Spiced Corn Flour Tortilla/ Tortilla de harina de maíz condimentada

Tortilla is like our chapathi or roti of the Mexican cuisine. I got a chance to taste it only after moving to Texas. In USA, if you are a vegetarian, it is very difficult to get good vegetarian food in restaurants, other than certain dishes in Indian restaurants. Selecting a good vegetarian dish from fast food is difficult, you have a Subway sandwich, burger king veggie burger, veggie pizza, taco bells tortilla and chalupa (similar to poori type) with beans only. These are my alternating menus when we go out or if we are late to cook something at home. At Italian and Thai restaurants you can get a few veggie dishes too.

I have tried flour tortilla from Taco Bell, so I am curious to try some corn flour/ Masa harina tortillas. Every weekend we shop at a Latino super market Fiesta, where you can find a lot of Indian stuff too. This weekend I picked up some Masa harina / yellow corn flour . As I wanted to bake a corn bread for this month’s bread baking day: 36 hosted by Heather of Girlichef.  I made a savory corn bread with Gouda cheese and it turned out to be have no takers in my home. Then I thought, I can try north east version of sweet corn bread. I felt I was not at all comfortable to make them sweet, so drop the idea. Then next was to makki ki roti/cornflour chapathi flat bread from Punjab, the land of five rivers or land of wheat (as it produce entire wheat crop for India). Okay then what; my only connection with Punjab is through movies and songs and wearing some Punjabi dresses. I haven’t eaten or see makki ki roti so dropped that idea too.

Finally I decide to make corn flour tortilla, because bread baking day event is one which I love. Nowadays there are too many events in blogosphere, it good in one sense, but difficult to make each and every specifications. So I am trying send to whatever matches with my posts.

I thought using corn flour alone will be difficult for me to shape and make the flat bread, so added some ½ cup of whole wheat flour which will give some gluten so that it is easy to shape the tortillas. I added some spices such as cumin powder and cayenne pepper to the dough. If you have tortilla press/roti maker in your hand, take out and use them. They will be great help; this is what I learned without using one of them. It was really hard to spread the dough with roller and terribly sticking to the board. So I used Ziploc bag above the board and covered the dough with another one and spread using the roller. It was difficult task, still I enjoyed making them. I served it with spiced kidney bean gravy/ Rajma masala. We enjoyed them. Here goes the recipe.

One year ago: Karingali vellam/ Herbed boiled water

Print recipe from here

What you need

Yellow corn flour/ Masa Harina: 11/2 cup
Whole wheat flour: ½ cup
Salt: ¼ teaspoon
Cumin powder: ½ teaspoon
Cayenne pepper; ½ teaspoon
Warm water: 11/3 cups








How I made

In a medium bowl add yellow corn flour, whole wheat flour, salt, cumin powder, cayenne pepper and mix well. To this gradually add water to form smooth dough. Knead well and set aside. 

Divide the dough into 12 equal portions and take each ball of dough and place it in a board lined with Ziploc bag, cover with another Ziploc bag and using a roller spread the dough 5-6 inch into thin circle.

Heat a dry large cast-iron skillet or griddle over medium heat until hot, and then cook tortillas, turning once, until puffed and browned in spots, 2 minutes on each side. Transfer to a plate and cover with a kitchen towel. 

Roll out and cook 11 more tortillas, stacking them on plate. Repeat until entire dough is finished. 

Serve warm with any spicy curry.

Preparation time: 1 hour
Yield: 12 no
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: Yes I will

I am sending this delicious corn flour tortilla to  Bread baking day: 36 Corny breads hosted by Heather of Girlichef.  originally started by Zorra of Kochtopf.

Meatless Mondays hosted by Chaya of Sweet and Savory
Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays hosted by Rebecca Jean of Midnight Maniac
Monday mania hosted by  Sarah of  The healthy home economist
The Hearth and Soul Blog Hop

Adai/ Rice and mixed lentil crepe/pancake: Vegan

After starting food blogging I have encountered terms like vegan, gluten free diets etc, and the fact that there are lots of people for whom gluten can cause severe harm. While intently studying the south Indian recipes, I was amazed to find out that the south Indian breakfast menus includes several gluten free dishes like Dosa (rice and lentil pancake/crepe) Idly (steamed rice and lentil cakes), Puttu (steamed rice cakes) which is eaten with mixed vegetables, and Stews making them perfect carbohydrate-protein combo. If I asked mom or grandma (if there were alive today) the origin of these dishes, I am sure they would say we don’t know and that they had been eating this from their childhood days.

