Spinach with Mung Bean Lentil dhal

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I think I am making my computer work too hard, so to protest that, for the last few days my computer has been giving me all sorts of problems. I am working to resolve these problems, but I just wanted to let my readers know that this is reason for the delay in posting the roundup of the salad event.

Moving on, the combination of spinach with lentils endlessly fascinates me and I am always on the lookout for more ways to make a combination of these two ingredients. Last week when I was looking to make some curry or dhal with spinach in it, I came across this recipe and decided to make it. I adapted this recipe, adding more spinach and changed the quantity of spices to suit our tastes. The result was a very healthy, low fat, simple, quick and tasty dhal that was perfect with phulkas. Try it with any roti of choice or even just plain steamed rice if you want....




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Ingredients and Method to make Spinach Mung bean lentil dhal
1 1/2 cups split mung bean lentil soaked for 2 hours ( split mung with skin)
3 cups of packed spinach leaves cut fine
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
ginger 1 inch piece minced fine
salt to taste
approximately 5 cups water
3 tbsp lime juice (or to taste) depending on the tartness of the lime (lemon juice can also be used instead of limes)

Seasoning
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/8 tsp asafoetida (hing/ perungayam)
4 dry red chillies broken into small pieces (or to taste)
2 Thai or Indian variety green chilies slit lengthwise (optional)

 Soak the mung bean lentil for 2 hours in sufficient water. Drain, place the lentils in a large heavy bottomed container and fill with fresh water enough to submerge the lentils and cook on medium  to medium high heat until lentils are soft but not mushy. Add water as required while lentils are cooking and stir frequently for even cooking. It took me about fifteen to twenty minutes to cook these lentils to correct consistency.

Add minced ginger, turmeric powder, spinach, salt to taste and cook for a few more minutes until spinach is cooked. Once spinach is cooked, lower heat and allow to slow simmer.
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In a small pan heat oil, add cumin seeds. When cumin seeds start to splutter add hing/asafoetida powder, red chilies and green chilies and stir for a few seconds. Pour this entire seasoning along with oil on the cooked lentils and spinach and allow the dhal to simmer for a few more minutes until the flavors come together.

Remove from heat, garnish with lime juice. 

Serve hot with plain steamed rice/ phulka / roti of choice

Notes
My current batch of red chilies is pretty mild so even with this quantity I got a mildly spicy dhal, use red chilies or green chilies according to taste.

This dhal is off to the MLLA 22 event being hosted by Ruchika originally started by Susan 

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Mixed Vegetable Rice with Sesame seeds and dried Coconut and the answer....

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In my last post I had posed a riddle, the question was.......


What English word retains the same pronunciation even after you take away four of its five letters?

The answer is.................... "Queue".
Some of you promptly guessed the right answer and I was moderating comments on the post, so that the others would get a chance at the riddle too ! Anyway I have published all the comments that contained answers in them now. You can head out there if you are curious to see how many readers got it correct :-)

Moving on, some days I want nothing more than a single dish meal that is nutritious,flavorful,  filling and quick. This variation of savory sesame rice (ellu saadam) that I thought up one day fits the bill perfectly. This rice is more like a cross between coconut rice (thengai saadam) and savory sesame rice (ellu saadam) with a chock full of vegetables to make it more healthy. If you are looking for something quick and flavorful to take to a potluck with a south Indian theme, or are cooking for someone who is avoiding onions and garlic or simply looking to make a one dish meal for dinner, then this is the dish for you :-)





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Ingredients and Method to make Mixed Vegetable Rice with Sesame and Coconut
6 cups of cooked brown basmati rice (see notes)
2 green bell peppers(capsicum) deseeded and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 head cauliflower cut into florets
1 cup sweet corn kernels (optional)
2 carrots cut into 1/2 inch pieces
salt to taste
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder (hing/ perungayam)
1 tsp split black gram lentil (udad dhal)
1 dry red chili (optional)

For the masala
1 tbsp split yellow chick pea lentil (chana dhal)
1 tbsp split black gram lentil (udad dhal)
1 tbsp coriander seeds (dhania)
6 tbsp brown sesame seeds (ellu/til)
2 tbsp dried curry leaves
30 1 inch pieces of dried coconut (copra)
5 dry red chilies (or to taste) (see notes)

In a heavy bottomed pan, dry roast each of the ingredients mentioned for the masala separately, chana dhal and udad dhal until they turn light brown/pinkish brown, the coriander seeds until it browns lightly, the sesame seeds until it browns and starts popping,curry leaves for just a few seconds,dried coconut until it browns and red chilies until it starts to turns a little darker. Remove and allow these spices to cool to room temperature.

Using a spice grinder, grind these lentils and spices to a fine powder.Use short bursts of power to do this as over powdering can cause sesame seeds to start lumping.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan, add udad dhal and mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start to splutter and udad dhal starts to turn pinkish, add asafoetida powder and dry red chili if using. Stir a few seconds and quickly add bell peppers, carrots, cauliflower and sweet corn kernels.
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Stir vegetables frequently until they are all evenly cooked, yet not mushy.

