Green and Wholesome Dosa

After a long time I prepared dosas for lunch today.  I have always been fond of South Indian food be it dosas or idlis or uttampams and they were prepared at least once a week in my family. My mother and all my elder siblings are also foodies - I remember my sisters collecting recipes from various sources like magazines, newspapers and cookbooks at a time when internet was not common. They used to note down the recipes in notebook/diaries for future use. One such recipe I remember is Pesarattu that we came across in a magazine years ago. Pesarattu is a green coloured dosa made using whole Moong or split moong beans and it derives the green colour from the green skin of whole moong beans.

At some point the Pesarattu also became a regular breakfast staple as we needed more variety than the usual Pohe, Upma, Idlis and Parathas! This healthy dosa belongs to a class of instant dosas where you do not need to ferment the batter. However you do need to soak the Moong beans for 6-8 hours or overnight and you can add more cereals to it like ground rice, ragi (finger millet) flour or oats to make it even more nutritious.

Although I have been making Pesarattu for few years now (though not very often), I made it differently this time. I added oats to Moong when grinding it. We did not notice much difference in the taste which is good for us. I also sprinkled some grated carrots on the dosa. The whole combination tasted nice and makes for a wholesome and tasty lunch option. I think I will make this more often now especially for my little one who has suddenly gone off vegetables and lentils and prefers to eat just plain rice, chapati or bread. He also enjoys dosas and this dosa is one way of giving him proteins along with some veggies!

Moong Oats Pesarattu

You will need the following:


1 cup whole Moong beans / whole split Moong beans (split with the green skin intact) - soaked overnight or for 6-8 hours.
1/2 cup quick cooking oats - I used Quakers Oats.
3 Green chillies
1 inch piece of ginger cut into small pieces
1 dried red chilli
Few fenugreek seeds (about 1/4 tsp)
Few fresh curry leaves (8-10 small leaves)
2 tsp cumin - dry roasted in a pan.
Grated carrots/chopped onions for topping - optional

This is how you prepare it:

• Wash the whole moong beans and soak them in water for 6-8 hours or overnight.
• Drain off the soaking water and add the soaked beans and all the other ingredients to a food-processor or mixer container
• Add some water to the contents of mixer and grind for few minutes until the batter is smooth. You can make a coarse batter if you prefer it that way.
• Heat a non stick flat pan/griddle and coat it with little oil.
• To prepare the dosa, pour about half a cup of batter and spread it out quickly to make a big circle. Add grated carrots or any other vegetable of your choice and this is optional.
• Add few drops of oil on dosa - this prevents the dosa from sticking to the pan as it is being cooked.
• When you see that the edges are turning brown, you need to flip the dosa over and cook it further for few seconds.
• Serve it hot along with chutney of your choice.

Mediterranean Food at Home

Recently we dined at a Mediterranean restaurant called FresCo located in the Ambience Mall, Gurgaon. It offers a very sumptuous buffet spread of salads and desserts and there is a a la carte sitting area as well. We opted for a la carte as we were feeling tired after shopping and felt like relaxing. The a la carte menu was equally interesting and we were spoilt for choice. But we decided to steer clear of the usual Italian fare like Pizza and Pasta and ordered Bruschettas for starters and a Mezze platter. The friendly waiters also offered a complimentary selection of bread rolls which our little one enjoyed thoroughly. The restaurant ambience is very cool and refreshing light blue and white giving you the impression of being by the seaside. We really had a good time there...

Earlier I used to associate Mediterranean food with the Italian and Greek cuisine but my perception changed after dining at this place as they also included Mezze which I thought comes in the Middle-Eastern category. So I started digging up more information on this cuisine and found out that Mediterranean food indeed includes food from the eastern side of Mediterranean - Lebanese, Turkish etc.

I came across this website http://www.dedemed.com/ which has videos on the Mediterranean food preparation - the recipes are very authentic and I was really inspired to try out some of them. I made Hummus based on the recipe on this website and was very happy with the outcome. I did not follow the quantities specified in the recipe but my hummus still tasted great and my hubby enjoyed it thoroughly, the latter being more important to me :-)

I repeated the Medieterranean menu at home last Sunday:

Homemade Hummus served with Toasted Pizza Triangles

Recipe Source: http://www.dedemed.com/index.php/Vegetarian-Recipes/Hummus.html

To serve the hummus, I spread it out in a wide and shallow bowl and sprinkled some cumin powder and chilli powder. Then poured a swirl of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and added some Pomegranate seeds at the centre. Pomegranates go well with the Middle Eastern theme, so I decided to use them for garnishing.As it was windy that day, my garnishing spread out a little bit!

