Savory Polenta...

A month back, polenta serendipitously made an entry into our list of favorites. It so happened that  one Sunday i picked up a packet of cornmeal from our Indian grocery store thinking that i needed it in a recipe whose list of ingredients i could faintly recall. as it turned out the recipe required cornflour and not cornmeal... so the new packet just sat on the counter for a while till i googled and found this basic recipe of polenta. i made it, we enjoyed it and there was demand for more. that made me i look into Alton Brown's recipe of Savory Polenta.. which i slightly modified  to make my own version of savory polenta.

my  Google search had also led me to this article from New York times that talks about the nutritional values of polenta. so all in all i think this one is a healthy flavorful dish that you might want to include in your meals every once in a while.  over the weekend i made it twice. on Friday we had it with a side of fried chicken and on Saturday we had it with veggies in chilly sauce, while Pradyot had it with a generous helping of butter and some lentil soup and we all enjoyed our meals heartily... 

now off to the recipe..

ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup finely chopped onions
• 2 cloves of garlic, grated
• 4 springs of fresh coriander, chopped
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup split red lentil (masoor dal)
• 2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
• 1 cup coarse cornmeal
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• black pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese

what i did

• i pressure cooked the lentil with the celery in 4 cups of water., strained out solid from the cooked dal and kept 3 cups of the lentil water aside.
• i preheated the oven to 350 degree F.
• next i heated the oil in my iron skillet, added the onions, half of the coriander and garlic into it and let it sweat till the onions became soft and translucent. i then added the milk into the skillet, stirred it in with the cooked onion and garlic and poured the whole mixture into the blender and made a smooth puree of it.
• now that all the basic materials were ready, i began heating the lentil water that i had kept aside along with the salt. once the water started boiling i reduced the heat, and started adding  in the cornmeal and the prepared milk-onion puree alternatively into the water, stirring the mixture constantly since the cornmeal tends to get lumpy otherwise. 
• once all the cornmeal and milk-onion puree was added, i switched off the heat, covered the skillet with a aluminium foil and transferred it to the oven to cook for 35-40 minutes. once the mixture turned creamy, i removed it from the oven, added the butter, pepper and Parmesan in it and served it on the table after garnishing with the remaining coriander and some more grated Parmesan.

Nishi likes an extra helping of butter on the polenta, so he usually cuts out small pieces of butter and melts it atop his slices of polenta in the microwave. of course that tastes good and you could try it too if you don't mind an extra helping of fat.

Happy Cooking and don't forget to fill me with your suggestions and comments if you stop by.. you are the reason i write and its always wonderful to hear from you.

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Agrodolce Salads

The other day i tried yet another recipe from Chef Lucinda Scala Quinn's book, namely Carrot   Agrodolce and Zucchini Agrodolce.  Agrodolce is a traditional sweet and sour sauce in Italian cuisine. Its name comes from "agro" which means sour and "dolce" which means sweet.  As the chef mentions in the introduction,   this recipe involves a technique of cooking  in which the  sweet and sour taste  is achieved through the use of sugar and vinegar.  its very simple to cook and has a refreshing flavors just the kind you would want in your salads. 

in the introduction the chef mentions that she often serves them as an antipasti. however we here enjoyed both carrot and zucchini agrodolce as part of our salads with some additional ingredients. while the carrot agrodolce with its  radiance of orange stood out in appearance, both were appealing in taste. in fact it dawned on me later that zucchini aggrodolce would go very well as a filling inside crepes. but i am yet to try that..so can't give you a feedback on that right away... now over to the recipes..

Carrot Agrodolce Salad

1 pound baby carrots, sliced  into matchsticks
1 tablespoon extra-virgin oil

salt to taste

2 tablespoons finely chopped onion

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper

2 teaspoons of dried parsley

2 teaspoons of dried coriander

1 small apple, sliced into matchsticks

4 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese 

what i did

as directed in the book, i placed the carrots, olive oil, salt and 1/3 cup water in a large saucepan over high heat and brought it to boil and cook until the water evaporated.

then i stirred in the onions and cooked for about a minute, added the sugar and mixed, added the vinegar and pepper  and tasted to see how much more salt was required to balance out the sour of the vinegar. i added the salt accordingly and stirred until the carrots got a glaze coating. at this point the the recipe recommended stirring in some mint. since i did not have it i added in the parsley and coriander and stirred them in just before removing my carrot agrodolce from the heat.

