Yup! I am hooked on whole wheat pastry flour ever since I saw Ellie Krieger use it in her baking all the time. I stopped buying whole wheat flour after that. I love the way things turn out when I use this flour. As usual, I let 2 banana's turn very yuckly ripe and I decided to use the brown sugar in them to make the appam. I just love using the appam vessel because, it is so simple to work with and does not require a lot of oil. I am constantly thinking of ways to use them constantly. My entry to JFI:Whole Grains event hosted by Tasty Palettes and created by Indra of Mahanandi

Gadgets:

Appam vessel
Spoon
Spatula
Bowl
Measuring cup





Ingredients:

Over ripe banana- 2
Whole Wheat Pastry flour - 3/4 cups
Jaggery/ brown sugar - 1/3 cup
Saffron - a few strands
Cardamon - powder from 4 pods
Camphor - a minuscule of a pinch
Oil - 3 tsps


Preparation:






































1. Mash the banana and mix it with all the above ingredients.

2. Heat the appam pan add 1/2 tsp oil in each hole and add to the above mix.,

3. Allow it to cook on medium high until it turns golden to dark brown (the way I love the best).

4. Flip it over and allow it to cook and serve it hot or cold.

This month I joined a couple of my fellow bloger's and friends in the event "This book makes me cook". An event where we decide on a book and each of us would blog about the food the book inspired us to cook.The book that was chosen for September was any of J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter books. Among the 7 I found a couple of them that were good and kept me engaged. However, I am very partial to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone because of the way the story unfolded. The railway station and journey through the nine and nine and 3/4 platform to board Hogwrats Express, the Diagon Alley, the adventures with the magical cloak were all very interesting. If Enid Blyton wrote about girls(Muggles) in boarding school, Harry Potter was about wizards in boarding school, so feasts were very common.

Page 203 from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone:

Harry had never in all his life had such a Christmas dinner. a hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick , rich gravy and cranberry sauce - and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. These fantastic party favors were nothing like the feeble Muggle ones the Dursley's usually bought, with their little plastic toys and their flimsy paper hats inside. Harry pulled a wizard cracker with Fred and it didn't just bang, it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several live, white mice. Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him.

Flamming Christmas pudding followed the turkey. Percy nearly broke his teeth on a silver embedded in his slice....

Christmas pudding! wow! looks like forever I have read about the pudding and never have tried one. I don't remember seeing one in the local stores so I decided to make my own. I had to look for recipes and even look at pictures to figure out they looked. Then I referred to Nigella Lawsons recipe and adapted her version. However, I did not use a whole lot of rum or the vodka because my daughter was in charge of mixing it up. I liked what I tasted in the end, and was thrilled that I could make something moist and in the cake form without the oven.

Gadgets:

Rice Cooker
Idli Plates
Molds/Cups - 4
Bowl
Spatula
Cutting Board
Knife
Zester
Peeler
Grater



Ingredients:

Raisins (dark)- 1/4 cup
Golden Raisin - 1/4 cup
Dry Cherries - 1/4 cup
Apricot - 1/4 cup
Orange Juice - 1 whole Orange
Orange zest - 1 whole Orange
Brown Sugar- 1/4 cup
Butter - 1/4 cup
Self raising flour- 1/4 cup
Bread crumbs - 1/4 cup
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Egg - 1
Rum- 1 tsp
Apple - 1 peeled and grated
All spice powder - 1/2 tsp
Water - for the rice cooker
Cherries - 10 for garnish

Preparation:



1. Mix all the dry fruits and soak in orange juice for 30 minutes.

2. Mix the rest of the ingredients in it and spoon them into the 4 moulds or cups and place in idli plates.

3. Pour about 3 cups of water in your rice cooker and place the idli plates in it and cover and cook for 45 - 60 minutes.

4. Remove and pudding from the bowl and serve it hot or cold with cherries.

Note: I did not add vodka over this pudding and do some flamming because I wanted to avoid vodka for my 4 yr old.

Last week my sister gave me sprout maker that she had bought for me from India. She said that it helped make sprouts easily. The container was made of plastic and had 3 layers. The top two layers was for the beans and the bottom layer was a container that gathered excess water that might have been from soaking the beans. I was very excited to try out this sprout maker as we enjoy sprouted salad a lot in our household. Check out for yourself how they turned out.