Add cooked rice, salt to taste and mix well. Add the powdered masala and mix well.

Allow to heat through and serve hot with raita and papad/chips or any type of south Indian curry if you chose.

Notes
You can make this with white basmati rice or white short grained rice too. If you use white rice you may have to lower the amount of dry red chilies used in the masala powder because white rice will not hold as much heat/spice as brown rice.

Use quantity of dry red chilies as per taste, my current batch of red chilies are very mild so even with this quantity of red chilies I only get mildly spiced rice.

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Quinoa Ragi Dosai (Quinoa with finger millet Savory Crepes) and a riddle

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Before moving on to today's post, here is a simple riddle I came across, that I thought might interest you.....
What English word retains the same pronunciation even after you take away four of its five letters?

I am looking forward to seeing your guesses in the comments below.And I will publish the correct answer in my next post....

Moving on, after trying this quinoa dosai, this quinoa adai and this quinoa and flax uthappam, I thought it would be interesting to see how quinoa paired with ragi (finger millet). To know more about the health benefits of quinoa check this post. On a whim I started on this dosai and found that ragi and quinoa really paired well together. This dosai had a very soft texture and with all the healthy grains, it makes a great breakfast, or snack or even a light dinner.

Update: I am moderating comments on this post and will publish the ones with the right answers when I post the answer to the riddle in my next post.



Here is another view of this dosai.....

 

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Ingredients and Method to make Quinoa Ragi Dosai
3/4 cup quinoa
3/4 cup brown basmati (or any other brown rice)
3/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup white basmati rice (or any other short grained white rice)
1 cup cooked brown basmati rice (or any other cooked rice)
1/4 cup ragi flour (Finger millet flour)
salt to taste
a few drops of sesame oil to shallow fry the dosai


In a large container, soak the first four ingredients in sufficient water for at least 3 hours.

Grind the soaked grains in a blender/mixer in batches, along with cooked rice and ragi flour into a smooth and thick blender.

Place batter in a large container at least double the size of the quantity , add salt to taste and mix well.

Allow the batter to ferment for five to eight hours. Remove, mix again, add water if required to get pouring consistency. Err on the side of a thicker batter, because that can be corrected easily, if your batter is very thin making it thicker is a little more tricky. You can either use this batter immediately or you can store in the refrigerator for a few days and use when required.


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Heat a large heavy flat non stick pan/ griddle/ tawa. If you are using an iron tawa prepare the tawa by pouring a few drops of oil and smearing it on the tawa evenly. Pour a little batter in the center and quickly spread it into a thin circle. Pour a few drops of sesame oil around the spread batter and on the side facing upwards.

Allow it to cook until the lower side is slightly brown, flip over and cook the other side, until the other side gets a few brown spots.

Remove from heat and serve with either this or this spice powder / chutney of choice/ or sambar

Yield will vary and will depend on the quantity of batter used in making each dosai

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Baked Vegetable Manchurian ~ Indo Chinese Vegetable Manchurian

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Mixed Vegetable Manchurian, as I mentioned in my last post, is yet another dish from Indo Chinese cuisine. It is made with fried dumplings in a soy sauce based gravy and is popularly paired with Vegetable fried rice.
There are some dry variations made with Manchurian that are served as an appetizer. I have never tried my hand at them, simply because the version gravy appeals to us a little more.



I used to avoid making manchurian because of the frying step involved, but once the idea of baking the dumplings came to me, this dish has begun to appear a little more often in my kitchen. Not often enough by R's standards, since he is a huge fan of this type of cuisine but fairly often as per mine :-) These dumplings taste pretty crisp and tasty, right out of the oven, but restrain yourself if you can and wait to dunk them in the gravy, they taste far better that way :-)




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Ingredients and Method to make Baked Vegetable Manchurian

For the manchurian
1/4 head cabbage shredded very fine (see notes)
2 carrots shredded very fine ( I used the food processor to cut both these vegetables)
1 cup cooked rice ( Brown or white, both kinds of rice work here)
2 Thai or Indian variety chilies minced
3 to 6 Tbsp corn starch (known as corn flour in India, as needed )
5 Tbsp unbleached all purpose flour (maida)
1/2 tsp salt

a few drops of oil to brush on before baking

For the gravy
2 tbsp oil
1 green bell pepper ( capsicum/ simla mirch) cut fine
8 to 10 spring onions cut fine (reserve 3 Tbsp green part for garnish) (optional)
2 Thai or Indian varieties of green chilies
1/2 inch ginger (see notes)
3 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp red chili sauce (Chinese style) (or to taste)
3/4 tsp minced garlic (see notes)
3 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or to taste)
2 tbsp corn starch (known as corn flour in India) mixed in 1/4 cup of water
water as required (I use about 2 and 1/2 to 3 cups of water)
salt to taste

Optional garnish
3 Tbsp green part of spring onions cut very fine

Pre heat oven to 350 deg F (180 deg C) . Line a tray or cookie sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper and keep aside.
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In a large bowl, add the shredded cabbage, carrots, cooked rice, minced ginger , green chilies, salt and mix well. Add corn starch and all purpose flour, one tbsp at a time and keep kneading the mixture until it comes together and you are able to shape it into small lime sized balls.

