Middle Eastern Brown Lentil Soup

This is a Middle Eastern style lentil soup. It is very simple to prepare and makes a one dish meal when served with bread or even pita bread. The whole secret of making a great lentil soup is the right amount of lemon juice and cumin powder added during the time of serving. 


Ingredients 
1/2 cup brown lentils or whole masoor dal with the brown skin
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon coriander seed powder
5 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
1 medium sized carrot
1 tomato
1/4 stick celery
1 medium white/yellow onion 
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon oil
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds powder for garnish
3 tablespoon Cilantro/Coriander leaves or Parsley for garnish
salt for taste


Method
Wash the brown lentils well and soak them for 6-8 hours in water. After soaking, wash the lentils with fresh water and keep aside. Chop the onion, tomato and carrot into small pieces. Heat oil in a pan and and chopped garlic, chopped celery and onion. When the onion is transparant add the carrots and the tomato. Mix in coriander seeds powder, 1 teaspoon  cumin seeds powder, turmeric powder and cayenne pepper. Add the lentils and salt. Pressure cook till the lentils are soft. Whisk the lentils till the lentils are mixed with the vegetables. Garnish with lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon cumin powder and coriander leaves/parsley. Serve hot. 

Blackened Salmon with Simple Rice Pilaf

I have had blackened salmon at many restaurants in Bay Area. Having grown up eating sea fish with lean meat I am was not used to eating fresh water fish like salmon, tuna or rohu (which is found in Indian rivers). I do enjoy eating the tuna sandwich at subway though. So when ever I am eating out I prefer salmon well cooked with lot of seasoning and spices. I found this recipe from a dear friend and now its a regular at my home too. Blackened seasoning can be found in some stores around the coast. I didn't find this seasoning at my local grocery stores, so I looked up the internet and found this recipe. I modified this recipe for making the seasoning.

Blackened Seasoning:
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon red chili powder or as per taste
1/2 teaspoon pepper powder
2 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground thyme
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder

Mix the above spices well.



Ingredients for Salmon:
1 fillet of salmon - around 300-400 cut into 2 inch pieces
3 tablespoon of blackened seasoning with the above recipe or store bought blackened seasoning
lemon for garnish.
Salt for taste

Method 
Apply salt and the seasoning mixture to the salmon on all sides and marinate it for at least and hour. There are two ways of frying the salmon. Either you can melt butter in a pan, dip the salmon in butter on both sides and put the salmon to fry on a pan. This is a traditional way and the result is definitely yummy. 
A healthier method I follow is to coat a shallow frying pan with 2 tablespoon oil and put the salmon skin side down. I put the pan on high heat till the side is blackened and well cooked. Flip it to the other side and cook till it is blackened on the other side. Garnish with lemon juice and serve hot with pilaf.




For the Pilaf:
Ingredients:
1 cup rice (basmati can be used here. I used adobo as an experiment and it came out to be very flavorful too)
2 cups of stock (vegetable or chicken)
1/2 teaspoon salt or as per taste
4-5 strands of saffron
Method:
Heat the stock. Pressure cook or pan cook the rice with the stock, saffron and salt till it is well done. 

Stir Fried Colorful Chinese Rice with Nine Jems

This colorful chinese rice is a great treat during the cold windy winters. It is extremely healthy option as there so many vegetables go in preparing the stir fry. We usually buy vegetables from our local farmers market at Mountain View. Any vegetables available on hand can be used to make the stir fried chinese rice. But I buy vegetables in little quantities, like 4-5 beans, few flat peas and like wise for the stir fry. 

I use at least nine different vegetable to make this rice and hence the explosion of colors. This rice is a hit with the kids and is a great way to make children eat their vegetables. I have used carrots and red bell pepper for the red color. Green bell pepper, beans, peas and brocoli for the green color. Corn for the yellow color. Apart from this I also use cauliflower, onion and eggplant, cabbage and spring onions. 

