Hazelnut Chocolate Spread

Almost everyone I know is a "Nu.....a", fan, the super famous Hazelnut chocolate spread. So much so, that it would be blasphemy to say it aloud that I don't buy it for my little one. It is easy to say I don't care but for those of you who do, the next time you pick up a jar of the spread, do take a peek at the ingredients list. You will be surprised how little hazelnut actually is in there and how much of it is plain and simple flavoured sugar. Do try this easy home made, healthy version and tell me if you still find the commercial one better.

Hazelnuts - 1 cup ( a standard teacup)
Unsweetened Cocoa powder - 2 dessertspoons (20 gms approx)
Dark soft brown sugar - 1/4 cup or more if you want it sweeter(use powdered white sugar if you don't have soft dermerara)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 1.5 dessertspoons

 Roast hazelnuts in an oven or dry roast in a skillet. Cool completely and rub off the brown skin. Pour into a mixie jar and blend till powdered. Scrape the sides in and add the cocoa, sugar, vanilla, and the oil. Blend again till it amalgamates into a creamy whole. Add in a few more drops of oil if it is too thick. Check and adjust sweetness. Voila your very own hazelnut spread is ready! Enjoy. Do write in if you enjoyed it :-)

Easy nutty chocolates

A lazy day enterprise with my 5 year old who loves anything chocolate!

Good Quality cooking chocolate - 100 gms (we used 64% dark)
Assorted nuts - 1/2 cup (roughly chopped)
 Dates - 3-4 nos (chopped into small bits)

Melt cooking chocolate (we used 60-70% dark). Roughly chop up almonds, cashews, dates. Pop the nut-dry fruit mixture in the oven for a couple of minutes. Line an ice tray with a layer of the mixture, top up with melted chocolate. Cover with aluminium foil, pop into freezer. Set. Eat.

Dairy free, eggless, Black Forest Cake with Coconut Cream topping

My little one is allergic to dairy fat. Now, coming from essentially a South Indian background this was one fact that was really hard to assimilate. My childhood was fed on home grown cow's milk, yoghurt, milk sweets, ghee, butter what not. And, we are led to believe, from then, that there is no proper sustenance for a child without dairy intake. So, when I made the association between Abhi's (my lil one) colic and adenoid inflammation to milk fat intake, it triggered nothing short of a  mini earthquake in the immediate family circle. Someone even said , " It is because you are too hygenic about baby care", " You dont add salt into the rice you feed her", etc etc and power struggles with people (even close of kin) who refuse to give up on gifting her huge milk chocolate bars, ghee laced Indian sweet dubbas, cream biscuits etc. Well, well, well.. all in the game. Found this easy diary free, eggless  Black Forest Gateau recipe on Essential Vegan and wanted to try it for my daughter's birthday. I made my own tweaks to the original recipe, reduced teh sugar drastically, replaced all purpose flour with whole wheat flour etc etc. The daughter loved the cake and thought she was eating cream cake just like all her friends and that is all the appreciation I ever need :-)

Ingredients for Cake

Raw granulated brown sugar - 50 gms
Whole wheat flour (fine ground) - 170 gms
Unsweetened cocoa powder - 3 dessertspoons
Salt - 1/2 teaspoon (evened out to remove extra)
Baking powder (aluminium free) - 1 teaspoon
Sunflower oil - 60 ml
Apple cider vinegar - 2 teaspoons
Cold water - 200 ml

Ingredients for Topping

Unsweetened coconut milk - 1/2 tin
Castor sugar - 50 gms
Syrup preserved Maraschino cherries - 250 gms bottle (you will need all of the liquer in which the cherries are soaked plus as many cherries you need for decoration)

Mix the oil, sugar, and cocoa with a ladle so that the sugar granules start dissolving. Add the rest of the ingrdients and mix using a wooden ladle into a batter without lumps (do not use the electric mixer).
Preheat oven to 180 °. Pour batter into a proofed cake tin, ideally spring form tray since this cake will be very airy and can break on rough handling.
Bake for 1/2 hour at 150 °. Check with a fork to see if done or let be for another 10 mts. Remember oven tempretures differ and what works on my basic OTG might not be the exact time on your machine.

