Back again! Zucchini Chips on Father's Day :)

Wow, it took me almost 10 years to restart something I enjoy doing the most! The challenges paused me but the support of my parents,understanding husband, and loving son made me stronger and happier during this journey. So I'm back again to share my thoughts with you. This time, it's not just recipes but a whole package of the body, mind, and soul. I'm hopeful my writing will get better with time 👍

Today's a very special Day! It is not just Father's Day but it is also my Dearest Dad's actual birthday. My Appa taught me discipline and how to address problems with a smile/sense of humor. I also dedicate my appreciation of good food, love for nature, and musical interest to my awesome Appa. It's a wonder how much energy and enthusiasm he brought back home daily after a long and tiring day at work as an Engineer climbing several buildings, dealing with politics, and talking to people from all walks of life! I'd say the same about my darling husband and so thankful for all his silent support amidst the chaos. My special gratitude to Earth and prayers for both of them made my soul happy. A walk into the woods along a beautiful local trail made my mind happy. Indulging into some healthy zucchini chips made my body happy 😊

Today's recipe is simple like my Appa and my husband, it is also a very healthy choice! So I request you to reach out for the zucchini chips instead of your regular old potato chips next time :) 

How to make Zucchini Chips? 

All you need is a sauté pan, zucchini, salt, black/red pepper, dried oregano (or any herb of your choice!), oil (your choice again!)

Step 1 - Cut your zucchini into rounds (I suggest farm fresh for better quality plus you get to support local farmers. I was lucky to get it from LVS Organic farms, thanks for all your hard work ladies 🙏)

Step 2 - Make sure the oil in your pan is hot before you place the zucchini rounds, sprinkle oregano or any herb of your choice (you can also do this in an oven at 375 degree Fahrenheit or in an air fryer!) 

Step 3 - Now comes the part to be patient and wait until it is roasted nicely on both sides 

Step 4 - Sprinkle some salt and pepper before serving.  It tastes great by itself or with some hummus, enjoy!

Beans poriyal (curry)

My college assignments are keeping me away from the blog. Inspite of that, here I am! So, I give myself a big pat on the back and will catch up on the blogwork :)

Remember, this is a part of my south indian thali. As a kid, I was not a big fan of steamed veggies. I'll eat them but not as much as I would eat roasted okra or potatoes. I guess, as I grew older, I learned to appreciate the goodness of greens. Beans can be quite bland on its own, so this is how to master it up my Mom's way. It is definitely quick and simple once you chop your green beans :)

Green beans - 1 pound
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Channa dal - 1 tsp (aka kadala paruppu/yellow split peas)
Red chillies - 2 (whole, broken into fragments roughly)
Curry leaves - 4 (optional)
Oil - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Turmeric - a pinch
Water - as needed
Coconut - 1/2 cup (I use freshly grated which makes a huge difference in flavor!)

In a pan, heat the oil and add red chillies, channa dal and mustard seeds. Once the seeds splutter and the dal becomes golden brown, add curry leaves and green beans. I let the beans to saute for a couple of minutes, then add turmeric and about 1 cup of water. You can always add water, if needed. So don't put too much water in the beginning. It takes only 10 mins to cook beans fully. Above that, you will end up with a gray shaded beans which is definitely not yummy (use your eyes and nose as a guide - some prefer to use their mouth as well :)). At this point, all the water will also evaporate and it's time for you to add the freshly grated coconut. I switch the stove off at this point and close the pan with a lid, keeping it undisturbed for another 10 mins. I feel this gives it some more time to steam and also the flavors are retained in. This always works for me. Thank you, my dear Mom for showing me how to bring yummy taste into the bland beans :)

Amma's Pulikuzhambu

I meant to post these recipes a little while ago but life's been really busy and I totally forgot about that until now. So, here comes my Amma's Pulikuzhambu made with my own twist to it. Ohhh, I can just live with it and I'm drooling as I type up the recipe :)

This has so much garlic in it, so if you don't like garlic (too bad for you, ha ha ha!) feel free to substitute red pearl onions. If I have them on hand, I would mix that as well.

