopping adventure, my hubby spotted Poblano peppers. He asked did I know how to cook? I told him I don’t know, I will check with Google friend and come up with something. Finally we bought one Poblano pepper. After searching the internet, I came to know that it can be good for stuffing as well it can be roast or grilled to make some sauce and soup. I didn’t want to stuff my single poblano pepper and had not enough to be able to get enough for one dish. Finally did a cleverly choice of converting them into a sauce with cheese for our dinner pasta.

Poblano are mild chili pepper originating in the State of Puebla, Mexico. When it is dried its name changed to ancho chili. They are supposed to be mildly spicy, some time they tend to have significant heat. Read more about Poblano peppers form here. Health benefits of poblano peppers are that they are rich in fiber. They tend to lack rest of health benefits related to hot peppers due to less amount of capsaicin read more from here.

I had bought ricotta and Mozzeralla cheese also during shopping. I was thinking of making some peda’s with ricotta and eggplant Parmesan with Mozzarella and Parmesan. Furthermore my hubby presented me with Gas stove replacing my old electric stove. It was hard to say goodbye to that electric stove, as I love the oven. When we bought the house we wanted a gas stove, however builder gave us an electric stove. So we decided to sell it, but for curiosity I checked the price at the nearby stores. It was around $1200 dollars, a price that shocked me I thought it was a cheap one for $300 - $400. So I told hubby, we can use the electric stove for 5 years and then change to gas stove. So after four and half years he got me nice gas stove. It is a fully loaded one too. I need to start baking on this oven too. Since I got gas, it was easy to roast the poblano peppers on the stove top. After roasting the skin can be easily peeled away and made a sauce with cheese. 

I used Barilla bow tie pasta( Piccolini,Mini Farfalle) and in order to make it healthy added some stir fried mixed vegetables (for my satisfaction, eating pasta and saying healthy). I spiced the dish with some black pepper and cumin powder. Trust me they taste great. Mildly hot poblano pepper cheese sauce gave a cheesy outlook to ordinary pasta along with color was given by vegetables. Here goes the recipe. Try some time.

Print recipe from here


What you need

Barilla bow tie pasta( Piccolini/Mini Farfalle): 1 ½ cup
Onion: ¾ cup (Chopped finely)
Red bell pepper: ½ cup (Chopped into cubes)
Potato: 1 small (Chopped into small cubes)
Green bell pepper: ½ cup (Chopped into small pieces)
Carrot: ½ cup (Chopped finely)
Zucchini: 1 cup (Chopped into fine cubes)
Tomato: 1 (Chopped finely)
Poblano pepper: 1 no( Roasted , peeled, deseeded and chopped)
Green onion: 3 no (Chopped both green and white parts)
Cumin powder: ½ teaspoon
Black pepper: ¼ teaspoon
Salt: ½ tablespoon
Italian seasoning: 1 teaspoon
Mozzeralla: 1/3 cup
Ricotta: 2 tablespoon
Olive oil: 1 tablespoon

How I made

First wash and wipe poblano pepper and fire roast them in stove until the skin becomes black in color. It takes about 1 minute on each side. Set aside. When it warm enough the touch, peel the skin of pepper and wash in the running water to remove if any parts of skin left. Carefully cut the top and remove the seeds and membrane. Finely chop the flesh into small pieces and set aside. 

In a medium sauce pot heat 5 cup of water and when starts boiling add rest of the salt expect ½ teaspoon and the pasta. Stir gently. Return to boil. Cook Pasta unitl ‘’al dente. It took about 7 minutes. Remove and drain well and set aside.

In the mean time heat a skillet and add 1 tablespoon of oil and chopped onion fry them until they become translucent or change color it takes about 6 minutes. Then add all vegetables one by one and cook until everything become tender and done. To this add cumin powder, black pepper and Italian seasoning and stir 1 minute and switch off the flame. It takes about 10 minutes. 

 In a food processor or grinder add chopped poblano pepper and mozzarella and ricotta cheese and grind them into a fine paste.

Add stir fried vegetables and poblano cheese sauce to cooked pasta and until everything get combined well.

Enjoy warm as much you wish. 

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Yield: 2 serving
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: Yes I will

I am sending this yummy pasta to Presto  Pasta Nights: 186 hosted by  Clarie originally started by Ruth at Once Upon A Feast. 