Topping prep work

Store the coconut milk tin in your freezer for atleast an hour. Place your castor sugar in a mixing bowl and keep it in the fridge too until time for assemble.

Assembling the cake

Remove cake onto a serving tray or plate only when completely cooled.Keep rough side up. Keep the cake in the fridge for about 15 minutes. take out and carefully pour the cherry liquer all over it, in batches so that it is all absorbed.
Take out and open teh coconut milk tin. You will find the thick coconut cream has risen and solidified as a top layer. Scoop it out into the bowl with cold castor sugar. Whip them up using a large fork.
Layer the cherry liquer soaked cake with the coconut milk cream and decorate with cherries. Cover and refrigerate for another 10 minutes or until serving time. Remember to take cake out only when it is time to serve.

Simple chicken curry using fresh, home-ground masala

It's been quite a while since I last posted here. I do go through occasional pangs of guilt when I see how deligently some of my food blogger friends keep their blogs going. So much care goes into the high resolution pictures, the side panels with their up to date blog tools and apps etc etc. Well, well... here is a quick one while the guilt trip lasts.

This recipe is inspired by my eldest paternal aunt, my dad's eldest brother's wife (valiya peramma). She was the one from whom I learnt that the 'readymade chicken masalas' that throng the supermarket aisles were in no way necessary to get that 'authenic kerala kozhi curry' (chicken curry) taste. Since then, i've experimented with fresh spices and slowly my taste buds learnt to despise the store bought masala as inferior.

No dificult elbow grease required for this one (have I told you what a LAZY cook I am). Happy cooking, buddies...

Ingredients
Fresh chicken pieces - 1 Kg
Tomatos - 2 medium sized (Cubed)
Onions - 2 medium sized (chopped fine)
Fresh Ginger - a large piece (  2-3 inches or so)
Garlic - 10 cloves
Tomato paste - 2 dessertspoons
Red chilli powder - 2 teaspoons
Salt to taste
Sugar - 1/2 teaspoon

Grind the ginger and garlic to paste.

Dry spices to be ground
Cloves - 4 Nos
Cinnamon - 1/4 inch stick
Nutmeg - a little piece ( I bring back whole nutmeg from my mom in law's garden, if you cant get whole, use powdered)
Mace - a couple of strands
Poppy seeds (khus khus) - 1/2 teaspoon
Fennel - 1/4 teaspon
Cumin - 1/4 teaspoon
Pepper corns - a few
Star anise - 1 No
Mustard seeds - a few
Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Coriander powder - 1 dessertspoon

Dry roast all the whole spices, on low flame, till an aroma emanates. Add in the turmeric owder and teh coriander powder and dry saute for another minute. Cool and blend to smooth powder using a chutney mixie jar or coffee grinder.

For the tempering (tadka)
Gingelly/coconut oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaves - a few sprigs

Method
Heat a heavy bottomed pan ( I skip non stick pans and prefer heavy guage steel, dutch oven models). Add the oil and the mustard seeds and allow the seeds to crackle well Add in the curry leaves and then the ginger-garlic paste. Saute till golden and then add the chopped onions, sprinkle the sugar and saute till golden. Add teh tomatoes and saute a couple of minutes. Add in the chicken pieces, the powdered spice masala, and the chilli powder. Add a cup of water. Put the lid on and simmer cook on very low fire, stirring once in a while. Once the chicken in almost done, add the tomato paste plus another cup of water if you want a slightly runny gravy. Once done, add salt to taste and simmer a minute.