Garlic cloves - 24 (I used almost 2 big heads)
Orange capsicum - 1/2 (that's what I had on hand, any other color is fine too)
Sesame oil - 1/4 cup
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 7/8
Tamarind pulp - 1 cup (soak tamarind in water and strain for the juice)
Red chilli powder - 2 tsp
Sambhar powder - 1 tbsp (I used homemade but storebought works fine too)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Asafoetida powder - a few pinches

Using a heavy bottom pan is an ideal choice for this. I use "karchati" - Indian style stone pan which renders a great flavor. Heat the sesame oil and add mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds when the oil gets hot. Once it splutters, add curry leaves, garlic cloves and chopped capsicum. After a couple of minutes, a nice aroma hits your nose. Train your nose, I say, you cook with your senses and the food will taste great! Now, add the tamarind pulp and water. Add turmeric powder and red chilli powder to the gravy. Then, when it starts to boil vigorously, add the sambhar powder, salt and asafoetida(perungayam). It takes around 10 more minutes for it to come to a gravy consistency (that's how I like it!). You can add some rice flour paste to speed up the process but I don't do that to my pulikuzhambu.

There are like a zillion variations of doing the same recipe once you know how to do this basic one. You can do with pearl onions or ladysfinger/drumstick, different varieties of vathals (sun dried veggies) like manathakkali, sundakai, etc. Enjoy!

Pomegranate Milk Shake

My Dad is an expert in making this and his smoothie tastes really great..Also, pomegranates in India taste really good, might be due to the weather, water etc..This is very healthy for everyone and mine doesn't even have sugar in it. Once you try it, you'll fall in love with the taste and the looks of it. Hope I did some justice to this, Dad :)

Pomegranate - 1
Milk - 1 cup (approximately)

I blended the pomegranate seeds (did I mention that peeling and separating the pomegranate seeds is the only time-consuming task in this recipe?). Once they are mush, add milk as required and needed. I also added water to clean up the blender (I don't like to waste ANYTHING). I strained them to remove all the seeds. If you love the crunch in your smoothie, you can enjoy that as is! How quick and simple is that? It tasted really good but I need to ask my Dad what he adds extra since his is really exotic!

C squared lemon cooler

Taking care of my husband (who had a teeth surgery) drained lot of my energy. So I was too tired to sit and blog. Anyhow, on the positive note, it gave me an opportunity to whip up some cold drinks in this cold weather...I can proudly say that this is my own invention (??) trying to include some veggies in his diet.

I call it C squared lemon cooler - obviously it might be the math teacher in me that comes up with that name. It has 2 C's namely carrot and cucumber in it..

Carrot - 1
Cucumber - 3 (small ones with no seeds - pickling variety)
Lemon - 1
Sugar - 1 tbsp (I used turbinado raw cane sugar but white might work as well)
Salt - to taste
Water

I peeled the carrots and cucumbers (remember this is for my husband, who can't chew much bcoz of the surgery - you can leave the peels on otherwise). Blend them with sugar and salt till pureed. Now you can add as much water as needed to dilute it since cucumber has lots of water content in them. I added about 1 cup of water. Transfer them to a vessel, squeeze the lemon juice in. You can use the lemon zest for an extra zing and flavor. Also, adding powdered black pepper and ground ginger will also make it yummy! I just love the color of it and it's super healthy. Enjoy!

Sunshine Salad

It's official that winter can be quite depressing, especially the cloudy days. Personally, having grown up in a tropical country, I love sunshine..who doesn't, huh? After moving here, whenever I miss Mr. Sun showing up, I prepare and cook something that's bright and inviting..that's my way of having a ray of sunshine in life :)

That's how this recipe came about - my sunshine salad with all the bright colored fruits in them. It's quite simple, healthy and quick to make.

Oranges - 2 (I had seedless oranges and hence segmented them)
Apple - 1
Golden raspberries - 12
Blackberries - 8
Dried cranberries - 12 to 14

The only time-consuming task in this is segmenting the oranges (which took only about 3 minutes) and cutting the apple (just 1 minute). Put all the fruits together in a bowl and I squeezed the juice out of the leftover oranges on top of the salad. Did I mention this amount makes for 2? There is no need to add any sugar or sweetener since the apple and cranberries are sweet. I love the sweet and sour taste of the oranges, raspberries and blackberries. If you really need, then you can add some honey (but these fruits were perfect for our tastes and perfectly ripe fruits don't need much dressing!). Enjoy!

A typical South Indian Lunch

This is how a simple south Indian meal looks like..The only thing missing is curd (aka yogurt) - I was in a hurry to take this photo since my husband was waiting to gobble up, so didn't get time to keep that..

Rice is the main staple of South Indians. I need to have rice atleast once every day in one form or the other.

Vathakuzhambu is a gravy made with dried berries/veggies with spices added to them. Ohhh..how much I drool over my mom's vathakuzhambu (aka pulikuzhambu) - I can literally eat them every single day. I always ask my mom to make this regularly - this and her potato curry is really heaven on earth. I wanted to modify it a little bit by adding capsicum with lots of garlic.