Arrange these about 1/2 an inch apart on the tray/ cookie sheet. Brush it on with oil and place in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes or until evenly golden, turning once in between for it to bake evenly.
Increase the oven temperature to 400 deg F (200 deg C) and bake for an additional 20 minutes.(if required check notes)

Edited to add :  Subsequently when I made these manchurians, I baked @ 400 deg F for 30 to 40 mins and broiled for a couple of mins to get a more golden brown color. I liked the way it turned out then too. The updated picture I have added now is from the time I baked @ 400 deg F and broiled.

Remove and keep this aside.

For the gravy
Grind ginger and green chilies in a spice grinder with a little water into a smooth paste.

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan and add bell peppers. If using spring onions, add spring onions and  bell pepper together and stir until it cooks, then add garlic, stir for a few seconds. Then add ginger green chili paste and stir a couple of minutes.

Add soy sauce, red chili sauce, ketchup and mix well. Add water as required, add salt to taste, then allow the mixture to come to a boil.

Add corn starch mixed in water and allow the gravy to simmer and thicken slightly. Add the baked dumplings, allow to simmer for a minute or so, remove from heat, garnish if using and serve hot with Vegetable Fried Rice

Serves approximately 3

Variation :
To save time, you can use 1-2 tsp of ginger garlic paste as per taste. If you do, just finely cut the green chilies and add to the oil along with the spring onions and bell pepper, after it is tender crisp add ginger garlic paste, then continue with the rest of the recipe.

Notes
For the manchurian you can also add some cauliflower florets along with cabbage and carrots, make sure the cauliflower is cut very fine, I would recommend using the food processor for the cauliflower as well. 

Baking times will vary depending on the size of the dumplings.I kept the dumpling an additional ten minutes or so just to make it crisper, in case you want it just golden brown, you can remove it earlier. 

If you do not want much gravy, you can use less water. If you want much more gravy and use much more water, then you may need to increase the quantity of corn starch, otherwise the gravy will become runny

I usually use Chings brand red chili sauce. 

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Vegetable Fried Rice ~ Indo Chinese Vegetable Fried Rice

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Indo Chinese cuisine generally refers to an Indianized version of Chinese cuisine. This cuisine is so popular in India that most restaurants serving Indian food around the world offer some kind of Indo Chinese cuisine on their menu. As I mentioned in the past, R is very fond of Indo Chinese cuisine and he is the one who first introduced me to this cuisine. 

The classic combination with vegetable fried rice is usually vegetable manchurian. Manchurian consists of fried vegetable dumplings served with soy sauce based gravy. We love this combination, but I rarely make it any more, mostly because the idea of fried food does not  appeal to me these days , err did I say me? I meant my  weighing scale :-)

Anyway I found a solution to this "problem" when I started baking the dumplings for the manchurian ( I will post the recipe for baked Manchurian this week too) . Now this combination of vegetable fried rice with manchurian has begun to appear more frequently in my menu again :-)

Edited to add : The link to the baked manchurian post can be found here



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Ingredients and Method to make Vegetable Fried Rice
7 cups cooked rice (see notes)
4 cups of finely cut vegetables of choice (cauliflower, beans, carrots, peas, corn, bell pepper/ capsicum)

2 Tbsp oil
2 green chilies cut very fine
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
2 and 1/2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or to taste)
1/2 Tbsp vinegar (or to taste)
1 Tbsp green chili sauce (optional)
1 Tbsp red chili sauce (chinese style) (see notes)
salt to taste

Optional garnish : 
2 to 3 Tbsp of finely cut spring onions (only the green part)

Pressure cook rice, or cook in the rice cooker until soft  and keep aside. If you are making the rice on the same day, spread on a tray/ plate to cool thoroughly For this recipe, rice has to be really cold, so that it does not break and it retains its texture. So cool the rice thoroughly, or  make rice ahead. You can even use day old rice if you want.

Heat oil in a large wok/ heavy bottomed pan/ kadhai, add green chilies and stir for a few seconds.

Add the minced ginger garlic, stir for a couple of seconds and quickly add in the vegetables.

Keep stirring the vegetables on medium high heat until the vegetables are cooked until tender crisp (they should be cooked but should be firm and retain their shape)

Add the soy sauce, vinegar, red chili sauce, green chili sauce and stir a couple of times.
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Lower heat and add the cooked rice, salt to taste and mix well. Allow the fried rice to heat through, garnish with spring onions if using and serve hot with manchurian or  Indo chinese style steamed vegetables or other veggie dish

Serves approximately 3 to 4

Notes

Rinse the rice a few times in water until the water runs clear, then soak in water.

