Baby food: Ragi/Millet

These are soaked in water, drained and ready to be powdered.

It is recommended as a great food for infants. It is supposed high in calcium for the growing bones.

We brought back lots of ragi flour from India which finds its way into baby food and also puttu (like this). I know there are other ways to use this flour, but haven’t ventured to try any.

To make porridge for the baby, just mix the flour with water till runny. Cook over medium heat till it is cooked and thick. We don’t add any sugar. I save extras in single serve containers in the refrigerator.

Ending a craving

Last month we went to the Ikea store in New Haven. Afterwards we were really hungry and we felt like Indian food. So we left the store and located the address of a nearby Indian restaurant. When we located the restaurant, there was no parking in sight and we had to park a few streets further. We decided to check out the restaurants in that neighborhood and that is when we found this diner looking restaurant. It was a diner turned into a Indian restaurant and for a moment I felt like I was back in Delhi at a wayside diner. The food was great and being a college town, it was filled with many students. I had methi parantha and shrimp vindaloo that day. It was a very satisfying meal and that doesnt happen to me often in Indian restaurants.

This post is my attempt to make the methi parantha at home. A google search located this recipe for me. Another dish I wanted to tackle was Saffron Hut‘s Sour creamwale baingan. This is my third attempt at cooking eggplants from cooking blogs. (First and second attempt) For a person who used eggplants only for cooking sambhar, eggplants are going to be a regular in my kitchen.

Firstly I made the dough.

Then I tackled the methi. I plucked out some leaves from methi and mixed it with some salt. That was my filling.

Take 1

Rolled out the dough. Put the filling in centre. Made it into a ball. As I was making it into a ball, every thing started leaking from the sides. I managed to save it by sprinkling some flour and it turned out ok.

Take 2

Roll out the dough very lightly. Put some filling in centre. Reshape into a ball. Roll out into a thick parantha. This seemed to hold the filling inside, without spilling all over.

Take 3

Just mixed the leaves with the doughball and make the parantha. Seemed easy enough.

I would love to hear from you if you know the way to make methi parantha. I want to learn how to make this the way it is supposed to.

After my experiments and cooking, it was a very satisfying lunch for me with methi paranths and SH’s sourcream baingan.

Kefir cheese and pistachio cake for SHF

I had made this cake about a week ago and had taken some pics at that time. I then forgot all about it till I downloaded all the pics from my camera today. And incidentally Sugar High Friday focuses on dairy. Since yogurt/unknown cheese was the highlight of this cake, I think this was an apt entry to SHF

I didnot use yogurt for the cake as the original recipe mentions . I used something that said Kefir cheese on the container.It almost looks like sour cream but is more of a thicker consistency. Is this Greek yogurt? I dont know..it says on the cover that it is a rare lebanese treat. This was brought home by our friends when they shopped for Arabic groceries at a middle eastern store for our Arabic meal. We never used it and it remained in the fridge till I saw this recipe, and decided to substitute it for the yogurt in the recipe.
Another reason this recipe attracted me was that it gave me a way to use up the pistachios that I had in my pantry.

The original recipe can be found here
I found it when I was searching for pistachio recipes.

Ingredients

I cup shelled pistachios ( I had salted ones on hand, so I decreased the amount of salt in the recipe)

All purpose flour 1 cup

Baking soda 1 tsp

Salt 1/2 tsp
Eggs 6 seperated

Sugar 1 1/4 cup

Yogurt or kefir cheese 3/4 cup

Extra virgin olive oil 1/2 cup

Method

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F
Toast the pistachios for about 10min. (The original recipes says 15min but to retain some of the green color I removed it a little earlier).

After removing the pistachios increase the oven temp. to 350 F

Once the pistachios have cooled, rub them between the folds of a clean kitchen towel to remove the skins. I didnt do this very aggressively either and some skin on the pistachios is not a problem. Grind them finely in the food processor. Some large pieces may be left and it is fine to leave them as it is, this adds a bite to the cake after it is cooked.

Add flour, baking soda, and salt( if using unsalted pistachios, add 1/2 tsp salt) and mix in the food processor.

In a clean vessel, beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Add 3/4 cup of sugar and beat it to
stiff peaks.

In another vessel, using the same beater,beat the egg yolks with the remaining half cup sugar till it is a pale yellow color. Add olive oil and yogurt and mix well. Then using a spatula, fold in the flour.

Lastly fold the egg whites, Do this gently using a spatula. The eggwhites add to the fluffiness of the cake and so when mixing be gentle so as not to flatten the egg whites.

Pour the batter into a 10inch buttered springform pan and bake for about 40 to 50 min.
Mine was ready at about 40min. Keep a close eye on the cake after 30min. Insert a toothpick to see if the cake is ready. If the toothpick comes out clean, it is ready.

Let cool. Serve with honey and chopped pistachios or as it is. This cake lasted us a few days in an airtight container on the countertop. It was a lifesaver after tired work days.

