Vegan Swiss Chard with Red Kidney Bean curry

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Simple curries that combine some type of green with some kind of lentils or beans are my favorite kind for a simple meal. Not only do these curries combine the goodness of the veggies with the fiber and protein of the beans/lentils but also these tend to be quicker since I can skip making a separate dhal/ sambar or something similar to complete the meal. Just make some rice or some kind of Indian flat bread on the side and voila........a complete meal:)

This curry that I rustled up in under thirty minutes definitely falls under this category. It was something I came up with on an impulse with the ingredients I had in my veggie drawer and pantry. I used canned beans and red swiss chard and used some chick pea flour (besan) to give the curry a little touch of creaminess. We loved this curry and I plan to make it more often from now on. If a simple, nutritious curry is what you are craving, give this curry a try and tell me what you think :)



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Ingredients and Method to make Swiss chard with red kidney bean curry
1 bunch of red swiss chard rinsed and drained and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 15oz can of red kidney bean drained and rinsed
1 large red onion cut fine
3 Indian or Thai green chilies cut fine (or to taste)
1/2 inch piece of ginger minced
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste
1/2 tsp garam masala (or any other curry powder )
For the recipe of garam masala check out this link
1/4 tsp amchur powder (dried mango powder)
2 tbsp chick pea flour (besan/ kadalai maavu) + 1/4 cup water

Prep the vegetables and keep aside. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan, add onion and saute until the onions turn transparent. Add green chilies and minced ginger and stir a few times.

Add swiss chard, salt to taste and a little water and allow the swiss chard to cook until soft. Add drained kidney beans, garam masala, dried mango powder and a little more water if required and allow it to simmer for just another minute or two.

Finally add chick pea flour + water, adjust water if required to achieve required consistency to this curry and allow to simmer for a few minutes for the flavors to mingle.
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Serve hot with  plain steamed rice/pulao/jeera rice or any kind of Indian flat bread like phulkas/ rotis/ naan etc.

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Chewy Orange flavored Almond cashew cookies and a quick DIY cake stand :)

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Being a food blogger means that the kitchen section of any store is always appealing. I always end up spending quite a bit of time looking through different gadgets and dishes that I can use in my kitchen and as props in my pictures :) On one such trip a pretty cake stand caught my attention, I was very keen to buy it. But I balked a little when I saw the price tag. Buying a pricey cake stand when I hardly ever bake cakes just seemed a little over the top for me :)

Sometime later when I was browsing pinterest I came across a super simple diy cake stand made with a candle stand and a plate that I loved. I didn't pin the tip so I do not have the link for it, but the idea stayed with me. The one that I saw was spray painted , but when I decided to make it, I just bought a glass candle stand and a large glass plate and put it together with my glue gun and skipped the paint entirely. Here's how it looks...............

 

I am glad I hadn't purchased the one I saw in the store, this one worked out so much better for me:) Now the only thing I need to do is to bake more cakes so that I get to use this stand frequently :) Will keep you all posted on whether I really do end up baking more cakes:)

In the meanwhile here are some orange flavored almond cashew cookies that I bake when I am completely out of any kind of snacks. This one is super simple, does not use any butter and is really fast to make. I use almonds and cashews in it to amp up the nutrition slightly.It does not require any special ingredients just the usual stuff I keep around the home, so it is easy to put together.  



In addition I just love any bakes with orange flavor in them. So these cookies are my go to cookies not only because these cookies can be whipped up really fast at short notice, or its simplicity, but also because of its flavor and taste :) 



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Ingredients and Method to make Chewy Orange flavored almond cashew cookie
1/3 cup cashew nut powder
1/3 cup almond meal (powdered almonds with skin)
1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour (maida)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp orange extract

Pre heat oven to 350 deg F

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and keep aside.

In a large bowl, mix together cashew nut powder, almond meal, all purpose flour, baking powder and sugar and mix well.

Add yogurt and mix into the flour mixture.

Add oil  + orange extract and mix well into the cookie mixture.

Spoon a little of the mixture onto the pre lined tray about an inch apart.
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Place in the oven and bake about 15 to 20 minutes or until the edges of the cookie begin to get a golden brown. Remove, let sit for a few minutes, then remove from tray and cool thoroughly. Store in an airtight container and enjoy as an anytime snack.