For this quantity of rice, I soaked 1 and 1/2 cups of basmati rice in 2 and 1/4 cups of water for 30 minutes then cooked it in the rice cooker. I have also used the pressure cooker with the same quantity of rice and water and it turns out fine. The ratio of water to rice is 1.5 cups of water for every 1 cup of basmati rice.

This fried rice can be made with both long grain and short grained rice.  So you can use any short grained rice for this dish too, if you use any other rice soak it for 30 minutes and cook until each grain is cooked yet separate. It is just my personal choice and preference to use basmati for this rice, I find I like the taste and texture of basmati in this style of rice.

For the red chili and green chili sauce, I usually use chings brand and find it tastes good.

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Thai Chickpea Curry

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Chickpeas are one of my favorite type of beans and I use them often. Considering how much I like chickpeas and how frequently it appears in my kitchen, it surprises me to find that there are barely a couple of dishes with chickpeas on this site. That is something I would like to remedy soon and this Thai chickpea curry is a great place to start. 

I soaked the chickpeas with the idea of making chana masala with it. Somehow, between the time I soaked the beans and the time that I was ready to make it, the idea of chana masala lost its appeal and I wanted something different. I liked the idea of thai curry with chickpeas, and using this recipe as my reference I started on this curry.The combination of chickpeas with vegetables in a light and flavorful gravy was very tasty and we enjoyed it with some plain steamed rice.



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Ingredients and Method to make Thai Chickpea Curry

1 1/2 cups dried chickpeas soaked in sufficient water for 6 to 8 hours with a pinch of soda (the soda is optional)
2 medium onions cut fine
1 medium tomato
2 large carrots cut into circles
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 large green bell pepper (capsicum) deseeded and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

salt to taste
3 tsp red Thai curry paste ( I used Thai kitchen because it is vegan)
2 tbsp soy sauce
3/4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp chili powder (or to taste)
1/2 cup coconut milk
Approximately 1 1/2 cups of water (or as required to achieve consistency)
1/2 bunch cilantro(coriander leaves) cut fine for garnish

Drain the water the beans have been soaked in and fill with fresh water and either pressure cook or cook on stove top, until the beans are cooked and soft but not mushy. ( I used the pressure cooker)


To know why I soak beans with a pinch of soda and why the bean soak water is suggested to be drained read this post

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan, add onions and saute until onions are transparent.
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Add garlic and stir for a few seconds, then add tomato and saute until tomato is cooked and soft.

Add carrots and bell pepper, and stir frequently until both are cooked yet firm.

Add red thai curry paste, soy sauce, chili powder and stir a couple of times.

Add cooked chickpeas, salt to taste, sugar and coconut milk.

Add water to achieve required consistency, allow the curry to simmer for a few minutes until the flavors come together.

Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with plain steamed jasmine rice or plain steamed basmati rice.

Serves approximately 2 to 3

Notes
If you like a creamier curry you can increase the quantity of coconut milk by 1/2 a cup, I wanted a little lighter gravy so I used only 1/2 a cup of coconut milk

If you are a vegetarian or vegan and you are buying thai curry paste, do read the labels because some of them have fish sauce in them, this particular brand that I use is vegan.

This curry is off to the MLLA 22 event being hosted by Ruchika  originally started by Susan 

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Spinach Avocado Roti ~ Indian Flat Bread ~ Palak Roti

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Grocery shopping can be a chore at times, but it feels a hundred times worse, when we have to read every single label to ensure that the food we are buying does not contain any harmful additives. As things stand, most of the processed foods we buy these days, seems to contain a long list of additives. Most of these additives add no nutrition and some of them are actually detrimental to health.

I always keep some types of dried fruits and nuts in my pantry, they are great snacks and a good way to incorporate a little more fruit and some nuts in our diet. Dried raisins, cranberries, walnuts and peanuts are usually the type of things I keep on hand. On one of my recent visits to wholesale store, I decided to buy dried blueberries, it was just an impulse purchase and I never thought of reading the label, because I assumed that like dried raisins that I buy regularly, dried blueberries would not have any additives too.Unfortunately, I was wrong :-(......

I discovered that these dried blueberries have added High Fructose Corn Syrup in them.I have read conflicting reports about high fructose corn syrup, some articles claiming that it is harmless in moderation and some that say that it is detrimental to health. Personally I try and avoid buying products that contain high fructose corn syrup.For more details on this commonly used ingredient, you can check out this article.

This experience, along with my previous experience with peanuts has made me realize that I need to do much more label reading in the future... sigh !

