29.3.14

Nariyal Samosa (Coconut and Lime Samosa)

Unless we have company, I usually do not prepare evening snacks. A cookie or a toast is good enough with our evening tea. We like an early dinner. It isn't like that at my parent's place. They like to munch on something for tea and then have dinner around 9 - 9:30 at night... sometimes even later. Not a very healthy habit... but that is how it is... Earlier, when I was small my mother used to prepare one sweet and one savory snack everyday. Again not healthy... but that was how it was.. With time the number of snacks reduced to one but she still makes a little something everyday... and sometimes when I ask her for ideas for the blog she tells me what she prepared the evening before. That is how I was reminded of this Nariyal Samosa..
   

These samosas are a bit different from the ones that you get in the Indian stores. Typically it takes some time to prepare the stuffing for the Samosas.. but you barely need to no anything for these. Just spice up some grated coconut with green chili, add chopped onions and coriander to it, squeeze some lime juice, season with salt and sugar and your stuffing is all set. 

This recipe is my grandmother's....


After the Indian-Pakistan partition, owing to the unstable job scenario in Bangladesh, many of my mother's cousins from Bangladesh came to India and lived with them for a good many years. That meant that in addition to her family of five, my grandmother had to prepare meals for four to five more people everyday for all those years. I guess quick-fix snacks and meals would have been her saviors during that phase..  I am not sure if she bickered about the extra work load back then.. but in the years that followed I have only heard my grandmother, mother, uncles and aunt talk very fondly of the times they spent together..

I made these a couple of week's back when my cousin was here. She helped me take the step-wise photographs that you see below. In case the samosa fold feels like too much work, fold the dough empanada-style and fry them. I do not when I have to make bigger batches..


28.3.14

Vegetable Barley Soup with the Taste of Little India # French Fridays with Dorie

The flavors of this week's assignment for French Fridays with Dorie  weren't foreign to me. Garam Masala, turmeric and ginger are pantry staples in every North Indian household and it was good to be in familiar domains for a change.


This soup was quite simple to prepare. All we had to do was to saute some onions, garlic and ginger in one tablespoon of  olive oil, cover and cook chopped carrots and parsnips in it, then stir in the barley, add chicken broth or water, season with salt and red pepper and simmer the soup until the barley was completely cooked. From start to finish it took me about an hour to cook the soup. 

Considering that the grain in the soup was barley, I was a bit apprehensive about my husbands reaction towards it. He however did not seem to mind it at all. He simply added a dollop of yogurt to his bowl and quickly finished it. Seeing him I too added some yogurt to my bowl and later felt like it was the missing piece from the recipe. The yogurt helped in balancing out the heat from the ginger and garam masala and also added some tanginess to it. Overall we liked the Vegetable Barley Soup and I will probably make it again. 




Visit French Fridays with Dorie to know what the other members thought about the Soup. You can find the original recipe here For more such delicious recipes order your copies of Around my French Table and join the Doristas in this tasty adventure.

I shall be sharing this recipe at all these parties.

25.3.14

Tasty Tuesday #54
featuring delectable breakfast, dinner and dessert recipes...

Hi  everyone !! 
 Each week, our team of 10 amazing bloggers hosts this fabulous party! We're so glad that you've stopped by to party with us!
Image Map


Without you, we wouldn't have a party at all. So we think you're pretty special and deserve to benefit from linking up with us each week. Here's how:

Irene's Lentil Soup with Turnip and Pounded nuts
& Weekly Menu Plan

A few weeks back I mentioned to you the Italian Cookbook that I am crushing on these days... Cooking with Italian Grandmothers... from Tuscany to Sicily. I tried a few more recipes from it over the last few weeks and cooked this particular lentil soup twice in two subsequent weeks. Well I had to... for turnips are in season and this soup is so healthful and delicious. 

This recipe is again by Irene of Piedmontese, Bra and bears her characteristic earthy style. It is a slow food as opposed to fast food, and the original recipe featured one of the Slow Food Presidia products, namely the locally grown yellow fleshed Caprauna turnipsI however cooked it with the regular white turnips that are showing up in the vegetable aisles these days. Also instead of puy or beluga black lentils, that the author suggests, I cooked the soup using red lentils and used a combination of pecans and pistachios for garnish instead of walnuts.


