Habanero Habba!!!

Habaneros!! the very name makes me break out in sweat. The other day i was just doing my favorite pass time!! browsing the aisles of the super market... Right on the chilly aisle, there were these stubby orange peppers.. they looked cute. I read the name - HABANERO! I remembered they were supposed to be hot chillies, hotter than jalapenos. But Jalapenos are nothing to me and my family. We fry them up and eat it in our Bhajjis!! and they are yummy. So my adventurous instincts prodded me to buy a few of those. I got 4 of them, used three of them in a chicken dish for about 1/2 a kilo of chicken. ...The story began after we ate the chicken.. my first mouthful was OK....The second mouthful was a bomb-blast in my mouth.. I am sure there was steam oozing our of my ears and nostrils!! The third mouthful was the nuclear disaster.. and that was it!!! We stopped eating.. i had to mix it up with rice and other other stuff to make it milder.. we ate the diluted version though..
One thing about habaneros is the sweet flavour in the background. Its actually good to be used
in chutney, pickles.. because it is extremely hot but rather sweetish in the background.

Anyways it will be some time before i sue it again in my kitchen.

This definitely was the hottest chilly i have had in my life... The hottest i had just once in my life was the bhoot mirchi pickle. During my hostel life in JNU, we had a dinning tradition where we did share pickles, chutneys etc on the dining table. Pema, my Tibetan hostel mate one day got this bhoot mirchi pickle. She offered me a taste cautioning me on the level of heat in the chilly pickle. I took it rather lightly. Because being a south indian, exposed to Andhra spicy food, i thought i was very well equipped to handle the heat. But i was wrong.. i licked the bhoot mirchi pickle just the way we lick our pickles before actually eating it with food!! and that was the last thing i remember! It could see the whole universe... the sun, the stars, the planets, the comets everything!! How will i ever forget it! Recently i was reading the article on chillies in wikipedia.. I got to know that Bhoot mirchi is the hottest chilly on whole planet earth! I knew it after all i had burnt my intestine fiddling with it!!!

Padvalakai Gojju

Padavalkai or snake gourd is something banned in my mother's kitchen. There is a story to it... long long time ago when me and my sibling was not even born. ...and my parents were not even married, my father had an accident and my grandparents decided to appease the snake god!!! they performed a puja in this place called Vidhuraswattha (Also known as the Jallianwala bagh of Karnataka.. there was a massacre of freedom fighters) and they erected the statue of the snake god. Since then my father was forbidden from eating the snake gourd. So my mom never made it. It was not something i liked much, so we did not miss it. However, my father relishes it like all forbidden foods are.Last week, when we went for our ritual trip to the Asian market, my eyes caught this fresh and beautiful looking Padavalakai.So it was time to try it.

Padavala Kai (snake gourd) 1

Channa Dal 1/2 cup

Tomato 1

Jeera 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric 1 pinch

Mustard 1 pinch

Curry leaves 6-7

Oil

Hing 1 pinch

Huli Puli 1 generous pinch (Sambar Powder)

Red Chillies 6 and up

Dhania 1 teaspoon

Coconut grated 2 tablespoon

Tamarind 1 teaspoon

Salt

Method:

• Pressure cook Channa dal with a pinch of turmeric and oil till tender(about 2-3 whistles)Wash the Padavalakai and Slit it into half. Scoop the seeds and veins and chop. Cook the padavalakai in little water till tender.
• Heat a pan, toast on medium low flame, chilly, dhania and jeera separately till fragrant. Grind it along with coconut, Huli pudi,turmeric, tamarind into a course paste.
• Heat oil in a pot. Drop the mustard, hing and curry leaves, fry it for half a minute. Add the coconut and spice paste. Cook it till the rawness disappear.
• Mix in the Cooked channa dal, cooked padavalakai and diced tomatoes. Adjust the salt and simmer till everything is well combined.
• Add a little water to thin it down if serving with rice.