now that the carrot agrodolce was ready, i tasted it and felt the need to add something more to strike the right note. you know what i mean.. and then i thought of apples and grated parmesan... and yes. as soon as i added the apples and Parmesan i knew i was ready with a fresh salad for the day... Apple Carrot Agrodolce.... for the Zucchini Agrodolce, i used the same basic ingredients replacing carrots with zucchini. and as the book said, i  followed the exact same procedure of preparation except for sauteing the zucchini in olive oil instead of boiling it in water and then proceeded to  step 2. then as before I added in a matchstick slices of a small apples, some finely shredded lettuce and 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan. and taDaa.... yet another tasty salad was ready...

note: 
the recipe had said red wine vinegar. i however used apple cider vinegar because that is what i had. however you might want to stick to the original recipe. 

p.s : you can find all the recipes from Lucinda's Rustic Italian kitchen here. however you might want to lend the book from the library for the introduction. i kind of have a thing for those :)

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Beer-Battered Asparagus Pakoda

If you follow Chef Giada De Laurentiis... then you have probably seen or tried her Beer battered Asparagus recipe. enticed simply by the idea of using beer in the batter i had pinned the recipe few days back... and last Saturday i probably would have given her version a try if  LIPA, our electricity provider , would have been merciful enough. but as things did not quite turn out that way... i decided to cook by own recipe of Beer-Battered Asparagus Pakodas. ... and surprised myself with the subtle -complexity of  taste that i had created. 

the pakodas were spicy with a hint of sweet-bitterness rendered by the beer... the presence and proportion of garlic and mustard was just right...  and the flavors in the batter seemed to marry so well with the freshness of the asparagus. 

I had never tasted asparagus before coming to US... but driven by my passion to cook with the local products, i started trying out various recipes soon after we moved...  and continued my experiments with it till i realized that Nishi and I liked it best... when marinated in ginger-garlic paste and then cooked with onion, cumin-coriander blend and a paste of wasabi-greek yogurt-and-mustard sauce... so the choice of spices in the batter was not completely random... i knew they would work for asparagus... and for the beer i trusted Chef Giada's expertise and my husband's recommendation of which beer to use .. so that was that... a brief history of how the savory Beer-battered Asparagus Pakodas were born.

 ingredients:

1 bunch of asparagus 

1/4 cup besan(chickpea flour)

1 tablespoon cornflour

2 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste

1 teaspoon onion powder

2 teaspoon dhana jeera powder(also known as Cumin and Coriander blend)

1 teaspoon red chili powder

1 tablespoon mustard sauce(I used Kasundi)

pinch of asafoetida

salt to taste

Dundee Porter Beer 

Oil to deep fry (I used mustard oil)

what i did:

I started by snapping off and discarding the white-hard ends of each asparagus and then cutting them into two halves.

Next I made a batter using all the ingredients from besan to salt, using Porter Beer instead to water. I added the beer a little at a time to get a thick yet smooth batter.(I might have used 1/8 cup of beer. but i wasn't measuring. so i cannot say the exact amount I needed.) The batter was thick enough to be able to 

hold together the spear end and the stem end of the asparagus. 

I then poured mustard oil in a medium sized saucepan to reach a depth of 1 1/2 inches and heated it over medium heat. To check if the oil was ready, I put one drop of the batter in the oil. Once the batter came up without changing color right away I knew that I could start frying my pakodas.

For the Pakodas, I coated the asparagus with the beer batter in batches and dropped them into the oil and fried them until the batter was golden brown. Then transferred the asparagus pakodas to a paper towel to drain of the extra oil.

notes:

On demand, I fried some zucchini and eggplant slices in the same batter the next day... only i substituted the Porter Beer for Dundee Pale Ale this time.  in comparison the taste fell a little flat this time. i am not sure if the batter does not work with zucchini and eggplant or if the substitution of Porter made the difference. Nishi, our house-authority on beer says its the substitution... but right now i can't confirm. for after two consecutive days of fries i was not in the ready for the test-ride..

If you stop by and decide to take the test-ride do fill me with your comments and notes.. I'll love to hear from you and improvise. 

Happy Frying !!