Arachuvitta sambhar with sambhar cheera (waterleaf greens/Talinum fruticosum)

Sambhar Cheera (Waterleaf/Talinum fruticosum) is found growing with wild abundance in the backyards of my native town. The succulent plant is a nutritional treasure trove - Vit A, Vit C, iron, and calcium.

I've used a variation of the archuvitta sambhar (where fresh coconut and whole spices are light roasted and ground to make sambhar masala) to add the fresh bunch of waterleaves I chanced upon in the market. Having a little girl who is allergic to diary fat I'm constantly looking at different vegetarian sources of calcium to be included into her diet. Traditional cuisine that emphasises on the need to cook from whole and fresh ingredients, I've found, is the best guide.

Sambhar cheera (waterleaf) - a large bunch
Tomatoes - 3-4 meium sized, ripe ones
Small onions (shallots) - 6-8 Nos
Garlic - 6-8 cloves
Ginger - 1/4 inch piece
Green chillies - 2 Nos
Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
Sambhar parippu (Toor dhal/yellow pigeon peas) - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups

Rinse out the toor dhal well and pressure cook it with everything except the waterleaves added. About 5 whistles on medium flame is what I do.


For the masala

Fresh, grated coconut - 2 dessertspoons
Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
Pepper corns - a few
Cumin (jeera) - 1/2 teaspoon
Coriander powder - 1 dessertspoon
Asafoetida - a small piece (I use teh block variety). else, substitute with 1/4 teaspoon of powder.

Dry roast everything, except teh coriander powder, till the coconut begins to turn lightly golden, add teh coriander powder and saute till an aroma arises. Switch off flame and grind to very fine paste adding little water.

Rinse and chop the waterleaf bunch. Throw into a thick bottomed pan and add 1/2 a cup of water. Add in teh ground masala and simmer for a couple of minutes. Remove the cooked toor dhal mix from teh pressure cooker and using a ladle blend the dhal and tomatoes well. Add into teh simmering masala. Add more water if the gravy is too thick. Add salt to taste.

For tempering

Warm a pan and add a couple of teaspoons of sesame oil. Add a teaspoon of mustard seeds and allow them to crackle. Add a couple of dry red chillies and curry leaves. When roasted, top teh sambhar with this.

PS: I add additional vegetables to this sambhar, at times. This time I added a couple of carrots. I pressure cooked them along with the lentils.

Easy, tangy tomato chutney (dip)

Here is a quick, tangy dip with enough verve and vigour to pep up even a dull meal. I served it as side to the Tamil Nadu tiffin speciality, 'paniyaram'. Now, a paniyaram requires an aappa kal (aebleskiver/unniyappa chatti) so in case you don't possess one, just serve this chutney with dosas, plain appams, or idlis. Just as yum!

Ripe, firm tomatoes - 2 (medium sized. Skip the hybrid, seedless varieties)

Garlic cloves - 2

Dry red chillies - 2

Sea salt - to taste

Virgin coconut oil - 1 teaspoon

Deseed and cube the tomatoes. Put everything except the oil into the chutney jar of your mixie and blend till almost smooth. Pour it into a thick bottomed vessel and simmer till the raw garlic smell goes away. Drizzle on the virgin coconut oil and voila! you've a winner on your menu.

Smooth as chocolate and totally guilt free :-)

Here is a recipe that I modified from the No-GMO recipe site. Totally yummy and completely guilt free. Happy Valentine's Day :-)

Ripe bananas - 4 medium sized
Unsweetened cocoa powder - 2 dessertspoonfulls
Organic Honey - according to your preferred sweetness level
Fresh vanilla - from 1/4 a pod

Blend everything together in an electric blender or mixie jar till smooth and creamy, and glossy :-) Serve topped with dry roasted almonds.