Ingredients 
2 cups of rice (I use basmati)
1 medium onion (sliced)
half a piece of red and green bell pepper (julienne) 
2 bunches of spring onions
two - four tablespoons of chopped vegetables available on hand (choose from cauliflower, brocoli, cabbage, carrot, peas, corn, eggplant, beans )
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tablespoon red chili sauce or optionally tomato ketchup
oil for frying 
2 chopped green chilies
1 tablespoon ginger (chopped)
1 tablespoon garlic (chopped)
salt and pepper for taste


Method 
Wash the rice well and cook it in 3 1/2 cups or water till it is 3/4 Th done. I usually pressure cook the rice. Heat oil (as required) in a pan and stir fry all the vegetables (excluding the onion, spring onions and bell pepper) on high heat. Keep aside. 
Add 3 tablespoon oil in another pan and add the ginger garlic pieces. Fry for a minute on high flame and add chopped chilies. Add sliced julienned bell pepper and sliced onions and stir well. Lower the flame and add soy sauce, red chili sauce and vinegar. Mix the rice and stir fried vegetables well with the sauce. Adjust salt and pepper. Garnish with finely chopped spring onions and cook till the rice is hot. Serve immediately.

Blackened Seasoning for Chicken or Fish

Blackened Seasoning:

1 teaspoon paparika

1 teaspoon red chili powder or as per taste

1/2 teaspoon pepper powder

2 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon ground thyme

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon basil powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin powder

Method:

Mix the above spices well and store in an airtight container. Check out the Blackened Salmon recipe here.

Chili Chicken for Holidays

This is a great starter or can be served as a dry side dish with any entree. It is very easy to prepare and can be be made in a jiffy. We made this for our Christmas get together and everyone loved it. 


Ensure that it is served immediately, otherwise it gets soggy and unappetizing. It is also a good idea to finish it the same day. Also if you are storing it in the fridge, it needs to be heated in the oven rather than the microwave. 




Ingredients 
For marinate:
1 pound chicken fillets
2 tablespoon ginger paste
2 tablespoon garlic paste
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon pepper powder
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 tablespoon corn flour
salt as per taste


oil for frying


For Gravy:
2 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
4 green chilies or as per taste
2 spring onions
4 tablespoon red chili sauce or as per taste (I used knor chili sauce)
2 tablespoon tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon corn flour
3 tablespoon soy sauce


For garnish(optional):
1 green bell pepper
1 large onion


Method 
Cut the chicken into 2 inch pieces. Mix the marinate (except the oil and all purpose flour) well into the chicken and let it rest for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. Prepare the gravy before frying the chicken. Mix the corn flour and the all purpose flour well into the chicken and deep fry it till the pieces are crisp.
Cut the bell pepper into large chunks and quarter the onion for the garnish. Stir fry in a pan on high heat for 4-5 minutes. Keep aside.

For the gravy:

Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a pan and add the garlic. Fry on high heat for 2 minutes and add chopped green chilies. Stir for another minute and add finely chopped 1 1/2 bunch of spring onions. Stir for another 2 minutes and add red chili sauce, vinegar, brown sugar and soy sauce. Add water as per desired gravy consistency. Dissolve corn flour in 1/4 cup of cold water and add to the gravy. Keep stirring till the corn flour is well cooked. Add the fried chicken into the gravy and mix well till all the pieces are coated with the gravy. Salt it accordingly and garnish with the remaining spring onions. Serve hot.

German Mashed Potato

This post is dedicated to German Bakery in Pune. When I was working in Pune, we would hang out at this Bakery on weekends. One would see people of all origins around here. There were many Osho Ashramites who would visit here for lunch or dinner.The fragrance of their hot garlic bread was just out of the world. They also had an assorted range of pastries and desserts. I particularly loved their dish of mashed potatoes with mushroom. I have tried to make my own version of it. It is a very simple dish to prepare and makes a great brunch on lazy weekends.