My husband has sore throat due to the cold weather outside. So I wanted to do something with ginger and lemon. My DH does not like paruppu rasam (or rasam made with lentils). So I always come up with different rasam recipes. I made this special rasam and it immediately showed effect.

The last is Beans poriyal/curry. Initially when I started cooking, my beans were always overcooked and never looked green. My mom showed her ways of cooking greens - I'm still not an expert like her when it comes to it but I'm getting better everyday :)

I'll post the recipes soon...

Indian style Onion Fritters (Onion Pakoji!)

My Mom makes the best pakodas. Pakodas are deep fried flour and spice coated onions. All south Indians know what a pakoda is! Yesterday, my husband wanted me to do some since it was cold outside. I wanted to try a fusion between a pakoda and bajji (did I mention my mom makes the best pakodas and bajjis and everything..) and thus was born my "onion pakoji"...

My cooking recipes are always by taste. I don't measure much even though I have tortured my mom for exact measurements when I was newly married. Sorry, mom!

I used a medium sized red onion and cut it into thin slices. Take equal measures of rice flour and gram flour (both of them are available in Indian grocery stores)and mix them with the onion slices. Add salt and red chilli powder to this mix. One trick my mom always does to yield crispy pakodas is to put around a tbsp of hot oil into this mix. I did the same as well. Now, if you are making pakodas, you sprinkle water. And if you are doing bajji, you can be more generous with water.

Since mine is a fusion, I used around 1/4 cup water so that I had a good coating over the onions. When the oil gets hot in the pan, try to spread the onion mixture with the hands. Then, once the bubbles slow down in the oil, you can take them out and enjoy!

Chocolates (Molded in different shapes!)

I wanted to upload this simple, quick and elegant chocolate recipe along with my cupcake recipe..Anyhow, I found the time to do that now :)

This is very simple, all you need is just some chocolate pieces - I melted them in the microwave with a teaspoon of vegetable oil to get that glossy look. I used different molds with the "baby shower" as theme since it was for one of my friends who's expecting!

I thought it will look better if displayed on raw cane sugar (and that's edible too!). Using some lollipop sticks in the mold was just the playful side of me...

Vanilla cupcakes dipped in chocolate!

Okay, this is something I wanted to post last week. We went to meet one of my friends whose wife is pregnant. Myself along with my 2 other friends decided to throw her a baby shower. I was going back and forth between baking a cake and cupcake. At last, decided to do a cupcake in a "chic" way. The only problem was I didn't have sufficient time to do a buttercream icing. Voila! my creative side kicked in and here goes the recipe for the vanilla cupcakes dipped in chocolate..It is definitely a winner :)

I took the vanilla recipe from "Joy of Baking" but modified it by adding some healthy ingredients.

Vanilla Cupcake:

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter
2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs (the actual recipe calls for 3)
1/4 cup yogurt (I added this instead of that 1 egg)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup (60 ml) milk


The method I used to prepare these cupcakes gives a beautiful dome to them.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F(177 degrees C).I used a regular muffin pan(that holds 12) to bake these and just used some decorative paper cups since it was for the occassion..
Warm the milk with the butter so that the butter melts and set aside to cool down. Whisk the eggs, sugar, yogurt and vanilla in a bowl until thick and creamy (I use an electric mixer). Don't do it for long because you don't want many air bubbles. Now mix in the cooled milk and butter mix.
Then, add the dry ingredients and mix it all just until smooth. I then filled each cup a little above 3/4th full. It took around 20 minutes - I guess the time fluctuates depending on your location and the weather outside. I kept checking it after 16 mins just to make sure that they are perfect!

Makes about 10 cupcakes

Once the cupcakes cools down (which takes about 1 hour), dip them in melted chocolate. I bought a bag of milk chocolates from ACMoore that can be melted in the microwave. I added a little bit of vegetable oil to get that glossy look!

I topped them with sugary pearls (edible, of course!) and red decorating sugar for extra oomphh....

Enjoy....

