Toasted Coconut Biscuits

In India it is customary to accompany every cup of chai you serve with some biscuits. Mind you, an Indian biscuit is different from the American one. While an American refers to a savory quick bread as a biscuit, in India and I guess, in every country where the British have left their mark, a biscuit is a hard, dunk-able cookie somewhat like a shortbread... but necessarily buttery, that accompanies a common man's cup of chai.

Maa-er Narkel Diye Cholar Dal ( Split Bengal gram with Coconut )

Maa's cholar dal has been one of my favorite dishes for as long as I can remember. 

My husband joined the club soon after we got married.  

But no matter how hard I tried, it wasn't easy to replicate the taste of her dal  until she shared her special tips with me  last summer . Ever since I have been flaunting her recipe at every gathering I can and thought it would be the most appropriate dish to begin the New year with....

Coconut and Banana Oatmeal Cookies

I have had a serious crush on this oatmeal cookie recipe since last summer...

The original recipe is Dorie's (but of course) and for the past one year I have been relentlessly playing around with her list of ingredients only to treat my family into awesome wholemeal cookies each time.  

Kokharu Khatta (Pumpkin Chutney Odiya style)

Growing up I wasn't ever allowed to snub off any curry or veggie that was served. The house rule was you eat whatever is given, no excuses and no special meals for anyone. That forced my dad to try the dishes that mom grew up eating, mom learnt to cook the dishes dad grew up eating and I in turn got a peep of whatever both my grandma's cooked for my parents and their siblings.

Hummingbird Bars

For a while I have had Paula Deen's Hummingbird Cake in my to-bake list. But baking a three-tier cake with cream-cheese frosting does not make much sense unless you are baking for a crowd. So naturally, I had put the idea off for the time being when the inspiration for this lightened and somewhat healthier version of a Hummingbird Cake struck... a Hummingbird Bar ! If you've been here before , you probably have guessed already when and from where the inspiration came... Yes it was those Chocolate Banana Bars !

Blueberry Coconut Friands(Glutenfree)

Happy Mother's Day to all of you ! Hope you all had the most wonderful time with your mothers and your babies... As for us, we had a lovely time with our family friends in the playground, playing with the  boys and eating pizzas for lunch and since all celebrations call for a cake, I baked these Blueberry Coconut Friands later in the afternoon  and enjoyed them for tea... Wish I had thought of baking them earlier for they would have been the perfect treat for our picnic of sorts... 

Whole Wheat Coconut Muffin Buns

I am not sure if in some other world these whole wheat coconut muffin buns are standard. They ought to be.. They are cute, tasty and delicious. They are everything  you would want to wake up to on a Sunday morning or for that matter any other day of the week. I have a feeling that with a glaze of coconut syrup they might make the ultimate breakfast muffin buns... but I am yet to verify the latter..

As many of you might have recognized, these buns were inspired by the famous Dilkhush Buns. Literally translated, Dilkhush means "makes you happy" and the traditional Dilkhush buns do just that... make you happy with their pillowy soft milk bread casing and coconut-dry fruit-and-tuttti frutti stuffing.  

My muffin buns do the same... though they have a whole wheat potato bread casing rather than a white milk bread. 

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..

Turnip with Coconut

Though Indian dishes cooked with coconut are usually associated with South Indian cuisine, coconut is a common ingredient used in most of coastal India. We, Bengalis tend to use it a lot, specially for flavoring our lentils and cooking root vegetables like carrots and radishes. I probably had that at the back of my mind, when the other day I tossed in some grated coconut into the pan of grated turnip ... the result was a lovely side dish to go with dhal and roti.  Both husband and I liked it and husband instantly recommended it for the blog.

My husband is fond of roasted potatoes and at his suggestion I added some while preparing the dish today. The potatoes do add to the flavor and also help increase the volume of the dish. However roasting the potatoes take time. So if you are in hurry and do not mind the extra oil, pan fry the potatoes or skip them altogether, you'll still have a lovely side for your meal..

Mangalorean Goli Bajje # South vs North Nov' Challenge

This month Priya Suresh of Priya's Versatile Recipes challenged the Northern Group of SNC team to make Goli Bajje.