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Palak Kofta Curry - A healthier version (Vegetable balls in spinach gravy curry)

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Palak kofta curry is a curry made with deep fried vegetable balls in spinach gravy curry. There are many versions of this curry some with cream or milk and almost always with the koftas (ie the vegetable balls) deep fried.  I used to avoid making koftas mainly because of the deep fried element. But ever since I started using my appa kaarai (aebleskiver pan) for making things like koftas and pakoras for kadhi  among other things, it has freed me to make more variety of dishes in our menu without having to worry about the calories from deep frying. So we get to enjoy a variety of things without the guilt  :)

It does take a little longer to make then deep frying because you have to slow cook, but I usually prep the other things while the kofta/ pakoras/or whatever else I am attempting that day is getting ready and don't mind that it takes a little while longer. It is definitely an acceptable tradeoff when considering I get to save some calories in the process:)

 

One additional thing I have done to make this curry healthier is to sneak in some oatmeal and flax into the kofta. I know some of you are probably thinking that this would mess with the taste. But trust me no one will guess, the oats and flax seamlessly blend in with the potatoes and bread and cannot be made out at all. It really is a cool way to sneak in some additional fiber into this dish without impacting the taste :)
The recipe and ingredients seem a little long and daunting but it is really pretty simple and straightforward and makes a good side for a variety of dishes anything from plain steamed rice to flavored rice to Indian flat breads like naan, roti, chapathi or paratha :)




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Ingredients and Method to make Palak Kofta curry

For the Koftas (Vegetable balls)
3 medium potatoes cooked until soft
1/4 cup rolled oats dry roasted and powdered fine
2 heaped tbsp flax meal (powdered flax seeds)
2 slices wheat or oat bread
1/4 tsp salt
a few drops of oil to cook the balls

Cook the potatoes until soft. Cool, peel and mash the potatoes.

Dry roast rolled oats, cool and powder in a spice grinder/ mixer/ blender until mostly fine and add to the mashed potatoes. Add flax seed meal and salt to the mashed potatoes and mix well.

Dip the bread slices in a bowl of water, remove immediately, strain and add the bread to the potatoes and mix well. Make small lime sized balls with the potato mixture. Heat an aebleskiver pan (appa kaarai) on medium heat and add a couple of drops of oil in each mold. If you want to see a picture of a appa kaarai check out this link. Add one ball into each mold and allow to cook on medium heat turning in between to ensure even cooking, when it turns golden brown remove and keep aside. For a little quicker cooking add about 1/4 tsp oil per mold and it cooks much faster that way. But make sure to keep the heat on medium while the koftas cook. Proceed with the rest of the koftas in the same manner.

For the Spinach (Palak) Gravy
5 cups packed spinach leaves ( I used baby spinach) (palak)
1/4 cup broken cashews soaked in sufficient water for at least 30 mins
1 red onion cut fine and ground to a paste
3 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 inch ginger
2 Thai or Indian variety green chilies (or to taste)
1 clove garlic (optional)
salt to taste
1/2 tsp garam masala (or to taste)( for the recipe for homemade garam masala click here)
1/2 tsp chili powder (or to taste) (optional)
1 to 2 tbsp oil 

Place spinach leaves in a heavy bottomed pan with a little water and cook until soft. Remove from heat, cool and puree until mostly smooth.

Cut onion finely and grind to a paste. Grind ginger, garlic and green chilies to a smooth paste and keep aside.

Grind cashew with a little water to a smooth paste and keep aside.

Heat oil in the same pan and add the ground onion paste and saute until it looses its raw smell and cooks well. Do this on low to medium low heat and take your time with this step to ensure the onion cooks well. Then add ginger, garlic green chili paste and stir a few times. Then add tomato paste and stir for a few seconds. Add garam masala, stir a couple of times. Then add pureed spinach, salt to taste, chili powder if using and simmer for a couple of minutes.

Add cashew paste, add water to achieve required consistency and simmer for another minute or so for the flavors to mingle on low to medium low heat.
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Add the koftas just before serving and serve hot with plain steamed rice, jeera rice, or pulao or any kind of Indian flat bread like rotis/ chapathis/ parathas.

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Oats sweet pongal

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Sakarai pongal or sweet pongal is a sweet that is made in south Indian cuisine. It is a preparation made with rice and jaggery, flavored with cardamom and garnished with cashew nuts. Jaggery as I explained in this post is a slightly less processed form of sweetener that manages to retain a lot more minerals and is said to be healthier than sugar because of these minerals. It is commonly used in Indian cooking.



There are many versions of pongal made with rice and mung lentils, I used to make mine that way too. Until I tasted my mother in laws version, she makes hers with only rice and I like it so much I started making mine that way too :)  Last week I decided to try pongal with oats instead of rice and I fell in love with it :)  It was so good that I think I am going to make this version all the time. It is quicker to make, just as delicious and as an added bonus,  healthier too. What's not to love ?  If you plan to indulge your sweet tooth with something quick and simple, this just might be the sweet for you :)



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Ingredients and Method to make Oats Sweet Pongal
1 cup rolled oats
1 tbsp  + 1tsp clarified butter (ghee/nei)
1/2 cup grated jaggery
2 tbsp broken cashew nuts
5 cardamom seeds powdered fine
additional 2 to 3 tsp clarified butter (ghee/nei) (optional if you want a little richer taste)

In a heavy bottomed pan heat 1 tsp clarified butter and roast the cashews in it until it is light golden color. Remove the cashews and keep aside.

