Thai Red Curry

Holiday season has come to an end and now everything is back to square one.Getting back to routine is one of the most difficult things. That too Monday mornings are so bad, still not out of the weekend mood. Truly miss the holidays and the solid time we got to spend with the kids. You get time to cook different kinds of food during holidays. But now eating the same menu makes us feel even more bored. When we think of eating something different our first choice would be to have Thai food.

Thai Red Curry is an easy to make dish . I won't say this is an authentic recipe but I bet this is a fail proof recipe to impress your guests. Whenever we go the the Whole Foods market we never forget to buy Thai red curry paste and organic coconut milk. These are musts in our grocery list. If you adjust the spice level, kids will love it too. Steaming jasmine rice topped with this spicy curry will tickle your taste buds for sure. If you are bored with your regular dishes gives this a try, you will love this !!!!

Preparation Time : 10 min

Cooking Time: 20 min

Serves : 4

Ingredients

Carrot - 2 no
Eggplant - 1 no
Bell pepper - 2 no
Mushrooms - 6 no
Onion - 1 medium size
Green Chilly - 3 no
Ginger Garlic paste - 1/4 tsp
Thai Red Curry paste - 1 tbsp
Fish sauce - 1 tsp
Coconut milk - 1 can
Salt for taste
Oil - 1 tbsp

Preparation

• Clean and chop the vegetables into medium size pieces.
• Grind the green chillies into a smooth paste.
• Cut the onion length wise.

Method

• Heat oil in a pan and add the onion. Cook until it is translucent.
• Add the ginger garlic paste, followed by the green chilly paste and saute well.
• Add the Thai Red Curry paste and give a quick mix.
• Add the chopped vegetables,salt and cook for about 3 min.Vegetables should not be overcooked.
• Add the coconut milk and allow it to simmer
• Add the fish sauce and give a quick stir. Cook for additional 3 mins
• Serve Hot with steaming white rice

Notes

• Adjust the spice level according to your taste.
• You can add some vegetable broth along with the coconut milk to enhance the taste and increase the quantity.
• Vegetables mentioned here are the most suitable for this gravy, you can add zuchinni.

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Celebrations : Sakkarai Pongal | Pongal Recipe

Wishing all my readers and friends a "Happy Pongal". Everyone have their own childhood memories about our Indian Festivals especially Pongal. It talks about our legacy and holds a very special place in our hearts. Pongal is a South Indian festival celebrated to thank the Sun god for giving us a good harvest. A rice porridge called the "Pongal" is made with the first grain and offered to the Sun god on this day. There are so many varities of pongal, usually the sweet pongal made with jaggery is specially made on this day and it surely gives the festive touch with the aroma of ghee and cardamom.

Normally in India, Pongal is made in earthern pots but nowadays everywhere it is only pressure cooker pongal. Lack of space and time have made us learn some cut shorts, but we should make sure that we pass on the legacy to the next generation as our parents did to us. I'm trying my level best to have Shweets involved in all the celebrations and explain her what all we used when we were kids. She is so full of excitement and loves to hear such stories. With all that being said I will come to recipe for the Sakkarai Pongal I prepared today to celebrate P O N G A L !

Preparation Time : 10 min

Cooking Time: 15 min

Serves : 4

Ingredients

Raw Rice - 1 cup
Moong Dal - 6 tbsp
Jaggery - 1 cup
Cardamom - 5 no
Sugar - 1 pinch
Ghee - 2 tsps
Cashews - 15 no
Raisins - 8 no

Preparation

• Dry roast the Moong dal in medium high heat until aroma comes out.
• Grind the cardamom seeds with the pinch of sugar into a fine powder.
• Fry the cashews and raisins in 1 tsp ghee and keep aside. 