Swathi

Payasam and Uzhunnu Vada/ Sweet rice pudding and Urad dal fritters for Saraswathi Pooja

Hope all my Indian friends got to celebrate Saraswathi Pooja today. We did a small pooja and I made Payasam and Uzhunnu Vada for Naiveydam (food offerings to God). Amma used to make these two dishes during Saraswathi Pooja/Vijayadashmi day. She loved Uzhunnu vada/Urad dal fritters a lot. I like it but if you gave me a choice between parippu vada and (channa and toor dal fritters) and Uzhunnu Vada I will go for the former. 

I still remember that on Vijayadashmi day, my poor mom had extra work to do, not only did she have to do day to day work, but also make this two dishes. She is not a fast person, takes her own time to make everything with ultra cleanliness. I got that gene, I am cleanliness freak, I want everything to clean immediately, and I don’t like anything in the sink during night. When I wake up in the morning I want a clean kitchen as much as possible. Now my little princess who curious to touch and taste everything spills whatever we give her to eat. 

Usually during Navaratri amma kept Golu in home, which is mainly an exhibition of various dolls and dolls of popular in odd numbered tiers. Read more about Golu and their custom from here.  As a part of custom, in the evening, married women and girl children from neighborhood are invited to see the golu and given vethalai paaku, ( Betal leaf, Aracanut, small gifts and kumkum, money etc) and prasadam (various type of sundals) . We were also very happy to visit all the houses in the neighborhood, but before hand we will roam around asking “aunty what type of sundal have you made for the offering today”. If they say sweet version sundal or sweets I was more than interested to visit their home, savory not that found of, still we visited them as with amma. I have lots of happy memories about that. Here I don’t know many families, so I didn’t keep any golu. If you keep golu you need to give prasadam and vethalai paaku to married women/Mami. Where I am I gig to find people who are knowledgeable of our customs and follow our traditions. So I decided only to do Pooja.

I made payasam similar to Attukal Pongala payasam except that I did not add any coconut. Attukal is a famous Devi temple in Thiruvanthapuram, South India. We Thiruvanthapuram people fondly call Attukala Ammachi (means mother). During the end of the 10 day festival in the Malayalam month of Kumbam (February-March) there will be Pongala an offering of boiled rice in earthen pot offered by women. Attukal Pongala is an annual congregation of more than three million women who gather to offer pongala to Attukal Amma (Devi, Mother Goddess) making it the largest gathering of women on earth. Only women are allowed to do the Pooja, and no men other than volunteers and poojari (Main Priest) are present during that day in and around the premises of the temple. See pictures of this year pongala at this blog;  Mom used to offer pongala every year. I remembered going to pongala with her and decided to make today’s payasam similar. However, I didn’t use any earthenpot and made it using pressure cooker and stove top to make it easy. I cooked rice and dal in pressure cooker and added jaggery and ghee made easy payasam.

For Uzhunnu vada I soaked whole urad dal/black gram for 5 hours in water and grind it into a fine paste with less water and then added chopped green chilies, ginger, salt and curry leaves. For Naivedyam, I made few without adding any onion, rest I added chopped onion. My hubby is fond of Uzhunu vada. He enjoyed his vada while watching the foot ball game between Viking (Minnesota) and Cowboys (Dallas). The Vikings won the game. The vada are crispy golden colored on the outer side and soft white inside. We enjoyed this vada with our evening coffee. Here goes the recipe.

 Print recipe from here

What you need
Payasam

 Raw rice: 1/3 cup
Yellow split peas/Moong dal: 1 tablespoon
Jaggery: ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon
Ghee/Clarified butter: 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon
Cardamom: 3 no
Cashew nuts: 6 no
Water: 1 1/ 2 cup





For Uzhunnu vada

Black gram/Urad dal/Uzhnnu: 1 ½ cup
Green chili: 2 no (chopped finely)
Curry leaves: 2 sprigs (chopped finely
Ginger: 2 inch piece (chopped finely)
Salt: 1 teaspoon or to taste
Water: 4 cup for soaking+ ½ cup for grinding
Oil: 4 cup( I used canola oil)








How I made
Payasam

Wash both rice and moong dal and pressure cook up to 2 whistles for about 20 minutes with 1 cup of water. Set aside

In a medium sauce pot add ½ cup of water and jaggery and bring to it boil so that jaggery will dissolve completely. Remove from the fire and strain to remove any impurities and set aside.

In the same pan add jaggery water and cooked rice moong dal mixture and cook for about 6 minutes or until jaggery water gets absorbed completely by rice and add 1 tablespoon of ghee with stirring in between for another 3 minutes. Add crushed cardamom and stir well and switch off the flame.