Similarly there are several home remedies whose origins are not known including the ones for cough, cold and sore throat such as pepper rasam, karipetti kappi (palm sugar coffee) for stuffiness. If you go to my home state Kerala, you will find that most restaurants will serve boiled herbed water for drinking. Some of the herbs used for boiling water is said to have anti-bacterial properties. Nowadays the culture of bottled water has started even in Kerala. Still I prefer to drink boiled herbed water, as it is safe according to me. Even at home we drink water boiled with herbs (Karingali water) rather than bottled water, this will save our precious planet

.

This adai recipe is part of Tamil culture in which I was brought up. In Kerala, ada/Ella ada is the name given to the rice dish stuffed with sweet filling and cooked in banana leaves. Amma used to make it once every week. During Thirkarthika festival, this adai is a must for dinner. My hubby did not know much about this dish until marriage. After marriage I used to make it whenever possible. I like the goodness of this recipe; as it contains rice, toor dal, urad dal, chana dal, red chili, asafetodia and curry leaves which gives it a unique flavor and taste. In my house adai gets a second place after dosa so the latter one is more encountered. For this dish, Amma didn’t add any toppings like onion, coconut etc. However she used to add soaked chana dal as a whole, which gives a crunchy bite to this adai. My Dad and grandma used to enjoy this adai with a piece of jaggery, even if there was accompanying chutney.

The composition of this adai can vary from home to home, as every mom has her own likes and dislikes and make a recipe that they like. If you want more crispiness add more parboiled rice. If you are looking for vegan  breakfast recipe, this is the one you can enjoy with spicy or sweet chutney. Here goes the recipe.

 Update: In order to make it gluten free  you can skip asafetodia  powder and add asafetodia gum itself.

Print recipe from here

What you need

Raw rice: 1 cup
Par boiled rice: 1/3 cup
Urad dal/spilt black gram: ¼ cup
Toor dal: ½ cup
Chana dal: 1/3 cup
Red chillies; 3 no
Salt : 1 teaspoon
Asafetodia: ¼ teaspoon
Curry leaves: 2 sprig
Water: 1 ½ cups+ extra for soaking
Gingerly oil: for frying




How I made

Wash and soak two rice together and rest of the dal/lentils separately for 4-5 hours.

First grind urad dal with ¼ cup of water into coarse paste and set aside. 

Then grind chana dal (keep aside 2 tablespoon) , toor dal and red chilies with ½ cup water into coarse paste and mix this to urad dal.

Finally grind the rice with ½ cup of water and add to urad dal, toor dal, chana dal mixture. Add chopped curry leaves, and whole soaked chana dal and mix everything and set aside for 4-5 hours. You can make immediately if you want, but I prefer to prepare them after  some time.

When you are ready to make the adai dosa add salt to ground rice and lentil mix and mix everything very well so that salt gets incorporated well. 

Heat dosa girdle or a non stick pan to medium high heat . When you sprinkle water on hot girdle or pan it makes a sizzling noise, pan is ready to make dosa.

Add one soup ladle full of batter in the center of pan and slowly spread the batter in circular motion towards the rim of the pan.

Drizzle oil along the sides of batter as well as in the center. Let it cook for 2minutes.

Once bottom side of dosa is done (when you able to lift with spatula) turn the other side and cook that side also. It takes about 2 minutes per sides.

When both sides are done take it out of the flame and add the next one and repeat the process.

Serve hot with any chutney.

Preparation time: 8 hours for soaking ,grinding and fermenting +40 minutes
Yield: 20 no
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: yes I will

Chocolate Biscuit joconde imprime/ Entremet with Plantain Fudge and Fruit fold whipped cream

This month daring bakers challenge was to make Biscuit joconde imprime/ Entremet , our hostess being Astheroshe of accro. “A joconde imprime (French baking term) is a decorative design baked into a light sponge cake providing an elegant finish to desserts/torts/entremets/ formed in ring molds. A Joconde batter is used because it bakes into a moist, flexible cake. The cake batter may be tinted or marbleized for a further decorative effect.

This Joconde/sponge cake requires attentive baking so that it remains flexible to easily conform to the molds. Once cooled, the sponge may be cut into strips to line any shape ring mold. Entremets (French baking term) - an ornate dessert with many different layers of cake and pastry creams in a mold, usually served cold. “

After looking at the recipe, I thought this is not my cup of tea, so I kept quiet till yesterday. Still in my inner mind, I was itching to give it a try. Finally I made it yesterday, the first attempt was a doomed project, no design showed up as was expected. I decided to give it one more try, and this time a much better design emerged.