Method

• Wash and cook the rice and dal together with the remaining 1 tsp ghee. For 1 cup rice add 3 cups water and cook for about 3 whistles.
• When the rice is cooking, mix the jaggery with 1 cup water in a heavy bottomed vessel and boil it in medium high heat stirring at regular intervals.
• Jaggery should be boiled until it reaches string consistency, that is it should not get dissolved when a drop is added to a cup of water.
• Once pressure is released from the cooker, smash the rice and dal mixture, add the jaggery liguid after straining it through a filter to remove impurities.
• Mix all the contents well, add the ground cardamom powder, fried cashews and raisins along with the ghee and cook in medium low heat for about 3 mins. Serve Hot.

Notes

• Make sure you taste your jaggery before you start some are too sweet so adjust according to your taste.
• While cooking rice and dal you can add 2 tbsps of milk to make it more richer.

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Karthigai Deepam Special : Sweet Appam

This is a easy to prepare sweet which is specially prepared for Karthigai Deepam "Festival of Lights" in India. Karthigai Deepam occurs on the day when the moon is in conjunction with the constellation Karthigai (Pleiades) and purnima. This constellation appears as a group of six stars in the firmament in the shape of a pendant from the ear. Many legends and lyrical poetry have grown round this star. The six stars are considered in Indian mythology as the six celestial nymphs who reared the six babies in the saravana tank which later were joined together to form the six faced Muruga. He is therefore called Karthikeya, the one brought up by the Karthigai nymphs. Houses and streets are lit up with rows of oil lamps (Deepam) in the evening of the festival day (source:wiki).

I'm not a sweet lover but enjoy the ones prepared from jaggery. I have also had this in my Mom place during our summer vacation not homemade but from a old lady who will bring it our doorsteps. She would prepare it so well and I used to simply love it. I truly miss lighting oil lamps here. I'm planning to prepare a different type of appam for tonight so posted this from my archive the other one will follow soon. Happy Karthigai Deepam to all my readers !!!

Ingredients

Wheat Flour - 1 cup
Rice Flour - 3/4 cup
Jaggery - 1 cup
Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup
Cardamom - 4 no
Sugar 1 pinch
Milk - 1/2 cup
Ghee

Method

• Mix the wheat flour and rice in a bowl.
• Take jaggery in another bowl and dissolve it in 1/2 cup water and place it on a stove and stir for 2 minutes.
• Filter the jaggery into the rice and wheat flour mix. This is done to remove impurities in the jaggery.
• Grind the cardamom with the sugar to a coarse powder and add it to the mix.
• Add the grated coconut to the mixture.
• Add the milk and mix well. Make sure the batter is liquid-ish.
• Heat the paniyara kallu, grease it with little ghee and pour the batter into the holes.
• After 45 secs or so flip the appams to the other side and cook until appams turns golden brown. Serve Warm.

My Notes

 If you do not have the paniyara kallu. Do not use the milk. Let the batter be thick. Make small balls out of the batter and drop it in oil and cook until it turns golden brown.

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Chocolate Muffin

It's time for something special. It's my 150th post. Finally I reached that mark. Yay me !!!! I reached 100 in 4 months and the next bunch has taken so much time. My regular readers would know the reason. I wanted to make something special, ofcourse special in my dictionary is surely something chocolatey. But did not have much of a time so ended up making these simple Chocolate Muffins. I always ask myself what is the difference between muffin and a cupcake. Is it just the frosting ?? No Idea need to google it. Muffins are totally my kind of food easy to make, takes less baking time and end result is awesome.

I got home early today and made these for Shweets. She liked it so much that she finished it in jiffy. She also got sweet scoldings from her dada for spilling the crumbs in the entire house. Whenever I saw her she had one in her hand. Did not want to restrict her on the count as I prepared it after a long time. Some kind of chocolate ganache on it would have pepped up the muffin but did not have the patience do it. The muffin as such was so good. Whatelse are you waiting for...Mix, Bake and Gobble.

Preparation Time - 10 min

Baking Time - 20 min

Yields - 12 Standard Size Muffins

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour - 1 3/4 cup
Eggs - 2 nos
Yogurt - 1 cup
Unsalted Butter - 1 stick
Vannila Extract - 2 tsps
Light Brown Sugar - 1 1/4 cups
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Semisweet Chocolate Bar - 1 no

Preparation

• Prepare the muffin trays with muffin liners or vegetable oil spray.
• Coarsely chop the semisweet chocolate bars.
• Lightly beat the yogurt and keep aside.
• Melt butter and allow it to come to room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 375 F.