Gadgets:

Sprout Maker
Bowl
Colander

Ingredients:

Green Moong beans - 2 cups
Water - 5 cups

Preparation:


1. Soak the dal in water over night.

2. Drain and allow the sprouts to stay in the colander to remove water.

3. Spread the beans in the top two layers of the sprout maker. Cover with the lid and set aside.

4. Day one you will see tiny sprouts forming.

5. Day two you will see it start to grow and day three you will see perfectly sprouted beans.

6. Remove and store in a glass container and use to make salads.

I know that artichoke and spinach dips are very popular in general. On Monday for the Football game I was thinking of making some but I realized I did not have any spinach and the artichoke that I had were seasoned and soaked in oil. I changed the whole recipe and made a very quick version of cool dip with roasted peppers that I usually get from the farmers market. Artichokes were from Costco. The resulted dip was not spicy but it was just perfect with the chips we had. Also tasted great with the garlic bread I used for the soup. My entry to the dips event hosted Archana's Kitchen.

Gadgets:

Cutting Board

Knife

Bowl

Spoon

Ingredients:

Salt -(optional)

Pepper

Artichoke(soaked in oil and seasoned)- 1/2 cup finely chopped

Roasted Peppers (skin removed) - 1/2 cup finely chopped

Sour Cream - 1/2 cup (low fat)

Cilantro- optional

Ranch dip mix- 1 packet

Preparation:

1. Add chopped artichoke, peppers, sour cream, ranch dip mix and pepper in a bowl.

2. Mix well and garnish with cilantro and serve with chips of any kind.

Its Monday and MNF (Monday Night Football) is something we look forward to. With San Diego Chargers playing New York Jets this week I had to make something simple and get ready for the game. I also had Meeta's All Authentic Event in the back of my mind before I took an inventory of my groceries. I found all the basic things that can help me make a chunky comforting soup that would go well with the garlic embedded bread. The recipe I adopted was from the Low Fat Ways To Cook Vegetarian book. It was very Italian and hearty and kind of reminded me of the soup I have at the Italian restaurants. My entry to La Cucina Italiana.

Gadgets:

Heavy cooking pan
Cutting Board
Knife
Spatula
Ladle
Peeler
Can opener

Ingredients:

Red Onions - 2
Carrots- 1 cup
Bell Pepper - 1
Potato -2
Garlic- 2 cloves
Water - 4 cups ( was out of veggie stock)
Italian Seasoning - 2 tsp
Salt
Pepper
Parsley - 2 tbsp
Red Kidney Beans - (Washed beans from the tin) - 1 cup
Oil- 2 tbsp
Tomato sauce/chunks - 1 tin
Pasta - 1/2 cup

Preparation:



1. Heat the pan with oil. Add chopped onions, garlic, carrots and salt and cook covered for 3 minutes.

2. When the onions are cooked a little add beans, bell pepper, potato, water, Italian seasoning, tomato sauce, pepper cover and cook for 15 minutes.

3. Season with parsley and serve it with the grilled garlic bread.

Kheer, we make it all the time for all types of celebrations. Rice, almonds or cashew nuts mixed with sugar and milk makes it rich and delicious. I know that macadamia nuts are largely found in Hawaiian Islands and used in there cuisine extensively. We bought these nuts with their shell in the farmers market 2 weeks ago and decided to make something interesting with it. Little did I know that the shell was not easy to break and needed some special device like a nut cracker to open it. The lady at the farmers market told us that it was grown 5 minutes from the Poway farmers market location and had this fancy tool to break the nut shell.

I however spent my afternoon yesterday cracking open these nuts and used them to make a simple kheer that took me less than 10 minutes to prepare. My findings while using the macadamia nut is that it thickens the milk fast and I could not make any difference between cashew, almond or macadamia nut kheer, it all tasted the same. My entry to Calcium rich event hosted by Art of Cooking Indian Food.

Gadgets:

Blender/Mixie
Milk cooker/Heavy bottom vessel
Spatula



Ingredients:

Macadamia nuts - 3/4 cup
Cashew Nut = 1/4 cup
Fat Free Milk - 5 cups
Fat free condensed milk - 1 tin
Saffron- a few strands
Cardamon - powder from 4 pods.