Moving on, avocado rotis feature regularly in my dinner menu these days. Last week when I planned to make it, I thought it would be a good idea to add some spinach and cilantro along with the avocado. I adapted my earlier recipe quite a bit and these rotis turned out very soft and tasty. This is a great way to add a little more green to our diet :-)



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Ingredients and Method to make Spinach Avocado Roti (Indian flat bread)

2 cups whole wheat flour (Atta)
salt to taste
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp red chili powder (optional) (or to taste)

Puree together
2 cups packed spinach leaves (palak/ keerai)
1 large avocado (peeled and pitted)
2 dry red chilies (lal mirch)
handful cilantro (coriander leaves/ hara dhania)
1/4 cup water

Additional 1/4 cup water (if required) (see notes)

In a large bowl, add the first four ingredients and mix well. Keep aside.

In a blender, puree together spinach leaves, dry red chilies, avocado, cilantro and 1/4 cup of water into a smooth paste.

Pour this puree on the dry ingredients and slowly knead into dough. If more water is required, you can add a few tbsp at a time and continue kneading until the dough is soft and non sticky. ( I needed about 1/4 cup more)

Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes.
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Heat a flat pan, griddle/ tawa on medium to medium high heat

Divide the dough into equal lemon sized balls. With the help of a little dough roll out dough into a thin or thick circle (the way you like it)

When the flat pan/ tawa/ griddle is hot, place the rolled out dough on the tawa. When the lower side begins to get small brownish spots, flip over and cook the other side.  When the other side gets brownish spots too, remove and serve hot with curry of choice

This roti does not need any oil or ghee, the avocados give it enough softness on its own.

Notes
If you need some more water, you can pour it into the blender once, give it a quick pulse and pour the water along with any residual avocado- spinach puree on the dough.

The amount of water you will need will depend on the size of avocado, mine was a large one and these proportions worked out perfectly.

In case you end up with a little sticky dough, add a little more whole wheat flour and knead some more.

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Simple Strawberry Jam

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It has been a long time since I made jam at home, mostly because we rarely use jam these days, so the thought of making it, just does not enter my mind. That is probably why I forgot how much fresher, tastier and better home made jam tastes, as compared to store bought ones.

I bought strawberries with the idea of using them in bakes, but somehow the idea lost appeal after I brought it home. So when I was thinking of alternate uses of strawberry, I decided on making jam with it. In the past I have made mango jam and apple jam , but never attempted strawberry jam. I used the recipe here as my reference

This simple three ingredient jam does not use pectin or citric acid crystals, instead it uses lemon juice in it. I pureed half the strawberries, and kept half the strawberries cut in pieces because I enjoy my jam with a little fruit in between bites. The taste and texture was just perfect and I think I am going to be buying a lot more strawberries this season, to make much more of this jam.



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Ingredients and Method to make Simple Strawberry Jam
2 cups strawberries cut fine (1 lbs of strawberries)
2 cups of sugar (either brown or white sugar)
2 tbsp lemon juice

Puree all the strawberries, or if you like to bite into the fruit, puree half and keep the balance of strawberries in cut pieces.

Place strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a heavy bottomed pan, place on medium to medium high heat, stir frequently and allow sugar to melt and strawberries to cook.

You know when the jam is ready, if you lift the spatula and allow the jam to pour and it flows together and not in little drops.
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Alternatively if you pour a few drops of the jam on a clean plate, it will not spread and will have the clear jam like consistency, then you know that the jam is ready.

Cool slightly, pour in a clean glass jar, cool thoroughly and refrigerate and use as required.

Notes
For this quantity I did not sterilize my bottle, since I was making a very small batch. In case you plan to make lot of jam, then it is suggested to sterilize your glass jar before you fill it with jam, click here to know how to sterilize your glass jars

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Bean and Barley Soup

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One of the questions I frequently get, is why I soak beans with a pinch of soda. One of the reasons for that is that it makes beans much softer and easier to cook. The other reason is that I have heard it makes beans more easily digestible. One thing to note when soaking beans with a pinch of soda is to make sure and  drain the water the beans have been soaked in and cook the beans in fresh water.

In any case I hear that throwing the water in which beans have been soaked is important. I got this tip in  a Sanjeev kapoor cookbook, which explains that soaking, draining and then cooking beans destroys the anti nutritional factors like tripsin inhibitors. Tripsin inhibitors reduce protein digestibility and by draining the bean soak water, the digestibility of beans improve. The tip specially mentions that draining water in which beans are soaked is good because that water can do more harm than good.

Moving on, this soup was something I created when I was in the mood for soup one day. I used pinto beans in this, because I love the texture of pinto beans and I thought it would go well with the other flavors and vegetables in this soup. It did work well and both R and I enjoyed this soup with some crusty store bought bread.




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Ingredients and Method to make Bean and Barley soup

1 cup dried pinto beans soaked for 6 hours or so with a pinch of soda (the soda is optional) (see notes)

1 medium onion cut fine (pyaaz)
1/2 tsp minced ginger (see notes)(adrak)
1/2 cup pearled barley
2 medium tomatoes cut fine (tamatar)
2 large carrots cut into 1/4 inch pieces (gajar)
1 1/2 cup sweet corn kernels
2 small bay leaves (tej patta)
salt to taste (namak)
1 tsp red chili powder (or to taste) (lal mirch)
1 and 1/4 tsp cumin powder (or to taste)(jeera powder)
4 cups vegetarian vegetable stock or water (I used water)
2 Tbsp oil
1-2 tsp lemon juice (optional)
3-4 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro (coriander leaves/ hara dhania/ kothamalli ) for garnish

Drain the water that the beans were soaked in, fill container with fresh water and pressure cook or cook
on stove top until beans are soft but not mushy.( I use the pressure cooker ). Keep cooked beans aside.