If you want to see fellow daring bakers come up with lot of beautiful joconde imprime and entrment, check it from here. Mine did not come as good as my fellow daring bakers, but I was pleased with the outcome. I don’t think I was an artist at any time of my life, if I draw an elephant it will end up like a fat elephant. I still remember my first year undergraduate biology record book, I was supposed to draw a frog, and my frog became one with big fat left thigh, and whatever technique I tried the end result was the same. Finally my biology teacher asked whether this frog has some problem in his left leg, looks like he has a swelling. 

One day, my cousin Gireesh, who according to my aunt is a good artist, tried to help me with the drawing of King Cobra. When he finished the picture it looked like the King cobra was enjoying a smoke, for that also I got a compliment from my teacher. 

I am not a boastful type of person; I feel if somebody helps me to correct a mistake or give advice, I am ready to accept it. 

First lesson I learned with this effort of Biscuit joconde imprime is that you need a silpat. I made with parchment paper. On the first attempt it crinkled all the way, for the second attempt, I put parchment paper after brushing the baking sheet with oil but still it got crinkled but was better than the first attempt. I don’t want to use any artificial coloring so I used cocoa powder for my design and filled it with banana halwa/plantain fudge as I made it for my little one. Then with stabilized whipped cream fold in with pineapple, banana and decorated with melon balls. I didn’t use any mouse or Bavarian cream due to lack of time. Thus my Entremet becomes a fusion of Indian and French one. The cake tastes wonderful, and I have tried to reduce sugar as much as possible. I used 3 egg whites and one whole egg, if you ask me will you make it again, I will only when I am confident enough to draw some designs. I may try plain cake with awesome combo fillings. 

This one requires lot of time and planning so make sure you have at least one day to make and freeze for 2-3 hours before serving. Here goes the recipe. 

One year ago: Mango flavored Nanaimo bar

Print recipe from here

What you need

Patterned Joconde-Décor Paste

 Unsalted butter, softened: 25 g/ 3 1/2 tablespoon
Confectioners' (icing) sugar: 25g/3 ½ tablespoon

Large egg white: 1 no
Cake flour: 10 g/ 1 tablespoon
Cocoa powder: 7.5 g/ 1 ½ tablespoon









How I made

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (use stand mixer with blade, hand held mixer, or by hand)

To this add sifted the flour and cocoa powder and mix everything to combine well.

Gradually add egg white. Beat continuously to form a uniform paste.

Tint batter with food coloring to desired color if not making cocoa variation.

Preparing the Joconde- How to make the pattern

Fill the cocoa paste in a pastry bag with desired tip, make designs or you can spread a thin even layer of décor paste approximately 1/4 inch (5 millimeter) thick onto parchment paper in an oiled baking sheet with a spatula, or flat knife.

Slide the baking sheet with paste into the freezer. Freeze hard. Approx 30 minutes while you making the sponge.

Joconde Sponge 

 what you need 

Almond flour/meal : 27 g/ ¼ cup *You can also use hazelnut flour, just omit the butter
Confectioners' (icing) sugar : 22g/3 tablespoon
Cake flour: 20g/ 2 tablespoon *See note below
Large eggs : 1 no
Large egg whites: 2
Granulated sugar or superfine (caster) sugar: 11 g/ ¾ tablespoon
Unsalted butter, melted: 2 tablespoon

*Note: For  making your own cake flour take  a look at here

 How  I made

Sift almond flour, confectioner’s sugar, cake flour in a medium bowl. Add melted butter and mix everything and set aside. To this on medium speed, add slightly beaten egg and mix well and set aside.

In a clean mixing bowl whip the egg whites, salt and white granulated sugar to firm, glossy peeks. Set aside

Fold in one third reserved whipped egg whites to almond mixture to lighten the batter. Fold in remaining whipped egg whites. Do not over mix.

Remove the décor paste from freezer and pour the sponge over the paste and spread it into a thin layer.

Bake at 400ºF /200ºC until the Joconde bounces back when slightly pressed, approx. 5 minutes. You can bake it as is on the upside down pan. Yes, it is a very quick bake, so watch carefully.

Cool. Do not leave too long, or you will have difficulty removing it from mat.

Flip cooled cake on to a powdered sugared parchment paper. Remove silpat/ parachment . Cake should be right side up, and pattern showing! (The powdered sugar helps the cake from sticking when cutting.)

For filling

Plantain fudge recipe from here.

