A look back at 2012 with a few of my personal faves....

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Is it that time of the year already ? Where does the time go ? Every year I experience this odd sense of disbelief that the year is already coming to a close. It seems like yesterday we were eagerly awaiting the start to 2012, making plans and resolutions for the year and already it is time to bid goodbye to it.Did this year feel kind of odd to you too? It definitely did to me, especially the month of December. It felt like every other day we heard all kinds of strange things, everything from doomsday theories to pronouncements of some big event happening just because Dec was the last time we would see a sequential date this century(12/12/12)

On a personal front this has been a somewhat of a mixed bag kind of year. Not all of the year has been smooth sailing, but I have much to be grateful for and I am thankful for every good thing in our life :) It was also a year when I wasn't able to blog as much as I have in the previous years, a lot of personal stuff and traveling contributed to my posts appearing only about once a week at times.  But I have plans to change that in 2013 and hope to blog much more often and have been planning a lot of fun stuff for this space next year.

In the meanwhile, here is a look back at some of my personal favorites that I blogged about this year. If you feel that there are a disproportionate number of sweets and desserts in this list please do not blame me, blame my sweet tooth :) It ensures that sweets are always well represented in any list that include the words  "favorites" and "food". So moving on, here are a few of my faves from 2012.........

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Quinoa Cashew Payasam




Instant low fats oats paniyaram




















Avocado Flax Roti / Indian Flat Bread



Sambar without tamarind version 2.0 

 


Low fat Black Bean Brownies



Vegan Bell Pepper Curry / Korma

Quinoa tur dhal dosai / Savory Indian Crepes




Mughlai style Medley curry 



Slow cooker Carrot Cashew Kheer/ Payasam/ Indian Pudding



Vegan Chewy Orange Oatmeal Cookies 



Mixed nuts burfi 

 

This post is off to the Best of Year 2012 event being hosted by Srivalli

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Chakli ~ Crunchy Gluten free Rice and Lentil Fritters

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Chakli, a savory, crunchy, gluten free rice snack from Maharashtrian cuisine is one of my favorite kind of treats. I mean what's not to love, its crunchy, deep fried and yum :) Of course the deep fried part also means that I almost never make it except as a rare treat.  Chakli's often remind me of the south Indian Mullu thenkozhal which is similar in texture.  The process of making it is also similar, but that is where the similarity ends. Where Mullu thenkozhal combines rice flour with chick pea flour, chaklis combine cooked lentils and rice flour for the dough. The flavoring and tastes of both of these snacks are also quite different.

This time as I was making chaklis in batches, I was feeling a little restless while each batch was cooking. So I ended up playing with a few of these and realized chaklis provide a nice way to create some food art.  Hmmm.... does this mean I will make it more often so that I can create different kinds of food art with it, which I can later take pictures of and hang around the home ? Not a chance :)  But just this once, it was fun to manipulate small pieces of chakli into different shapes:) 



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Ingredients and Method to make Chakli
1/4 cup split mung bean lentil (mung dhal)  rinsed, drained and soaked in 1/2 cup of water for 30 minutes
2 cups rice flour
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
3/4 tsp chili powder (or to taste)
salt to taste
1/2 tsp carom seeds (ajwain/ omam)
3 tsp oil
water as needed
oil as needed to deep fry this snack

Pressure cook the soaked lentils in the water it was soaked in, until it is soft and mushy. I usually keep it for about  4 whistles in my pressure cooker to make sure the lentils get good and mushy. After the pressure subsides, remove lentils and mash, this yielded me 1/2 heaped cup mung paste.
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Place the mashed lentils in a large bowl. Add rice flour and all the spices, salt and knead lightly. Add oil and knead some more. Finally add water very little at a time if needed and knead until the dough is soft.

Heat oil as needed for frying on medium heat.

Use a press such as this one with a star shaped disc to make this snack. Take a small quantity of the dough, place it in the press and press out into a spiral shape onto a kitchen tissue or directly into the oil. I prefer to press it out onto the kitchen tissue and then slide each one gently into the oil. Flip over once or twice and remove when the chakli becomes golden brown. Place on kitchen tissue to remove excess oil.

Cool and store in an air tight container. Enjoy this snack with tea/ coffee or as an anytime snack.