In a small pot heat 1 teaspoon of Ghee/clarified butter and add cashew nuts and fry for 1 minute or until golden brown color. Add this to above Payasam.

Enjoy as much as you wish.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Yield: 3 serving
Verdict: Tasty
Will you make it again: Yes I will

Uzhnnu vada/Black gram fritters

Soak Uzhnnu/Urad dal/ Black gram for 5 hours in 4 cup of water. At end of soaking time, clean the urad dal with running water and set aside.

In the mean time chop green chilies, ginger, onion and curry leaves finely and set aside.

In a food processor/grinder/mixer grind the soaked urad dal into fine paste with ½ cup of water. Batter should be thick; you should able to make small balls with them. 

To the ground urad dal /black gram paste add salt, chopped green chilies, ginger , onion and curry leaves and mix everything so that all the ingredients gets combined well with the batter. Set aside

.

Heat 4 cups of oil in thick bottomed pan, when it reaches 350 F; slowly add donut shaped urad dal dough. (On your wet palm or Ziploc bag, place a round ball of dough, slightly flatten to form the thick disc and a use your finger to create hole in the center to form the shape of doughnut). Fry them by flipping them few times for about 8 minutes or until they reach golden brown color. You will be able to fry 3 at a time. 

Drain them using a slotted spoon into a kitchen towel to remove extra oil. 

Enjoy with hot tea. 

Preparation time: Soaking 5 hours: Grinding: 5 minutes: Frying: 40 minutes
Yield: 15 no
Verdict: Tasty
Will you make again: Yes I will.

Swathi

Homemade Laadi Pav and Pav Bhaji: Mumbai Special

I am celebrating 2010 world bread day with homemade Laadi pav and Pav bhaji. I got introduced to Pav and pav bhaji after my marriage 2005 when I visited Mumbai with my Hubby. This is a wonderful one pot meal you love to have it over and over. Pav and Pav bhaji indirectly points to Mumbai. It is one of the famous street foods of India’s business capital Mumbai. I have seen lot of people from small street vendors to restaurants in posh malls cater this dish. People usually stand in line and patiently wait to order food, which is one of the good qualities I have seen in Mumbai. Where as in Delhi everybody is running like they have reach first it like a running competition. At the Delhi airport my hubby was ordering masala dosa, he gave the credit card to girl who takes the order. Then she told him they won’t take credit card and needed cash. He turns his head and asks me for the cash. In the meantime a gentle man nudges my hubby and started ordering; however the girl didn’t take his order. And also after they announced that our flights starts boarding everybody is running to kiosk like the flight is going to take off if they have not boarded the plane first. 

If you are in Mumbai you don’t need to make pav bhaji and pav at home as it readily available fresh at any time. But here in US there is no such option, if you want you have to prepare at home. My hubby is an expert in making Pav Bhaji. I like his version, may be because he controls the spices. In Mumbai I find it spicy. We are not those spicy persons. He told me he will be making his signature dish.

I decide to make Pav, earlier when we made Pav bhaji; we ate it with bread or hamburger buns. One time I made no-knead buns, trust me they are hardest buns I have seen in my life time. If you get a hit with them sure you are going to hospital. So I dropped the idea of making pav for some time. Failures are steps for success so I decided give one more try. Furthermore I wanted to recreate the pav I tasted in Mumbai. They are soft, white buns if you push with hand it bounce back.

Pav in Marathi means bread, and it is borrowed from Portuguese pão meaning Bread. Laadi pav means it looks like slabs of buns resembling the slabs of the floor after it gets baked. This dish has a history that it was created by a vendor for textile mill workers. As their lunch break time is limited, they need something to eat within a few minutes and it should be filling also. So he created pav in the place of rice and curry is substituted with pav bhaji. Read more about from here. Anyway they are most delicious fast food I can think about and it requires no fries on the side as burgers do. My nieces are ultimate fans of Pav bhaji; they are from Mumbai so their taste buds are quite adjusted that way. Whenever we go out, they orders only Pav bhaji and ice creams. Ice creams in India have more flavors than here. I had one custard apple ice cream in my sister –in-law’s house, it was really good.

I don’t know how authentic pav is made so decided to use white bread dinner roll from my favorite bread baking book. The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart. I made a few changes in the recipe by not adding egg and reduced the amount of sugar and butter and slightly increasing the amount of yeast. Other than that I followed the recipe. Finally I was able to make pillowy white soft pav from my own kitchen. Even after 4 days at room temperature pav was able to retain its softness and taste.