Stabilized whipped cream


What you need

Heavy whipping cream: ½ cup
Gelatin: 1 ½ teaspoon (I used Knox)
Powdered sugar: 2 tablespoon
Pineapple pieces: ¼ cup (Chopped finely as much as possible)
Small banana pieces: ¼ cup (chopped finely as much as possible)
Melon balls: 7 no
Hot Water: ¼ cup






How I made

In a small bowl, add the gelatin and hot water, stirring well until the gelatin dissolves. Let the gelatin cool to room temperature while you make the whipped cream. Combine the cream and powdered sugar in a chilled mixing bowl. Whip the cream using a hand mixer on low speed until the cream starts to thicken for about one minute. Increase the speed to medium-high. Whip the cream until the beaters leave visible (but not lasting) trails in the cream, then add the cooled gelatin slowly (discarding the water) and beating continuously. 

Continue whipping until the cream is light and fluffy and forms soft peaks. Transfer the whipped cream to a bowl and fold in the pineapple and banana pieces.

[Tip: Use an ice cold bowl to make the whipped cream in. You can do this by putting your mixing bowl, cream and beater in the fridge for 20 minutes prior to whipping the cream.]


For assembly of dessert

First prepare the mold

I used a small paper soup bowl of 5 inch diameter. Then a large piece of cling wrap cover the entire soup bowl and hanging outside the mold. Line the sides with parchment paper to the top of the mold. It will be easier to smooth the top of the cake.

Trim the side of cake of any dark crispy edges. You should have a nice rectangle shape.

First arrange the central piece which is base of the cake and then put the side piece around prepared mold.

Next start the first filling I used ripe plantain halwa/ Plantain fudge recipe you can find from here.

Second layer I used the piece of Joconde sponge cake.

Third layer was stabilized whipped cream with pineapple and banana topped with melon balls.

Freeze for 2-3 hours before serving

Enjoy as much you wish.

Preparation time: 1 day

Yield: a 6 inch cake
Verdict: Delicious
Will you make it again: Only after confident enough make some designs.


this is linking to

Varutha Erissery/Raw Banana and Black Eyed Peas in Roasted Coconut Sauce: Valla Sadya Special

Erissery is one of the traditional dishes of Kerala (my home state), where you can find subtle tastes in myriad of simple vegetable preparations. Amma used to make pumpkin erissery and snake gourd erissery most of time. I love it with crunchy roasted coconut added as seasoning. 

This is one of traditional dish prepared during Valla Sadya in Aranmula Pardhasaradhi Temple, a famous temple in Kerala. It is offered during the temple festival during the month of August-September of every year, the month of Chingam (Malayalam calendar). During this festival a snake boat race is held along with a feast. For the race, every snake boat will carry the deity and all of them try to come first, but there is no competition. This feast is also held as an offering to the God in return as thanks giving. The feast consists of more than 60 mouthwatering dishes. One belief is that God will be present among the people coming to the feast, so if anybody asks for a particular dish it has to be served (the one reason for preparation of over 60 dishes). Aranmula is also famous for its Aranmula Kanadi /Aranmula metal mirror. This mirror which cannot be bought anywhere else is made of special metal alloy and not from glass .Ingredients for making this mirror is kept as a secret; it is front surface reflection mirror, which does not have secondary reflections and aberrations like usual back surface mirror. It was so famous that one piece is kept at a British museum in London. Next time during my visit to Kerala, I am planning to get one. 

Coming to the recipe, when I saw the You Tube clip about valla sadya,

I came to know a lot of variations in cooking traditional recipes in particular for feast, such as adding cumin powder and ground ginger powder in sweet dessert (Payasam) and several new curries, sweet pudding recipes. I want to try some of them. This varutha erissery got my immediate attention and I decided to give it a shot. 

This recipe is traditionally made with Chena/ Suran/elephant yam, and Ethakaya/raw plantain and Vanpayar (Red Gram). I don’t have any chance of getting elephant yam fresh. Skipped that made with Burro banana and black eyed peas instead of  raw plantain and red gram. It is really simple preparation with the star ingredient being coconut. You need to take about half a coconut for grinding into a paste with garlic and half to fry until golden brown and incorporate into the curry. Spice factor in this curry is black pepper. There is no presence of cumin which is you can encounter in other erissery curry. This is recipe I noted down from the chef in that you tube clip. He didn’t give any quantities, so quantities mentioned here is my contribution. Here goes the recipe. 