Before going into the recipe let me tell you about an interesting project that I learnt about in this book... the Slow Food Presidia Project. In the words of the author, "it is an organization  that was created in 1989 in Italy to counteract the trend towards fast food and a faster life. It promoted the values of traditional foods and their preparation, the pleasures of table, of conviviality, and a life lived in connection to one's local terrain."  Though these are the very values that I grew up with, under circumstantial pressure I have often found myself losing sight of them and ordering fast food instead of cooking a nourishing meal for the family. The objectives of the Presidia sounded like a solemn reminder to go back to the basic values and stay rooted... a thought that is well worth remembering and imbibing in our fast changing lives... 


20.3.14

My Mother's Special Gujiya


Gujiya is one sweet that most North Indians symbolize with Holi... but that I learnt only in my freshman year in college. At home, my mother used to make them all the time. Father and I liked them much, so Maa would often make them to go with the evening chai or just like that, as munchies after a long day's work. She even packed some in my tuck box when I left for college and that is when I realized how good and special her Gujiyas were. My friends loved them and reminded me to get some back after the holidays. Maa obliged and soon that became a ritual...a ritual that continued even after my marriage. I believe she would have continued to pamper us with her supplies had we still been in India... but... we are not... So the other day, at my request, Maa finally parted with her special recipe and said I could share it with all of you if I liked....  

Anyone who has had Gujiya  will testify that besides the filling, a crunchy crust is the next best thing about it. Often, a wrong  proportion of ingredients and incorrect frying temperatures are considered responsible for a not-so-crisp exterior. Maa says, besides taking those obvious precautions, one also needs to add a bit of sugar syrup to the dough mixture while kneading it. According to her, this little detail does wonders to the texture of the crust. My grandmother had apparently cracked this halwai's-secret and had shared it with Maa and she claims that it is this little thing that makes her sweets stand out. I tried out her trick this time and was so thrilled with the outcome.. 


The initial plan was to take some of the sweets to our friend's place and play Holi there. But it got too cold to go out, so we smeared colors on each others faces and celebrated Holi at home with colors and my mother's special Gujiya....


Now a quick word about Mawa , before I go on to the recipe...

Mawa, also known as Khoya, is made by simmering full-fat milk over low medium heat for hours until it reduces to a mass of slightly caramelized granular dough-like milk solids. If you have the time and energy, you can make your own Mawa at home, just as Maa did,  or like me, you can skip the hard work and buy your mawa from the Indian store... (You can find the recipe here.

18.3.14

Tasty Tuesday #53 featuring healthy and hearty family meals and something sweet for the sweet-toothed...

Hi  everyone !! 
 Each week, our team of 10 amazing bloggers hosts this fabulous party! We're so glad that you've stopped by to party with us!


Without you, we wouldn't have a party at all. So we think you're pretty special and deserve to benefit from linking up with us each week. Here's how:

Gourmet Soda Crackers # Baking Partner's Challenge

Wish you all happy Holi and happy St Patrick's Day. Oh ! the day is almost over.... nevertheless... Hope you all celebrated the holidays with family, friends and great food. As for us we celebrated both the holidays in our sweet way. We attended a St Patrick's Parade yesterday..


and played Holi today....


We also had soda bread for breakfast, green strata for dinner and finished the day with Gujiya, a sweet that North Indians often synonymize with Holi. So yes.. we celebrated both the holidays and our little one was beyond thrilled....  More on that soon.. right now let me tell you about the Gourmet Soda Crackers that I baked for Baking Partner's Challenge this month..



This month Arthy of Cook with Arthy Shama challenged the Baking Partner's with the following recipes:
  • Gourmet Soda Crackers from Flourish
  • Graham Crackers from the Smitten Kitchen
Until challenged I had no idea about yeast-risen crackers. I used to think that all crackers followed the same basic flour-fat-baking powder formula for the dough and differed only in their seasonings. Well I was clearly wrong. Another fact that I learnt from this challenge is that the tiny holes that characteristically dot all crackers aren't "designs." They are called docking holes and they serve a purpose. While baking, these tiny holes help release the air from the crackers thereby keeping them from getting all puffed up. (Forget to punch a few holes in your dough squares and you'll know what exactly I am talking about. )  

I had initially planned on trying both the crackers... but then life got on the way. Nevertheless I am happy that I tried the Soda Crackers first for they were really great. Accompanied by hummus, the first batch of crackers vanished within minutes of being baked. The second and final batch met the same destiny.. however I was a bit more careful the second time and snapped the crackers before offering them away for loot ;) 

15.3.14

Sausage-Stuffed Cornish Hens # French Fridays with Dorie

For this Friday, the Doristas were assigned to cook Sausage-Stuffed Cornish Hens.