For pav bhaji, we used cauliflower, capsicum, onion, potato, peas, tomato paste , chili powder, kasturi methi( dried fenugreek leaves) and pav bhaji masala. Usually pav bhaji is made in flat big skillet/tawa. We used our non-stick skillet to make Bhaji. Everything was done by my hubby expect cutting, making ginger garlic paste and finally cleaning the vessels and kitchen. Pav bhaji is slightly runny curry of mushy vegetables with loads of butter in it. We reduced the amount of butter as much as possible. Still some butter is there without butter how can you say it is pav bhaji. 

Buttered pav is served with raw onions and lemon wedges along with bowl of pav bhaji. Try this delicious combo, if we can’t be in Mumbai at least pav bhaji can be in our kitchen and we can taste this fast food in our dining table watching movies, serials or sports. 

Print recipe from here

What you need

For Pav

 Bread flour: 3 ½ cup (I used King Arthur unbleached Flour)
Salt: ¾ teaspoon
Sugar: 2 ½ tablespoon
Yeast: 2 teaspoon (I used Rapid rise yeast)
Milk: 1 ½ cup (I used whole milk)
Butter: 2 tablespoon+ 1 tablespoon for brushing on the top






For Pav Bhaji

Cauliflower: 2 cup (Chopped into florets)
Potato: 1 ¼ cup (Chopped into cubes)
Onion: 1 no
Peas: ½ cup (I used frozen peas)
Tomato: 2 no
Tomato paste: 2 tablespoon (I used Hunts paste)
Pav bhaji masala: 1 tablespoon (I used Everest pav bhaji masala)
Paprika: 1 teaspoon
Chili powder: ¼ teaspoon
Salt: 1 ¼ teaspoon or to taste
Butter: 2 tablespoon
Olive oil: 1 tablespoon
Ginger garlic paste: 1 tablespoon (I used freshly grated paste)
Asafetodia: ¼ teaspoon
Turmeric: ¼ teaspoon
Kasthuri methi/Dried fenugreek leaves: ½ tablespoon
Chopped coriander leaves: 1 tablespoon
Lemon: 1 no (½ for serving and ½ for extracting juice)

How I made

Pav

In a small bowl stir in butter, sugar and 1 ½ cup warm milk so that everything gets dissolved and combined well. Set aside for 5 minutes. 

In a large bowl or bowl of electric mixer add 3 cup flour, yeast, salt and butter-sugar-milk mixture and mix with a large metal spoon or (on low speed of electric mixer with the paddle attachment) until all the flour is absorbed and forms a ball.

Transfer the dough to the floured counter and begin kneading (or mix on medium speed with dough hook) adding more flour to create soft supple dough which not sticky. Continue to kneading for 6-8 minutes (In the electric mixer, dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick slightly to the bottom). The dough should pass windowpane test or register 80F.

Transfer the dough to well oiled bowl let it ferment in room temperature until it doubles in size. It took about 2 hours and 5 minutes.

Remove the doubled dough from the bowl and divide it into 15 pieces for pav/buns/dinner rolls. Shape the pieces into round (I didn’t succeed in that part, they look slightly shapeless) and transfer to lightly oil baking sheet. Mist them with oil and cover with a towel or plastic wrap. Allow to rest for 1 hour or until they doubles in size.

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Mist the pav/buns with water and bake them for about 16 minutes or until the top becomes golden brown.

Remove from the oven and brush immediately with butter while warm. After brushing with butter, remove them from baking sheet and transfer to wire rack and let it cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy with warm pav bhaji. 

Preparation time: 3 hours 25 minutes
Yield: 15 no
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: I will

Bhaji

Pressure cook cleaned cauliflower florets, chopped potato, peas with 1 cup of water for 3 whistles. It takes about 25 minutes. Set aside cooked vegetables. 

Heat medium skillet with oil and when it heated add chopped onion and fry until it becomes translucent or changes to light brown color it takes about 6 minutes. To this add chopped capsicum and fry for 2 minutes and add ginger-garlic paste. Fry for 2 minutes then add tomatoes along 4 tablespoon of water and cook until they become soft. 

To the above mixture add turmeric powder, paprika, red chili powder, salt , tomato paste and pav-bhaji masala and fry until the spices get infused and roasted incorporated well. It takes about 3 minutes.

To onion- capsicum-tomato spice mixture add cooked vegetables and water mash them with potato masher also stir in between to prevent them from sticking the pan. Then add 1 tablespoon of butter and mix everything. To this add ¾ tablespoon of chopped coriander leaves and lemon juice cook until everything gets mushy and no ingredients are recognizable, to this add dried fenugreek leaves/kasturi methi and mix well.