 

Ingredients  

2 large potatoes

1 big red onion

10-12 medium sized button mushrooms

2 tablespoon olive oil

3 tablespoon cream 

4 tablespoon milk

salt and pepper for taste

 

Method 

Thinly slice the onion and fry it in olive oil till light brown. Keep aside. Remove the woody stems of the mushrooms and wipe them clean with kitchen paper. Slice them thinly and add them to the same pan in which the onions were sauteed. Saute them for 3-5 minutes and then cover and cook them for 5 more minutes. Add salt and pepper as per taste and remove them from heat and set aside. Boil the potatoes. The potatoes will be done when they fall apart when they are forked. De-skin the potatoes and mash them well adding milk, cream, pepper and salt. 

To serve, make a layer of the mashed potatoes and then add the mushrooms and fried onions on top. Serve hot with garlic bread. I added a sliced apple and "onions in vinegar" on top of the dish.

Italian Prune Jam

Recently we bought a pack of Italian prunes from Costco. The prunes were tart and sweet and had a deeper flavor than the regular plums. It was a 3 pound pack and I was wondering how I could use the rest of them. Both of us are not great fans of cakes and cookies, so I made jam out of the remaining prunes. It turned out to be excellent and there is another jam recipe in my kitty. It takes around 1- 1/2 hours to prepare this jam, so plan in advance.


Ingredients: 
2 pounds prunes
1 pound sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg powder
1/2 teaspoon clove powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper powder
juice of one lemon
2 tablespoon rind of lemon


Method:  
De-seed the prunes and quarter the prunes. Put the prunes in a heavy bottomed pan and cook on low flame for around 15-30 minutes. Add sugar and all the spices, lemon juice and lemon rind and cook for 1 hour or till the prunes are well cooked. The mixture should achieve the consistency of jam. Cool and put it in bottles. Spread on top of hot buttered bread.

Eggless Black Grape Mousse

Geeta Aunty made this when I had visited her in Coorg. She has a treasure of recipes and she was generous to share her recipes with me. I got her recipe book photo copied and I am excited to know so many Coorgi recipes. Her recipe collection also has a excellent collection of pot-luck recipes. One of her recipes was Grape mousse. I tried this recipe in India as black grapes were in season when I was there. Black seeded grapes provide a better flavor to the mousse. It is very simple to prepare and makes a great dessert to make for pot - luck party. 

The grape mousse has a creamy part and a glaze which is darker in color. 

Ingredients:

For Cream base:

1/2 tin condensed milk

250 gms black grapes

2 tablespoon sugar

300 gms cream

4 teaspoon gelatin

Method for Cream Base:

Cook the grapes in 1 1/4 cup of water and 2 teaspoon sugar for 10-15 minutes on low flame till the grapes are soft and cooked. Remove from flame and cool completely. 

Blend the grapes in the blender and sieve the mixture in a sieve. I sieve it in a sieve which has slightly bigger holes than a sieve used to strain tea. 

Mix gelatin in 1/2 cup water and hear it on low flame till the gelatin melts. Add the gelatin to the above sieved grape mixture. 

Beat the condensed milk and add it to the grape puree. Put it in a mould or in the container in which you want to set the mousse and keep it in the refrigerator till the mousse is semi-soft. I put it in fridge for around 25-35 minutes. Blend the cream and mix it with the grape mixture. Keep it in the fridge till it sets well (around 3-4 hours).

For the Glaze:

1 teaspoon gelatin

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup black grapes

2 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon corn flour dissolved in 2 tablespoon cold water

Method for Glaze:

Cook 1/2 cup grapes in 1/4 cup water with 2 table spoon sugar. Cook properly and cool down. Blend the cooked grapes in blender and sieve it. 

Dissolve the gelatine in double boiler or on very low flame till the gelatin melts completely. Keep aside.