One year ago: Spinach sesame seed stir fry

Print recipe from here

What you need

Monthan kaya/ Raw banana/ Burro banana: 3 cups ( chopped into bite size cubes)
Black eyed peas: 1 cup
Coconut grated: ½ cup
Black pepper: 1 teaspoon
Salt: 1 teaspoon
Turmeric: ¼ teaspoon
Mustard: ¼ teaspoon
Oil: 1 tablespoon
Red chili: 2 no ( halved into two)
Garlic: 2 cloves
Curry leaves: 2 sprig
Water: 2 ½ cups

How I made

First wash and peel the skin of raw banana and cut into bite size pieces and set aside. 

Then pressure cook the raw banana pieces along with black eyed peas, turmeric, ½ of salt, 1 ½ cup water and black pepper for 3 whistles. For about 15 minutes. 

In the mean time grind ¼ cup of grated coconut with garlic cloves into fine paste with ¼ cup of water and set aside. 

In a small pan fry the rest of coconut until golden brown color or about 8 minutes in medium flame with continue stirring to prevent burning and set aside. 

To the cooked banana and black eyed peas- mixture add coconut –garlic mixture and cook for another 3 minutes.

In a small pan heat oil and add mustards seeds, red chili and curry leaves once mustards starts popping switch off the flame and add this seasoning to the cooked banana, black eyed peas, coconut ,garlic mixture along with fried  coconut. 

Enjoy with rice and a stir fry. 

Preparation time: 35 minutes
Yield: 6 serving
Verdict: Tasty
Will you make it again: Yes

This traditional dish is going to  Hearth and soul blog hop vol 32

Spiced Mini Oat Meal Cookies

Oat meal cookies are a favorite to my hubby dear, he always asks me to make some. He wants it to munch while break in between office hours. I too like oat meal cookies; however I am yet to find the right recipe which I can fell in love, so I was not making them for long time. Everybody has mom’s or grandmother’s recipe to try for various baked dishes. I didn’t grow up with any baked goodies, and as a result there is no recipe for me to try from mom or grandma. With certain dishes I always encounter failures. I make it with great expectations but the end result is not good and finally they go directly to garbage bin. Among the first to fail a few times is the corn bread. I have tried two different recipes of corn bread; however in the end they taste the same being not good. 

Oatmeal is the main breakfast in our house, hubby like to have it with walnuts, almonds, raisins and cranberry. I and my little princess want to have it with fruit depending upon little one’s choice. I make dosa, idly too however they are our dinner staples rather than breakfast dish expect during weekend. 

You will be wondering what is big deal about oatmeal cookies. If you search the internet it is flooded with recipes, however some dumps sugar, some butter and some makes chewy and some makes crispy. Finally I got the recipe from Deb’s smitten kitchen . I have tried her recipes earlier and they came out good. Asked hubby what you want? Chewy ones or Crispy ones, his answer was quick chewy ones. In the store bought ones you won’t find any spices. So in order to make this special, I added some ground ginger, cloves and cinnamon which is not in the original recipe. Raisins are a good companion of oat meal cookies, for change I add half raisins and cranberries. Dried cranberries have all the goodness, sweet, tanginess and color. 

As this is the test drive, I made bite size version of oatmeal cookies, needless to say I was happy to find a delicious trustworthy recipe which is going be in my kitchen forever. Here goes the recipe.

One year ago: Rajasthani Bhindi/ Okra  Stirfry

Print recipe from here


What you need

 Recipe adapted from Smitten kitchen 

All purpose flour: 1/3 cup
Rolled oats: ¾ cup
Brown sugar: 1/3 cup
Unsalted butter: ¼ cup
Egg: ½ of one egg
Baking soda: ¼ teaspoon
Ground cinnamon: ½ teaspoon
Ground cloves: ¼ teaspoon
Ground ginger: ¼ teaspoon
Salt: 1/8 teaspoon
Golden raisins: ¼ cup
Cranberries: 1/8 cup



How I made

In the bowl of an electric mixer, or by hand, beat the butter and sugar just until soft and fluffy. Continue to beat until smooth, stopping the mixer to scrape down any butter clinging to the sides of the bowl. Stir in egg and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in first oats, then  cranberries and raisins.

Keep the cookie dough in refrigerator for about 20-30 minutes or until firm. 

Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) if you are using a convection oven reduce the temperature to 325F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

After chilling time, scope out the cookies two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes (your baking time will vary, depending on your oven and how cold the cookies were going in), taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.