Venpongal (Indian style Rice porridge)

Ingredients:

Raw rice - 1 cup
Moong dal- 2 tbsp (it is a yellow colored lentil - split green gram)
Water - 3 cups
Ginger - 1 or 2 tsp (depending on your taste)
Black pepper - 1 or 2 tsp (again depending on your taste, use it whole or powdered)
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 5 (available in Indian grocery stores, I chopped them)
Cashewnuts - 7 (chopped into pieces or whole)
Ghee - 2 tbsp (Indian style clarified butter)

Every South Indian household has a pressure cooker. It makes my life a lot easier and is definitely a big time-saver. I mix raw rice and moong dal with water and put it in a vessel inside the pressure cooker (my mom roasts the moong dal but I didn't since I was pressed for time). After switching it off, I let it rest for 10 minutes before opening.
In a separate pan, put ghee and add cashewnuts and roast them. Then add ginger, let it cook for a few mins. Now add black pepper (if you are adding them whole), cumin seeds and curry leaves. If adding powdered black pepper like I did here, then you can add it at last.
Now take the rice mixture out of the cooker and mash it well. Add salt to taste along with the sauteed ingredients. I wanted to make it look pretty - put some ghee in a bowl and fill it with pongal and flip it on to the plate. Voila! It's ready to eat :)
You can serve this with coconut chutney and sambhar. I'll post those recipes sometime soon!

Chakkara pongal (Indian style Sweet Rice porridge)

Ingredients:

Raw Rice - 1 cup
Moong dal- 2 tbsp
Jaggery - 1/2 cup (adjust according to your sweet tooth - available in Indian stores)
Cashewnuts - 4
Golden raisins - 10
Cardamom powder- 1/2 tsp
Nutmeg powder - a pinch
Pachai karporam- a pinch (optional)
Ghee - 3 tbsp

Preparing the rice and dal is similar to my instructions mentioned in the Venpongal recipe. Refer to my Venpongal recipe for details.
In a saute pan, heat the ghee, add cashews and roast them till golden, add the raisins and keep it separate.
In a deep pan, put the jaggery and add some water. Heat it and when it comes to a boil, strain it to remove any dust particles. Reheat the jaggery for 5-7 mins and add the rice mixture and keep boiling till it meshes well together. Now add the roasted cashews and raisins. Sometimes, I add heavy cream or milk. After switching it off, add the cardamom, nutmeg and pachai karporam powders. Ready to serve! This is one of my husband's favorites and it's really hard to take a picture since he gobbles it up so quickly :)

New year resolution!!

One of my new year resolutions this year is to try and post atleast one recipe every week. Baby steps at a time..Lemme see how long I keep that up amidst my busy life :)

Happy New Year 2011 to you all!

அம்மாவின் கீரை கூட்டு

This post is for my super-duper Amma and Appa who are "THE BEST" in this entire world. My Amma is a wonderful cook and I really admire her for the hard-work and concern she has in cooking. My Appa is always the greatest strength for her. In other words, its all about Team-work in my parents kitchen. My dad helps in prep work by cutting all the veggies and fruits - I have to mention here that if you take any measuring device to check the size of each little fragment of veggie/fruit, you'll be surprised to see how uniform each is..He's got a very special talent, it may be because he was an Engineer by profession. My mom takes utmost care in preparing the dishes and if it's festival time, she is alone by herself in the kitchen preparing tins and tins of stuff. I really feel guilty for not helping out...

This kootu I prepared for lunch today is an inspiration from my mom's cooking..To say the truth, all my recipes have come due to watching my mom cook with a smile and my dad helping out with a smile....

Keerai kootu:

I don't know the name of this keerai but found it for the first time in Indian store, it is similar to "manathakkali" keerai. Most of my cooking will not have exact measurements. It's "kannalavu" only :)

You can adjust it according to your tastebuds..

Yellow Moong dal - 1/4 cup
Chana dal - 1 tbsp
Keerai (spinach) - 2 cups
Coconut - 1/4th
Green chillies - 4
Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1 tbsp
rasam powder - 1 tsp (my mom doesn't add this usually)

Thaalika (Tadka):
coconut oil - 1 tbsp (my mom uses ghee or veg oil mostly)
urad dal - 1 tsp
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
curry leaves - 4
hing (perungayam) - 2 pinches

Method:

Boil water in a saucepan. Wash moongdal and chanadal. Add them to the boiling water. It takes approximately 10-15mins to get cooked in an open pan. (alternatively,you can also pressure cook). I had put the stems of the keerai also in the boiling water to cook along with dal.

Once the dal is three-fourths cooked, I added the keerai and boiled it for about 10 mins. Then, grind coconut, green chillies, jeera, rasam powder in the mixie and add it to the pan. Once it boils and comes together, keep the coconut oil and put the thallipu items and once they splutter, add them to the kootu.

It was piping hot when I took this picture and I wanted to post the video as well for you to enjoy. I don't know if the video will work, it's taking sooo much time to upload.. Serve with steamed rice. This was my lunch today with pappadum. Yummmooooo.....