Mix the dissolved cornflour mixture into the sieved cornflour mixture. Cook the grape mixture on low flame till it is thick. I cook it for 10-15 minutes on low flame. Add the gelatin mixture and cook for 1 minute. Remove from fire and once it completely cooled, pour it over the creamy- mixture of mousse which was kept in the fridge to set. 

Keep it for 2-3 hours in the fridge so that the glaze will set over the creamy mousse. Cut it into pieces and serve chilled. One needs to scoop it with a spoon while serving it. I have tried to cut it into pieces like a cake and have not been very successful :) 

Yana's Chicken Hawaiian Salad

This is a recipe inspired by the Chicken Hawaiian salad at Yana's Restaurant in Pune. I have very fond memories of going to Yana's with my office colleague and sometimes with my sister. The sizzlers's at Yana's are out of the world and incomparable to any other sizzler joint. 

This is very simple to prepare the salad, but the sweetness of the pineapple and flavor imparted by the two varieties of bell pepper make a great combination with the chicken. Those who don't eat chicken can substitute it with paneer or tofu.

Ingredients 
4 chicken breast pieces
1  cup mayonnaise
1 cup thick yogurt or curds
1 green pepper or capsicum
1 red pepper or capsicum
1 yellow pepper or capsicum
1 pineapple or add as per taste 
salt for taste
pepper for taste
1 tablespoon sugar (only if the pineapple is not sweet)


Method  

 Cook the chicken breast pieces in water added with little salt. Cool down and cut the chicken into bite size pieces. De-seed the peppers and cut them into elongated stripes. Cut the pineapple into small chunks and mix in sugar if the pineapple is not sweet. Mix yogurt and mayonnaise well. Add the cut peppers, pineapple and chicken pieces. Add salt and pepper as per taste. Serve immediately. 

13 Lentil soup

I found 13 lentils bag at my Oroweat Outlet. I bought this as an adventure to try recipes out of the 13 good lentils. The soup tastes yummy and is a great combination with soft bread loaves. Because of the lentils it is quite a heavy soup and can make a hearty lunch or dinner.



Ingredients
1/2 cup of 13 lentils or any lentils on hand
1 medium onion
1 carrot
3 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
1 stack of celery
1 medium tomato
4 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper powder or red chili powder
1 teaspoon vinegar or as per taste
salt for taste

Method
Wash and soak the lentils for 8-10 hours or overnight. Pressure cook the lentils or cook on a stove top with salt and chopped tomatoes. Add the broth instead of water while cooking the lentils. Heat oilve oil in a pan and add chopped onions. When caramelized, add chopped carrots, celery and garlic. Fry for 3-4 minutes. Add coriander powder, cumin powder and chili powder. Mix well with the vegetables. Add the boiled lentils and get the soup to a boil. Add water if a more liquidish consistency is desired. Check for salt and mix in vinegar. Serve hot with french loaves.

Italian Bread

Few weeks back, it was a cold rainy day when we visited this nice, cozy Italian restaurant in downtown Palo Alto (Bay Area). We had given up on a hike in the hills earlier because of the extreme cold weather. We searched for Italian restaurants around on the GPS and found one called Bella Luna and decided to try out this restaurant. Both of us were cold and hungry, and the soft, warm and sweet smelling bread they served looked like heaven. They serve this comforting bread with garlic and olive oil dip. It was only 6 pm, so we had our dinner leisurely. That's when I decided I should try baking Italian bread at home. Italian bread is such a versatile dish- it can be made into bruschetta, served with soup or any other entree. Or it can be served in a simpler way, like with just some cracked pepper, salt and olive oil. I tried making this bread with both white flour and also using whole wheat flour or roti atta. Both the version turned out to be very tasty. The best part is that it doesn't take much time to make this bread. The dough can be made prior and stored in the freezer and can be baked whenever needed. The online recipe called for water, but I used milk to knead the dough. I am so excited with the success of this recipe that I am planning to bake different breads like olive bread, garlic, jalapeno bread and spice bread with this basic dough.