Preparation:



1. Heat the milk in the milk cooker or heavy bottom vessel.

2. In a blender add the nuts and 1/4 cup milk and blend to a paste.

3. Add this mix to the milk and allow to boil for 4 minutes.

4. Add condensed milk cardamon and saffron and allow it to boil for 2 minutes.

5. Cool and chill it and serve it. It tasted good when it was hot too.

Sanaikizhangu/ Elephant foot yam or Suran is a root vegetable that has an earthy taste. Mostly the frozen kind of it is found in the U.S. Sanaikizhangu is used to prepare curry/poriyal, masiyal, chips or in kozhambu. In whatever form they come they are very tasty. With the frozen suran, I made some masiyal for dinner. Masiyal is a mushed version of the cooked vegetable with is like a gaucamole of suran.

Gadgets:

Saucepan
Spatula
Cutting Board
Knife
Potato smasher
Wok

Ingredients:

Suran - 2 cups cubes (fresh or frozen)
Tamarind - small amount
Lemon/Lime juice - 1/2 of the lime/lemon
Green Chilli - 1
Salt
Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Udad dhal- 1 tsp
Water - 1/2 cup9
Ginger - 1 inch grated
Oil - 1 tbsp
Coconut - 1 tbsp (optional)
Curry leaves - a few

Preparation:

1. In a saucepan add the sanaikazhangu, water, salt,tamarind, coconut(optional),green chilies and ginger and cook for 5 minutes or until the suran is fully cooked. Can use a pressure cooker or Ipot to do that same.

 2. Using a smasher mush the veggie.

3. Heat 1 tbsp of oil add asafoetida, mustard seeds(wait for it to pop), udad dhal, green chillies and curry leaves. When the udad dhal turns golden brown add it to the masiyal and squeeze the lime/lemon juice and mix well.

4.Serve it hot with rice, sambar or rasam.

Football season has started with college football taking over the Saturdays and NFL on Sundays. Every week before the games I usually prepare some snacks but slowly I have changed that into preparing healthy and regular food that stops me from munching in between games (That is the reason I like to give but the truth is I don't like to move out of my lucky spot when the San Diego Chargers play). Superstitious! Yes I am. The last two weeks have been really very disappointing for us since the game boiled down to the last few seconds and we lost by a point( that happened when I moved a little from the spot).

For week 2 I made palak paneer, garlic pepper rice and served it with store bought naan. The rice was for my daughter and I wanted it to add some flavor. Before the games I wanted to make something simple and quick.

Gadgets:

Heavy bottom pan

Bowl

Spatula

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup (I used basmati)

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Cashew nuts - 1/2 cup

Garlic Powder - 1 tsp

Pepper Powder - 1 tsp (lower if you don't want it spicy)

Oil - 1 tbsp

Water - 2 1/2 cups

Salt to taste

Cilantro - finely chopped 3 tbsps

Preparation:

1. Soak the rice in water for 10 minutes.

2. Heat the cooking pan and add the oil, mustard seeds wait for them to pop and then the cashews.

3. When they get roasted add garlic powder and pepper powder.

4. Drain the water and store them. Add the rice and roast it for 2 minutes. Add the drained water back with some salt and cook covered on medium until the rice is done.

5. Garnish with cilantro and serve it on the side with any kind of food.

Vendhaya Dosai is a healthy wonderful dosai that is very simple to prepare.This was my staple food during exams. For some reason it helped me focus and get through with very little sleep during semester exams. My amma used to make a big batch of this dough and I would eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner with molaga podi/Idli powder. The dosai does not have any udad dhal but is soft,tasty and the bitter taste of fenugreek is not felt. I liked this dosa because it had little holes on top that was perfect to stuff with molaga podi/idli podwer.

Gadgets:

Blender/grinder
Dosa Tava
Ladle
Bowl

Ingredients:

Pacha Ahrisi/Raw rice/Long Grain - 4 cups
Fenugreek Seeds - 1/4 cup
Salt
water



Preparation:

1. Soak fenugreek in little water overnight.

2. Soak rice seperately in water overnight.

3. Grind rice and fenugreek with the fenugreek water into a paste. Add more water if required.

4. Add salt and allow to ferment until it rises like regular dosa batter.

5. Made dosa that resemble a pancake.It is then that small holes form on the top.

6. Serve it with molaga podi and oil. Thats the way I like it the best.

One green dish that I wanted to blog about is Palak Paneer. There are so many recipes for palak paneer as it is very popular and is served at every buffet in Indian restaurants.This is the recipe I have been using the last 7 years and the taste has been consistent. It takes about 1o minutes to prepare and is very simple and easy. One of the things I prepared for lunch this afternoon for lunch. My entry to FIC:Green color event hosted byToungticklers.