மைக்ரோவேவ் தூத் பேடா

Even when I was sick, I never stopped cooking for a single day. Two reasons, one is to relax myself and the second is my husband's hand was hurt as well. At this stressful time, I had to organize and prepare my students for Gurukulam Day (I volunteer as a teacher in Sunday school). The rehearsals went really well and all my students got a really great reputation for their excellent work at such a small age. One of the rehearsal days, I wanted to surprise them with something sweet. I came across this recipe which sounded too simple to make. It indeed was simple except for the hand-action and muscle work!!



Ingredients:

Instant Dry Milk (Milk Powder) – 2 cups (150gm)
Sweetened Condensed Milk - 1, 14oz can (396gm)
Unsalted Butter – 1, 4oz stick (113gm)

Method:

1.In a microwave safe dish, melt the butter.
2.Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
3.Cook in the microwave for 3 minutes, stirring very well after every minute.
4.After the 3 minutes, mix well again and leave aside for the mixture to cool down enough to handle.
5.Once the mixture has cooled down, grease your hands and make balls.
6.Gently press the balls and flatten them to shape…round and flat.
7.Decorate them with colored sugar, almonds, cashews, pistachios or raisins.
8.Let the pedas set and cool down.
9.For a pretty presentation, place them in baking cups and serve.

Tips:

1.Powder some cardamom seeds and add to the mixture for additional flavor. (I added some cardamom powder)
2.Roll out the peda mixture and cut with cookie cutter for some fun shapes.
3.For best results, store in the refrigerator but serve at room temperature.

ரொம்ப சந்தோஷம்.....

I had been sick for a while and didn't have the mood to blog once I came out of my illness. The stress has been so much these past few years and I thought blogging might take some of that stress away...Let's see how far it works :)

My husband's birthday!

Ganesh wanted me to start the first post with his favorite. So this one is for you, sweetheart! It was my darling husband's birthday on may 3rd. I didn't buy him any gifts this year and asked him what he would like for his birthday. He immediately replied that he wanted poosanikai araichi vitta sambar and potato triangles curry for lunch. For the cake part, I ended up baking a chocolate cake as per his request which came out really good..It was so lip-smackingly delicious that my hubby wanted that to be my first post..So here you go...

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE DELIGHT!!!

(COFFEE FLAVORED MOIST CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE FROSTING)

Unbleached Cake flour - 2 cups

Baking powder - 1 1/2 teaspoons

Baking soda - 1/2 teaspoon

Salt - 1/2 teaspoon

Unsweetened cocoa powder - 3/4 cup

Granulated sugar - 1 3/4 cups

Unsalted butter, very soft - 1/2 cup

Vegetable oil - 1/3 cup

Vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon

Milk - 1 cup

Brewed,cooled coffee, or water - 1/2 cup (I used coffee)

4 large eggs

Place a strainer over a large mixing bowl. Measure in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and sugar. Sift/shake the dry ingredients through the strainer into a mixing bowl, to eliminate any lumps.

Add the butter and mix at low speed for 1 minute. With the mixer running, add the oil and continue mixing until the mixture looks like sand.

Combine the vanilla with the milk and coffee or water, and add all at once. Mix for 1 minute at low speed, stop and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, then mix for 30 seconds.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well at medium-high speed between additions. The batter will be thin.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan of your choice. I used a disposable aluminium foil round cake pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 35-45 minutes depending on your altitude. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack before frosting.

Yield: 2 9"rounds

I frosted the cake only on his birthday since I was busy with work. The recipe for frosting is as follows:

FROSTING:

18 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

3 cups whipping cream

2 to 5 teaspoons light corn syrup

Melt chocolate chips in cream over low heat in a heavy saucepan, stirring constantly, until thickened and combined. It took almost 25 minutes for me to get the right consistency. Increase heat to medium low, and cook, stirring 3 minutes more. Remove from heat and stir in corn syrup. Transfer to a large metal bowl and chill, covered. Stir frosting, every 15 to 20 minutes, until cool enough to spread, about 2 hours.

I then split the cake into 2 layers and frosted the center first. Then spread the frosting on top of the cake. I put the remaining frosting into a ziploc bag and piped a few heart decorations on it! Enjoy!!

Greetings!

This blog is dedicated to God, myself, my dear parents, my darling husband, my sister and brother's family, rohith, ritvik, other family members and friends. I'm so excited to share my thoughts on everything in my life, here in this blog. This is my first baby step and I need all your blessings to contribute further!

Regards,
Rohini.