Method

• Mix the eggs,butter, yogurt and vannila essence in a medium size bowl.
• Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda,light brown sugar and salt in a large bowl. 
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. 
• Fold in the chopped chocolate bars.
• Fill in the prepared muffin tray with 1 scoop of the batter or 2 spoons of batter filling only 3/4.
• Bake for about 20 min or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

Notes

• As always do not overmix the mixture, overmixing leads to rubbery muffins.
• Do not overbake, overbaking leads to dry muffins.
• You can fold in some nuts to make a nutty muffin.

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Tomato Pickle with lotsa love by Amma !!!

Getting back to work after a long break is something which is very difficult to accept.The luxury of getting up late, having short naps in the afternoon all of it is gone.Jake being a well behaved cutie, I have been able to manage the first week at work. Having my mom with me has been a real boon. She helps with all the stuff and the transition is so far smooth.After she gets back to India, God only knows. Wish I had four hands !!!

First 2 months she was here, it was so hectic we could never think about food. Now that everything is settling down she prepared one of her signature recipe "Tomato pickle". I have never tasted something like this anywhere. It is totally unique.My little sis asked my mom to prepare this for her, when she left for the US. But as my mom did not have time she was not able to prepare it.So this post is dedicated to her as she is having a tough time in India managing for food. This pickle can be used as a sidedish for dosa, idli, chappati or even even mix it with rice and eat. Try this allpurpose pickle. You are going to love this !!!

Preparation Time : 20 min

Cooking Time - 60 min

Yields - 1 Medium size bottle of pickle.

Ingredients

Ripe red tomatoes - 2 lb
Garlic - 3 bulbs
Ginger - 100 gms
Tamarind - lemon size
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Red Chilly Powder - 3 tbsp
Salt - as needed
Seasame Oil - 5 - 6 tbsp

Prepartion

• Wash, pat dry and grind the tomato into a smooth paste.
• Dry roast the fenugreek seeds in medium flame for about 2 min and allow it to cool. Grind it into a fine powder.
• Prepare ginger garlic paste with the cloves out of 2 garlic bulbs and the ginger.
• Crush the cloves out of the 3rd garlic bulb and keep aside.
• Soak the tamarind in hot water and take the juice out of it.

Method

• Heat oil in a heavy bottomed kadai, add the mustard and allow it to crackle.
• Add the crushed garlic in medium flame and saute until it turns golden brown.
• Add the ginger garlic paste and saute until raw smell goes off.
• Add the tomato paste and mix well.
• Carefully cook in high flame until all the water evapoartes and the mixture turns thick.
• When the mixture turns thick and red, reduce flame add the chilly powder, tamarind juice and asafoetida powder.
• Once the oil separates add the fenugreek powder and salt and cook for additional 10 mins.

Notes

• When pickle is stored in a airtight container in the fridge it stays super good for about a month.
• If ineterested you can add a small piece of jaggery while adding the fenugreek powder. 

Thanks a ton Jay for the award you had shared with me !!! Check out the super cool award here.

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Lowfat Banana Walnut Bread

 Lovely weather, lushy green grass, slight drizzle, amma's strong filter coffee and most importantly Jake having a sound sleep, perfect time for writing a post. So this has been another hectic week again. Moving to a new place is no joke. Unpacking and arranging is such a pain. One good thing about moving is we can just do a clean up. Atleast got rid 5 boxes of junk.I'm kind of getting settled in the new place, hunting a good daycare is one of most challenging job.When I want to leave my kid with somewhere I want it to be the best place. After days of research I found a good place. Happy that shweets liked it too.