Preparation time: 55 minutes
Yield: 14 no
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: yes I will

These delicious cookies are linking to
Just another meatless monday 
Midnight manic meatless monday 


Tusesday nights supper club vol: 25
Healthy kids meals carnival#4 

Batata vada and Vada Pav/ Fried Besan Covered Mashed Potato Fritters Sandwiched Between Dinner Rolls

If you been to Mumbai, the financial capital of India, then you would have encountered this delicious fast food. In Mumbai, like New York life is on fast track, everything is based on local trains and small stalls selling fast food. It is like the vein of the city. If the trains stopped then life would come to a standstill. My only connection with Mumbai is that it is my hubby’s home. My in-laws and sisters-in-law families stay there. Before marriage, I had visited Mumbai for the first time as my sister was working there. She took me to sightseeing especially to Juhu beach around 2 P.M in mid afternoon in the scorching sun. Only the guys who sell the tender coconut water were there at that time. As we have to finish everything in two days there was no other choice except to visit the beach around noon, as my sister was moving to Delhi for her new job. That time we also visited, Siddhi Vinayaka temple, Mahalakshmi temple and Mahim church.

After marriage, I thought I was going to see more of Mumbai, and then my hubby dear says that I am not trained to get into the crowded local trains. Due to my lack of training I can see only few places where local transport vehicle, the auto rickshaw can take us. He is right, in Mumbai, in order to travel you need local trains as these are the only thing that will get you to destination at somewhat fast space. 

However he introduced me to famous fast foods of Mumbai, vada pav, Batata vada, Pav Bhaji etc. You can see that at every corner of a major road is a food stall with people busily consuming hot Batata vada or vada pav while talking with each other or talking on a mobile phone. You don’t need to ask anybody where the best Batata vada is served, find it out yourself by the long queue of people, waiting for the food. For a person from southern part of India, Batata vada seems to be like Bonda which my mom used to make. First time I wondered why they are eating bonda sandwiched between pav/dinner rolls. Once I got hang of it I started loving them. 

Last week I wanted to make Parker house rolls, for that recipe I needed some mashed potato. Earlier in the week hubby dear asked me can you make some Batata vada for me. He told me that there is song on Batata vada in a Hindi movie. While looking at the song clip on You Tube I found out that for the delicious dish, the song was picturised in the most boring way.

Anyway I decide to make this dish as I had delicious parker house rolls in my hand. I asked my mother-in-law for the recipe during our weekend phone conversation. She gave me an idea, and also from reading various recipes I got my final recipes. Some of the recipes are adding onions along with mashed potato, but in Mumbai what I tasted did not contain any onions. I followed that. I made a filling with mashed potato, ginger garlic green chili paste, salt, turmeric, curry leaves, asafetodia, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and coriander leaves. Covering was made with chickpea flour/besan, chili powder, asafetodia, salt and turmeric. The fried goodies are served warm with green chutney and tomato ketchup sandwiched in a pillowy Parker house rolls. My hubby gave me thumbs up and told me that it was similar to what he used to have. He was happy to consume it as his evening snack as well as breakfast. If a Mumbaikar (that is what they call a person from Mumbai) can say this tastes great, then why wait, give it a try soon. Here goes the recipe.

One year  ago: Malai Kofta with Paneer

Print recipe from here

What you need

For filling

Mashed boiled potato: 3 cups
Cumin seeds: ½ teaspoon
Mustard seeds: ½ teaspoon
Lemon juice: 1 teaspoon (Increase if you need more tanginess)
Ginger: 1 inch piece
Garlic: 2 cloves
Green chili: 1 no
Curry leaves: 1 sprig
Turmeric: ¼ teaspoon
Salt: 11/4 teaspoon or to taste
Olive oil: 1 tablespoon
Coriander leaves: 2 tablespoon( chopped finely)
Water: 4 cups

For covering

Besan/ chick pea flour: ½ cup
Water: ½ cup
Chili powder: ½ teaspoon
Turmeric: ¼ teaspoon
Baking soda: 1/8 teaspoon
Salt: ½ teaspoon or to taste
Oil: 4 cups for frying






How I made

Pressure cook the potato with 4 cups of water for 5 whistles and peel the skin and mash and set aside. 

Grind green chili, ginger and garlic into fine paste and set aside.

Heat a small pan with a tablespoon of oil and add cumin seeds, mustard seeds, curry leaves, asafetodia and turmeric powder. Once mustard seeds start spluttering remove from the fire and set aside.

In a medium bowl add mashed potato, salt, green chili-ginger-garlic paste and cumin-mustard-curry leaves-asafetodia-turmeric mixture, lemon juice and chopped coriander leaves and mix everything. 