Gadgets:

Heavy cooking pan
Kettle
Bowl
Colander
Spatula
Cutting boardKnife

Ingredients:

Spinach - 4 cups
Onion- 1
Tomatoes - 2
Garlic - 1 tap minced
Ginger - 1 ts grated
Kathuri methi - 2 tsp
Chilli powder- 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder- 1 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Milk - 1/2 cup
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Cloves - 3
Cardamon- 3 pods
Paneer- 1 packet (450 gms)
Water - 1 kettle full
Salt
Sugar - 1/8th tsp
Nutmeg - freshly grated a little for garnish
Oil - 2 tbsp

Preparation:

1. Boil a whole kettle full of water and pour it over the fresh spinach in a bowl and soak it completely.

2. Heat oil in a heavy bottom vessel. Add cinnamon, cloves and cardamon and cook for 30 seconds. Add onion, ginger and garlic and cook well with some salt.

3. When the onions turn transparent add some tomatoes, chili powder, turmeric, cumin powder,kasthuri methi 1 tsp and cook well.

4. Drain the spinach and add it along with cooked onion mix into a blender
and grind to a paste.

5. Pour this paste back into the pan heat and add cubed paneer(fry if you like the taste) and another 1 tsp of crushed kasthri methri and 1/2 cup milk.

6. Cook for a few minutes add sugar and grate nutmeg and serve it hot with roti, naan or rice.

This morning, I met Farmer Steve(above) at the Poway Farmers Market (PFM). He had some fruits in his stall that no one else had. Jujube, Sapote, Figs and Raw Banana to mention a few. I picked up some figs and farmer Steve was generous enough to add a few green figs to my basket. On the way home I thought I could make fig and honey ice cream as the fig were very sweet and ripe or a dessert but instead I tried a new chutney. I used roasted green and crushed red chillis, garlic and a few spices. My entry to Lore's Original Recipe event.

Gadgets:

Cutting Board
Knife
Heavy Bottom Pan







Ingredients:

Fig- 1 basket
Garlic- 1 clove
Roasted Chili- 2
Crushed peppers - 1 tsp
Salt
Brown Sugar- 2 tbsp
Cinnamon- 1 stick
Cloves-5
Lime Juice- 1 half
Parsley- 1 tbsp

Preparation:

1. Cut all the fig add lime juice, chopped roasted chili, Cinnamon stick, cloves,brown sugar, salt,parsley and crushed peppers.

2. Heat the pan and cook this mix for 7 minutes.

3.Cool and store.

At Poway Farmers Market (PFM) I found some amazing things that local farmers and other small scale sellers sell. Richie had a booth that sold roasted chiles. He had all ranges from very spicy to mild ones, about 10 in each bag that was warm and ready to be turned into something special like chiles rellenos. He also told us that he carried some spicy variety of chile from Assam, India and was very popular at the market. The smell of these roasted chillies was so aromatic that I decided to buy a bag of them. He gave me a tip or two as to what in general people do with them. But I had my own plans for them. If you live anywhere in San Diego please do visit this farmers market with your kids. It is wonderful visiting the place on weekends and the kids can get to learn a lot from the farmers. For those of you who do not, please make your own roasted chile or the tinned one should work just fine and follow the rest of the steps. In 10 minutes you would be in heaven eating something delicious.

Gadgets:

Microwavable/oven safe bowl if baking in the oven at 400 degrees

Measuring cups and spoons

Bowl

Ingredients:

Roasted chiles- 6

Marinara sauce (Store bought or home made - 1/2 cup

Alfredo sauce - 1/2 cup (store bought or home made)

Cheese - Mozzarella shredded - 1/4 cup, pepper jack or mozzarella sticks - 3 (or use any cheese of that nature in hand)

Preparation:

1. In a microwavable bowl spread alfredo sauce in the bottom.

2. With a bowl of water clean the black burnt skin of the chiles and remove the seeds .

3. Cut the cheese stick into half and place them inside the chiles and wrap them up then place it in the alfredo sauce bed.

4. Place all 6 and then cover them with marinara sauce and sprinkle the shredded cheese on top.

5. Cover and cook for 3 minutes and then again for another 4 minutes or until the cheese melts inside the chiles. If using the oven bake covered for 10 minutes at 450 degrees and remove and cook for 5 minutes.