Wholewheat Coconut and cashew muffins made in virgin coconut oil

My little girl has started playschool and with that has also started the endless bouts of cold, cough, infections and what not! Today she was going to school after a break necessitated by an ear infection. "I want cake in my snack box", she demanded late yesterday evening. I had run out of vanilla, extra virgin olive oil (my subsititute for butter), and over ripe bananas (my substitute for eggs). But like any true blue mallu, my refrigerator was stocked with fresh grated coconut and as bonus, my pantry had a huge bottle of virgin coconut oil. So, this recipe was born:


Caster sugar - 1/2 cup (if you dont have caster sugar , just run your regular sugar in the mixie to powder it)
Whole wheat flour - 1/2 cup + dessert spoonfull
Fresh grated coconut - 3 dessertspoons (about 30 gms)
Unroasted cashewnuts - 10 Nos
Baking powder - 1/2 teaspoon (I use aluminium free)
Virgin coconut oil - 1/4 cup
Egg - 1 large
Cardamom - 4-5 pods



Place the sugar, coconut, and cashews in the chutney jar of your mixie or the coffee grinder and pulse a few times to powder together. Add the egg, cardamom seeds, and oil and whisk again. Using a flat ladle mix together the baking powder and flour. Pour in the wet mixture and fold in well. Add a few drops of water if necessary to form a thick cake batter. Preheat oven to 200° for 10 minutes. Pour batter into cupcake moulds and bake till a tooth pick poked in the centre comes out clear. I have a basic OTG and it took me 40 minutes at 150° to get the muffins done.

Update on the previous fund drive post

A heartfelt thank you to all of you who cared enough to do you bit for the Vaidehi ashram for destitute girls (Refer my previous post). Mr. Somesh from Hyderabad won the raffle prize I had sponsored. Congrats Mr.Somesh, if you are reading this.
Click here for the fund drive update.

Herbs and veggies pull apart bread

Yeast bakes and deep fried goodies are my personal cooking waterloos...in simpler terms, they scare the daylights out of me since I rarely get them right :-) This is one of the main reasons I jumped into the 'We Knead to Bake' group on Facebook, started by fellow foodblogger and ace baker, Aparna. I rarely retract once I give someone my solemn word and so joining the group ensured that I will have to compulsively face my yeast fear and  cannot afford to get cold feet :-D what a yarn to introduce a bread, please excuse the verbiage, I blame it on my excitement in having got a tolerable, edible bread made. All thanks to Aparna's fool proof recipe to which I added minor tweaks.
The theme chosen for the month was a Herbs and Cheese pull apart bread. The original recipe was given by Aparna to which I have made personal modifications. I will write down the original dough recipe and my minor modifications will be provided alongside within brackets. The filling I chose is different to that of the original and it is my version that I give here. The method followed is identical to original.

For the Dough:
1/2 cup warm milk
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp active dry yeast
2 3/4 to 3 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1:1 propotion of whole wheat flour and APF)
1 tsp salt 25gm butter, soft at room temperature (I used 40 ml of sesame oil, instead)
3/4 to 1 tsp garlic paste
3/4 cup milk (+ a couple of tbsp to brush over the bread)
(2 teaspoons red rice flour for dusting)

For the Filling:
Sesame oil - 1 tablespoon
Finely shredded purple cabbage and carrots - 1/2 cup
Steamed fresh corn kernels - 1/2 cup
Sunflower seeds - 1 tablespoon
Sesame seeds - 1/4 cup
Dill leaves, finely chopped - 1/4 cup
Fresh Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 teaspoon
Zaatar spice mix - 2 teaspoons + 1/2 teaspoon to sprinkle above
Salt to taste (Zaatar is salty and so use salt sparingly)
Saute the ginger garlic paste. Dry roast the sunflower and sesame seeds seperately. Mix all ingredients together.