Ingredients
2-2 1/2 cups flour. All purpose flour or maida can be used. I used 50% whole wheat flour and 50% all purpose flour
1 packet rapid rise yeast
3 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
warm milk or water

Method
Combine yeast, salt and flour and mix well. Add olive oil and warm milk and made a smooth dough. Add rest of the flour and knead for 8-10 minutes till a smooth dough is obtained. Cover with a cloth towel and keep aside for 15 minutes or till the dough doubles in size. Knead again for 4-5 minutes. Grease the bread pan with olive oil and pat the bread dough inside the pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or till light brown on the bottom at 400 degrees. Glaze the top with olive oil as soon as the bread is removed from the oven.


Garlic-Olive Oil dip:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
5-6 garlic cloves very finely chopped
sea salt
pepper

Method:
Mix all the ingredients together and leave aside for 5-10 minutes to allow the flavor of garlic to infuse into the olive oil. Serve with warm Italian bread.

Microwaved Pear with Dryfruits

I saw a baked pear recipe on the food network long time ago. I was not familiar with baking fruits and never tried it. This week when we visited the farmers market, I heard a lady asking a farmer if the pears he was selling were good for baking. He said yes and I remembered the recipe which I had seen on the food network channel. I microwaved the pears with the apricots, raisins and walnuts and it turned to be a very delicious dessert. It takes just around 10 minutes to make this pear dessert.


Ingredients
2 pears
3 walnuts
2 apricots
16 raisins
2 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar
vanilla extract

Method
Cut the pear into half. De-core it and place it on a microwave safe plate. Fill the core with chopped walnuts, apricots and raisins. Mix cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle it on the pears. Add a drop of vanilla extract into the core of each pear. Top it with honey as per the level of sweetness desired.


Microwave it for 8-10 minutes or till the pears are soft. Let it stay for 5 minutes before serving. The pears can also be baked in the oven at 300 degrees for around 15-20 minutes.

Healthy Butternut Squash Soup

My hubby surprised me with dinner at California Cafe on my birthday. It was a nice cozy restaurant and the seafood there was fabulous. We also had butternut squash soup which left a great impression on both of us. It was a very simple recipe with saffron, nutmeg and cinnamon. Butternut squash is rich in beta carotene and eating orange and yellow colored vegetables offers protection against cold and flu.

Today, while the cold winds have been roaring outside, we got butternut squash from Safeway on the way back home and I recreated this soup. It takes around 40 minutes to make this and it is a perfect recipe for the cold winter. The verdict- creamy texture, great flavor, yummy and it goes on the once-to-be-tried-every-week list.

Butternut squash

Ingredients
3 cups roughly cubed butter nut squash
1/8th teaspoon cinnamon powder or as desired
1/4 cup tangerine juice or mandarin orange juice or canned tangerine or mandarin orange( I used canned tangerine )
8-10 strands of saffron
2 pinches of nutmeg powder
3 tablespoon thick cream (I used 5 tablespoon reduced fat milk)
2 tablespoon butter
pepper and salt for garnishing

Method
Heat butter in a pan and caramelize the butternut squash till it is light brown on all sides. Don't let it loose its orange colour while caramelizing otherwise the soup may turn brown in color. I cooked it covered it on medium flame for 20 minutes with occasional stirring. Cool it for 10 minutes. Grind it into a smooth paste with the tangerine juice or canned tangerines or mandarin oranges, nutmeg powder, cinnamon powder, salt and pepper. Add salt carefully as the butternut squash is very flavorful. Add saffron and get the ground paste to a boil. Add thick cream and cook for another 5 minutes. Serve hot.