Knead well to form potato mixture dough and make small lemon sized balls from the potato dough and set aside. 

In another pan add besan, chili powder, turmeric, asafetodia, baking soda and water to form a slightly thick batter (If you dip a spoon, back side of the spoon should coat with batter. If batter is thin, potato balls don’t get uniform covering and burn easily. If batter is thick, inside won’t fry properly) and set aside.

Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan and when it reaches to 360 F dip potato balls in the besan batter and slowly add to hot oil. Try to add oil with spoon over the potato balls until a net all over and gradually flip and cook both sides. It takes about 2 minutes per sides.

Remove them from oil with slotted spoon and drain the extra oil using a kitchen towel.

Enjoy with green chutney and ketchup or date and tamarind chutney.

For vada pav

What you need

Pav /dinner rolls: 12no ( I used home made Parker House Rolls)
Butter: 1 tablespoon
Green chutney: ½ cup (Recipe here)
Tomato ketchup: as much you wish

How I made

Take a single roll and break in the center lather with butter and slightly warm both side.

Brush the inside with green chutney first and then Ketchup and place a Batata vada in between and enjoy with warm tea or coffee.

Preparation time: 55 minutes
Yield: 12 no
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again; Yes I will

This  Batata vada is going to  Deep fried snacks event hosted by Radhika

Parker House Rolls

Sometime looking back makes me nostalgic, like still there are fans for silent movies of Charlie Chaplin in world of computer games, ipad and iphone. I like cowboy movies with its gunfire and horse riding, especially those of Clint Eastwood. Why I am talking about silent movies and western movies in a food blog is because I fell in love with this 19th century dinner rolls. When I saw Parker house rolls for first time in King Arthur flour website, I got hooked immediately. I know I am not going to Boston in the near future, even if I am going I don’t think I will be staying in that famous hotel. It will be real enthusiasm when you try the food which you heard about not tasted. 

This parker house rolls are made in Omni Parker House Hotel (built 1855), a hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. They prepared and served two famous American food, Parker house rolls and Boston cream pie. According to King Arthur flour website, Parker house rolls are delicious and special because of the butter; however I can’t experiment with too much amount of butter and reduced to 5 tablespoon of butter. I also incorporated two different flours compared to all purpose flour which the traditional recipe uses. I used 75 % of bread flour and 25% of whole white wheat flour and skipped egg and used fresh mashed potato as I don’t have any potato flour on hand. 

Followed KAF recommended way of folding the dough rather than traditional way of cutting the dough in rounds and then folding, which they mentioned as it lose the shape while baking. I didn’t want to see any surprise while baking so used their tried and tested method. 

The bread turned out to be so soft, pillowy and delicious. In between my husband asked me to make some Batata vada (Besan covered fried potato dumplings) which is famous in his home town Mumbai. In Mumbai they like to eat vada sandwiched between soft rolls. I thought if I have this soft parker house rolls in my bread basket, why don’t I try the Mumbai classic too. Thus I can taste classics of both worlds. Trust me I did that and it tasted so awesome that my hubby wanted to have them as his evening snack and next day breakfast. Next I am going to try them with whole wheat making them healthier. Here goes the recipe

One Year ago: Cream of mushroom soup

Print Recipe from here

What you need

Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour blog

Unbleached bread flour: 2 cup/ 305 g (I used King Arthur flour)
Whole white wheat flour: 1 cup/ 154g (I used King Arthur flour)
Active dry yeast: 2 1/2 teaspoon/ 23g
Granulated Sugar: 3 tablespoon/ 41 g
Salt: 1 ¼ teaspoon/7g
Mashed potato: ¾ cup/ 175 g
Unsalted butter: 5 tablespoons (3 tablespoon for dough and rest is used as melted butter for brushing)
Milk: 1 cup/205 g
Water: ¼ cup

How I made

Boil a large potato (I used Russet potato) and when it cooked mash and set aside. 

Heat milk in microwave safe bowl for 35 seconds high and add 3 tablespoon of butter and set aside.

In a small bowl add ¼ cup of warm water, sugar and yeast and stir everything to combine and set aside for proofing the yeast for 15 minutes or until they become bubbly and frothy. 

In a large mixing bowl, or in the bowl of an electric mixer, combine all of the ingredients (except the 2 tablespoons melted butter at the end), mixing to form a shaggy dough. 

Knead the dough, by hand (10 minutes) or by machine (7 to 8 minutes) until it's smooth. 

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl or 8-cup measure (so you can track its rising progress). Allow it to rise for 2 hours or until they become double in size. 

