Crisp Chilly Chutney

Crisp Chilly Chutney 

(Doodhi / Ash gourd peels with chillies)

This is one of my favourite chutneys. Hot soft rice with a spoon of homemade ghee and salt, sprinkled with this chutney and you wont need anything else. It is a dry chutney and goes well with curd rice, give that extra crispy bite to the soft texture of curd rice. In sandwiches too it gives that extra crunch to soft fillings. Sprinkled on salads it gives a wonderful bite and heat to the cold salads. 
I like it a little extra brown so I have made it that way but you can just keep it a little green if you prefer. It should be roasted on medium heat till everything becomes crisp.
Try it. You will never throw away the ash gourd/ pumpkin peels again.




When Chef Mireille announced Chillies as the main ingredient for the ongoing event 'Taste Of Tropics' I had to share this recipe.


Ingredients:

1 cup finely chopped peels of Doodhi/Ash gourd
1/2 cup chopped green chillies 
1 sprig curry leaves (optional)
1 heaped tblsp white seaseme seeds
1 heaped tblsp flax seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/4 tsp asefotida powder
1 tblsp vegetable oil 
salt to taste

How to proceed:
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan or wok. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter, add cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds. asefotida, stir for 10/15 seconds. Add curry leaves, chopped chillies and choppes Ash gourd peels. Now on medium heat stir continuously for 10 minutes or till 3/4th done. Now add the sesame seeds and flax seeds and continue stirring till everything is crisp or till flax seeds stop popping. Add salt to taste and give one last stir and remove from heat and let cool. Keep in a air tight jar till it lasts. 

Note: 
*Use any kind of chillies that you like. Hot or mild the choice is yours.
*You can use red Pumpkin peels too or any from the same family vegetables. 
*If you want some sourness to your chutney add one piece of kokum or tamarind along with chillies and remove it after it is done. 
*I use filtered groundnut oil or sesame oil. But you can use any vegetable oil.

Black Currant Cake

Black Currant Cake.

I had made this cake for BM 33 but could not post it for ill health. I was down with viral fever and had bad reaction of a medicine I was given. But the cake was super hit and my daughter who generally feels egg less cakes are not so soft was amazed at how soft this was.
The recipe is from Veena's blog : veenasvegnation.blogspot.com.
Thank you Veena for such a wonderful recipe. 
The only change I did was I used black currant crush instead of orange squash and I also did not pour the sauce over it.
It was a very delicious cake.

  

Black Currant Cake

1 3/4 C flour/maida
3/4 C butter
3/4 C sugar powdered
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 C milk
6 tblsp Black Currant Crush ( I used Mapros)
Method: 
Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda together and keep aside. 
Cream butter and powdered sugar together well till soft and fluffy.
Add black Currant Crush and mix well.
Add the flour and using cut and fold method mix thoroughly.
Bake in a well greased cake pan in pre heated oven at 180 degrees C for 25 minutes or till done. 
Cool in pan for for 5 minutes and then remove from pan and cool on wire rack till cold. 

Instant Dhokla

Whole of September I was busy with the Food Blogging Marathon hosted by Srivalli of http://spicingyourlife.blogspot.in  It was great fun. As I was cooking and photographing the recipes  It gave me many ideas to improve my blogging.  

So to follow through and not to keep my blog without new post for days on end I decided to document my everyday interesting recipes that I make for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I belong to a Maharashtrian Brahman community which is known as 'Chitpavan' or also known as KOBRA for Koknasth Brahman. So most of my regular food is based on their food habits. 

But our family has members from all communities and states of India. Not only my generation or the new generation but also the earlier generation. So little little things from different cuisines have crept in our daily food. My parents were all for trying out new food from wherever we travelled and we did travel a lot during our school vacations.  

As it is  for the last 35 years, since I married, I live in a small rural, tribal town on the border of two states. So a mix of both states is but natural. I am vegetarian by birth and continue to be so. But I cook non vegetarian food as other members of my family like to eat non vegetarian food.