The ideal accompaniment for Hummus is Pita bread however I served the hummus with toasted Pizza triangles (I had couple of Pizza bases in the fridge). To make the Pizza triangles, brush the Pizza bases with olive oil on both sides and grill them for few minutes. Cut them into triangular shapes (wedges) to serve.

Italian Bruschettas


These mini Bruschettas have been inspired by the ones we had at Fresco. I used a French loaf for this. Slice the French loaf using slant cuts so that you get a elongated (oval) slice. Brush olive oil on both sides of the slices and grill them for few minutes turning them over once. Rub some fresh garlic on the toasted bread to give it a garlicky taste. Here are the toasted slices ready to be served.

I used a very simple topping - chopped tomatoes, crushed garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil - all mixed well. You could also add some finely sliced basil. Rest the mixture for few minutes to allow the flavours to develop. To make Brushchetta, add a tablespoon of this mixture to the toasted slices just before serving.

Crunchy Munchy Salads

Carrots and Cabbages are two of my favourite vegetables when it comes to salads; I am not very good at eating the leafy salads yet! I love the crunchiness of carrots and cabbages and you can easily combine them with fresh or dried fruits to come up with some interesting blends. The most popular salad in this category is the Coleslaw but the idea of mayonnaise puts me off, so I started experimenting with variations of the Coleslaw.

One of the my favourite combinations is Carrots, Cabbages and Apples. I also added Pecans to this salad to pack an extra crunch but Walnuts also work equally well. Then I sprinkled some Pomegranate seeds which adds a nice tangy taste to this salad. This salad was dressed but in lime and honey dressing, so it is bit on sweeter side. If you are not keen on sweet tasting salads, you can pep it up using spices. 

Visual appeal is very important to me when it comes to salad, so I like to combine many different colours and textures. One such brightly coloured salad is a Carrot and Beet salad - this time I added pistachio nuts and pomegranate seeds. The purple colour of Beet and the orange of Carrots looks very appealing but I also added few ruby red pomegranate seeds and finished off with a sprinkling of roughly chopped pistachio nuts. The green colour of pistachios in contrast to the purple and orange of veggies makes the salad stand out on the dinner table.

Carrot Cabbage and Apple Salad with Pecans

To make this salad, you will need:

1 cup grated carrots
1 cup shredded  cabbage
1/2 apple - chopped into small pieces
Few pomegranate seeds (optional)
Roughly chopped Pecans/Walnuts
Lemon/Lime juice - 1 tbsp
Honey - 1/2 tbsp

Mix the carrots, cabbage and apples in a big bowl. Add the pomegranate seeds if you are using it. To make the dressing, mix the lemon juice and honey separately and then add to the salad. Toss the salad to mix. Finally add the nuts. Toss again.

This will make two servings if you are having the salad as a side dish.


Carrot and Beet Salad with Pistachios

To make the this salad you will need:

1 cup grated Carrots
1 cup grated Beets
1/2 cup Pomegranate seeds
Few Pistachio nuts chopped
Lemon/Lime Juice to taste
Chaat Masala (spice blend used to flavour snacks in Indian cooking)- you can use Cumin powder instead.
Salt to taste

Mix the grated Carrots and Beets. Add the Pomegranate seeds. Season with Chaat Masala and salt. Add lemon/lime juice to taste. Mix well. Garnish with pistachio nuts to serve.

This makes two servings of the salad as a side-dish.

From my Salad Bar: Sprouts Salad

Nutritionists around the world consider sprouts as one of superfoods - foods that are a concentrated source of nutrition.I was pleasantly surprised to see attractively packaged bean sprouts easily available to you in the vegetable sections of most super-markets here.You can easily grow sprouts at home using a variety of beans and seeds. Have a look at my earlier post on sprouting: How to Sprout Beans. We often use them for preparing a spicy curry called Usal but I prefer to use sprouts in salads more these days.

Bean Sprouts salad is one of the favourite salads in our household. This salad combines sprouts with some of  the ingredients that are always available at home: Green Peppers, Apples, Onions, Tomatoes. You can pep up the salad by adding your favourite nuts or even pomegranate seeds.

I used a mixture of sprouts for this salad but you could use any one of them.

