Curried Sweet Potato Bites

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If reading about or watching mischievious kids brings a smile to your lips then you may enjoy this tale I have to share with you. Recently my father was narrating stories about his boyhood and some of the incidents from that time that stayed with him. He had this story to tell me about one of his friends. His friend wanted to accompany his own grandparents on an outing. His grandparents refused and told him to stay home, so his friend felt very upset and thwarted. As soon as the grandparents left, my father's friend decided to play some mischief...... he sneaked into their kitchen and rearranged all the spice containers, most especially the ones containing salt and sugar. The next day when his grandmother went to make coffee in the morning, she, out of habit, grabbed the container she thought contained sugar, and without checking used it in her coffee, little did she know that she was using salt instead of sugar......you can probably guess how the rest of this story would have gone.....:-)

After having a hilarious laugh about this incident, and sympathizing with the plight of the poor grand mother, who I am sure, never expected such a retaliation from her grand son, the very next thought that crossed my mind was amazement how such ideas seem to occur to some people, such ideas have never occured to me so far, and I am sure they will not occur to me in the future either. I guess I am far more boring than a lot of other people....:-)

Talking about ideas, here is one idea that made me really happy. I was in the process of cutting sweet potatoes to make curry with it. The plan was to make the traditional south Indian style dry curry (poriyal ) with it, seasoning it with some mustard seeds and split black gram lentil, when suddenly the thought struck me to bake these potato cubes.

I followed through with the idea and was so happy with the results. R has extracted a promise from me that I make this style of curried sweet potatoes more often than the south Indian style one I had initially planned to make ......If you are into sweet potatoes the way I am these days, here is a different type of preparation with them that I think you may enjoy:-)




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Ingredients and method to make curried sweet potato bites
3 1/2 cups cubed and peeled sweet potatoes (5 medium sweet potatoes approx)
3 tsp oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chilli powder (optional ) (or according to taste)

For the spice mix,grind together after roasting
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 red chilli
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds ( methi seeds)

Pre heat oven to 400 deg F

Dry roast each of the ingredients mentioned in the spice mix and cool, then powder finely in a spice grinder or blender and keep aside.

Place the peeled and cubed sweet potatoes in a large bowl and add salt, chilli powder, ground spice mixture and oil to it. Mix well.

Place the spiced sweet potatoes in a large glass dish, where the potatoes can be spread out and are not piled one on top of the other.

Bake for about 15 mins.

Then increase the heat to 425 deg F and bake for another 15 minutes or until sweet potatoes are done and begin to crisp

Serve hot with soup, or as a dry curry or use as a filling in sandwich or eat as is, as a yum snack with some ketchup on the side.

Notes
I made mine soft with a hint of crispness (with a total baking time of 30 mins) You can bake them longer to get a more crisp and crunchy exterior. Do remember to keep checking on the potatoes when they are getting baked, since the thickness of the cubes will determine how long it takes to get done.

Since this one is my own recipe I send this dish off to Original recipes event being hosted by Lore

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American Chopsuey made healthier

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American Chopsuey is another of those fusion Indo Chinese dishes that I mentioned in this post and this post . This dish usually is made with crunchy stir fried vegetables, topped with fried noodles and then topped with the chopsuey sauce. This used to be one of my favorite items to order when I visited any Indo- Chinese restaurant in India. There was something about this sweetish slightly spicy sauce that really appealed to me and there is no denying the crunchy fried noodles had something to do with my interest in this dish too :-)  

I have avoided trying this dish at home because of the frying involved in this dish. When I came across this alternative  on Nidhi's site using baked noodles, I could not resist trying it out immediately. Baking the noodles made it as crunchy as the fried ones and I adapted the recipe for the sauce a little bit and felt it tasted just perfect. With the quantity of veggies I used this turned out to be an ideal one dish meal and since it is fairly quick and simple to make, this is great for those evenings when time is short.The sauce can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for at least a few days too.

A peek at all the components of this dish...........

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Ingredients and Method to make American Chopsuey

For the sauce

1/2 cup plain tomato ketchup

1 tsp oil

3/4 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp red chilli powder

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp corn starch mixed with 1/2 cup water (see notes)

Additional 1/2 cup water

salt to taste ( I used about 1 1/4 tsp salt)

soy sauce 1 tsp

Veggies for chopsuey

1 large yellow onion cut into long slices

2 large green bell peppers (cut into long slices)

3 1/2 cups of shredded cabbage

2 tbsp oil

pinch of salt

Noodles

250 gms egg noodles (or hakka noodles)(or even Maggie / Top ramen noodles)

few drops of oil to brush on the noodles

Method 

To make sauce

Mix corn starch in 1/2 cup water and keep aside

Mix tomato ketchup, red chilli powder, 1/2 cup water, sugar, salt and soy sauce in a large bowl and keep aside

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan and add the minced garlic to it and saute until the garlic starts turning slightly brown.

Lower heat and slowly add the tomato ketchup + all other spices kept aside.

Add the corn starch +water to this mixture and let it simmer for a few minutes until the sauce begins to thicken.

Remove from heat and keep aside.

For the noodles

Pre heat oven to 400 deg F

Line a baking tray or sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Place the noodles on the tray/ sheet and brush with a few drops of oil on top of the noodles

Bake for about 10 minutes or until the top of the noodles begins to turn brown.

For the veggies

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan

Add the onions to the oil and saute until the onions are transparent.

Add the rest of the vegetables and saute until the veggies are cooked but crisp on a medium high heat.

