Podi chammanthi (Coconut chutney to go with appams)

I am a true blue crab sun sign...if I find someone pursuading me too hard (be it for anything) I retreat into my proverbial shell all suspicious :-) what's that to do with cooking? Nothing. Just in a 'verbal diarrhoea' mood coupled with two stray instances of insistent people! I have a bad back thanks to many reasons. Now with Abhi around a bad back is a big hinderance to happy 'mommying'. Hit upon chiropractice as a possible solution albeit a very expensive one. Towards the end of my schedule the therapist started suggesting that my husband who happened to have sprained his back undergo a session and he declined.Then one day I could not go for a prefixed session because abhi (my baby) had to have her vaccination shot. The chiropractor told us that vaccinations were bad and that they affected the nervous system, if we were insistent on giving abhi her shot then we should bring her for a spine adjustment chiro session!! That decided the end of 'my' chiropratic sessions!
Another minor incident is with facebook. I'm newbie at facebook and am fine when people suggest I follow their websites or blogs. I check it out and if I like it I accept. Some are blogs of people who I already follow through a list on my blog, so when they ask me to do the same on FB I am glad to do so. But there was one very persistent person who added me as friend (I'd never before seen that particular site), then suggested I follow the blog. I accepted both suggestions. Then soon after, I was asked to become a 'fan' of the same blog. I declined. Thereafter, I keep getting repeat suggestions that I become a fan of the said blog even after declining it each time! Grrrrrrrrrrrr...

Podi chammanthi is my mom's favourite side dish option with appams (vellayappam) when she is running short of time. It does taste fantabulous with hot appams (I dont like it with idlis and dosas).



Fresh grated coconut - 1 cup
Shallots (small onions) - 2 Nos
Ginger - 1/4" piece
Dry red chillies - 4 Nos (more or less as per your spice tolerance)
Salt to taste

For tempering

Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Coconut/canola oil - 1 teaspoon

Grind all ingredients together in a mixie/food processor adding just a teaspoon or two of water till coarse. Heat oil in a skilet and crackle mustard and fry curry leaves. Toss in the coarse mixture, saute for a minute or two to take away the raw taste of shallots.There, that was quick, was it not?

Fruit cake, happy breakfast, and happy new year to all

"I wish all my blogger friends and readers a glorious, peacefilled, and happy 2010.May all that your heart rightfully desires be yours this year."

This being our first new year with Abhi (our baby) , I decided to go all the way out and make a traditional fruit cake. As a general rule, I'm not a regular baker. Somehow the concept of rigid measurements, high calorie ingredients, and my 'sumo wrestler' aka post-pregnancy figure (not that it was better afore) has kept me away from traditional cakes and cookies. I browsed high and low for a easy do-able fruit cake recipe, found a zillion recipes, then made last minute calls to my mom for her kinda cake measurements, gathered chance advice from my aunt who called 2 days ahead to wish us, and finally added my own permutations to them all
Preparations were punctuated by baby needs, oven cleaning (a year since i opened it last) etc. Finally by 2 a.m. new year's morning my cake was ready to be wrapped up in foil soaking in a final slather of whisky till 11 a.m. this morning (9 hours of drunken merriness, huh!). Cake making and pooja room cleaning had me up till 3 a.m. and so decided to sleep in this morning. Was woken up at 9.30 a.m. by my husband who had made a poori (indian fried bread), mixed veggie gravy, and a fruit salad breakfast for me :-). He also took over Abhi's early morning feeding, diaper changing, and patting back to sleep routine
My special breakfast

Ok, now to the cake. True to the footloose chef in me, my cake does not conform to classic ways and procedures...

Preparation

Chopped dry fruits and nuts - 3 cups (I used dates, apricots, golden raisins, jumbo raisins, walnuts, cashewnuts, prunes)

Orange peel - 1 medium sized orange's rind with the white pith scraped out (cut into small pieces)

Rum (use any spirit you have at hand) - 2 cups

Put everything together in a skillet and toss till warm, and an aroma emanates. Close lid and let stand overnight. In the morning, I placed this in the fridge and let stand for another 10 hrs or so. Bring to room temperature before using in the cake.

Ingredients

Self raising flour - 2 cups
Whole wheat flour -1 cup
Almond meal - 1 cup (1/2 cup of almonds powdered in a coffee grinder or mixie jar)
Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
Packed soft, dark brown sugar - 1 cup
Unsalted butter - 1/2 cup (about 100gms)
Olive oil - 3/4 cup
Egg whites - 5
Powdered mix spices (cardamoms,nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon) - 1 teaspoon
Vanilla essence - 1/2 teaspoon
Warm water - 1 cup
Whisky - 1/2 cup (for the final drizzle)

Sift the flours and baking powder together for even mixing. Toss in the almond meal into the fruit mixture and mix well. Add the flour bit by bit and mix well.

Beat the sugar, butter, and oil together till frothy ( i used an electric hand blender). Add the egg whites and whisk again till soft (the more the merrier). Add the spice powder and vanilla essence. Pour in a cup of warm water. Add the flour and fruit mixture and blend in taking care that no lumps are formed (add in a little by little).

Pour into a cake tin double lined (2 layers) with baking parchment. Preheat the oven at 250° for 15 minutes. Place the cake tin inside and bake at 150° for 1 hour and 5 minutes. Remove from oven and gently ease in a skewer to check if done. Make tiny skewer holes throughout the body of the cake and drizzle in whisky (or any other spirit). Wrap with aluminium foil and allow to mature for about 10 hours.

PS: Don't worry if the cake that comes out of the oven seems very dry (it will be). That liberal splashing in of whisky and allowing the cake to mellow will make it soft.

PS: When I refer to 'cup' I mean any standard tea cup that holds about 200 ml. The said measurements yeilded 2 medium sized cakes ( a loaf tin and a round tin).




My cake is off to participate in the 'Cakes n Cookies' event at Sara's Corner and Contribute your recipes event- Cakes & Cookies on at Indian Vegetarian Kitchen

Merry X'mas

Introducing The Hunger site for those yet unaware

I speak 'food' and 'recipes' out here in my tiny nook. While we are mooting if the nutritional quotient of potatoes are inferior to sweet potatoes; if flax seeds boost heart health or the immune system more; if the more expensive, fancier grains at our neighbourhood organic stores are a better alternatives to rice and millet...pause...every 3.6 seconds a little someone dies for lack of basic sustenance.
Let's join in the fight against hunger.The Indian tradition says, 'Annadanam Mahadanam'. Translated this means, feeding the hungry is the most pious of all charitable acts.

Since, we are on the topic of food and recipes, let's do our little bit 'annadhanam'.

The Hunger Site is a valid internet campaign. The concept works this way - a number of corporate sponsors place their advertisements on the said site. Each time a visitor clicks on the "Click To Give" button on the home page , he/she is automatically navigated towards the page that has sponsor ads. Each of these clicks are counted and the sponsor pays the promoters the equivalent of 1.1 cups of food. The promoters distribute this accumulated fund to feed target needy population in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and North America.

It doesn't cost you anything, so why not click. I've been doing this for the past 2 years.

Click on Logo to reach the hunger site