Note: Add water if necessary to prevent the vegetables from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Garnish bhaji with rest of chopped coriander leaves and served with chopped onion and a lemon wedges and 1 teaspoon of butter (I skipped that butter part).

Serving Pav


Slit the pav/bun horizontally, spread with some butter on both side and toast in them in heated pan.

If you wish you can make pav more spicy by spreading the sides with this spice mixture(1 tablespoon butter+ 1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves+ 1/8 teaspoon of chili powder+ 1 teaspoon of pav bhaji masala) and toast them. (I skipped this part too)

Preparation time: Pav bhaji: 40 minutes
Yield: 8 serving
Verdict: Tasty
Will you make it again: Yes I will

I am sending this delicious Home made Laadi Pav and Pav bhaji to  5th edition of  World Bread day 2010 hosted by Zorra

 It also going to Susan's  Yeastspotting

Swathi

Muringa ila Thoran/ Moringa leaf stir fry

Everybody has been anemic at least once in their life time. When we were young, amma and appa took us to our family doctor, he was nice guy but unfortunately died last year. Usually I am the patient, because my sister ate whatever food she got, I was not like that. Amma will tell him about me she is not eating properly and always tired. Then he will check my eyes and blood pressure etc and finally give a lab work of hemoglobin count on blood. As usual it will come back low, and he will say she is anemic I am prescribing some iron tonic for her. Most difficult part is drinking that iron tonic. I will always spit some and drink some. Amma finally found out my trick and started giving home readies to prevent me from getting anemic. 

When I was pregnant with my little princess, and around 30th week of pregnancy doctor told me I am anemic and he prescribed Iron tablets. I was already eating a big pill in the name of prenatal vitamin and in addition to that I have to eat this huge pill. Trust me my condition was like this proverb ( Mongan eiruna pattiyude thalyil thenga veena mathiri means poor dog already in pain and crying instead of that it got a hit from coconut that fell from the tree). At that time I have no Moringa leaf/ Muringa ila in my garden, if I had I would have able to cook and eat more often and it would have helped me not to get anemic. The leaves are highly nutritious, being a significant source of beta-carotene, Vitamin C, protein, iron, and potassium. So ladies if you are pregnant try to add more of this leaves in your diets. The sea weeds, Sweet potato, Swiss chard spinach etc are iron rich vegetable try to add in your diet. If you want read more about iron rich vegetables from here.  Further you have to take iron absorption enhancer like broccoli, orange juice, tomato to increase the absorption of iron. Read more about them from here.

This year we got bounty of Moringa/Muringa leaves from our little plant. So decide to make curry with them whenever possible. Once the weather gets cold I don’t know if they will survive or not. I wish I could get some seeds before the frost comes or I don’t want any frost this year. Any way for that, I have to become weather guy to predict that. My brother in law is weather guy, when I ask him about weather he will say he can tell today’s weather tomorrow correctly. 

One tedious thing about the Moringa leaves is plucking the leaves individually, it is a time taking effort but the end results are worth it. Since it taste bitter as swiss chard, I added some red onion and coconut and used the coconut oil to bring out full flavors. You need to acquired the taste of Moringa leaves either you can love them or hate it. I love them so I make more often depending upon the availability. Here goes the recipe of simple muringa ila thoran.

  Print recipe from here
What you need

Muringa ila/Moringa leaves: 5 cup
Red onion: ½ of one onion
Coconut: ¼ cup ( I used dessicated )
Cumin powder: 1 teaspoon
Urad dal: 1 tablespoon
Chili powder: ¼ teaspoon
Salt : 1 teaspoon
Oil : 1 tablespoon ( I used coconut oil)
Red chilies: 2 no (halved into two)
Mustard seeds: 1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaves: 1 sprig





How I made

Pluck individual moringa/muringa leaves from the stem, and wash and clean the entire leaves in the running water using a colander and set aside.

Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, urad dal and halved red chilies. Once mustard seeds starts spluttering add chopped onion and fry them until they become translucent or change the color. It takes about 6 minutes. To this add washed moringa/muringa leaves and let them cook for another 8 minutes with closed lid. 

Once the moringa leaves are well done add coconut, chili powder, cumin powder and curry leaves and fry for another minute or two and switch off the flame.