Stuffed Mushrooms

For some weeks now, my palate has been craving for different foods, not the regular anna,huli,rasam that is typically conjured in my kitchen! So this is one more recipe that i cooked up on a week day.. so obviously it is very simple and tasty as well

Mushroom 6 caps
Potato 1 medium chopped fine
chilly flakes one generous pinch
salt
Oil
Garlic 1 clove
Mozarella Cheese a handful (or more if desired)
Coriander 1 tablespoon

Method:
Clean the mushrooms remove the steam and save it for stocks/soups etc.
Drop the chopped potatoes into a microwave proof bowl and microwave high for about 3 minutes or till the potatoes are soft.
Heat oil in a pan. Drop the chilly flakes and minced garlic, cook it till fragrant (about a minute) add the cooked potatoes. heat it throughly mixing the chilly flakes and the galic. Adjust salt. mix well breaking down the potatoes. Finish with coriander.Set aside and cool.

Preheat oven at 350. Salt the cleaned mushrooms. (I have used baby portobella here, any mushroom is fine though)Stuff the potato filling and Top it with cheese. Pop the stuffed mushrooms into the oven for 10-12 minutes till the cheese is all melted and the mushroom is tender.

Yummy Blog Award

Yuppy!!! I got this yummu blog award from easycrafts . This is the first time i ever got an award like this in these six months of food blogging!!! Wow it feels great. Thanks a lot Easycrafts! luv it!
So if i am pass this award on i wud pass it on to
Namratha of http://www.fingerlickingfood.blogspot.com/
Asha of http://www.foodieshop.blogspot.com/ but i look at their blogs, they have already received it !! Being lazy to spend more time on blogspot and learn more techniques to handle my blog better!! (like getting the picture to run all the time in one of the corners on the blog!!!)

Until then, the yummy blog award is passed on to all those not so html-techonology savy but still attempting to make their blog look decent!!! ;-)

Cheers!! This to party!!! Hic hic hurr......zzzzzzzzzz

Strawberry triffle

The summers are perfect time for some cool desserts, frozen, chilled and comforting!

This week end my friends had gone strawberry picking and returned with some juicy strawberries. She sent me some of them. So i decided to make the strawberry triffle with a small twist on top!!!

Here is what i did.

( A note of the picture... well as usual i do not have fancy dishes to make for nice presentation. By spouse does believe in eating with your eyes before eating with your mouth! but not me.. for me blind tasting and painfully perfect presentation is all the same if the food tastes good!!!

but i do appreciate people who have the talent to make food look very good!! and eye catching! just that, unfortunately i do not have that skill!!!)

Strawberry triffle.

Strawberries (washed cleaned and quartered) two cups

Sugar 1/2 cup ( more if you like it sweet, i like mine mildly sweet)

Angle food cake/ sponge cake (made from half a box of cake mix)

Whipped cream (made from 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/4 cup sugar

Strawberry/ vanilla yogurt 1 1/2 cup

Lemon juice 1 tsp

salt 1 heaping pinch

method:

Cook strawberries and the sugar in a sauce pan gently. combine the lemon juice and salt. Cook till the sugar is dissolved and the mixture attains a jam like consistency (thinner than jam).

Set aside to cool.

To make the whip cream start by freezing the bowl used to whip cream and the whisk for about 20 minutes. Once the bowl is cold , start whipping the cream over a bed of ice, stay away from the stove and oven!!! Once the cream has increased in volume, add sugar, little by little whisking well to combine everything. Stop whipping once the soft peaks appears. set aside.

To assemble the trifle, take a longish bowl ( i don't have one :( )

Break the cake and layer the pieces at the bottom. Spread it evenly. Pour over the yogurt evenly over the cake. Spread some of the strawberry sauce evenly and start again with cake. Continue till all the cake, yogurt is used up. Finish with whipped cream on top. Garnish with a few slices of strawberries on top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours till it is set and serve!