Place pearl barley in a container, fill with water, swirl with hand a couple of times and drain water. Keep barley aside.

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan, add onions and saute until onions are transparent.Add minced ginger and stir a few times.

Add tomatoes and stir until tomatoes are cooked and mushy.
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Add bay leaves, all the spices and stir a couple of times.

Add carrots, corn, barley, salt to taste  and water or stock and allow the vegetables / barley to cook.

When the vegetables and barley get cooked and soft, add the cooked pinto beans, adjust water to achieve required consistency and let the soup simmer for another fifteen to twenty minutes for the flavors to come together.

Just before serving add lemon juice (if using)  and garnish with cilantro leaves and serve hot with a crusty bread of choice.

Serves approximately 3 - 4

Notes
You can substitute red kidney beans (rajma) instead of pinto beans if you want.
If you would like to use canned pinto beans, you would need approx 2 15 oz cans of pinto beans. Just rinse the beans thoroughly and add to the soup after the barley and vegetables are cooked and simmer for a few minutes for the flavors to mingle.
You can also use 1/2 tsp minced ginger + 1/2 tsp minced garlic instead of just ginger

If you are looking for other recipes with barley, here are a few more

Keerai Oat Barley Adai ~ Savory Spinach and Oat crepes

Curried Mung bean and barley soup ~ Whole moong soup

Quinoa Oat Barley Adai  ~ Savory Oat and Quinoa crepes

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Mor Kozhambu ~ South Indian style Kadhi with bhindi ~ Okra in buttermilk gravy curry

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Mor kozhambu, a simple recipe that comes from south Indian cuisine, can be best described as a soupy form of curry, for lack of  a better term to describe it. Mor is the Tamil (an Indian language) word for buttermilk and kozhambu is the tamil term for most curries that are made with a dhal or soup type consistency.  Usually it is served on a bed of plain steamed rice with a dry stir fry curry on the side. This eggplant stir fry  is my personal favorite curry in combination with mor kozhambu.

There are several variations of this kozhambu that I have learned from different members of my family and I hope to post all of them here in time. This first one, is the way my mother in law sometimes makes mor kozhambu,it is simple, quick and satisfying. This kozhambu unlike sambar or poricha kozhambu, feels quite light and is perfect for really hot days, like the ones we are experiencing right now :-)

 

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Ingredients and method to make Mor Kozhambu

1 and 1/4 cup cut okra (bhindi/ vendakkai) (see notes)
2 cups buttermilk (slightly sour buttermilk works best for this dish)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi/ manjal podi)
salt to taste (namak/ uppu)
handful cilantro cut fine for garnish (optional) (coriander leaves/ hara dhania/kothamalli)

2 tsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds (rai/ sarson/ kadagu)

Grind
1 tsp oil
3 tsp split yellow chick peas (chana dhal/ kadalai parappu)
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds ( methi seeds/ mendiyam)
3 Indian or Thai variety green chilies  (or to taste)
6 Tbsp fresh or frozen grated coconut (nariyal/thengai)

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed medium pan, add chana dhal and roast on a low flame. When chana dhal begins to change color and become a little pinkish/ brownish, add fenugreek/methi seeds and stir for a few seconds.

When methi seeds begin to brown, add green chilies, stir for a few seconds and remove from heat.

Cool and grind this roasted lentils along with fresh/ frozen thawed coconut and water into a smooth paste and keep aside.

In the same pan, heat oil, then add mustard seeds, when mustard seeds begin to splutter,add turmeric powder, stir once or twice, then add okra and stir until okra is cooked and soft.

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Add the ground mixture to it and allow it to heat, then add buttermilk and on a low heat, heat the mixture until it froths up.

Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature before adding salt.

Mix well, garnish with cilantro (coriander leaves) if using and serve on a bed of steamed hot plain rice

Notes
This kozhambu should not be heated to a boiling point after the salt has been added, since the buttermilk will split. So if you are refrigerating the balance of this kozhambu you can warm it on low heat and serve warm with hot rice.

Okra can be replaced with any other vegetable from the squash family or you can even use watermelon rind
just add the other vegetable, allow it to cook, adding a little water as required and then proceed with the rest of the recipe. 