Coming to the recipe. We were on a road trip to Lasvegas and Shweets was asking something called as "WALL BREAD". I did not understand what it meant and just got her a chocolate muffin in starbucks. When we were back at the hotel room she tried to explain to me and finally understood that she meant the Banana Walnut Bread. So I just promised to prepare once we get back home. With kids you have to keep up your promises else you end up answering their questions every 5 minutes. So ended up making this super moist, yummy banana bread. Unlike my previous versions, I prepared a low fat banana bread. It tasted so good. You got try it !!!!

Preparation Time : 15 min

Baking Time - 45 - 60 min

Yields - 1 9*5*3 Loaf

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour - 2 cups
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Egg - 1 no
Sugar - 1 cup
Olive Oil - 1/2 cup
Low fat Yogurt - 2 tbsp
Vannila Extract - 1/2 tsp
Banana - 3 ripe
Walnuts - 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup for the topping

Preparation

• Coarsely chop the walnut into medium size pieces.
• Mash the banana into a smooth paste.
• Preheat the oven to 325 F and place rack in the center of the oven.
• Spray nonstick cooking spray into a 9*5*3 loaf pan.

Method

• Blend the flour, baking soda, salt and set aside.
• In a mixing bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, olive oil and mashed banana.
• Add the flour mixture to the egg and banana mixture and mix well.
• Add the lowfat yogurt, vanilla extract and give a quick mix.
• Gently fold the 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts.
• Transfer the batter into the loaf pan.
• Top the batter with the remaning 1/3 cup of walnuts.
• Bake for about 45 - 60 min or until a tooth pick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.

Notes

• Try replacing 1 cup of all purpose flour with whole wheat flour and enjoy a fiber rich bread.
• Baking time depends upon each oven. Mine took 60 min at 325 F.
• Olive oil can be replaced by vegetable or canola oil.

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Potato Peas Kurma and a Good News ...

I'll just start with the good news..We were blessed with a baby boy on the 1st of June and shweets has named him as "Jake". Now you all will know the reason for my absence in the blogworld. The last 10 months was really hectic with a vacation to India, project change and location change. Currently I'm being totally pampered by my parents and I'm kind of enjoying the luxury of just eating and sleeping after a very long time. I'm yet to get back to the routine of cooking so thought of posting something from my draft.

I made this Potato Peas Kurma for a potluck and just managed to click few shots. This gravy goes well with all kind of Indian breads and Vegetable pulao. In my potluck group I would always be given a non vegetarian item and this time managed to get a veggie item. So I prepared this gravy and vegetable pulao. I love the addition of peas in gravies and especially this combo is great. This is a simple and easy to make gravy and surely a party winner recipe.

Preparation Time : 10 min

Cooking Time : 15 min

Serves : 4 people

Ingredients

Potato - 2 no

Peas - 1 cup

Onion - 1 no (large size)

Tomato - 2 no

Ginger Garlic paste - 1 1/2 tsp

Green Chilly - 5 no

Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp

Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp

Grated Coconut - 3 tbsp

Cumin - 1/2 tsp

Fennel - 1/2 tsp

Mint leaves - 6 - 8 no

Coriander leaves

For Seasoning

Fennel - 1/2 tsp

Cardamom - 2 no

Cinnamon - 2 no

Cloves - 2 no

Preparation

• Boil, peel and cut the potatoes into medium size pieces.
• Grind grated coconut,fennel seeds, cumin seeds, green chillies and mint leaves into a smooth paste.
• Finely chop the onion and tomatoes.

Method

•  Heat oil in a kadai, add cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, fennel seeds and cumin seeds in medium flame.
• Add the chopped onions and saute until it turns golden brown.
• Reduce the flame and add ginger garlic paste and saute well until raw smell is gone.
• Add the tomatoes and saute until it is mushy.
• Add the coriander powder, garam masala and saute well.
• Add the boiled potatoes, peas, salt and mix well with the masala.
• Add the ground paste and required water until desired consistency and allow the gravy to boil in medium flame.
• Once the oil comes out of the gravy garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot. 

Notes

• You can add other vegetables and make it as a mixed vegetable kurma.
• You can use frozen or raw peas. If using raw peas soak in water for about 6 hours and pressure cook for 1 whistle.

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