I had really been looking forward for this week's assignment. I had spotted this recipe soon after getting my copy of the book . It had reminded me of my mother's stuffed chicken roast, the dish that used she took pride in and cooked only for very special guests. Her chicken roasts used to be deliciously infused with a mix of Afghan and Indian flavors. I guess she had found the recipe in one of the cooking magazines that she read from cover to cover. While her new finds constantly replaced the old ones, some recipes like the stuffed chicken roast continued to be the show stopper in many of her dinner parties...  


Compared to the stuffed chicken roast of my childhood, Dorie's recipe of the sausage-stuffed cornish hens felt much simpler and easy to put together... delicious nevertheless. I could easily pull it off on a weeknight without much fuss or preparation. No overnight brining, no marination was required. All I had to do was to prepare the sausage stuffing, loosely stuff the hen with it, heavily season and oil-massage its exterior,  then roast the hen using the side-side-back method also referred to as the hurry-up-and-wait chicken roast method. 

Few months back the Doristas reviewed Dorie's Hurry-up-and-wait chicken roast. I had skipped FFwD that week but had tried the recipe later... Since this week's recipe involves the same method, I thought it would be appropriate to share my views on that here....


Okay, let me quickly elaborate on the "hurry-up-and-wait" chicken roast method. This method is inspired by the famous French chef, Joël Robuchon. When in a hurry, he advises on roasting the bird at a high temperature, turning it  from one side to another at 15 to 25 minutes interval, depending on the size of the fowl, then laying it on its back for about 5 to 10 minutes before removing it from the oven and giving the fowl a feet-in-the-air rest for 5 to 10 minutes.


During those last 5-10 minutes of feet-in-the-air-moments he recommends tenting the roast with a foil. Dorie says that that final step is a crucial part of his method as it  allows the juices to return to the breast, thereby producing the most succulent chicken roasts ever. As tedious and cumbersome as the method looks/sounds, it produces real juicy roasts and has ever since become my favorite way of roasting chickens....

So I was  happy to try it on the stuffed cornish hens as well and as always the method delivered. I must however mention here that it was much easier to execute the method on the cornish hen as I could easily lift it up by the legs and rest it  on the edges of the pan in that inverted position... 

Giving the Roasted Cornish hen a feet-in-the-air treatment..

Now about the stuffing.. For that, all we had to do was to saute some finely chopped onions and garlic in a oil and butter mixture, cook the chopped sausages in it, cool the mixture before adding diced bread, a beaten egg, some parsley and salt and pepper to it. I on my part could not help throwing in some peas, chopped olives, bit of red wine and a fillet of anchovy into the skillet. With all the additions, I had quite a bit of stuffing left which I added to the sauce of butter and white wine. The outcome was lovely. We really enjoyed our halves of the stuffed cornish hen with rice, roasted veggies and the delicious sauce.... Even the little boy seemed to like his portion of  the chicken without the stuffing. So dinner time was sweet and unfussy... the way I would love each of our mealtimes to be..... 


Visit French Fridays with Dorie to know what the other members thought about the stuffed roast. You can find the cornish-hen recipe here and the recipe for Hurry-up-and-wait chicken roast here. or more such delicious recipes order your copies of Around my French Table and join the Doristas in this tasty adventure.

I shall be sharing this recipe at all these parties.

13.3.14

Roshogollar Payesh # Holi, Guest Post by my sister

I come from a family of great cooks. My grandmother was the best. According to my mother, she could fiddle around with whatever was available and create fabulous dishes out of them. I think, Moni, my aunt, inherited my grandma's skills and passed those genes over to my sister, Didi.....   So soon after announcing the Favorite recipes Event I asked my sister if she would like to do a guest post for me. She readily agreed. I knew she would. She is the enthusiastic one in the house, always enjoying life as it comes and always up for some fun...