You will need:

Bean Sprouts - I used a mixture of Moong Beans, Moth Beans and Kala Chana (brown variety of chickpeas)
Apple - chopped into small pieces. You could use boiled potato instead.
Green Pepper/Capsicum - chopped
Tomato - cubed
Onion - chopped in to small pieces
Salt to taste
Lime Juice
Chaat Masala to taste - this is a special blend of spices used to flavour Chaat. It is even sprinkled on fruits. You can use even use some ground cumin and black pepper instead.
Red Chilli Powder to taste (optional)

First lightly steam the sprouts. I usually do this in my microwave steamer on full power for 5 minutes. Allow them to cool. Take the cooled sprouts in a bigger bowl and mix them along with the vegetables and fruits. Add salt to taste, some lime juice and chaat masala. Sprinkle some chilli powder on top. Serve cold.

I have not specified any quantities here because I usually do not mix the vegetables and fruits in any specific proportions.

Quick Mango Ginger Bowls

Lately I have been feeling health-conscious and so we try to have at least one salad everyday for lunch. I am also spending any free time in thinking and reading about salads in my cookbook collection and blogs. At times I feel guilty that I am spending so much of my time in experimenting with food and reading food-blogs when I should be doing other more important stuff. But now I feel virtuous that I can make use of all the knowledge and inspiration that I get from reading about food can be applied for a good-cause i.e. improve health of me and my family.

Some time and effort devoted in making a salad means you do not have to think too much about how to get your five a day serving of fruits and veg. You can serve salad as a main-course or a side-dish or even as a dessert. We had this lovely Mango salad for dessert last weekend. I have always loved the mango-ginger combination although I had never tried it before! I added the stem-ginger to our Mango salad to give it an interesting twist.  This is a very refreshing salad which is not only quick to make but very elegant too!

A quick word on Stem Ginger in case you are not familiar with it - basically Ginger pieces that have been preserved in sugar syrup. Stem Ginger is readily available in jars in super-markets in UK and is mainly used in baking cakes and cookies. You can use fresh ginger root that has been cooked in sugar syrup as a substitute or simply flavour the sugar syrup with Ginger powder.

Quick Mango Ginger Bowls

For two servings you will need:

Couple of Ripe Alphonso Mangoes (or any other sweet Mango) - sliced/cubed
Stem Ginger - a chunk along 2 tbsp of syrup used for preserving
Few Pomegranate kernels
Few Basil/Mint leaves sliced plus some more for garnishing
Lemon juice 1 tsp

Chop the stem ginger into smaller pieces. Mix mango slices, stem ginger pieces, pomegranate kernels, sliced Mint/Basil along with some syrup from Stem Ginger. Add some lemon juice. Mix well. Serve the salad into individual bowls and garnish each bowl with mint/basil leaves. Serve chilled.

Spicy Corn Buttermilk Soup/Corn Saar

Green Peas and Sweet Corn are a must-have in my freezer so that I can use them all the year around without all the fuss. Some people may  raise eyebrows at the idea of using frozen vegetables especially here in India, but I find them handy and I also believe that frozen is as good as fresh because most of nutrients in fresh  vegetables are lost by the time they arrive in shops. We also typically tend to store vegetables for few days in the fridge and then any remaining goodness is anyway lost if unhealthy cooking method like frying is used. Vegetables that are frozen fresh continue to retain nutrients as long as they are kept frozen.

Today I was feeling adventurous and wanted to try something new with Sweet Corn. I also wanted to do something different with the buttermilk. So putting the two together I thought of experimenting with a corn soup using buttermilk. Using buttermilk in a soupy preparation called Saar (in Marathi) is not new but I thought of adding a twist by using Sweet Corn. Saar is always a yummy appetizer and the corn-based Saar is no different - it is also a winner.

This soup can also be prepared using canned Sweet Corn or even fresh Sweet corn if you have the time and patience to take out the kernels from corn cobs.

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Spicy Corn Buttermilk Soup/Corn Saar


For three servings you will need:

1 cup frozen Sweet Corn
2 cups/500 ml Buttermilk
Couple of Green Chillies
4-5 Garlic Cloves Crushed
1 tsp Ground Cumin
Few curry leaves
1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
Coriander leaves
Salt to taste

First defrost the sweet corn by pouring hot water on it. If you have the time then you could take it out of the freezer well in advance. Then grind the Sweet Corn along with chillies in a blender. Heat oil in a pot. Add the crushed garlic curry leaves and fry for a few seconds and then add the corn puree. Mix well and stir for couple for minutes to allow the corn to cook. Then add the buttermilk and let the soup cook on a low flame and take it off the stove as soon as it is hot but not boiling. If you continue to boil for long time, the buttermilk may split. Add a few coriander leaves and finally season it with cumin powder and salt.

Decorate using coriander leaves and Red Chilli Powder. This soup is equally good hot or cold.