Zucchini Spice Bread

This is the first time I participated in Taste and Create event, a challenging event hosted by Nicole of For the Love of Food. In this event two bloggers are paired against each other. Each of the paired bloggers has to select and make a dish from the other's blog and send the entry to the event. I feel that it is an amazing way to get to know other bloggers and expand one's horizon in the world of recipes. I was paired with Stephanie from Iron Stef . I short listed many of her recipes including Zucchini Spice Bread, banana bread , bruschettas, potato chips in microwave, Falafel. I loved the falafel recipe as it is on my soon-to-do-list but when I saw the zucchini spice bread I fell in love with it instantly. Both I and my husband love zucchini and I try to use it in soups and sabzi's. I also saw a Zucchini bread recipe in her blog, but choose the spice bread as it made use of plenty of spices. I used half quantity of whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour. I didn't have walnuts on hand, so I used cashew nuts and black raisins. Half way through the baking process the whole house was filled with the sweet aroma of spices. The bread was delicious and we had it for tea. Check out the recipe here.

Bruschetta

What do you do when you feel like eating something special without taking a lot of effort to make it? This weekend I made bruschetta for late evening snack. Bruschetta pronounced as "brusˈketta" is usually served as an appetizer along with soup. It is a beautiful dish which has all the three favorite Italian colors- White, Green and Red. It makes a tasty tangy and cheezzy snack to make without spending much time. The toppings may vary-one can experiment with different kinds of vegetables like pepper, beans; different meats and cheeses can be substituted as per one's taste. I have even seen fruit bruschetta's recipes made using peaches, apples and various cheeses in some of the television shows. My version includes cilantro which I love a lot and use to make the basil flavor a little milder. I am sending this recipe to WYF: Light Meal event announcement. I served it with coffee, but it can also be served with minestrone soup.

Ingredients

loaf of Italian bread or French bread or garlic bread
2 tomatoes
powdered parmesan cheese
olive oil
chopped coriander leaves or parsley as per one's choice
chopped basil
pepper and salt for taste

Method
De-seed the tomatoes and dice them. Slice the bread loaf into 1/2 inch pieces. Drizzle olive oil on the bread. Sprinkle the diced tomatoes, parsley or coriander leaves, basil and cheese on the bread. Sprinkle salt and pepper for taste. Bake the bread till the cheese melts on the bread. Serve immediately to avoid a soggy bruschetta.

Serve hot with minestrone soup.

Granola

This weekend was pretty busy with all the Diwali preparations and cleaning going on around the house. I made chooda/chiwda and and coconut barfi following my mother's recipe. They will be appearing very soon on the blog. I made the coconut barfi for the first time. The verdict- my husband has been eating it day and night...I just hope it lasts till Diwali. My whole home was filled with the enticing aroma of coconut and cardamom for hours. It was amongst these plans and tasks I decided to make granola.

I have been always looking forward to eat sugar and chocolate free granola cereal for breakfast and evening snacks, but I never thought it could be made so easily at home. Thanks to Priya from Akshaypaatram, I have finally found my heart's wish come true :). Here is the link to Priya's blog post.

I had maple syrup, honey and vanilla in my pantry, so the only things I needed to buy were the hazle nuts, oats and the pecans. It is interesting to go shopping for things which you have never shopped for before. I found Wheat Germ in the breakfast section tucked on the top most aisle...I guess it is not usually picked up by many people. I then started searching for flax seed and I could not find it in the breakfast aisle. I asked a staff "Where can I find flax seeds"...he turned towards puzzled and asks "Umm.. whats that..can you spell it for me". I say "F-L-A-X". He says "I do not think we have that in our store". I tell him that I was expecting to find it somewhere near wheat germ in the breakfast section. He says "Wheat germ...whats that? "...that is when I realized that he could not be of much help! It shows how much people know about health foods as compared to fast, frozen and ready to eat food. I again went to the breakfast section and a old lady helped to to find the flax seeds. But by then I found a organic mixture of Whole Rolled Oats, Wheat, pumpkin seed and ground Flax seed. It was a 400gm packet and I used all of it to make the granola.