An old  photograph of my big family with my grandparents in the center,
my aunt Moni in the top row and
Didi, in the bottom row..the one wearing red turtleneck and blue n white frock 
Now over to my sister, as she reflects on Holi... then and Holi.. now

Holi.....hmmm I remember Holi as in my schooldays ,the festival of colors, drenching in water, having loads of sweets snacks ,house hopping, changing wet clothes from time to time, having fun with friends, no studies, entertaining guests and taking ages to scrub clean at the end of the day. The fun filled day with loads of excitement has now become a memory for me. Presently staying in UK with my family and with very little friends around, Holi is just another day for me.

My sister with her daughter, Sneha
Right now, my 6 year old daughter is trying to get the essence of this festival from Indian movies and television. And on the special occasions, I try to recreate the festive atmosphere in the house by cooking simple desserts such as Roshogollar Payesh, a sweet dish that Maa used to make for us in the good old days...

This is an uncomplicated recipe for those like me who are compelled to be in the kitchen every single day.....

11.3.14

Tasty Tuesday #52, featuring recipes that inspire healthy eating, some inspirations for St Patty's day and a handful of tasty recipes...

Hi  everyone !! 
 Each week, our team of 10 amazing bloggers hosts this fabulous party! We're so glad that you've stopped by to party with us!
Image Map


Without you, we wouldn't have a party at all. So we think you're pretty special and deserve to benefit from linking up with us each week. Here's how:

10.3.14

Two Tartines from la Croix Rouge #French Fridays with Dorie

Sorry. I am a little late for French Fridays this week. Know what I was lost in the aisles of the grocery store trying to figure out where to get the smoked salmon and roast beef from.... And had it not been for Nana, I would still be looking. The thing is, in India we do not have a deli counter. You buy your fruits and vegetables from the local farmers, fresh river water fish at the fish market and lamb and chicken from the butchers. Frozen and tinned foods are  relatively recent introductions into the Indian market but the common man still does not indulge much into them. At least not in the small towns. So it did not strike us for once that the fish and meat might be there in the deli counter.. Thanks to Nana for mentioning the deli, we finally got the ingredients for the tartines yesterday and I fixed them for our Sunday brunch.


Both the tartines were easy to fix. All I had to do was to toast two slices of bread, slather one with butter, another with mayonnaise, place paper thin slices of smoked salmon and rarest roast beef on them, season them appropriately, then top the fish tartine with capers, mayo-beef tartine with gherkin, cut both into 1 inch strips and serve. Oh, in La Croix Rouge, the cafe where these tartines are served, the fish tartine is accompanied by wedges of lemon. However, I substituted those with thin slices of tomato just because there were no lemons and plenty of tomatoes in the house. 


I think my husband was more impressed with his tartine saint germain than I was with my tartine norvégienne.. but then he enjoys his beef more than I enjoy smoked salmon... so that was expected. Anyway, I am glad that I did not skip this French Friday's assignment, for it is good to have easy and healthy fix up like these in ones repertoire. It just makes lunch simpler on busy days.


Visit French Fridays with Dorie to know what the other members thought about the tartines. 


Though these were non-recipes, you if like you can find their details in Dorie Greenspan's book Around my French Table. 


I shall be sharing this at the following parties...



6.3.14

Cinnamon Swirl Eggless "Brioche"

This month Gayathri of Gayathri's Cook Spot challenged the members of the Eggless Baking group to make an eggless version of Barbara's Cinnamon Swirl Brioche.

My first reaction after reading her mail was, "What ? Brioche without eggs ? Really ? "

Initially I had decided to skip this challenge... but the pretty cinnamon swirl and the simplicity of the recipe kept bringing me back to it until I finally decided to give the eggless version try.


I usually use the combination of yogurt and baking soda to make an eggless version of an eggy bread. However the mere substitution felt a little inadequate for an eggless version of brioche. After all it was brioche.. and no ordinary bread. How could a simple substitution render the bread its richness and textural lightness. I discussed with my mother and she suggested an extra helping of yeast. Okay. I said and pondered a little more... until I remembered Reeni's review about the scalded flour method. She had used the method for making a Scandinavian White Bread and had compared its texture to a brioche... I decided to modify the method to adapt the given recipe..

The adaptation however did not seem direct...