You can even skip any vegetables in this entirely, just add mustard seeds, then add the coconut mixture and proceed with the rest of the recipe

If you do not have buttermilk, you can whisk together 1 cup yogurt and 1 cup water thoroughly and use in this recipe

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Thai Fried Rice with Pineapple and Brown Rice

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Barely three weeks into spring and we are seeing record breaking heat in the mid nineties in our neck of the woods. It feels like the weather transitioned from winter to summer with no stop in between for spring. And this time more than others I was eagerly anticipating the arrival of spring, because we had a very bitter winter and I was looking for a little warmer weather to get a break from the chill . Now three weeks into spring, I find myself in the same place, eagerly looking forward to spring, only now I am looking forward to pleasant weather to get a break from the heat :-) Ironical huh ?

Moving on, Thai cuisine appears far more frequently in my kitchen these days, I find that I prefer the homemade version of this cuisine when compared to the restaurant ones. At home I can customize it to our taste, and make it as healthy as possible. This Thai fried rice with pineapple is one of my favorites, it is simple and quick to make, with a touch of sweet from the pineapple and raisins providing a good combination of hot and sweet. If sweet and spicy combination is your thing then this fried rice is something you will surely like...




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Ingredients and method to make Thai fried rice with pineapple
2 cups brown basmati rice soaked in 3 cups of water for 30 minutes

1 large onion cut fine
1 cup green peas (either fresh or frozen)
2 large carrots cut into 1/4 inch pieces (yielded about 1 heaped cup of cut carrots)

3 Thai or Indian green chillies cut very fine (or to taste)
3/4 tsp minced garlic
a sliver of ginger minced
3 Tbsp oil

1/4 cup dark raisins
1 cup pineapple chunks

4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or to taste)
salt to taste
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp vegan red thai curry paste (I used the Thai Kitchen brand since it is vegan)
handful cilantro for garnish

Cook brown basmati rice in a pressure cooker or rice cooker until done and keep aside.

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan, add onion to it and saute until transparent. Then add green chilies, garlic and ginger and stir for a few seconds.

Then add carrots+ peas and keep stirring until the carrots and peas are cooked but should not be mushy. They should be soft but firm.

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Add soy sauce and stir a couple of times, then add raisins and stir for a few seconds until the raisins begin to puff up slightly.

Add pineapple chunks, red thai curry paste, mix well.

Now add cooked rice, salt to taste, sugar and mix well on low heat.

Garnish with cilantro (coriander leaves) and serve hot with choice of thai curry.

Serves approximately 3 to 4

Notes
If you are a vegan or vegetarian, when buying Thai curry paste in the stores, do go through the labels since some of them contain fish sauces in them, make sure the paste you buy is suitable for vegan/ vegetarians

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Vegan Carrot Raisin Cookie

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As I mentioned yesterday, every time I make carrot juice, I save the carrot pulp and use it in other cooking, usually something like this carrot roti. When I was planning to bake cookies, I wondered what would happen if I used the carrot pulp in cookies. I was curious to see if the carrot pulp, like fruit puree would work as an egg substitute in the cookie too. Since there is no better way to find out than to try it, that is just what I did.......

These cookies turned out crunchy and delicious and it reminded me of carrot raisin bread in taste.Surprisingly carrot pulp really did seem to work well as a egg substitute, at least in this cookie. I was worried that the cookies would crumble, because I have not added any other binding ingredient. But carrot pulp did the trick and the cookies turned out to be quite a success in our home. I am looking forward to making these again, in fact I think I might just whip up another batch today :-)




Here is another view of this cookie so you can see the texture of it.......



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Ingredients and Method to make Carrot Raisin Cookie
Dry Ingredients
1 cup fine semolina (or semolina flour) (fine rava/ sooji)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup dry roasted mung flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg powder
3/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 cup packed raisins
1/4 cup packed brown sugar + 3 tsp brown sugar (or any other sugar)

Wet Ingredients
heaped 1/2 cup strained carrot pulp
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp oil

Pre heat oven at 375 deg F

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and keep aside.

In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients and mix well.

In a small bowl, mix the carrot pulp + oil well and add to the dry ingredients and gently mix it.

Pinch small amount of cookie dough between your fingers, gently roll and flatten it. Place it on the lined cookie sheet about an inch apart.

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Continue this until all the cookie dough is used.

Place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the lower side is a brown and tops are light golden brown.

Remove, cool thoroughly on wire rack and store in an air tight container.

Yielded 24 medium sized cookies

Notes:
If you do not want to use mung flour you can substitute it with whole wheat flour or all purpose flour (maida)
If you would like to have a more pronounced cinnamon flavor you can increase the quantity of cinnamon to 1 tsp, with the quantities I used, the flavors of cinnamon and nutmeg were very mild.

These cookies are off to the The weekly bake-off event being hosted by Champa

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Sugar Free Carrot Ginger Juice

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Do you ever worry about the amount of daily activity all of us do on the computer and the effect it may have on our eyes ?  Scary thought I know, but it just struck me, these days I seem to spend an awful amount of time within a few feet of the computer screen staring at it while I work. I used to be the kind of person who used to carefully measure the distance from the television and make sure I never came within six feet from the screen while viewing it, because I was afraid it may impact my vision. It seems unavoidable though, since so much of our lives and activities, now revolve around the computer.