In the same pan heat 1 tbsp clarified butter and roast the rolled oats in it until it turns lightly creamy and emits an aroma. Remove from heat and keep aside.

Powder cardamom seeds and keep aside.

In the same pan, add  1 and 1/4 cup of water and jaggery and place on heat. When the jaggery melts and the water begins to boil add the roasted oats and stir and cook on low to medium low heat until the mixture is thick and the mixture begins to start to leave the sides of the pan. If you plan to use the additional 2 to 3 tsp of clarified butter (ghee) to give the dessert additional rich taste, add it now. Then add cardamom powder, mix well and remove from heat
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Finally garnish with the roasted cashews and serve warm.

This Oats sweet Pongal is off to Priya's Cooking with oats event being guest hosted by Amruta

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Carrot Coconut Rice ~ Gajarwale chawal

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First the question, are you a morning person or an evening person ? I ask because it seems to me that everyone seems to have one preference, either they find it easy to get up early in the morning or find it easy to stay up until late at night but find it difficult to get up early. I come in the latter category, staying up at night is always easier for me than getting up early in the morning. But since getting up early is the only option nowadays, I have learned to deal with it. Read that as, I now know how loud the alarm needs to ring to wake me right up :)

But there is one thing that always makes me glad that I got up before daybreak.... the sunrise. Every day the sunrise is so beautiful that it fills me with a sense of awe just to look at it. The different colors streaking across the sky just before the sun makes an appearance looks fantastic. The sky never looks the same on any two days,each day brings a different color palette and something beautiful to look at and admire. The only thing that remains the same is the sense of serenity and the awe I feel every time I see the sunrise :) Here are a few pictures that I managed to capture of the sunrise a few days this last week.....

 

And this one was just the day before yesterday......

 

Beautiful isn't it ?

Moving on here is a carrot coconut rice that I just came up with last week. I wanted something light, yet something simple which did not take too long to make. This rice is what I ended up making that evening.

 

I have never used this kind of combination of ingredients to flavor rice and was a little worried that  it might not work out. But I was pleasantly surprised by how flavorful this rice turned out. It turned out to be exactly what I was looking for, light and flavorful and with a bowl of vegetable raita, it was a perfect dinner :)

 

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Ingredients and Method to make Carrot coconut rice
1 1/2 cup brown basmati rice + 2 1/4 cup water (see notes)
2 to 3 small bay leaves
3 cups shredded carrots (gajar)
salt to taste
2 to 3 tsp clarified butter (ghee/ nei) (can be substituted with oil for a vegan version, I would suggest coconut oil)
1/4 cup fresh grated coconut (can be substituted with frozen coconut thawed to room temperature)
handful cilantro (coriander leaves/ hara dhania) cut fine

Grind together
1/2 tsp fennel seeds (saunf/ sombu)
1/2 tsp whole black pepper (miri/ milagu)
4 whole dry red chilies ( or according to taste)
1 inch piece of cinnamon (dalchini)

Wash and rinse rice and let soak in 2 1/4 cup of water for about 30 minutes.

Place in rice cooker, add bay leaves to it and set to brown rice settings.

Powder fennel seeds, whole black pepper, dry red chilies and cinnamon to a fine powder in a blender/mixer/spice grinder and keep aside.

In a medium sized pan, heat clarified butter and add shredded carrots to it and stir a few times.  Add the spice powder and stir a few more times, then add salt to taste mix well. Remove from heat and pour entire mixture on the semi cooked brown rice. Mix well and allow the rice to cook completely.
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When done, adjust salt to taste if required and garnish with grated coconut and cilantro and mix well.

Serve hot with curry of choice, raita (vegetable salad with yogurt)/ chips or papad.

Notes:
You can easily make this with white rice too, just rinse and drain white basmati rice, add water as required for it and place in rice cooker with white rice setting and proceed with the rest of the recipe ( usually the proportion of water to rice for white long grain basmati is 1 1/2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice)

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Super simple Fruit cake with candied peel (Tutti Frutti Cake)

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I was in college when I first tried my hand at baking. I remember even as a novice, baking was more fascinating than daunting and I enjoyed trying out new bakes in my small counter top oven. My mom used to bake a lot of cakes and initially my interest in baking was more of an attempt to recreate the kind of cakes she used to make. Once I got hooked onto baking, I wanted to expand and try more types of bakes. A lot of weekends I would busily check out recipes in books, gather all the ingredients and start my grand adventure in the kitchen. The most difficult part always was to resist the impulse to keep opening the oven to see how the cake was progressing and trying not to break off a piece of cake before it got decorated :)

Surprising isn't it that considering I used to bake so much, somehow this space doesn't feature even one single cake so far. Well that's mainly because I don't bake cakes very much these days. I make a lot of cookies, quick breads, muffins and yeast breads, but cakes not so much.  Today I finally got a chance to change that, and that too with a super simple cake that has very little scope for error. This cake is just the simplest of cakes,  all it needs is just a little measuring, mixing and baking and voila, cake ready. In addition this cake is egg free, butter free and quick to make. Perfect for a quick treat:)  Twice now, this post has gotten delayed, once during Christmas time when I took a break to spend some time with my family and again last week when I came down with a fever and couldn't work :-(  So without any further delay, here is the cake......... 