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Chocolat à Gingembre Tartelettes

yesterday.. with all that snow and breeze... all i yearned for all day was... something sweet... something spicy.. something gingery yet gorgeously chocolaty ... so at lunch time... i googled and rampaged the internet in search of that perfect recipe for me... while gingersnap cookies and dark chocolate tart with gingersnap crust were close contenders... by themselves,  they weren't enough. i wanted more. wanted them both all at once.. in a bite... so after returning home i set out to tweak the two and mix-and-match their recipes to create  my own chocolaty-gingery-deliciousness... Chocolat à Gingembre Tartelettes, that is Chocolate in Ginger Tartlets.   the name was an afterthought. after the first bite i was convinced that i had tasted something awesome.. something that demanded a better name than chocolate in ginger tartlets.. so i googled a little more and decided on naming my dessert after a close cousin of it... Tartelettes au Chocolat et Gingembre Confit...

okay.. so with all that exuberance you must have realized by now how happy this dessert made me....  Nishi LOVED it and so did my little one... since we could not resist the sight of chocolate, we had it for breakfast this morning and were absolutely delighted. ... the heat of the ginger balanced out the bitter sweetness of the coffee and chocolates so..oo  well. whats more... the chocolate filling in the tarts  is devoid of any cream or butter. pureed tofu does the work instead while assuring your taste buds all along that they are having nothing but the best...  also, with that added touch Nuttela, I am certain that these tartlets will be a party-winner everytime.... irrespective of whether it is a party for kids or grownups... 

ingredients:

for the tart shells: (using the proportions below i made 15 gingersnap cookies and 6 tart shells)

3/8 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white granulated sugar

1/4 cup unsulphured molasses

1/4 cup cup pureed tofu(i used 7oz lite firm tofu pureed with 1/4 cup applesauce)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 2/3 cups + 6 tablespoon all-purpose-flour

1/3 cup oats flour (i ground old fashioned oats)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 inch ginger freshly grated

7 cloves ground 

for the chocolate filling : (the proportions given here filled the 6 tart shells to the brim)

1/4 cup semi-sweet choco chips

1/2 cup pureed tofu(i used 7oz lite firm tofu pureed with 1/4 cup applesauce)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/8 cup espresso 

3 tablespoon Nutella (Chocolate Hazelnut Spread)

for garnish:

4 almonds grated

3 almonds chopped lengthwise in half

6 raisins chopped in halves.

what i did: 

For the ginger shells, I sifted all the dry ingredients together and kept the mixture aside. Next, I whisked both the sugars and molasses along with butter until the mixture looked smooth and uniform. to this, i then added the pureed tofu, vinegar and grated ginger and beat the mixture some more. finally i folded in the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, 1/4 cup at a time. after a while when the mixture became dough-like and tough to whisk, i kneaded in the remaining dry ingredients into it. then i let the prepared dough rest for about 30 minutes on the kitchen counter.

In the meantime, I  preheated the oven to 350 degrees F; lined a two baking sheets with parchment paper and 6 of a 12 cup muffin tray with paper baking cups and prepared the chocolate filling.

For the chocolate filling, I put the pureed tofu, espresso and vanilla extract in a saucepan and simmered the mixture over low heat for about 3-4 minutes. next i added the semi-sweet chocochips in the mixture  and let it stand for a few minutes until chocolate chips got soft, then i whisked the mixture until it became smooth.  finally i added in the Nutella one tablespoon at a time and stirred some more till the mixture acquired the colour and consistency of chocolate ganache.  

Next, I rolled 15 walnut sized balls and 6 lemon sized balls of the dough. and while i set the walnut sized balls on the baking sheet and put them to bake for 22-25 minutes, i pressed the lemon sized balls against the  walls of the prepared baking cups all the time trying to make sure that the dough walls have an equal thickness on all sides. at this point i also sprinkled some grated almonds into each of the dough shells.

After the first set of ginger cookies were done, I put in the prepared muffin tray into the oven. 25 minutes later when I pulled out the muffin tray from the oven, the "shells" looked somewhat like this...

their centers had puffed up ... but since the gingery bakes were still soft ... so i pressed the center down with a small spoon like this....

and shaped the bakes into gingery tart shells... and this is how the shells looked after being pressed...