You see, the scalded flour method(SFM) requires one to make a starter of scalded dough which is cooled and then kneaded together with the remaining dough ingredients to make the dough for the bread. This meant, involing the SFM would add an extra step to the suggested recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, thereby depriving it off its ease and simplicity, the two things that had attracted me towards this bread at the first place. I thought for a while and then decided to try a simple modificaion. Instead of making a scalded dough starter, I decided to beat the yogurt with boiling hot water, then quickly stir in the remaining ingredients including the flour to the hot yogurt.  I am not sure if that little step helped, or if it was just the right proportion of liquid to flour, but things suddenly fell into place and  soon I recognized the dough as brioche-like... soft, flow-y and unmanageable. Thereon I followed the given recipe and was duly rewarded with a lovely loaf the following day.


To be honest, the loaf wasn't as soft as a brioche from the store but the texture was comparable. It was somewhat like my Hokkaido Milk Bread.. only richer with all the extra butter. We were really happy with it and relished it with our morning and evening tea everyday till it got over...

4.3.14

Puffed Pancake # Tasty Tuesday 51~ the Breakfast edition


Happy Tuesday Everyone !  It is Fat Tuesday and also Pancake day.. hence the perfect excuse for me to share with you my favorite pancake... the Puffed Pancake.
 

They are easy to make and are a delight to serve for breakfast on a weekday or on Sundays..
Puffed Pancake

Recipe by Love Taza
Prep time: 5 minutes                                Cook time: 25 minutes                    Total time: 30 minutes
Yield: 1 9inch puffed pancake


Ingredients
  • 2 large eggs
  • ½ cup milk
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • dash of salt
  • dash of ground cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp butter
Cooking Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 425 ° F.
  2. Whisk all the ingredients in a bowl until a smooth lump free batter is formed.
  3. Melt the butter in a 9 inch pie pan or cake pan.
  4. Pour the batter over the hot melted butter and bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until the pancake is firm and has puffed around the edges.
  5. Serve right away with a helping of fruits and honey or slather with nutella, top with strawberries and enjoy.

 Each week, our team of 10 amazing bloggers hosts this fabulous party! We're so glad that you've stopped by to party with us!


Without you, we wouldn't have a party at all. So we think you're pretty special and deserve to benefit from linking up with us each week. Here's how:

Irene's Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage

The other day I wandered into this lovely book in the library... Cooking with Italian Grandmothers... from Tuscany to Sicily. As the title suggests, the book is a collection of time-honored Italian recipes by Italian Nonnas. In the foreword, Jessica Theoroux describes her book as one about women, food and listening.  As a young chef, she had spent a year travelling around Italy, learning from Italian mothers and grandmothers all about their food, culture and life in general. In her book, she dedicates a chapter to each of the twelve Italian women with whom she spent a considerable time, and shares the recipes that she learnt from them. While each story and recipe has a charm and flavor of its own, the ones I was instantly attracted to, were by Irene of Piedmontese, Bra. Her recipes looked earthy yet intriguing and her approach towards cooking and life in general resonated with the idea that I constantly try to imbibe in our life... "welcome whatever arrives, .. then listen closely and nourish well." 

One of the first dishes that I tried from Irene's menu was her Sweet 'n' Sour Red Cabbage. Apparently, "Irene is known far and wide for her wine-flavored red cabbage.." and once I tried it, I knew the reason why.  Simmered with red wine, apples and caramelized red onions, her slow cooked red cabbage is by far one of the tastiest cabbage sides I have ever tasted. 'The dish makes use of one's leftover wine', and compliments a meal of meat and/or lentils wonderfully....


Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage (Cavolo Rosso)

Prep time: 10 minutes                     Cook time: 55 minutes                           Total time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Serves : 2


Ingredients
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 medium sized red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 thick clove of garlic, crushed
  • 1 pound of red cabbage, shredded (I used half of a medium sized cabbage)
  • 1 small sweet apple, cut into thin wedges (I used red delicious apple)
  • ¼ cup + 2tbsps red wine
  • ½ + ⅛ tsp salt
Cooking Directions
  1. Heat the oil in a medium sized pan.
  2. Add the onions and a pinch of salt and cook till it softens a bit and turns golden, about 5 minutes.
  3. Add the garlic, then the cabbage and apple and stir well to combine.
  4. Cook uncovered for 5 minutes until the cabbage and apple begins to caramelize.
  5. Add the red wine and salt and bring it to a simmer. Then cover the pan and stirring occasionally, cook for 45 minutes.
  6. Know that the cabbage and apple are done when they are tender through but still holding their form.

I shall be sharing this at the following parties..




Like us

Printfriendly

.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...