Method:
In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar and the yeast in the 1/2 cup of warm milk. Keep aside forabout 5 minutes till the yeast mixture bubbles up. Put 2 3/4 cup of flour, salt, oil, and garlic paste in a large bowl. Then add the yeast mixture and the 3/4 cup of milk and knead till you have a soft, smooth and elastic/ pliabledough which is not sticky. Add a little extra flour (I used red rice flour for this)if your dough is sticking,but only just as much as is necessary. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl, turning the dough to coat itcompletely with oil. Cover and let it rise for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or untilalmost double in volume. Dust your work surface lightly with flour. Deflate the dough, shape it into a square and roll the dough out into a larger square that is about 12’ by 12”. Brush the surfaceof the square with oil. Evenly sprinkle the filling, topped with Zaatar. Use a rolling pin to very lightly press the topping into the dough to ensure the topping doesn’t fall off when you are stacking the strips. Using a pizza cutter, slice the dough from top to bottom into 6 long and even strips – they do nothave to be perfect. Lay each strip on top of the next, with the topping facingupwards, until you have a stack of the strips You can put the 2 strips cut from the sides in the middle of the stack so it looks neater. Using a pastry scraper or a sharp knife, cut straight down through the stack dividingit into 6 equal pieces (6 square stacks). Grease and lightly flour a 9” by 4” (or 5”) loaf tin. Butter and lightly flour a 9 x 5 loaf pan. Layer the square slices, cut sides down into the loaf tin. Cover the loaf tin dough with a towel and allow the dough to rise for an hour. I topped this with a little of the filling mixture and some zaatar. Then, lightly brush some milk over the top of the loaf. Bake the dough at 180C (350F) for about 30 to 40 minutes until it is done and the top is goldenbrown. This recipe bakes one 9” by 5” loaf.

Eggless whole wheat pound cake and Giveaway for a valid cause

"We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give" - W.Churchill.

Before we get on with the recipe of Whole wheat pound cake, I want to share something with you. My fellow food blogger, Siri, is on a remarkable, warm hearted mission. She has started a fund drive to benefit Vaidehi Ashram for Destitute Girls, Hyderabad. The ashram, at present, houses 108 girls (3 to 22 years) each of whom is either an orphan or has a single parent unable to take care of her. Do take the time to read on for every little act of kindness holds in it the potential to make someone’s life a little better.



Participating in the fund drive is fun too because it comes with 40 different sponsored raffle prizes. Contributing to the drive automatically entitles you to select from this list of wonderful goodies.

I’ve sponsored a raffle prize in the form of a Sanjeev Kapoor cookery book set of 5.



So, are you willing to extend a helping hand? If yes, then here is how,

1.Click on the 'Chip in' button below.(It will take a few seconds to load.)

1 Raffle Ticket = $10 or Rs.500



2.Contribute: Via Paypal or credit card. You can donate any amount. Each $10 (Rs.500) donation will get you one raffle ticket towards a raffle prize of your choice.
Click here to view the list of raffle prizes.

3. Once you have completed the donation process and you get the payment confirmation,please forward it to info.siri@gmail.com, clearly specifying which raffle prize(s) you are interested in. Within 24 hours, your name and contributed amount will be added to the 'Fund Drive Supporters List'.
4. The fund drive ends on Feb 25th and a random drawing by the Ashram kids will determine the winners on 27th Feb 2012. You will be notified of the same on the said day.

If you'd like to choose my raffle prize, remember the code, RF 9. I will be shipping it to anywhere in India, with postage paid. Even if you reside outside India, you can always opt to have your gift mailed to a shipping address of a friend/relative in India and collect it later.

Please visit Siri's post on the Ashram so that you are doubly sure that you are indeed contributing to a valid cause.Click here.

Thank you for your patient hearing and here is the scrumptious recipe for you...

Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Sweetened condensed milk - 1 tin (400 gms approx)
Soft brown sugar - 1/2 cup + 1/4 cup for crust
Ripe banana puree - 1 cup (3 medium bananas)
Vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon + 1/4 teaspoon for the crust (I use powder)
Unsalted butter - 200 gms
Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
Soda bi carbonate - 1/2 teaspoon
Almonds - 20 Nos

Whisk the condensed milk and 1/2 cup brown sugar, in a mixer bowl or blender, till the sugar has completely dissolved and you get a smooth mixture. Addin the banana puree and the butter,at room tempreture, to the mixture and whisk everything together. Pour into a wide mixing bowl and add in the wheat flour, vanilla, baking powder, and soda bi carbonate.