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface. Divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, roll or pat the dough into an 8" x 12" rectangle. 

Brush the dough all over with a light coating of the melted butter. Remaining melted butter should save for later use. 

Cut the dough in half lengthwise, to make two 4" x 12" rectangles. Working with one rectangle at a time, fold it lengthwise to about 1/2" of the other edge, so the bottom edge sticks out about 1/2" beyond the top edge. You'll now have a rectangle that's about 2 1/4" x 12". Repeat with the other piece of dough. 

Cut each of the rectangles crosswise into four 4" pieces, making a total of 8 rolls, each about 2 1/4" x 3". Place the rolls, smooth side up, in a lightly greased 9" x 13" pan. Repeat with the remaining piece of dough, making 12 rolls in all. You'll arrange 4 rows of 3 in the pan, with the longer side of the rolls going down the longer side of the pan. Gently flatten the rolls to pretty much cover the bottom of the pan. 

Cover the pan, and let the rolls rise for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, until they're puffy but definitely not doubled. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F. 

Bake the rolls for 20 to 25 minutes, until they're golden brown and feel set.

Remove them from the oven, and while warm, brush with the remaining melted butter. 

Enjoy with Jam or Batata Vada like me.

Preparation time: 4 hours
Yield: 12 no
Verdict; soft , yummy
Will you make it again:  Yes I will

This delicious  rolls are going to

Susan's  Yeast spotting
Just another meatless monday 
Midnight manic meatless monday 
Hearth and Soul hop vol. 31
 Healthy kids meals carnival #3

Ven pongal / Seasoned Cooked Rice With Lentils

Wishing all my dear readers A Happy and Prosperous Pongal / Makara sankaranthi

Pongal is a harvest festival celebrated in Tamil Nadu (South India). For this festival two dishes are made namely ven pongal and sakkarai pongal. pongal. Traditionally ven pongal is made in an earthen pot in a specially decorated place in front of house. The rice is cooked with jaggery and milk and is offered to Sun God as tradition of thanks giving for giving a good harvest and also for the rest of the year to be prosperous and happy. 

Amma used to clean the house and put kolam (a drawing using rice powder) and then cook pongal. She made two types of pongal, a sweet version called sakkarai pongal and a savory version called ven pongal. When I was staying alone I used to make ven pongal at least once a week, because it contains both rice and lentil and cooking this dish is easy. You need only a simple curry to go with it. It is a breakfast dish; however, I like to have them for lunch or dinner when I am lazy and not in a mood to cook. I think this is one of ultimate comfort food you can imagine. 

We can use any rice such as long grain, Sona Masoori or basmati and cook it with yellow split peas. I used to cook them with water for savory version. Once it is cooked, then I would add seasoning like, cumin seeds, pepper corns, curry leaves, ginger are fried in ghee/clarified butter along with cashew nuts as garnish. Addition of asafetodia gives it an aroma which is hard to explain. It tastes great with any spicy curry. In northern part of India the same kind of preparation is called as khichdi /Kichuri etc. Some time one or more type of lentils is added to make this dish. As I mentioned earlier, every Indian dish has its own variation in the way of cooking from house to house. 

I was amazed that the general idea of cooking rice with another component is enjoyed by people be it venpongal (South India), kichidi (North India). Here goes the recipe for venpongal. 

One year ago: Sakkarai pongal

Print  Recipe from here

What you need

 Long grain rice: ¾ cup
Roasted split yellow peas: 1/3 cup
Salt: ½ to taste
Ghee/Clarified butter: 1 tablespoon
Pepper corns: 1/8 teaspoon
Cumin seeds: ½ teaspoon
Cashew nuts: 5 no
Ginger: 1 inch
Curry leaves: 1 sprig
Asafetodia: ¼ teaspoon
Water: 2 ½ cup


How I made

Roast the yellow spilt for 3 minutes or until they become slightly pinkish in color and set aside.

Wash the rice and roasted yellow split peas in the running water and cook it in rice cooker with 2 ½ cups water for 27 minutes or until it cooked very well. If you want creamy consistency add ¼ cup water more. 

In the meantime heat a tablespoon of ghee in small pan adds cumin seeds, curry leaves, pepper corns, asafetodia, and cashew and fry for 1 minute or until cashew nuts become slightly brown. Remove from fire and add it to cooked rice with salt and mix everything to incorporate well. 

Enjoy with spicy curry or chutney.

Preparation time: 35 minutes
Yield: 2 serving
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: Yes I will

Sending this to Pongal feast event