Sugar High Friday

kefir cheese shf17 kefir cheese and pistachio cake

Madakku saan…Kerala breakfast

Madakku saan was one of my favorite breakfast items when growing up. This was one of the most requested items at our home . In addition to being served as breakfast, it can also be served as an evening snack. Coming home hungry after school, these were devoured with great joy. So when Meena of Hooked on Heat was holding breakfast theme for her ‘From my Rasoi’ event I couldnt think of anything better..The beauty of this dish is that it can be preparedd fast and is quite tasty.
List of ingredients
All purpose flour 3/4 cup
Water enough to make thin batter
Salt
Coconut grated 3/4 cup
Sugar 1 tablespoon ( you could add more depending on your level of sweetness)
Cardamom 1 crushed
Crushed cumin 1/4 teaspoon
Method
Make a batter of water and all purpose flour. The consistency should be such that it can be made into a crepe. Add salt to taste to this batter.

Mix together coconut,sugar, crushed cardamom and crushed jeera seeds.

Make a crepe using the batter. It is hard to describe what to do after this. So hopefully the pictures will help.

Pour the batter into the shape of a crepe or dosa. Then you wait for about a minute or so while the top looks cooked.

Then you flip it over and put the stuffing on one half side of the crepe.

Fold the other side over the filling, and seal the edges with the spatula..just press the ends together real hard.
Then serve hot.

Simple yet delicious

Torte for procrastinators

Thanksgiving has come and gone. I had a great day with friends and this was my contribution to the turkey meal. I wanted to make the torte the day before thanksgiving but was too busy with work and laziness prevented me from cooking. So we woke up early in the day and made the crust. Did the filling while the crust was cooling. Took it over to friends and I held this beauty in my lap all through the drive as this was the outcome of hard work and lost sleep.
This was served after a sumptous lunch and was very well received.
This recipe is almost hard to mess up and the results are always good.
The original recipe is at finedinings.com

To make the crust

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Toast 1/2 cup walnuts( The original recipe says pecans or walnuts)
In a food processor, use the pulse button and grind the walnuts fine.
Add 1/2 cup sugar and 11/2 cup all purpose flour.
Blend this well and add the butter(3/4 cup cold butter, cut up into small pieces.

Spread the mixture into a spring form pan, and push up the mixture one inch up the sides of the pan. Bake until golden (original recipe said 30 to 40 min. but it took almost 45-50 min. Keep checking to see if the crust has the desired color.)
Remove from oven and cool.

To make the filling
Beat together using a hand held mixer, 8 ounces of cream cheese at room temperature with 1/2 cup sugar.
With the mixer running, add small amounts of the whipping cream ( 1 cup)in a steady small stream into the cheese mixture. The recipe recommends not to add the whipping cream too fast, or the mixture will be too runny. Finally add 11/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. I think adding the vanilla gives it a real nice kick. ( The original recipe doesn’t suggest this.)
When well blended, spread the cream mixture evenly into the baked, cooled crust.Cover the top with a plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator to be chilled.

Garnish

Cut strawberries into halves and arrange it on the top of the filling and place mint leaves in between strawberries.
Just before serving, remove the spring form pan rim.
Riesling makes a good wine accompaniment to this dish.
This dessert will be perfect for Christmas as it has green, red and white colors.

Great pancakes!

I am a person who usually works three days a week and I am home for the rest four days. Typically, I am very busy at work and am lucky if I can manage some time for cereal. So, the days I am off I try to have something nice and hearty for breakfast.For some reason last night I felt like having some pancakes for dinner and I found a lemon ricotta pancake recipe from Amy. This has almost become a trusted spot for me to look for recipes. But the plan to have breakfast menu for dinner did not materialise as I fell prey to laziness after a walk near the beach. We ended up having some leftover rice and fish for dinner.

This morning, I woke up all eager to try out the new recipe. One another reason I was attracted to the recipe was that I had all the ingredients in my pantry. So, I made the pancakes and although it said that it was enough for 2, I ended up eating all the pancakes alone.I had also made sausage but was too full to have it. I loved the pancakes so much that I am thinking of making some for Satish when he gets back from work. And I can see myself making this pancake when I have friends over for breakfast.

Here is the recipe

1/3 cup ricotta cheese
1 large egg; separated
2 T low-fat milk
3 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt
1/2 t grated lemon rind {I used some lemon juice}

Blend egg yolk and ricotta cheese then add milk, flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon rind and salt mixing until completely blended. Beat egg white in another mixing bowl until just stiff but still moist. Fold gently into batter. Heat large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium heat and coat with cooking spray.( I used butter, but I will use cooking spray when cooking for S). Drop batter by heaping tablespoonful onto skillet, and cook until golden brown on the bottom then gently flip and cook on other side. Serve immediately.

I got 6 pancakes although the recipe said 8,maybe because my pancake batter was a little thick. The pancakes are not too sweet and the beaten egg whites make it really soft. And they hardly take any time to make.