In this segment you will find some very tried and tested traditional recipes and some recipes that are different than their original version.

The first recipe is Instant Dhokla or Steamed Savoury Squares



I had got this recipe from my friend who made it using rawa/sooji/semolina as the main ingredient. I liked the idea and so started doing it often and substituting  rawa with other available flours I had in my pantry. One big hit was using the Aamboli Flour. Aamboli is a type of Dosa. The flour is made of washed/soaked dried rice to which some urad dal is added along with methi/fenugreek seeds. The flour is mixed 10 to 12 hours before making Aamboli. You will find the recipe for Aamboli flour.


Ingredients:
1 cup Aamboli flour *
1/2 cup rawa/sooji/semolin or idli rawa
1/2 cup sour buttermilk or 1/4 cup sour curds/yougurt/dahi mixed with 1/4 cup water
1 tsp fresh ground ginger and green chilly paste
1 sachet or 15 gms or 1 tblsp eno or any other fruit salt
Salt to taste
oil for greasing the thali/baking tray


For tempering:
1 tblsp oil
1 tsp  till / seasame seeds
1 tsp alshi / flax seeds
1/4 thsp rai / mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera / cumin seeds
5 to 6 methi seeds / fenugreek seeds
a pinch of hing / asefotida
a few curry leaves cut finely

Method:

Mix Amboli flour and rawa, add salt and slowly add the buttermilk to make a lump free and smooth batter. 
Add more water if necessary to make it to idli batter consistency or thick coating consistency. 
Add ginger chilly paste and keep aside for 10 minutes. 
In the mean time prepare the steamer or keep a big vessel with water to boil and put a greased thali (a plate with an inch high edge) or a baking tray in it. 
Now sprinkle the Eno/fruitsalt over the batter and stir gently to mix well. 
Do not beat the batter but use cut and fold method. 
You will see the batter becoming bubbly and light. 
Pour in to the prepared hot thali/baking tray. 
Cover and steam for 20 to 30 minutes. 
Remove and let cool for two minutes.

Prepare tempering by putting  oil in the tempering pan or a small vessel, when hot add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, seaseme seeds, fenugreek seeds and flax seeds and let splutter. Switch off heat and add asefotida and curry leaves and pour over the steamed batter. Spread evenly with a spatula and cut into squares or diamonds and serve with chutney of your liking. 















To make it more interesting and healthy you can add 1/4 cup sweet corn kernels/sprouts/green peas/grated carrots or any chopped greens like spinach or methi leaves to the batter before adding the fruit salt.

This is a quick and healthy snack to be had anytime of the day. 

* to make Amboli flour
Wash and soak 1 kg rice and 100 gms urad dal  and 50 gms methi / fenugreek seeds let dry for 8 to 10 hours or till completely dry. Ground it to a coarse rawa/semolina/sooji like texture. Use as required. 

Summing up the A to Z Mega Marathon Sept. 2013

Whole of September I was busy posting and commenting on other posts in the wonderful Food Blogging Marathon # 32 held by Srivalli at http://spicingyourlife.blogspot.in/ 

The theme was A to Z,  one alphabet each day. There were 4 days off so we had 26 days of blogging with 4 days of rest.

I had made some of the recipes in August and drafted them earlier. Some I made the previous day and posted as soon as they were done.

Cooking and photographing each step as I was doing was a bit cumbersome as I had to wash my hands and pick up the camera and photograph what I was doing. Then again proceed with cooking further. So washing and wiping hands took most of the time than actually cooking. But it was a good experience and another of my hidden skills got better.

 It was a huge commitment and I am happy to say inspite of many glitches, due to lack of expert computer skills, I managed to fulfil it very satisfyingly.

Learned a bit about food photography from my daughter Kaanchan. Thank you K for the quick lessons in food photography.