For the crumbly crust

Coarsely grind the almonds and brown sugar together in a mixer jar, along with 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Preheat oven at 250° for 10 minutes. Line a baking tray with baking parchment. pour in the batter. Evenly sprinkle the almond - brown sugar crumble on top. Bake at 150° for 40 minutes. Insert a tooth pick or fork to check if done.

Sambhar Sadam - wholesome, one pot meal

Sambhar sadam, as it is called in Tamil Nadu, and the Bisi Bele Bhaath of Karnataka are close if not identical kins. At least, that's how I've felt. My paati (maternal grandmother) was a stupendous cook and her Sambhar Sadam was something to die for. My version of it is created from what I remember of her's with some minor tweaks to include the mild masala taste of the Karnataka version.I make this quite often but missed posting it here. Yesterday, my food blogger friend, Lubna, started a discussion on favourite 'one pot meals' and I ended up promising to post my favourite one pot delight,sambhar sadam,recipe for her. So, here goes...

Raw rice - 1/2 cup
Toor dhal (sambhar parippu)- 1/2 cup
Small onions - 7-8 Nos
Assorted veggies - 1 cup (I used potato,carrot,and small violet brinjals)
Tomato - 1 medium
Garlic - 2 cloves
Ginger - 1/2 inch piece
Curry leaves - 3-4 sprigs
Coriander leaves/cilantro - a small bunch
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Coriander powder - 2 teaspoons
Chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Cinnamon - 1 inch stick
Cloves - 2 Nos
Cardamom - 2 Nos
Fennel (saunf) - 1/4 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a few pinches
Tamarind extract - 1 tablespoon (or 1 large lemon sized tamarind ball soaked in warm water and juice extracted)
Water - 3 1/2 cups
Salt to taste

For tempering

Peanuts (with skin) - a liberal handful
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
Cumin (Jeera) - 1/2 teaspoon
Dry red chillies - 1-2 Nos
Cooking oil - 1 tablespoon ( I use gingelly/sesame oil)



Put all ingredients, apart from the tamarind extract, cilantro and salt, into a pressure cooker and cook for 6 whistles (two on high flame and three on low). Once the pressure settles, add the tamarind extract, chopped cilantro, and salt. Mix well and simmer for a couple of minutes. Heat a pan and add oil. Roast the peanuts till golden, remove and add to rice. Place the rest of the ingredients for tempering into the same oil and saute till jeera crackles. Add to rice. Serve piping hot with papadoms, bujia, om podi, or appalams.

Prep your own candied dry fruits and nuts for a yummy fruit cake

How about making your own Christmas or New Year fruit cake this year? You think it is complicated? Not at all. You think it's too late to start ? No, again. Read on for an easy way to prepare your own dry fruit n nut mixture that tastes great even with a minimum 12 hour soaking period. What's more? Make a little extra and stow it away in the refridgerator for next year's baking.


Assorted 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 on low flame till warm, and an aroma emanates. Close lid and let stand overnight. In the morning, place this in the fridge and let stand for another 10 hrs or so. Bring to room temperature before using in the cake.

For an equally easy Fruit cake recipe with your candied fruits and nuts,
click here.

Whole wheat banana, raisins, and Chocolate muffins

This quick, wholesome muffin gets full points for nutrition and taste with minimal effort and time. Eat it for breakfast or pack it in your kiddos lunch box.


The recipe can be found here.

Baby carrots flavoured with garlic

A completely easy and nutritious dish that your family will love, especially your toddler, if you have one.



The recipe can be found here.

