Spinach Daal

We love eating daal, so we have daal in some form everyday. With life getting so busy, I end up cooking daal in large quantities in pressure cooker on sundays and leave it the refrigerator and every day make something different with daal. This is one quick version of it. You can make this with methi leaves and with any other kind of lentils you like.

What you need :
Spinach - 2 cup (fresh or frozen )
Toor daal ( split pigeon peas)- 2 cup steamed.
mustard seeds- 1 tea spoon
cumin seeds- 1 teaspoon
asaefoetida- a pinch
curry leaves- 5-6 leaves
onions- 1/2 cup finely chopped
garlic- 3 cloves finely chopped
tamarind paste- 1 teaspoon
Sambar powder- 1 teaspoon
salt to taste
butter or oil- 2 teaspoon



How to make:
Heat oil or butter in  a pot. I like butter since it gives a nice aroma to the dish. Add mustard, cumin seeds and let it splutter. Add asaefoetida, curry leaves , garlic and onions and saute till the onions are done. add spinach and fry till the raw fragrance is gone. Add tamarind paste, sambar powder, salt and a  cup of water and cook the spinach for 3-5 minutes. Add the boiled daal,  cover the pot cook it for another 5 minutes.
Serve hot with steamed rice or roti.

You an use  red chilly powder and coriander seeds powder instead of sambar powder. You can add tomatoes if you like instead of tamarind paste.

Braided puff pastry dessert

Happy Holi!!!
Got an invitation for dinner to one of my Indian friends here.
Thought of making Baklava but did not have sufficient time to do with Adwi around me. I had just 2 hours let before I would go there didn't know what to make. I was flipping through Better Homes and Garden magazine and trying to get Adwi to nap. Saw this braided dessert recipe with puff pastry, looked pretty.Thought I should try it out, since it was holi wanted to make something with Indian touch, so here is my version of it. Let your imagination wild and try whatever filling you like.

What you need :Frozen Puff Pastry sheet - 1
butter- 1 tablespoon

For the filling:
butter scotch chips- 2 Table spoon
raisins- 2 Table spoon
walnut - 2 table spoon finely chopped
almond-2 table spoon finely chopped
dates - 5 finely chopped
cinnamon powder- 1 teaspoon
cardamom- 2 pods, finely powdered
sugar- 2 teaspoon

How its made:
Line a large baking tray with parchment paper. Unfold a puff pastry sheet and place in the tray. Mix all the ingredients in the filling list  and place the filling in the centre portion. Using a sharp knife, make 3- inch long cuts at 1 inch intervals right upto the filling in pastry on each side of the filling.starting at one end alternately fold opposite strips of dough at an angle over the filling, overlapping ends  of strips in the middle. Press down gently on strips to seal. Cover with a plastic wrap and keep it aside for 20 min. Discard the wrap, brush a little melted butter over the braid and sprinkle sugar and cinnamom powder mixture over it.

Preheat oven 375 F, bake the braid for 30 min or until tops and bottoms are golden brown. Cool braid and cut into slices and serve.

Peanut chutney powder

I love dry chutney powders. They were a great saver at times when you live in hostels and have to eat there. I particularly like this groundnut chutney powder and I make and stock it at all the times.

You can eat it with ghee along with rice, roti, chapthi or just like that :).

What you need :

Peanuts- 2 cups

Red chillies -2 or depending on the spice level

Garlic- 3 cloves

curry leaves- 6-8 leaves

salt to taste

How its Made:

Dry roast groundnuts on a hot skillet. Rub them to remove the peel off. roast the rest of the ingredients except salt. Cool and grind to a course powder. Store in a airtight box.

Date Cake

During the initial years that I was  in US, I suffered from anemia and I was suggested to eat lots of dates.  I like eating them but when it gets mandatory it gets boring. So I had to find ways to use them. With my craziness for baking at the peak those days I wanted to try baking something,  I came across this recipe on a blog site.  I tried it and before it cooled more than half was gone. This is one recipe I  like to bake over and over again.


What you need:
Pitted Dates -18
Milk 3/4 cup
Sugar 3/4 cup
All purpose flour  1 cup
Oil 1/2 cup
Baking soda 1 tea spn

How its Made:
Blend togather dates, sugar and milk to a smooth. Add oil and mix.
Seive together flour and baking soda. Add the flour one table spoon at a time and mix.
Preheat the oven at 350F. Bake the cake in a greased loaf tray for 35-40 min. Flip it and cool it or just eat warm as I do :).

Caution : Measure and bake it at right temperature or you may end up with date halwa !!, someone out their knows what I am talking about.

Strawberry-orange smoothie

Hmm, it was one of those days when I wanted to drink something chilled ( in winter, with the temp below freezing outside). Opened the refrigerator and stared at the juices, apple- that's for Adwi, orange - a big gallon that Sri got but never finished it off. I didn't want any of those. My brain started to tickle a few seconds later, went back to the refrigerator, pulled out orange juice, some strawberries that were sitting there since a week.  To give a smooth texture added a scoop of vanilla ice cream and blended them all together with some ice cube and had a nice yummy drink at 11.00 pm.

While enjoying this refreshing drink, I was looking for more recipes to make use of the strawberries and came across a similar smoothie with coconut milk. Got to try it next time.

pepper chicken

My hubby makes this yummy pepper chicken, this time I had some chicken in the freezer, so I asked him for the recipe and tried it myself.
Turned out pretty good, not spicy as he does though.

What You need:
chicken pieces ( with bone or boneless)-1/2 lb
Onion finely chopped- 1
Tomatoes finely cut- 2 small ones
Ginger garlic paste-  1 teaspoon
garam masala- 1/2 teaspoon
red chilly powder- 1 teaspoon
black pepper- 1 tablespoon
few curry leaves
Cilantro leaves to garnish
salt to taste
oil

How its made:
Heat oil in a pan, add onions and fry until brown, add ginger garlic paste and fry for a few minutes, add the chicken pieces, cook them till the meat turns white. Add the tomatoes, garam masala, chilly powder, curry leaves, salt and cook, keep it covered. You can add little water if needed. When almost done add in freshly ground black pepper and mix. Garnish with cilantro. Serve hot with rice or chapathi.

world through a toddler's mind

When was the last time you stopped on your way and admired the beautiful sky or stop by to see a pigeon or squirrel and get amazed at them.
That's what I have been doing these days. I went downtown to get some groceries and my 2 year daughter was in her stroller, all that was in my mind was plans for cooking dinner and planning my to do list before going to bed. Than suddenly I heard Adwi say "mummy there see sky". that shook me off my thoughts and responded to her. Yeah, The evening sky was so beautiful, I was walking even without noticing it. Than she went on "there see squirrel, bird / flower, wawa ( water - in her baby language). We stopped every few steps to admire the nature and marveled at it.  That was fun little walk I had. It might be one of those every day walks, but that days walk left a deep impact on me and the next day at work as I was busy recording my neurons, her sweet words kept echoing back in my mind. It made me think, How much I was lost in my daily chores that I had stopped enjoying the beauty of nature. I never appreciated the birds or squirrels in the backyard or the first flowers of the spring. Now every day whenever the weather permits, I make it a point to spend sometime with my little one and admire the nature through her eyes. Try it and you will be truly amazed as to what your missing in life.
Sometimes happiness comes in little packages.