I decided to research........where else......online... of course, to see if I was doing all that I could to help my eyes stay healthy. In the course of my research I came across some interesting finds, apparently blueberries, red onions, sweet potatoes and spinach are good for our eyes.I was also surprised to find one article suggest that going for brisk walks at least four times a week helps in preventing or curing some types of eye conditions. Read the entire article here for more tips and suggestions to prevent eye strain and improved eye health 

And of course, including more carrots in our diet is a no-brainer when it comes to eye health. I avoid the carrot juices available in the store, because they do not taste as fresh as the homemade ones and some of them have added sugar in them too. Instead I prefer to make my own sugar free carrot juice with a touch of ginger, lemon, salt and pepper in it. If you plan to try this and like me, do not want to waste the extracted pulp, then you can use it in this carrot roti or in carrot cookies which I plan to post tomorrow :-)



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Ingredients and method to Make Sugar free Carrot Juice
4 large carrots chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
1/2 tsp salt (or according to taste)
dash of freshly ground black pepper powder (or to taste)
1 tsp lime juice
2 cups of filtered/ drinking water

Using a blender, blend together carrots and ginger along with the drinking water.

Strain the juice using a fine sieve. Press the pulp with the back of a spoon to make sure all the juice has been extracted.
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Add lime juice, salt and pepper to the extracted juice and mix well. Pour and serve, or refrigerate and serve cold later. This yields 2 cups of juice.


The pulp can be used in this carrot roti or can be used in a cookie recipe, which I will be posting tomorrow.


Notes
Carrot juice tastes best fresh or within a few hours of making it.

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Keerai Molagootal ~ Palak Dhal ~ Spinach Lentil Curry

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There are some songs that never fail to send me on a trip down memory lane. This song from the movie Manzil, shot entirely in the streets of Bombay ( a city in India) is one such song. Seeing the video clip of this song  always brings back memories of the unique monsoon seasons that I used to enjoy while growing up in Bombay.

I never missed a chance to get drenched in the rains then, most especially if I happened to be returning home from school when it was raining. Then to add to it, I would proceed to stand near the fence of our complex and get sprayed by the waves that rose against it, much like it does in the song clip.

The combination of waves rising against the fence and heavy rains was an impressive sight  and something I remember every time I see this song. While on the subject of songs, I have added a few clips of some of my favorite oldie songs in the new humor/ entertainment section I created, so if you have a few minutes do peek there and let me know what you think.

Moving on from songs that send me on a trip down memory lane to foods that do :-) Here is a traditional recipe belonging to southern Indian cuisine called Keerai Molagootal. This "curry" for lack of a better term to describe it, has a soupy consistency and is made with spinach, lentils and flavored with cumin and coconut. It is served traditionally along with plain steamed rice but tastes just as good with rotis/ phulkas (Indian flatbreads).




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Ingredients and Method to make Keerai Molagootal
5 cups packed spinach leaves (Palak/ keerai) (9 oz  /approximately 230gms)
1/2 cup split Pigeon peas (tur dhal/ tuvaram parappu)  soaked in 3/4 cup of water for 30 minutes and pressure cooked until soft
salt to taste

Grind together
1/3 fresh or frozen grated coconut (if frozen thaw to room temperature) (nariyal/ thengai poo)
3/4 tsp cumin seeds (jeera/ jeeragam)
4 dry red chilies (or according to taste)

Seasoning
1 tsp oil
3/4 tsp mustard seeds (rai/ sarson/ kadagu)
3/4 tsp Split Black gram lentil (udad dhal)

Soak the lentils in water for about 30 minutes, then pressure cook until soft. For detailed steps on cooking lentils and different methods of cooking lentils click here

In a heavy bottomed pan, add washed spinach leaves, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 cup of water and let the spinach cook until soft. Remove from heat and allow it to cool.

Grind together coconut, cumin seeds and red chilies in a spice grinder into a fine paste, adding a few tsps of water as required. Keep this aside.

Puree the cooked and cooled spinach slightly using the pulse feature, the spinach need not become a smooth puree, just a slightly semi smooth puree (that way it retains some of its texture). Now add the ground coconut + cumin + red chilies paste to this spinach, and blend once more in quick short bursts of power.

Remove and place in a heavy bottomed pan. Mash the cooked lentil with the back of a spatula or a potato masher and add the mashed lentils to the spinach + ground coconut mixture. Mix slowly and thoroughly.

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Add salt to taste, water if required to achieve desired consistency and heat on low to medium low heat.

In another pan, heat oil, add mustard seeds to it, when the mustard seeds begin to splutter add split black gram lentil ( udad dhal) to it. When the black gram lentil begins to turn slightly pinkish/ reddish, remove and pour the entire seasoning to the spinach-lentil curry.

Heat the curry until it begins to froth a little on the top. Remove from heat and serve hot on a bed of plain steamed rice or with rotis/ phulkas.

Serves approximately 2 to3

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