Biscotti/ Rusk

One of my favorite bakery foods back home is the Rusk.. its crunchy, mildly sweet and goes very well with coffee,tea! I remember as a kid i used to adore my eldest maternal uncle (jaggi mama as we call me fondly) because when ever he used to visit us, he used to get us huge bags of Iyengar bakery goodies.. usually including a kilo or so of rusks. Since they are light and airy, a kilo fetches a lot of them in deed. They used to last for weeks after my mama had left!! Yum yum yum... i luv my eldest mama still.. i wish he could visit me here, well past the Atlantic ocean..I close my eyes and imagine.. my mama, his dark bald head gleaming in the eastern sunny summer...walking briskly on the side walk(footpath in India) even as the air carried the scent of fresh mowed grass, carrying his bag and a huge plastic bag that said '.....Iyengar Bakery.....'
I should not be mean!! i would still love him if he forgot to get the Iyengar Bakery stuff...
Back to rusk..
I have not come across risk here in the US. But something that was very close is the biscotti. The Italian twice baked cookies.. Just to recreate the magic of rusk i needed to try the technique and proportions of biscotti, so that i could extrapolate the recipe to get it closer to the traditional rusk. So i started some research and bingo here comes biscotti from my oven!!
But there was something interesting that i came across.. Rusk is popularly consumed in south Africa and not surprisingly the UK. Well i guess it is again a piece of colonial heritage that's become so much a part of our lives... Oh yeah!! we did not have bread (as in leavened bread) if not for our British colonial masters!Anyways, gastronomical histories apart, lets get back to biscotti... Hey this makes me fell why the hell did i not consider a career as a FOOD HISTORIAN!!! i would have been so good at it!! after all its combining two of my passions! Oh! god! i wish i knew this before i went to college!

Here goes the biscotti.
Sugar 1 cup
Large eggs 2
Almonds 1/4 cup chopped roughly
Zest of one orange
Juice of one orange
Baking powder 1 tsp
salt 1/4 tsp
Flour 2 cups
vanilla Essence(imitation vanilla) a few drops (optional)

Method:
Mix the dry ingredients, that is salt, flour baking powder, shift a couple of time and set it aside.
Now for the wet ingredients. Beat the eggs with the vanilla essence in it. ( I initially tried making the biscotti without the vanilla... but it turns out rather eggish smelling..which we did not like. so to conceal the eggish smell i used vanilla ) mix in the sugar orange juice, orange zest, almond.

Preheat the oven at 350 degree F. grease a cookie sheet. fold in the flour mixture into the egg mixture. The dough with be not be very tight. it will be slightly runny. pat the dough into a log. Shift it onto a cookie sheet and bake it for 40 minutes till the loaf has just started to look very dry and cracked on top and of course it smells like Iyengar bakery (yum!!)
Remove and cool. Once cool enough to handle slice the loaf into 1/2" thick pieces. Arrange all the biscotties again on a baking sheet and bake them again at 350 for about 5 minutes on each side, till the sides are slighlty charred ( mine went a minute too far)

Enjoy with coffee tea..... Wish me luck for my attempt to recreate our beloved rusk based on this recipe!!!

Tomato Bhaat and Pacchadi / Tomato Rice

Tomato Bhaat is quintessentially the tiffin that we enjoyed... The dish stayed moist thru the mornings till we had our lunch, of course it tasted good....Now i have started making it more often because it is simple, tasty and of course stays good even when packed.
This is also my one of the few dishes my paternal grand mom makes it great..
This again is my short cut version so that it wont take too much of blending, mixing and time..

Tomato paste 2 tbsp
Rice 3/4 cup
Curry leaves 5-6
Bay leaf 1
Cloves 4 crushed
Cinnamon 1/8" crushed
Garlic 2 cloves crushed
Ginger 1/4" crushed
Channa Dal 1 tbsp
Mustard 1/2 tsp
Chilly powder 1/2 tbsp
Dhania 1/2 tbsp
onion 1 small diced
Oil 2 tbsp /(Ghee will taste better)
Hing a pinch
Salt to taste

Method:
Mix tomato paste, chilly powder cloves,Cinnamon and dhania powder in half a cup of water and set aside.
Heat oil in a thick bottomed pot. Drop the mustard, hing, and curry leaves. Stir for a minute and add the channa dal followed by garlic and ginger. Pour the tomato mixture into the pot. Bring it to a boil till it smells fragrant. Mix in washed rice and a little less than two cups of water (if using sona masuri rice;if not about 1.5 cups of water will do) cover and cook till done.
Serve with pacchadi.