Enjoy with rice and curry

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Yield : 3 serving
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: Yes I will


 I am sending this delicious healthy muringa ila thoran to  to Hearth and Soul Hop-Volume 19
 

Swathi

Neyyappam: Thiruvananthapuram Special/ Sweet Rice Fritters

This is one of the snack/sweet that has a lot of sweet memories associated with it. Appa used to buy and bring it for us while coming back from his work. I love the spongy inside and crispy outer covering of Neyyappam. 

Neyyappam literally means sweet rice fritters fried in Ghee (clarified butter). Even though Kerala is small state, every dish made in south, central and northern part of the state differs from each other widely. Malayalam language dialect also varies drastically. Neyyappam is usually made with jaggery in other parts (baring Thiruvananthapuram) of Kerala and fried in ghee/clarified butter.  In rest of Kerala other than Thiruvananthapuram Neyyappam and  Unniappam  have similar batter only difference in their shapes. Unniappam requires a pan similar to Aebleskiver pan, and Neyyappam made with scoop of batter directly fried into the Ghee/ oil. However, in Trivandrum, southernmost tip of Kerala, it is made with Palm Jaggery (Karipetti) instead of Jaggery. 

Even though it is named as Neyyappam, ghee is scantly used and only for frying few coconut pieces in them and  fried with any refined oil or coconut oil. Cuisine of Thrivanthapuram is highly influenced by neighboring Tamil Nadu as it is very close to the bordering towns. In Chettinad cusine, I read that there is similar dish, and is called Karupatti paniyaram. I haven’t tasted yet, but I would love to. 

I was looking for the recipe of Thiruvananthapuram special Neyyappam for a long time; I had seen one vaguely in an episode of cookery show however, host didn’t give much information on how it is made. Then last week I saw an episode of Flavors of India: Thiruvananthapuram by Lakshmi Nair in You tube.

In that one she visit a local place where Neyyappam is made and she clearly explains how it is made by asking the person who was making it. I have tried her recipes and it is always easy to follow. So I decide to give a try. I want to make it very authentic. So I used homemade pounded rice flour. I remember Amma used to make it like that. She doesn’t use any store bought rice flour for the snack or sweet dishes. I soaked raw rice for 5 hours and then pounded into fine powder. Dissolve in melted palm jaggery/karipetti along with mashed small banana and extra spice kick from dry ginger powder and cardamom powder. They are beautiful puffed rice fritters you fell in love with as soon you have a bite. I was happy to recreate a long lost classic dish; with its full flavors and taste which was familiar to me from my childhood. 

I am going to explore more Thiruvananthapuram special recipes such as Vada kootu curry (Urad dal dumplings in spicy gravy), Kara Vada etc. Stay tuned. Here goes the recipe for Neyyappam. If are looking for a change try this one, the sublime taste will take you another level. 

  Print recipe from  here

What you need

 Rice flour: 1 ¾ cup (I got this much rice flour pounded from 1 cup of raw rice)
Palm Jaggery/Karipetti: ½ cup
Dry ginger: ¼ teaspoon
Cardamom: 3 no( crushed)
Coconut: 2 tablespoon ( Chopped into small cubes)
Banana: 1 ( I used small banana)
Water: 3 cup for soaking+ ½ cup of making the batter
Ghee/Clarified butter: 1 teaspoon
Oil for frying: 4 cup ( I used canola oil)











How I made

Soak 1 cup of raw rice in 3 cup of water and keep aside for 5 hours. Then drain it in a colander and spread in kitchen tissue to remove excess water. Once it dried for 5 minutes in kitchen tissue pound them into fine powder and set aside.

In sauce pot heat 1/2 cup of water and palm jaggery until palm jaggery gets dissolved well into the water. Strain them to remove any impurities and set aside.

Mash the banana in a small bowl and set aside.

In a small pan heat 1 teaspoon of Ghee and add 2 tablespoon of chopped coconut fry them until they become golden brown color. It will takes about 2 minutes

In a bowl mix rice flour, palm jaggery water , mashed banana, dry ginger , crushed cardamom and fried coconut to form a batter similar to that of pancake batter . Set aside for 30 minutes

After 30 minutes heat oil in thick bottom pan, when oil reaches 350 F add ¼ cup of batter into oil. Fry them 1 ½ minutes each side until they become dark brown color. Better results when you  fry 1-2 in a batch. Remove them using a slotted spoon and drain excess oil using a kitchen tissue.

Enjoy with coffee or tea.

Preparation time: Soaking rice: 5 hours
Making batter: 30 minutes
Resting time for batter: 30 minutes
Frying: 20 minutes
Yield: 10 no
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: Yes I will

Swathi