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Easy Sheera (Quick Indian sweet made with semolina)

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Sheera a simple sweet made with semolina, sugar, milk, saffron and cardamom. It is the Maharashtrian equivalent to the kesari made very similarly in Tamil cuisine, the kesaribath made in Kannada cuisine and the suji ka halwa made in north Indian cuisine. The difference I have observed is mainly in the quantities of sugar and clarified butter and the garnish. Kesari and Kesaribath both  tend to be far more sweeter and also tends to have copious amounts of clarified butter in it.  I have never tasted suji ka halwa but it seems that it too has more quantity of sugar and clarified butter in it when compared to the sheera.

Sheera remains a favorite of mine, not only because it is mildly sweet, tastes yum and is very simple to make, but also because the taste of sheera can be easily varied by making variations with different kind of fruits like banana and pineapple. You can find my earlier version of low fat pineapple sheera made with agave here . One of the changes I have made in the process of making sheera is that unlike earlier when I used to melt the sugar in milk and water first, then add the roasted semolina, nowadays I mix everything together and then place on heat. I find that this eliminates a great deal of the splattering that the earlier step used to cause and my hands and my stove top both thank me for it:)



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Ingredients and Method to make Sheera
1 cup medium rava (suji/semolina)
3 tbsp clarified butter + additional 2 tbsp clarified butter (ghee/nei)
3/4th of a cup sugar
5 cardamom seed powdered fine
1 cup water
1 cup milk
2 pinches of good quality saffron

2 tbsp broken cashew nuts

Heat 3 tbsp clarified butter (ghee/nei) in a heavy bottomed pan on low to medium low heat. Add semolina to it and roast it on low heat until the semolina turns creamy reddish and aromatic. Take your time with this step, stir frequently so that semolina is evenly roasted and make sure it does not burn. Remove from heat.

Add sugar to it in the same pan and mix well, keep aside.

Using a microwave or on the stove top, heat 1 cup water + 1 cup milk until hot,  not boiling hot. Pour this water + milk on the roasted rava, a little at a time and mix well. Add saffron to this and mix well.
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Place on low to medium low heat. When the mixture begins to heat, stir frequently until it thickens and starts to leave the sides of the pan. Keep a lid handy in case it splatters a little (it usually doesn't if the heat is low to medium low)  Add cardamom seed powder and mix well. Remove from heat.

In a small pan heat balance of the clarified butter and add cashews to it and stir until cashews turn an even golden brown. Pour the entire clarified butter + roasted cashews on the sheera and mix well.

Serve sheera warm.

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Spinach Chutney (Keerai Thogayal)

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When I was in school I do not remember ever being very impressed with spinach. Its not that I would never eat it, nor that I hated it, just that I never really loved it as I did some of the other veggies my mother prepared at home. I guess I was just indifferent to it. Now though, I have a new appreciation and liking for this super healthy green and never tire of trying it out in a variety of dishes. From raita to dhals to adai/ dosai and curries , I have used spinach in pretty much everything and have enjoyed it so much in all the different forms:)

This time I made thogayal, a kind of chutney from south India with spinach. Earlier I had posted thogayal made with zucchini and one with onion both of which remain favorites in my home. But this one with spinach is a little extra special. It is very flavorful and versatile. I have used it as a traditional chutney along with dosai/idli ,  to mix with rice and create an instant flavored rice and as a dip for veggies and it tasted good every single time :) If spinach is something that you like or like me have developed a new appreciation for, this simple spinach chutney may be for you. 

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Ingredients and Method to make Spinach chutney (thogayal)
4 packed cups tender spinach leaves (or baby spinach) (palak) rinsed and drained
4 tbsp fresh grated coconut (or frozen) (if using frozen thaw to room temperature)
1 tbsp coconut oil (can be substituted with any other oil)
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp split black gram lentil (udad dhal)
one small pinch asafoetida (hing/ perungayam)
3 dry red chilies (or to taste)
salt to taste

Heat oil on medium heat in a heavy bottomed pan, add mustard seeds to it. When the seeds splutter, add black gram lentil and stir until the the lentils turn evenly reddish. Add a pinch of asafoetida powder,  and dry red chilies and stir a few times. Add spinach, stir, close the pan with a lid and allow the spinach to cook until soft. If required a few drops of water may be sprinkled to help cook the spinach leaves.

Cool the cooked spinach and puree the entire mixture of cooked spinach and seasoning, along with the grated coconut in the blender until it turns to a smooth paste. Add salt to taste and give it another turn in the blender.
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Remove and serve as a dip/ chutney or mix with some plain steamed rice to make an instantly flavored rice.

Refrigerate the unused portion in an airtight container and use within a couple of days for freshest taste.

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