For the pacchadi:

Cucumber 1 chopped
Tomatoes 2 diced
Salt a pinch
Sugar a pinch
green chilly 1
Thick Yogurt 1 cup

Method:
Mix everything except salt. Stir in the salt just before serving otherwise the pacchadi will become watery.

Love it yum yum yum!!!!

Kalmi Kabab

Kalmi Kabab is essentially chicken drumsticks marinated in yogurt and spices and cooked in a tandoor. Well I do not have a Tandoor but an ordinary oven is not bad. I also managed to recreate the onion relish usually served with kababs in north India. It is a easy crowd-pleaser but requires planning ahead!

We will need,

Chicken drumsticks 5

Full fat Yogurt 1/2 cup

salt

Chilly powder 1 tbsp

Dhania powder 1 tbsp

garam masala 1 tsp

Chat masala 1 tsp

for the onion relish:

red onion 1 medium

lime 1

salt

Chat masala 1 generous pinch

Method:

• Beat the yogurt till smooth.(if the yogurt is a bit tart, the kababs will be better) mix in the spices and salt. Wash and clean the drumsticks, pat it dry. Marinate the chicken in the yogurt marinade, preferably overnight.
• Turn the broiler on. Arrange the marinated chicken on a roasting wire rack. I just use my wire rack on a oven proof baking dish and broil it for 15-20 minutes. Take it out and turn, baste it with the yogurt marinade. Pop it into the broiler again. Cook till the meat comes off the bone.

For the onion relish:

Thinly slice red onion and mix in salt, lime juice sprinkle chat masala. Let it stand it for at least 30 minutes and serve it with Kalmi kabab.

A's fish curry and kaalan

We have this wonderful neighbours and we meet for dinner parties often. (It is sad that one of our friends is moving to California.we will miss them) So the last time our friend invited us for dinner she had made this wonderful fish curry- Malayali style. Of course, if it is a malayali and fish, it makes a winning combination. But its not just the fish curry but something along with the curry that really took my heart. Its called Kaalan. (I hope i am right, i tend to make a mistake with its pronunciation and ends up calling the dish a malayali eqvivalent of BULL)

Its a perfect combination of spice and tart. Goes vey well with rice. So here is the recipe, coutesy my friend...( i have altered the recipe ever so slightly just to make it a one pot wonder!!!)

Fish Curry

Tilapia fish 1/2 lb cleaned and cut into pieces

coconut milk 1 cup

Dhania 1/2 tbsp

Red Chillies 6 and above

Tamarind extract 1/2 tsp

Turmeric 1/2 tsp

salt

Curry leaves

Oil

Shallots 2 chopped

Green chillies 2 (optional)

Method:

Toast the dhania and red chillies and pound it into a fine powder. Mix the spice powder, turmeric, tamarind, coconut milk. Set aside.

Heat oil in a pot ( a clay pot will work perfectly for this curry) drop the curry leaves, green chillies and the shallots, keep stirring. Pour the coconut milk mixture into the pot. Cook on a gentle heat till fragrant. Drop the fish pieces. Cover and cook till done.Serve with Kalan and steaming rice.

Kaalan:

This is a simple yogurt based curry which is very very tasty.

Yogurt 1/2 cup beaten

Oil 1 tsp

Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp

Red chillies dry 2-3

Tomato 1 diced

Turmeric 1 pinch

Curry leaves 4-5

Chilly powder 1 pinch

salt

Fenugreek powder 1 pinch

Method:

Heat oil in a pot. Drop the mustard seeds, curry leaves, chillies, turmeric, chilly powder tomatoes and fenugreek powder. Stir well cook the tomatoes. Reduce heat. Mix in the yogurt gently and heat it through. Do not heat it for a long time, the yogurt will curdle. Serve it with fish curry.