Ingredients I used: 3 cups - Rolled oats + Whole Wheat (flattened wheat..looks just like oats but browner in color)+Pumpkin seeds + Flax seeds
1/4 cup each (unsalted)- Walnuts, Pecans, Hazelnuts - coarsely chopped
1/4 cup - Wheat bran
1/4 cup each (packed) - dried Cherries, plump Golden raisins - coarsely chopped
10-15 dates -coarsely chopped
10 cashew nuts- chopped
1 Tbsp - Butter
2 Tbsp - Oil (I had olive oil, but any vegetable oil works too)
2 Tbsp - Maple Syrup
2 Tbsp - Honey
1/2 tsp - pure Vanilla extract

I followed pretty much the same procedure as Priya's to make this granola. Here is how it looked before going into the oven.
It was raining cats and dogs here due to some storm in the Pacific ocean. It reminded me of the heavy rains in Pune and at times it would rain non stop, day and night for many days in a row. In such rainy days, my mom would make fried jack fruit papad's which we would get from Mangalore and various bhajiyas (vegetable fritters). We had ganola with yogurt, sliced bananas and strawberries on Monday and the granola with hot milk made a hearty breakfast on Tuesday morning when it was raining hard.

With my job there is not much time now a days for doing other activities like reading which I used to previously do very frequently. I mostly find time on weekends and during the week nights to catch up on my reading. I subscribe to Reader's Digest and Good Housekeeping and always eagerly wait for the latest issue to arrive by mail. Here are a few books I plan to finish soon...
Sense and Sensibility-- Auther: Jane Austin (Pride and Prejudice is another of her famous novel)
Reader's Digest
Healthy Living from the Inside Out (I picked up this from the library last week..found the introduction very interesting!)

French Fries

As the winter starts to set here and it gets colder and colder day by day, I look back at wintery days of my childhood. We stayed in Bhopal for quite some time and the temperature would drop to around 3-4 degrees. The sun would set early- at around 4 or 5 pm in the noon. Cold wintery evenings would call for lot of hot, spicy and fried stuff. My mom would cook winter-special food like different bhajiyas (vegetable fritters fried with a coating of Bengal Gram flour), cutlets, omelets along with the regular traditional stuff like dosas and idlis. In these modern age, fried food means a lot of fat and extra calories! So I try to bake food rather than fry it. I make baked bhajiyas, tava-fried cutlets and french fries. Tava-frying takes only 2 tablespoon oil as compared to the cupfuls of oil needed for frying. I have never been a great fan of potato as it makes me feel sleepy and lazy. But my husband Atul loves every dish made of potato and hence I make these tava-fried- french fries very often during the weekends. Season the fries with garlic powder, pepper, salt and chili powder and you have a batch of restaurant quality french fries made right at home. I took the photo of this dish as we were both holding the plate as Atul said " It will take you 5 more minutes to click the photo" and did not let go of the plate!

Ingredients
2-3 potatoes
2 tablespoon oil
pepper
salt for taste

Method
Cut the potatoes into long stripes. Grease the tava with oil and heat it on low-medium heat. Put the potato stripes on the tava. When the are light brown on one side flip them over to the other side. Follow this step so that the stripes are light brown on all sides. Cook on low-medium heat and take care not to burn the fries. Remove from tava when cooked and lay on a kitchen paper to drain the extra oil (if any!). Sprinkle salt and pepper and serve with tomato ketchup and mustard.

Egg Omelet

Eggs make a great breakfast and snack item. I have fond memories of childhood when my mom would return from office at around 6 PM the evening and serve delicious egg omelets with bread as evening snacks. The tangy tomatoes, the crunchy onions in the egg omelet and the spicy Maggi tomato ketchup applied on the bread slices would make a delicious sandwich. Earlier my husband was not very fond of having eggs regularly for breakfast. Thanks to our visit to the beautiful Requa Inn and experiencing their wonderful breakfast egg preparations, scrambled eggs and omelets have become all time breakfast favorite at my home. Recently we even tried the brown organic eggs available in Costco and found them to be better than the regular white eggs.