I then let the prepared shells rest for a while, about one hour, before pouring the chocolate filling into them. Finally i garnished them with almonds and raisins. and because Valentine's dry is around the corner and I heart my husband and he hearts chocolates, i did one last thing...before putting these chocolate filled ginger shells to refrigerate overnight... I doodled a little chocolate heart on the almond in his tartlet... 

kiddish yet cute... isn't  it :)  

notes and after thoughts

as i mentioned, i adapted the cookie dough recipe from Joy of Baking. There, she tells you to bake the cookies until they are dry and firm on top. That made me bake them for 25 minutes. Though with the added moisture from the chocolate filling, 25 minutes of baking seemed just right for the tart shells, the cookies felt hard. maybe 20-22 minutes of baking time and few hours of cooling would be perfect for the desired snappiness of the cookies. 

since i had not baked eggless gingersnaps before, i set out with a little more ingredients than would be required just for the ginger tart shells. with the extra dough i baked 2 trays of cookies before starting on the  Chocolat à Gingembre Tartelettes. baking the cookies first, helped me decide on how i needed to treat the cookie dough in order to create the ginger shells. 

in the recipe for the chocolate filling i added only 3 tablespoons of Nuttla, because while mixing, that felt very sweet. however it did not seem too sweet after cooling. though the sweetness was perfect for us, if you like your desserts really sweet you can probably add few more spoons of Nuttela in the filling and enjoy the deliciousness....

Happy baking !! and fill me with your notes and comments on this if you stop by... I'll love to hear...

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Bon Vivant #12 - Quixotic Fixes at Summee's Culinary Bites

Healthy Food for Healthy Kids - Event at Nithu's Kitchen

Vardhini's event  Sweet Luv 2013: Event Announcement (CJ #4) at Cooks Joy

Cook like a Celebrity Chef at Food Corner

p.s : Read more:http://www.joyofbaking.com/Gingersnaps.html#ixzz2K5xh4Trw 

Chocolate Avocado Coffee Cake.

okay.. so i am officially addicted to cooking with oats. and if you have been there.. you know exactly what i am talking about. it was past midnight yesterday when i took the first bite of my bake of the day.... Chocolate Avocado Coffee Cake.. mmm.... it tasted good... may be a little more sugar would be better.. but Nishi disagreed. he said it was perfect with his espresso..... that was that... so after two failures, there was a success. Yaay !!

for a while I have had chocolate avocado cake in my mind. i had pinned Joy the Baker's Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake ...  and because Nishi LOVES chocolate and i like avocados i had a good mind to try it out.... but.. somehow i never got around baking it until yesterday... it  thus happened that while baking the strawberry cobbler  the previous night it struck me that the same oats-flour-sugar mixture can be used for the crumb in a coffee cake... and that prompted me to bake this moist flavorful dense chocolaty coffee cake using the aforementioned recipe as a guideline. i must mention here that though i could smell the avocado in the first few minutes of baking... as Joy the Baker said... 'not a lick of it could be tasted' later. it merely substituted the fat required.. with the goodness of avocado. now isn't that lovely.

ingredients

for the cake

1 cup minus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oats flour (i ground old fashioned oats)
2 tablespoons cornflour
3 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup  sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup soft avocado, well mashed
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

for the crumble

3/8 cup oats flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3 tablespoon butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

what i did.

For the crumble, i combined the brown sugar oats, flour, cinnamon and  butter in a bowl till the mixture was coarse and then set it aside.

For the cake, I first preheated the oven to 350 degrees F, greased and floured a 9.25x5.25x2.75 inch  bread loaf pan and set it aside.

Next I combined all the dry ingredients (all-purpose flour to baking soda) except sugar in a bowl and the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and let them stand for a while till the mixture of wet ingredients  became turbid. I then added the sugars to wet mixture, stirred it for a while before beating in the dry ingredients into the wet mixture to form a smooth batter. To this I added the mashed avocado and whipped the batter some more before pouring into the prepared pan and putting it in the oven.

10 minutes later I pulled out the pan and topped the settling batter with the prepared sugar-oats-flour-cinnamon mixture and then put it back in the oven to bake for another 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted came out clean. i then let it cool for a while before digging right into that chocolaty crumbly loaf.

after thoughts. 

though Nishi felt otherwise... those with a sweet tooth like me will perhaps like a little more sugar in the cake. maybe 1/3 cup of brown sugar instead of 1/4 cup or an extra helping of crumbs... but for others this might be the perfect bite with their tea or coffee... 

Sending this to , Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays @ SS& GS, Cooking with seeds -  Priya versatile recipes  event hosted by Amruta Pore,

 the event New "U"- Cooks Joy hosted by Vardhini,

and the event  Bon Vivant #11 - Healthy Appetite  at Sumee's Culinary Bites.