Triveni Dal

There are days when i feel like eating something not-so-spicy and light yet make my stomach feel contended and happy. One such days my palate crave for good old dal...It is such a versatile dish that probably there are as many recipes back home as number of households!!! I am a keen dal-recipe collector.. collecting dal from cousins, aunts, granny's!!What can be more comforting than steaming rice, dal and a spoon of ghee... I remember eating it as a kid, feasting on it as a teenager and now making it on a busy week night. Now pumping up a plain dal to make it nutritious as well as colourful, is not a big deal. There are probably a million combinations to do that. Here is something i did the other week.

We will need,

Toor dal 1/4 cup

Masoor dal (split) 1/4 cup

Moong dal (split) 1/2 cup

Tomato diced 1/2 cup

Spinach 1 bag

Garlic 2-3 cloves crushed

Green Chillies 4 and above

Cumin seeds 1/4 tsp

Curry leaves

Mustard seed 1/4 tsp

Turmeric 1/4 tsp

Salt

Ghee 1 tbsp

Hing

Coriander leaves /Cilantro

Method:

• Wash all the dals and spinach. Combine them and tomatoes, turmeric a dash of ghee and pressure cook. About two whistles and set it aside to cool. (one if you like your dal al-dente/ still holds its shape and bit)
• Heat the remaining ghee in a pan. Drop the mustard seeds,hing, cumin seeds, curry leaves. When the spluttering stops drop the crushed garlic and chillies. Stir. Mix it into the cooked dal mixture. Adjust salt, gently heat the mixture and finish with coriander leaves.
• Chilly powder can be sprinkled for garnish. Serve hot with rice.. .Yummy

Dahi Baigan

Dahi Baigan is originally a Oriya dish, that i first tasted in my hostel mess during my university days. I fell in love with it the very first time and i have been a very big fan of the dish ever since.
This is the recipe the chefs at my hostel gave me when i was about to graduate.Love it...



Indian Eggplant (brinjal/Aubergines) cut into quarters 3
Thick Curds 2 cups
Onion 1 small
Tomato 1 small
Turmeric 1 pinch
Jeera 1 big pinch
Mustard 1 big pinch
Salt
Chilly powder 1 tsp
Green Chillies 2
Dhania Powder 1 tsp
Garam Masala 1/2 tsp
oil 1 tbsp

Method:

The Brinjal according to the original recipe needs to be salted and deep fried in hot oil it almost crisp. However for health reasons i have altered the recipe. So here it goes.
Heat oil in a pan. Drop the mustard, Jeera and green chillies. Once they splutter drop the quartered Brinjal pieces. Grill them till done on all sides. Now, add the onions, tomato, turmeric, chilly powder, salt, dhania powder and garam masala. Cook over medium flame keeping the masala from burning. Switch off the heat once done.

Beat the curds. This recipe calls for thick curds, the fresher the better, will taste a lot better with home made curds. Beat the curds and set aside. When the bringal mixture is cooled , stir it into the beaten curds. Adjust salt and serve with steaming hot rice.

Menasinakai Bajji/ Jalapeno Fritters

One of the most popular street foods of Karnataka is the Menasinaakai Bajji.. also know as Mirchi bonda/Mirchi Majji in north Karnataka. Its actually a tradition in the northern parts of the state to eat the Mirchi Bajji with Puffed rice (Mandakki, Puri). I love it with or without the puffed rice part of it!! Its actually related to rains... In my family we just need an excuse to dash to the street corner and get these fiery hot bajjis for may be Rs10 or Rs 15!!! Its good enough to feed and army. And the best part is, where ever you are you cannot be more than 1 kilometer far from the nearest bajji cart.. no doubt they are so popular. In my family at least we are not very particular about the bajji cart.. they all taste good. However there can some of them using stale oil, there fore better to avoid. Fortunately the one near our house is a very good one. Lip smacking,fresh tasting and yummy, besides being right in the corner of our street that's about 35 feet from our gate!!!
Spring here in the east coast means deluge after deluge after deluge before it is time to snow again...So on one such rainy day i felt like eating these bajjis.. so simple made it at home right away.. anyway it is easy to make as well.