The Humble Citrus

At the outset, I must admit that I am not a fruity person but I am trying to change this image of mine :-) Although there are very few fruits that I really enjoy, I do love to start my day with a glass of juice - the favourites being Orange and Apple. The choice of fruits and fruit-juices that are available throughout the year in the UK and most of the western part of the world is mind-boggling. But there is one citrus that I missed in UK, one that is widely available in India. I have decided to dedicate this post to this humble fruit. Any guesses which fruit I am talking about? Have a look at picture below:

This citrus looks like a big lime but the flavour leans towards orange only milder and sweeter and is called Sweet Lime or Mosambi in Marathi. The fruit is also called Palestine Sweet Lime and is only popular in India and parts of Middle East.

This is how it looks on the inside:

I love the refreshing sweetness of this fruit and it is an ideal choice if you do not enjoy the bitter taste of oranges and limes. Most of the local fast-food joints and fruit stalls have this fruit juice on its menu. I think this fruit juice must be most popular in India and is widely available. On our last grocery shopping trip, my hubby picked up a few of these (he does the fruit shopping as he enjoys fruits more than me). My citrus juicer that I had bought in UK before our India move was lying unused. By the way, this buy was inspired by my frequent viewing of the Barefoot Contessa cookery program on the UK Good Food channel. I am an admirer of Ina Garten's kitchen and love the way she effortlessly juices citrus fruits using her juicer.

So I decided to give my juicer a try and my initial attempt was yielded very little juice. So I asked my hubby to give me a hand and he did a better job. Here is the citrus juicer in action:

We managed to extract about 200 ml of juice from three large sweet limes. This is just about right for one glass of juice.

How to prepare Sweet Lime/Mosambi Juice

To make a tall glass of this juice: Extract juice from 3-4 Sweet Limes and topup with water. I used about a third of water. Add couple of teaspoons of sugar if you prefer even sweeter juice. I also added a teaspoon of Ginger juice extracted from fresh Ginger root. Ginger added a nice sharp twist to the sweet mellowness of the Sweet Lime. 

You could also try a combination of Orange and Sweet Lime juice to get naturally sweetened Orange Juice as the sweetness of Sweet Lime will balance the tangy flavour of Orange. 

Simple Pleasures: Cheese Straws and Oaty Cheese Biscuits

I love the lingering savoury taste of Cheese Straws which always make me go for another one. In Pune one can easily get their hands on these delights anywhere -  it is available in Monginis and most of the bakeries. I cannot write enough about the goodies sold in Pune bakeries. 

Sadly the baked goods which I took for granted in Pune and then in UK as well are not easily available here (in Gurgaon) unless you go to a gourmet bakery. I have been missing the baked goods since we moved here. Both me and my other half have a sweet tooth but lately he has been going off sweets and showing inclination towards healthy eating which is good but also means that I cannot bake without feeling guilty. As I also want to keep my baking interest alive, I started looking out for savoury recipes. While browsing my convection microwave oven manual I came across this recipe for Cheese Straw that looked so simple that I wanted to try it straightaway. Being a busy mom, there are a couple of things I look for in a recipe : is it simple and can it prepared in a matter of minutes? This recipe called for very few ingredients which are available at home so I had no hesitation in trying out the recipe.

And the results spoke for themselves! So much so that I made another batch the next day - however as always I twisted the original recipe and gave the cheese straws a new look - I made cheese biscuits instead and also added rolled oats.

Without further ado, here is the recipe:

Cheese Straws

Ingredients

100 gms Plain Flour (1 cup)

50 gms unsalted butter

25 gms grated cheese

1/4 tsp Salt (use a little more if using unsalted butter)

1/8 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp Chilli Powder

1/2 tsp Black Pepper Powder

Ice cold water for kneading the dough

Procedure

• Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and spices and sift it into a mixing bowl.
• Break the butter into small bits and add it to flour. Also add the cheese.Now rub the butter into the flour using your finger tips until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
• Add cold water - little at a time and knead the dough.
• Chill the dough for atleast 30 minutes.
• Divide the dough into two portions. Roll each portion into a big circle until it is about 1/2 cms thick and cut each circle into small strips about 1/2 cms wide.
• Twist each strip until it resembles cheese straw and place it on a baking tray.
• Bake at 210 C for 13-15 minutes until it is golden and crispy.

Oaty Cheese Biscuits

I loved the taste so much that I baked another batch today. I twisted the cheese straw recipe by  adding couple of tablespoons of rolled oats into the crumbly mixture before adding water. I also shaped the dough into biscuits instead of straws and topped each biscuits with  sesame and nigella (kalonji) seeds. The result is Oaty Cheese Biscuits.

I am sure you would like to try out this recipe.