Here is a recap of what I did the whole month long. It started on 2nd September with A

http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/a-alu-wadi-these-are-made-as-side-dish.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/food-blogging-marathon-32-b.html




http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/food-blogging-marathon-32-c.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/food-blogging-marathon-32-d.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/food-blogging-marathon-32-food-blogging.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/fruit-raita.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/grated-potato-pancake.html




http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/hot-pot-soup.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/indian-savoury-cake.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/jackfruit-steamed-cakes.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/khandvi.html




http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/lasuni-kabab.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/misal-paav.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/nutty-nutmeg-cookies.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/onion-crisps.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/peppy-peppers.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/quiche-food-blogging-marathon-from.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/roasted-vegetables-with-pasta.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/sol-kadhi.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/tiramisu-style-dessert.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/ukdiche-modak.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/vegetarian-shepherds-pie.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/walnut-cupcakes.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/xacuti.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/yam-hot-sweet-and-sticky-style.html



http://sandhyasudhir.blogspot.in/2013/09/zunka.html



I enjoy reading your comments so if you feel to do so please go ahead and post.

Now getting ready for the All Indian States Marathon to be held in April 2014. Planning cooking and photographing has already started.

Yam Hot, Sweet and Sticky Style

Yam Hot, Sweet and Sticky Style

Food Blogging Marathon from 2/9/2013 to 30/9/2013. 

Each day a new alphabet. 4 categories. 

Regional Food, 

Baked Dishes, 

International Flavors / Fusion flavors, 

Street Food / Condiments / Misc / Recipe less Posts on Food

I was thinking of something with Yam for alphabet Y and I did not want to make the regular yam curry or Yam Bhaaji which we make to eat with chapatis or rice. I happen to see a cookery show which was showing some  street food recipes from Malaysia and Indonesia. There was this pork recipe which had interesting flavours and looked good. It was some sort of sour/sticky/hot and sweet reicpe. I don't like vinegar so I substituted that with tamarind. 

Here is my 7th recipe for International / fusion category. This was to be a baked recipe but somehow I ended with this as an extra in this category and one less in baked category. 

Ingredients:

250 gms Yam cut into pieces as shown

3 - 4  tamarind pieces

1 big onion

2 tblsp chopped garlic

2 tblsp chopped ginger

2 tblsp chopped green chillies

4 tblsp brown sugar or jaggery ( I used jaggery)

salt to taste

4 tblsp oil

Method:

Boil the yam pieces with tamarind and salt till they are cooked but not very soft. 

Drain well and let cool. remove all the tamarind pieces.

Heat oil and add chopped onion, garlic, ginger and chillies, stir till raw smell of garlic goes and it becomes golden brown.

Add the yam pieces and mix gently but well. 

Once all the jaggery is dissolved and the pieces are well coated serve hot garnished with a few pieces of coriander leaves.

Serve this as a snack. 

Note: It is very important to cook Yam with the tamarind. Some times yam gives irritation or itchy feeling to the throat. Tamarind helps in removing this irritation. It also gives the sour taste to the yam and helps in retaining the shape and does not get over cooked. 

Logo by Preeti.

Zunka

Zunka

Food Blogging Marathon from 2/9/2013 to 30/9/2013. 

Each day a new alphabet. 4 categories. 

Regional Food, 

Baked Dishes, 

International Flavors / Fusion flavors, 

Street Food / Condiments / Misc / Recipe less Posts on Food

"Zunka" is my 8th regional recipe and it comes from Maharashtra. It is the most famous regional recipe from rural areas. It is a quick and easy recipe. As always there are hundreds of ways to make this. Some prefer it very dry and this version is taken on travels specially pilgrimages which go on for many days. Others make it less dry sort of thick gravy like. If it is pourable consistency then it is called "PITHLA" .  Zunka is eaten with "Bhakri"which is roti made from jwari/jowar/sorghum,  bajri/millet, ragi/nachani/red millet or rice flour. 
When I was doing this after the onions were transluscent I poured the besan as mentioned and covered and forgot to take the next photographs. My husband and I were also very hungry and so as soon as the Zunka was ready I served us and we happily ate. It was only as I removed the leftover Zunka in a smaller vessel that I remembered that I had to take photographs. So I have photos half way through and then the end product for you to see. :( Sorry. 