Jalapenos 12
Chickpea flour 1 cup
salt chilly powder 1/2 teaspoon
Baking powder 1 big pinch
baking soda 1 big pinch
Jeera 1 teaspoon
oil for deep frying

method

Pound the jeera with the salt to get a coarse powder. Wash the Jalapenos and clean it. If you find it very hot, make a small slit and remove the seeds and the white coloured veins. stuff a pinch of the jeera salt mixture into the jalapeno Set it aside.
For the batter, sift the chickpea flour, baking powder and baking soda together once or twice till well combined.Add salt and chilly powder.
Heat oil in a kadai. Once it is hot enough to fry prepare the batter by water to the chickpea mixture. Do not let the chickpea mixture hang out after having mixed with water.
Now dip each jalapeno in the chickpea mixture and deep fry it in hot oil till done.
Serve hot with the sauce of your choice.

Sweet Chariot Style- Pineapple pastry

Well yet another craving struck me the last week. This time around i really wanted to eat the pineapple pastry right off the Sweet Chariot Pastry shop shelf!!!! The juicy, melt in the mouth pastry Bangalore style has always been the most successful way to melt my heart! In fact i during my college days, one of my friends made up with me after a hot headed fight by getting one of these for me! me alone! Those days obviously we could not afford one whole pastry per person with our meagre pocket monies.. so what we used to do was pool and share! Going Dutch??? not in case of Sweet Chariot stuff!!!
But later once we were through the college and in recent years (recent for me means no less than 3-4 years hee hee) good pineapple pastries are available for a steel in nondescript bakeries.Of these my favorite happens to be Bunny Bakers 9th block Jayanagar. That is where we order our birthday cakes these days. Yummy ymmy pastries!! This is my short cut for a not-so bad result. Me and my partner in crime we managed to finish half of the huge pastry in one sitting (We were supposed to checking the taste ..not eating the pastry... )I just managed to save a tiny bit for the photograph and well i should confess it is not the better off part of the pastry.

Here is what we will need.





White cake mix (I used Betty Crocker super moist)
Pineapple rings in its own juice-1 can
Heavy cream 2 cups
Eggs water vegetable oil (as called for on the cake mix box)
sugar 0.25 cup


Method.

Bake the cake according to the instruction on the box. Set it aside to cool.

Mean time. Chill the cream in refrigerator overnight. Put the beater and a metal big metal bowl (to whip the cream) in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. When you are ready to whip the cream, take a bowl bigger than the chilled metal bowl and drop some ice into it. Pour the heavy cream in to the chilled metal bowl, set it on the ice bowl and start beating it on a low speed(i use a hand held blender). The cream gets frothy and will sort of emulsify. Add sugar a tablespoon at a time and increase the speed. When the peaks begins to get stiff, stop beating.
Now for assembling the cake. Cut the cooled cake horizontally into two even rounds. (Alternately you can bake the cake in two identical cake tins)
Now chop half the pineapple rings into a fine pieces. Reserve the juice. Lay the cake halves on a baking sheet, with the cut-open sides facing you. Sprinkle the pineapple juice gently on to the cake sections. Do not over sprinkle it or else the cake will end up being soggy. Once both the sides have been sprinkled just enough juice, spread the chopped pineapple on the bottom section of the cake.Spread a generous layer of the whipped cream.Carefully lay the upper section of the cake on the bottom section. Cover the cake with the remaining whipped cream and decorate it with the remaining pineapple rings.
The cream covering can be as generous as one wants. I try to cut down calories (hehehehe what am i saying after eating everything) So i used 2 cups of cream. If you are not looking at you scale, by all means go ahead and whip up as much cream as you want.. I just love whipped cream but then cant eat too much of it!! Also I restricted the cream layer to just one. But upto 3 layers, same procedure will be terrific! Just that all the cake sections need to be sprinkled with the pineapple juice before they go on to perch on top of the pineapple-whipped cream layer.

Luv it!! yum yum yum yum