Rainbow Salad Meal and Fresh Figs in Yoghurt dressing- Reposts

The delicious Rainbow salad which is a wholesome meal in itself.



The recipe can be found here.

A totally addictive salad made with fresh figs and yoghurt dressing.



The recipe can be found here.

These two salads make their way to the Only Salads event on at The Chef and Her Kitchen. The 'Only' series of food events was started by Foodelicious.

Peanut and chocolate cookies

My college mate, Annu, lives a few kilometers away from us at Muscat. We had a small family get together at her place last weekend. I made a little batch of these yummy cookies for her. I made up the recipe with ingredients I had in hand.

Plain roasted peanuts - 1 cup
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Unsweetened cocoa powder - 2 dessertspoons
Egg - 1 large
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Butter - 1/2 cup (at room temperature)
Vanilla extract - 1/2 teaspoon (I use powder)
Cooking (baking) soda - 1/2 teaspoon

Powder the peanuts into meal using the chutney jar of your mixie or a coffee grinder. Pour the egg and butter into a blender jar and whisk till frothy. Add the sugar and cocoa. Blend again. Add the baking soda and whisk once more. Add in the vanilla. Pour out into a vessal and add in the peanut meal and flour. Incorporate well. If the batter is too thick add a little warm water.

Preheat an oven to 200°. Line a baking tray with aluminium foil or parchment. Pour out the batter by the spoonful with enough spacing (this one expands quite a bit). Bake at 150° for 18 minutes.

PS: The cookie is quite soft when hot and hardenes to crumbly perfection when cool. Hence, watch out for the colour and the lovely aroma as baking indicators and not texture.

The crumbly peanut and chocolate cookie recipe goes to theKid's Delight - Chocolate Feast event on at Srivalli's Spicing Your Life.

Simple Oats upma with roasted peanuts

This is our favourite oats upma recipe mainly because of the liberal douse of peanuts in it. This is also one of the most easiest of breakfast options; of course, apart from opening a readymade pack of cereal!

Rolled oats or Jumbo oats - 1 cup
Quick cooking oats - 1/2 cup
Plain roasted and deskinned peanuts - 1 cup
Ginger - 1" piece (chopped fine)
Green chillies - 2-3 Nos
Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
Onion - 1 medium sized (chopped fine)
Curry leaves - a few sprigs
Oil - 1 teaspoon

Heat a skillet and then pour in the oil and add onions, ginger, chillies, and curry leaves. Saute well. Add the jumbo oats, sprinkle some water and simmer covered for a minute. Open lid and keep stirring sprinkling water in between till the oats is cooked ( a few minutes are adequate). Add the grated coconut, salt, and the quick cooking oats. Sprinkle some more water and cook covered for a couple of minutes, stirring once in a while. Finally add the roasted peanuts and serve hot.

Chocolate, beets, and carrot muffins and a very happy 2011 to you!

Happy New Year 2011 to all my readers and friends! My New year fruit cake is still half done, so, for now ,here is a quick and healthy muffin I baked over X'mas for my little girl. My husband, who initially winced at the sight of veggies going into a chocolate muffin, later commented , " It's just not possible to figure out this one has beets and carrots in it. Really nice!". Little Abhi, as usual, enjoyed her mother's rare baking attempt.

All purpose flour (Maida) - 1 cup
Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
Baking powder - 1 teaspoon (5gms)
Egg - 1 large
Olive oil - 1/2 cup
Jaggery syrup - 1/2 cup
Pure Date syrup - 1/2 cup
(If you do not have jaggery or date syrup at hand then use packed brown sugar or even plain white sugar instead)
Beetroot - 1 small (grated very fine)
Carrot - 1 small (grated very fine)
Dates - a few (deseeded and chopped)
Dark unsweetened or semi sweetened chocolate chips - a liberal handful
Vanilla essence or powder - a few drops or pinches ( I used powder because I could not find propylene free essence)

Whisk the egg till it froths ( I use a braun electric handheld blender with whisking attachement). Add the olive oil and syrups, blend well. Sieve the flours and baking powder to ensure even blending. Add all ingredients, except chocolate chips, together and mix well. If you find the batter dry add a little buttermilk or milk at room temperature. Finally mix in teh choco chips.