Here is my recipe for alphabet Z - Zunka

Ingredients: 

 1 cup besan/chickpea flour
1 big onion thinly sliced
8 to 10 garlic
1+ 1/2 cup sour buttermilk
small lemon size ball of tamarind
a sprig of curry leaves
salt to taste



For tempring :
4 to 6 tblsp oil for tempering
1/4 tsp rai/mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
1/4 tsp haldi/turmeric powder
a big pinch methi/fenugreek seeds
a big pinch of hing/asefotida powder
1 tsp red chilli powder or to taste

For garnish
finely cut fresh coriander leaves

Method:

Mix besan in one cup sour buttermilk. Make lump free batter. If you don't have sour buttermilk then mix in with 1+ 1/2 cup of tamarind water. For tamarind water, soak tamarind for 15 minutes in  water and then gently squeeze and strain and use. Do not squeeze out the pulp or it will become very sour and the colour too will be brownish and not very appetising to look. Add salt to taste. Add the curry leaves, salt and red chilli powder. Mix well. Keep aside.


In a thick bottom pan or a kadhai heat oil till hot and add mustard seeds, wait till they splutter and then add cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds. Add asefotida. 






Add garlic and fry till golden brown. 









Add onions and cover and cook for two minutes or till translucent. 







Now pour the besan mixed with sour buttermilk and stir and cover and cook for 2 minutes on high heat. Remove cover, stir and cover again and cook for 8 to 10 minutes on low heat. Stir in between to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pan. Zunka is ready when the raw smell of the besan goes and it all comes together. 


Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot with bhakri or roti of your choice and sliced onion and green chillies. 






I have served  regular wheat roti here as we had finished the bhakris. Also the reason for small amount of Zunka. Had thought of cooking again but last few days I was away from home and computer too. Soon I will add a better photograph of Zunka with Bhakri. But for today it is too late :)

Walnut Cupcakes

Walnut Cupcakes

Food Blogging Marathon from 2/9/2013 to 30/9/2013. 

Each day a new alphabet. 4 categories. 

Regional Food, 

Baked Dishes, 

International Flavors / Fusion flavors, 

Street Food / Condiments / Misc / Recipe less Posts on Food

My friend requested me to make some cupcakes with hardly any time to do anything fancy. She did not want icing as it was a gathering of older women and she did not want chocolate as many older people do not like chocolate so much. Plus she wanted something nice and not very ordinary. I was thinking of some fruit but did not have any on hand. Luckily I had walnuts and so I thought of making Walnut Cupcakes with coffee flavour. Flavours that adults would like and fill al my friend's criteria for her request. 

So here is a simple and quick fool proof recipe for good cupcakes. 

Ingredients:

150 gms butter

1 1/2 cup flour

1  cup sugar

2 tblsp instant coffee powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup milk 

1 tblsp lemon juice

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

some walnuts halves to decorate

Melt and cool butter. Add lemon juice to the milk and stir. Add warm water to the coffee and stir to dissolve. Add sugar to the melted and cooled butter and stir to dissolve. Add half the milk and dissolved coffee and mix well. Add the flour and baking powder and baking soda and mix well. Add rest of the milk and beat well for 2 to 4 minutes. 

Drop a spoonful of the cake batter into greased cupcake moulds and tap the mould to spread the batter evenly. Press one half walnut in each cupcake. I got 17 cupcakes. If you fill a little carefully you should get 18. 

Bake in hot oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes or till done.

The delicious Walnut Coffee cupcakes are ready to serve. 

This is my 5th recipe in baked category.

Logo by Preeti.