Vani of Mysorean sent me the information about the Show me your Omelet event and I am sending this recipe for the event hosted by Divya.

Ingredients
3 large eggs
4 tablespoon chopped onion
3 tablespoon chopped tomato
other optional vegetables (sauteed mushrooms, peas, spinach, corn, beans)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon chili powder or as desired
1 chopped green chili (optional)
4 tablespoons of chopped coriander leaves or cilantro or chopped parsley or chives (whatever is available on hand)
butter or oil
salt for taste

Method
Wash and break the eggs in a bowl. Beat it with a fork, spoon or a whisk for 3-4 minutes or till they are frothy. Add rest of the ingredients except the chives(if used) and the butter. Heat a pan on medium or low heat and coat it well with butter or oil. Spread half of the omelet mixture in the pan and let it cook for 2-3 minutes till it is light brown on the bottom. Flip the omelet and let it cook on the other side till light brown spots appear. Remove the omelet on to a plate and garnish with chives. Powdered parmesan cheese can also be used as a garnish. Serve hot with toasted bread, tomato ketchup and mustard.

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Serves: 2

Margarita Pizza

One of my friend taught me this recipe and it has become very popular in my home since then. The versatility, the quickness and various modifications which can be make to this basic pizza recipe make it more interesting to make. I have in my mind to post the different kinds of pizza I have tried including a dessert pizza which I made watching the recipe on TLC's "Take home Chef". Taking "little things" into consideration like using fat-free cheese can go a long way to make this recipe healthier. I am sending this recipe to events hosted by Poornima and Bindiya.


Ingredients
1 portion of pizza dough
1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese (use fat-free if you want to make it healthier)
4 tablespoon tomato sauce or as desired
2 tomatoes de-seeded or sliced or chopped
10-12 basil leaves
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoon powdered Parmesan cheese

Method

Knead the pizza dough well for 5 minutes. Starting from the center of the dough stretch the pizza dough with your fingers to make a round shape. Alternatively you can also roll it using a rolling pin or "belan" into a round shape to fit your pizza pan or pizza stone. Spread the tomato sauce on the pizza dough. Then top with tomato slices or pieces and basil leaves. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on the pizza. Bake it at 500 degrees for 10-13 minutes or till the cheese has melted and golden in color. Don't over bake it, otherwise it will turn crispy and hard.


Swirl some olive oil on the pizza. Sprinkle pepper flakes and parmesan cheese and serve it hot.

Pizza Dough

Recently one of my friend taught me how to make basic pizza dough at home. It is very relaxing to come back home from work knowing that the pizza dough waiting in the fridge to be topped with vegetables and sauce and baked in a matter of 10 minutes. This pizza dough can be made in advance and stored in the freezer. I cut the dough into sections sufficient to make single pizza and then store the pieces in separate ziplock bags. When ever I plan to make a pizza, I take the ziplock bag from the freezer a day in advance and store it in the refrigerator, so that it de-freezes and can be then used to make a pizza.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup maida or all purpose flour (if you are not using whole wheat flour, use 2 cups all purpose flour)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour or chappati atta
1 packet instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoon oil (best if olive oil is used)

Method

Take a cup of warm water and mix in sugar, oil and salt in it. Add the yeast powder and mix well. Add the flours and make a loose dough. Knead it well for around 10-15 minutes. The dough should not be sticky nor too hard. If the dough is too dry, more water can be added while kneading it. If th dough is too wet, add some more flour to it.
Place it in a bowl and cover it with a wet cloth and keep it in a warm place for around 40 minutes. The dough will rise to double its original size. Knead the dough again for 10 minutes. This dough can be used instantly or kept in a freezer. Keep it in the refrigerator or at room temperature to de-freeze it. The dough should be at normal temparature before using it. Use this to make any kind of pizza.