Preheat oven at 200. Line the muffin tray with cases and pour in to fill 3/4th. Baking time might vary with the oven. I have a very basic OTG and baked my muffins at 150 for 25 minutes. Insert a toothpick and if it comes out clean your muffins are done.

Here's a picture of how this looks inside.

Pavakka Mezhukkuvaratti (Bittergourd stir fry)

This quick recipe is a family favourite. A lot of people I've served this to, who generally aren't bittergourd lovers or prefer only the deep fried version, seem to like this version of pavakka mezhukkuvaratti (bitter gourd stir fry). To the recipe then, without much ado:

Pavakka (bitter gourd) - 2 medium sized ( I prefer the dark green ones)
Onion - 1 medium sized
Green chillies - 5-6 Nos (as per your spice tolerance)
Ginger - 2 " piece (julienned)
Coconut oil - 3 teaspoons
Salt to taste
Sliced fresh coconut pieces (optional)

Soak the bittergourds in water with a teaspoon of salt or vinegar thrown in for atleast 10 minutes. This is to dislodge the dirt, the pesticide residue etc that can hide in between the grooves. Then wash thoroughly under running water.

Slit the bittergourds vertically. If the seeds are tender enough let them be or else dislodge them. Now, slice into thin semi circles. Slice the onions thin and slit the chillies. Add all ingredients (including salt and oil) together in a bowl and using your fingers rub everything together till well mixed. Cover and let marinade for 1/2 hour to 1 hour.

Warm a skillet and spread the mixture in. Cover and cook for a couple of minutes on very low flame. Open lid and stir. Allow to simmer cook tossing once in a while till the bittergourd is well done.



Serve as aside to plain rice and south indian curry of choice.




This platter of pavakka mezhukkuvaratti is going to participate at the Vegetable Marathon - Bittergourd event at Nithu's Kitchen. The event is part of the Vegetable Marathon series launched by Anita's Kitchen

Pori-badam urundai (puffed rice and almond laddus)

Deepavali treats need not necessarily make you guilty of high calorie/fat laden indulgence. With a little bit effort and imagination you can make goodies
that are absolutely delicious and yet healthy. If you do not believe me, try these yummy laddus made all out of healthy ingredients. A lot of you might be familiar with puffed rice laddus (pori urundai), I've just given this a little variation plus thrown in a couple of extra ingredients.

Puffed rice (pori/murmure) - 2 cups
Raw almonds - 3/4 cup (ground to meal)
Jaggery (sharkkara) syrup - 1 cup
Cardamom - 4-5 Nos
White sesame seeds - 1/4 cup
Saffron strands - 3 or 4 (optional)
Medicinal (raw) camphor (pachai karpooram) - two pinches (optional)

Powder the almonds in a coffee grinder/chutney jar of your mixie/food processor). Pour the jaggery syrup into a thick bottomed skillet and add the rest of the ingredients one by one. Keep stirring. You will find that the puffed rice absorbs the syrup and will reduce in size. Stir on low flame till everything is well incorporated and reaches a coarse halwa/jam like consistency. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
Pull out small sections and shape into small lemon sized balls. Grease your palms with a little odourless cooking oil like rice bran/canola/sunflower or use ghee (clarified butter) instead.

Refridgerate and these keep well for a week.

PS:

To make Jaggery syrup - In a seperate vessel boil about 150 ml water and dissolve an equal quantity of jaggery. Filter to remove scum. Pour this into a thick bottomed skillet and simmer till it reaches a thick,syrupy texture.

Sending these to the Diwali Sweets & Snacks event at Home Cook's Recipes.