For the chopsuey.

Assemble all three components of the dish in a large bowl and serve immediately.

If you like your noodles a little softer let the noodles soak the sauce for a few minutes and then serve.

Notes

I used egg noodles and since they were light, it got baked very quickly, in case you use top ramen or maggie noodles the baking time may vary.

If you are not particular about crunchy noodles you can quite easily substitute with cooked noodles and proceed with the rest of the recipe 

Corn starch is known as corn flour in India

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Lima Bean Curry

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It constantly amazes me the amount of calories that one can easily consume when eating out. I know I have mentioned this in the past too, but what can I say.... it shocks me anew every time I read an article that tells me about how much calories are there in seemingly innocent sounding items. Did you know that every one of the shakes served at Coldstone is at least 1000 calories, yes that is 1000 calories that you are seeing and at least 92 grams of sugar. Phew! that is almost the daily requirement of calories that women need in an entire day.The article I was reading goes on and on about the various pitfalls to our diet in restaurant food and also has some eye opening information about some restaurants that will not divulge calorie content in their food. I can only imagine that this means that the news is not expected to be good and hence they are avoiding giving out that information. You can read the entire article here

If after reading about all the unhealthy foods makes you feel like heading to the kitchen to start making something healthy and wholesome, then how about this lima bean curry. I make this curry when I am looking for something different from a korma and yet am not looking for the same old garam masala version of curries. The flavors in this are simple and this curry is not very spicy, but the aroma and flavors from this curry will have you coming back for a second helping for sure.

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Ingredients and Method to make Lima bean curry

I large yellow onion (cut fine) (can be substituted with white or red onion too)

2 large roma tomatoes cut fine

3/4 tsp coriander powder

3/4 tsp cumin powder

4 cups frozen lima beans thawed

salt to taste

Grind together

2 green chillies (small Indian or thai variety) (or according to taste)

1 inch piece of ginger

3 tbsp of fresh grated coconut (or frozen thawed to room temperature)

1 inch piece of cinnamon

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

For seasoning

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

handful of cilantro washed well and chopped fine for garnish

Grind together green chillies, ginger, coconut, cinnamon and fennel seeds with a little water to a fine paste and keep aside.

In a heavy bottomed pan heat oil, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds to it.

When mustard and cumin seeds start spluttering, add onions to it and saute until onions are tranparent.

Add tomatoes and cook it until tomatoes turn soft and mushy.

Add thawed lima beans, cumin and coriander powder, salt to taste and a little water to cook the beans.

When the beans are cooked, soft and yet not mushy, add the ground paste and water to achieve required consistency and simmer together for a few minutes until flavors are blended.

Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with roti/ plain steamed rice or cumin flavored rice.

Serves approximately 3

Suggested variation

You can use whole either black eyed peas or whole moong bean in this preparation. If you use them dry, just soak them overnight (in case of whole moong bean soaking for 5 to 6 hours is sufficient) and cook them on a stove top or pressure cook them and keep aside) After tomatoes are cooked and soft and mushy, just proceed with using cooked moong bean or cooked black eyed peas, simmer for a few minutes and proceed with the rest of the recipe.

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Cumin Cookies revisited....

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In one of my rare forays into using all purpose flour I had ventured into making these cumin cookies  quite some time back. I enjoyed these cookies  quite a bit and it had turned out both crunchy and spicy, satisfying my need for both in a snack. One of my readers Kay tried out this recipe and mentioned she substituted spelt flour in place of all purpose flour .Spelt is a grain which resembles wheat but has a slightly sweeter and nuttier taste than wheat and is said to be easier to digest than wheat. 

I have been wanting to experiment with spelt flour in my bakes and I thought revisiting this cookie with spelt seemed like a good idea. I also added some semolina flour and gave the cookie a more cracker like feel by rolling it out thinner and found it turned out crunchy and perfect for a tea time snack. I thought spelt flour lived up to its reputation and it lent a nice flavor and taste to the cracker. So give this one a try if you like savory snacks, its quick, simple and tasty :-)

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Ingredients and Method to make the cumin crackers

1 cup spelt flour 

1/2 cup semolina flour (fine rava) (see notes)

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 1/4 tsp salt (or according to taste)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp red chilli powder (or according to taste)

3 tbsp clarified butter (ghee) (see notes)

3 tbsp oil 

1/4 cup milk + 2 tbsp water if required

Pre heat oven to 350 deg F

Line a cookie sheet or baking tray with parchment paper and keep aside

Mix together spelt flour, semolina, cumin seeds, salt, soda, red chilli powder in a large bowl.

Add clarified butter/ ghee and oil and rub it into the dough.

Add milk and knead to form a slightly stiff but pliable dough.

Add water only if required and continue to knead for a minute or two.
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Divide dough into three parts.

Roll out each part as thin as required. (Use flour if necessary to aid in rolling out, I did not need it)

Place the rolled out dough on the lined tray and gently score lines or use a cookie cutter to score shapes on the dough.

Place in the oven and bake for about 15 to 20 mins until slightly brown.

Remove and cool thoroughly and break the crackers on the scored lines and store in an air tight container.

Proceed with the balance of the dough in the same manner.

Notes

You can substitute clarified butter with oil entirely.

You can substitute semolina flour (fine rava ) with spelt flour of equal quantity or all purpose flour

Baking times will vary depending upon the thickness of the rolled out dough, so do keep an eye on the crackers from about the 10 minute point itself.

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