Here is a picture of the cake sliced......



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Ingredients and Method to make Fruit cake with candied peel
1 1/3 cup unbleached all purpose flour (maida)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt

1 cup candied peel (tutti frutti) + 1 tsp of all purpose flour mixed together
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup whole milk

1/4 cup oil
scant 1 tsp vanilla essence/ extract

Pre heat oven to 350 deg F

Grease a cake pan and keep aside. I used a bundt pan this time.

Mix the first four ingredients together and keep aside.
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In a large bowl whisk the sweetened condensed milk a little. Add a little flour mixture to the sweetened condensed milk, then add a little milk and mix gently. Continue to alternately add the flour and milk, then add oil and vanilla extract and mix again. Finally add the candied peel (tutti frutti) to the batter and mix gently.

Pour this mixture into the prepared pan and place in oven and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Notes:

This cake turned out sweet enough for us, not cloyingly sweet. If you like a more pronounced sweetness in your cake you could add about 1/3 cup fine sugar to the sweetened condensed milk + milk mixture for additional sweetness then proceed with the rest of the recipe :) .

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Homemade Vanilla Chai tea Latte , New Year wishes and an Announcement :)

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Lot of ground to cover in this post but the most important thing first :) Here's wishing all my readers a very Happy, Healthy and Peaceful 2013.  Hope this year is filled with lots of joy and lots of  enriching and positive experiences for all of you.

Cliched though it sounds, it is true that a new year provides a very good opportunity to turn the page and start the year on a clean slate. I love the sense of anticipation at the start of the year when everyone is busy making plans for the new year or starting new projects to coincide with the start of the year. Speaking of new projects .... here is one of mine that I would like to tell my readers about.........

For a while now, I have been completely hooked onto jewelry making. It started as a simple pleasant hobby that I devoted a little time to whenever I could, but now it has become a very riveting and fulfilling part of my life. I find the process of creating different stuff with beads so fascinating. And I have to admit it is so cool and satisfying to watch the girls in my family wearing my creations and modelling it for me :) Since I am spending so much time with this hobby of mine, I decided to create a site where I can document my experiments and share some of the results with my readers. The new site is called Bead Creationz    Here is a picture of one of my recent creations, clicking on the picture will take you to the site I mentioned above. Feel free to browse around and be sure to let me know what you think :)



Does that mean I am going to spend much less time in this space ? Nope :) In fact, this year much more than previous years, I have made a lot of plans for this space as well.  I have my finger's crossed and am hoping to be able to execute all of these plans before the end of this year. 

Moving on, in keeping with the tradition on this site, the first post of this year too is tea . Regular readers already know about how deeply I value my tea, only this time I am posting a somewhat different type of tea as compared to previous years. This chai tea latte powder is something I have regularly begun to keep on hand nowadays.

 

 It is very tasty and super convenient when I am in the mood for instant tea and do not have the time for making the more elaborate Indian chai. I also think this would be very convenient to have on hand when traveling. I miss homemade tea whenever I am on a trip and do not like the choices that are usually offered in hotel rooms or restaurants. Next time I plan to carry this powder, so long as I am able to get some hot water I will be able to make this tea and enjoy it :)

 

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Ingredients and Method to make Vanilla chai tea latte
1 cup non fat dry milk
1 cup powdered non dairy creamer
1 cup french vanilla non dairy creamer
1 cup sugar
1 cup unsweetened instant tea
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp all spice powder

In a large bowl mix together all the ingredients and blend together in the blender/ mixer in batches if required until it turns into a fine powder.

Store in an airtight container and use as required.

To make vanilla chai tea latte take 1/2 cup whole milk + 1/2 cup water (see notes) and heat in the microwave until really hot, very close to a boil. Add three heaped teaspoons of the above powder (or according to taste) and mix well. Enjoy your hot chai tea latte.
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Notes
This chai tea latte can also be made with entire quantity of water but that version in my opinion tastes a little.... err .... watered down :)  Depending on the milk at hand I have tried this using only milk or a combination of milk and water. If using fat free milk or 1% milk, I would suggest trying this with only milk. If using whole milk then half milk, half water works fine and if using 2% milk probably a ratio of 60 : 40 for milk and water or according to taste.

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