These deep-fried snacks are a specialty of Mangalore in Southern Karnataka. Unlike most other deep-fried snacks from South India, these are not made out of urad dhal. So no soaking or grinding is required for them. Traditionally these bajjes are prepared from an overnight-fermented-batter. However I did not plan them well in advance so ended up making them with a batter that had rested only for an hour. Though we enjoyed them as they were, I am pretty sure that overnight fermentation would have accentuated the flavors of these Bajjes.

Typically Mangaloreans enjoy Goli Bajjes with tea. We however  had some of it as a side for lunch with Gujrati Kadhi and Aloo-methi and thought they complimented the meal very well.

Eggless Piña Colada Cake

Its been a while since I baked with Gayathri's Baking Eggless Group.  The August challenge was difficult and September challenge had too many steps. I couldn't get them right, so saving the recipe for later I decided to move on.. In October  Meena Thenappan of Chettinad Fiesta challenged us to bake this beautiful Pina Colada Cake.

According to me, the real deal of the challenge was to make an "eggless sponge cake" and then infuse it with the flavors of Pina Colada. While I have baked many eggless cakes before,  I hadn't yet tried a eggless sponge cake, so I took this challenge seriously. Initially I tried tweaking a couple of standard sponge cake recipes but that did not go too well. So finally I had to resort to a tried and tested recipe. I chose this eggless sponge cake recipe from My Diverse Kitchen, adapted the methods slightly and viola... I had a lovely moist eggless sponge cake in hand !

Once the cake was made impregnating it with the flavors of Pina Colada was an easy job. I simply sliced the cake in half, soaked each half in a coconut cream solution, sandwiched a pineapple-coconut layer between them, then slathering the cake generously with Cool Whip whipped cream, I sprinkled coconut powder on top and thats it... my Pina Colada Cake was ready to go... The final product was really delicious. I can easily imagine myself making this cake for special occasions. It is a lovely dessert that is sure to please everyone.

Coconut Ricotta Bites with Lime syrup

Today is the second Thursday of the month. Hence the reveal day of  

BEHIND THE CURTAIN DESSERT CHALLENGE  !!

The two assigned ingredients for the month were coconut and lime and since that did not seem like a very difficult combination for a dessert, i decided to join in this month. now feeling all adventurous i next decided on trying these flavors on an Indian sweet and the first thing that came up my mind was a famous Odiya sweet namely, Chhena Poda.  Even Mr MN thought it might be a good idea, so i went ahead and baked this authentic Odiya dessert with a twist of ingredients and transformed it into delicious Coconut Ricotta bites with Lime syrup. 

Taralli Dolce nidi con Mandorla Uovo di Pasqua (Sweet Taralli nest with Almond Easter Eggs)

It was Simply Food's event  Flavors of Italy  hosted at Divya's Culinary Journey that got me addicted to Italian cooking... and for the past one and a half months whenever i have been in the mood for something special I have wandered the Italian route.. so naturally for Easter  I wanted to cook/bake  something Italiano. and my search yielded a cookie and a cake, two sweet recipes that i really wanted to try. the first one was Taralli Dolci di Pasqua and I'll tell you more about the second once its baked...

Back in February I had baked a version of Sweet Taralli. It was without eggs and it had tasted nice and delicate. but the techniques involved in making those were slightly different. For instance, that recipe did not call for boiling the dough before baking it. so i was keen to try this version out just to see how different these taste... and what i found was that, taste-wise the two do not strike any resemblance. the textures are completely different. the merely baked ones are more cookie like, while this one has a different but lovely texture all together. something that you'll love with your afternoon tea or coffee.. 

Though I usually tend to use egg substitutes in baking, for this set of Taralli I simply followed the ingredient list. Because a note following the recipe said, "eggs are a symbol of fertility and rebirth and so are often present in Easter feast day dishes" and it felt wrong to meddle with the symbolic traditions. and I am actually glad that i did that. the only place where i wandered away from the recipe was in including some fennel seeds in the dough and shaping the Taralli. The fennel seeds were actually a nice touch but I wish I would have followed the instructions for shaping the Taralli. For after boiling some of my Taralli cookies looked pretty deformed, something that you might want to avoid.  

Now over to the recipe of Taralli Dolce nidi con Mandorla Uovo di Pasqua and some snaps that I hope will tempt you to try these out sometime soon....

Adapted Recipe of Taralli Dolci is from here. 

ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour 

1 teaspoons baking powder 

1/4 teaspoon salt 
3 large eggs 

1/8 cup extra-virgin olive oil 

1/8 cup Cooking Marsala Wine
1/2 cup sugar 
2 tablespoons of Fennel Seeds

for the lemon glaze

1 cup confectioner's sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

what i did

• Along with the baking powder and salt, I sifted the flour and kept the mixture aside on a dinner plate.
• then in a glass bowl I began beating the eggs. 
• next i added the oil to it and whisked the 2  together.
• after the eggs and the oil was well combined I added the Marsala Cooking Wine and whisked some more. 
• i then added the sugar and fennel seeds to the liquid mixture and whisked.
• once all the ingredients in the bowl were well combined i gradually folded in the flour a little bit at a time. when the mixture became more dough-like i transferred it to the plate containing the rest of the flour and gradually kneaded it in. I then continued kneading the dough until it was smooth. the recipe asked to knead until the dough was smooth and shiny.. but even after kneading for quite sometime my dough did not look very shiny. so i assumed that the dough should look as "shiny" as mine did and proceeded to the next step, which was to shape the dough into a log, wrap the log in a plastic wrap, place it in a container and let the container rest at room temperature for an hour covered it with a towel.
• after an hour, i boiled a large pan of water , removed the dough from the container, placed it on my wooden dicing board and cut out 1/2 thick slices of the log. then rolling the dough on the floured wooden board i made long ropes of different thickness. and after shaping the ropes into circles by pinching the ends, i placed 3 taralli  at a time in the boiling pan of water.
• once the taralli floated up to the surface of the water, i removed them and placed them in a tray while i dropped in another 3 taralli loops in the boiling water and continued the process till all the taralli were boiled. i then moved the boiled sweet taralli into a dry tray and let them air-dry over night. at this point the boiled taralli looked like this...

• next morning, i preheated the oven to 375 degree F, and in a well greased baking sheet baked the sweet taralli for 25-27 minutes, until they were golden brown. and after cooling them on the baking sheets for a while, when i served the taralli on the table they looked like this..

• since Mr MN wanted them a little sweeter, so later that day I made a lemon glaze combining the listed ingredients and dipped one side of the Taralli in the glaze and set them to dry for half an hour before chomping one in :)

notes and confessions.

• in the recipe they had asked to roll the dough slices into 3/4 inch thick, 9 inch long ropes. but i thought deviating a bit would not matter so i did.  but it mattered. so if you are planning to make these try sticking with the recipe at this point.
• according to the recipe it is sufficient to leave the boiled taralli to air-dry for an hour before baking them. but since it was late and the recipe gave the option of leaving them to air-dry over night I grabbed the later.
• well, i told you that i liked the fennel seeds in it. but Mr MN thought otherwise. so you can reduce the amount you put or opt it out if you like. some versions of sweet taralli include it and while others don't. so its up to you whether or not the include the fennel seeds.

the Almond Easter eggs..
the almond eggs were an afterthought to make up for the appearance of the Sweet taralli. but they turned out quite well.. so if you like, you can quickly whip up some of these to fill up some tiny gaps in your Easter table... i am sure your family and friends will enjoy these very much..

ingredients
30 Almonds

1/4 cup Nestle Premier White Morsels 

2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar

2 tablespoons of milk

1/3 cup coconut powder 
food coloring (1 used Wilton's blue, red and green Icing colors)

what i did
first of all i spread the coconut powder on a quarter plate and microwaved the morsels along the sugar and milk for 40 seconds. then stirred it with a spoon to make a smooth paste of the morsels, divided the paste into 3 small bowls and added the 1 icing color in each bowl with a toothpick. once the color was uniformly mixed in the morsel paste, i allowed the paste to rest on the counter for about 10-15 minutes. after that i dipped the almonds in them and scooping the color coated almonds with a spoon, put them on the plate with coconut powder. since it was not easy to dredge the coated almonds with the coconut powder immediately, i let them rest on the plate for about 5-7 minutes before rolling them over in the coconut powder and shaping them like eggs. After all the almonds were coated with morsel paste, dredged in coconut powder and shaped like eggs, i let them rest on a plate till they hardened (about 30 minutes) and were ready to be popped in ! 

Hope you enjoyed both recipes as much as i enjoyed presenting them for you... do fill me up with your notes and suggestions. i'll love to hear.

Happy Baking and take care...