6. Serve it hot on the side with any kind of food.

Every time I think fruit salad I have the Wiggles song in the back of my mind. It is yummy for sure and one of my favorite salads. I sometime like a combo of fruits and veggies but this time I decided to go for a great fruit salad with the fresh fruits that we picked up at our local farmers market. Decided to make it salty and spicy than sweet because I wanted to serve it with Sherbet Berry Rainbow Ice cream. The very colorful and sweet ice cream was just perfect with the spicy fruit salad.

Gadgets:

Cutting board
Knife
Bowl
Wooden Spoon.




Ingredients:

Nectarine - 1
Blueberry - 1/2 cup
Raspberry - 1/2 cup
Pear-1
Mini Green Grapes- 1/2 cup
Orange - slices from 1 whole orange
Sea Salt
Honey - 1 tbsp
Paprika - 1 1/2 tsp

Preparation:
1. Cut all nectarine and pear and orange, add the other fruits in a bow.

2. Add salt, paprika and honey and mix well.

3. Serve with rainbow sorbet ice cream.

Valazkai/Raw banana is very delicious when made into chips, roast, podimas(shredded and cooked) or moru moru(deep fried). When the valazkai starts to turn a little yellow or ripen my grandmother known affectionately as Manni used to make kootu out of it. It is one of my favorite kootu and is amazing in taste. It has a mushy texture, great flavor and apt with south Indian food like rice , sambar or rasam. I had some valazkai that was starting to ripen sitting in my kitchen and I decided to make kootu again.

Gadgets:

Peeler
Cutting board
Knife
Saucepan
Wok
Spatula

Ingredients:


Valazkai (slightly ripe)-4
Channa Dhal - 2 tbsp
Tempering (Mustard seeds- 1 tsp,Udad Dhal- 2 tsp,Dry red chilies- 1, asafoetida a few shakes, coconut 1 tbsp)
Asafoetida powder- 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Sambar Powder - 1 tsp
Salt
Curry leaves- 5
Cilantro- 2 Tbsp
Water - enough to soak the vegetable

Preparation:

1. Using the peeler remove the skin of the banana and cut into cubes.

2. Heat the saucepan add water and veggies, channa dhal, turmeric, sambar powder,salt and asafoetida and cook for 4 minutes until the veggies are cooked.

3. For tempering add 1 tbsp oil and mustard seeds. Wait for them to pop, add udad dhal and dry chilies, coconut and curry leaves.

4. Add the tempering to the cooked veggies and garnish with cilantro.

5. Serve as side dish for rasam, sambar and rice.

A very common occurrence during summer in most households is fast ripening of fruits. The heat does takes its toll on the perishable produce and sometimes we have to prepare something fast to salvage them. This afternoon I had to take care of 4 over ripened organic bananas that was in my fruit basket. The best thing to make with them was.....(pause waiting for your answer) banana bread of course!

Taking inventory of all the things I might need for the bread I started out with my cheerful and most excited when it comes to baking sous chef. There immediately what was supposed to be a loaf bread became a cup bread/cake/muffin. Then we changed the recipe and decided to use a bunch of healthy ingredients and made it egg and nut free. The end product was a very moist and very tasty muffin that is spelling HEALTH. My entry to: My Diverse Kitchen's WBB:Grains in my breakfast event. The WBB event was started by Nandita of Saffron Trail.

Gadgets:

Muffin Pan
Bowl
Potato Masher
Measuring cups and spoons
Paper cups holders
Spatula



Ingredients:

Ripe organic banana - 4
Oil - 1/3 cup
Baking Powder- 1 tsp
Whole wheat Flour - 3/4 cup
Whole wheat pastry flour - 3/4 cup
Brown Sugar- 1/2 cup
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Lime Juice - 1 lime
Orange Zest- 1 whole orange
Dry fruits (apricot, raisins, currants, prunes, golden raisins, cranberries)- 2 cups
NOTE: Please omit cranberries if you do not like tart taste.




Topping:
Corn flakes - 2 tbsp
Cheerios - 3 tbsp
Oats - 2 tbsp
Granulated Sugar - 3 tbsp

Preparation:



1. Mash the bananas in a bowl and add lime juice.

2. Add oil, sugar, dry fruits chopped and mix well.

3. In another bowl mix all the dry ingredients and add in 3 parts to the wet mix. Totally mix only 10 times when adding the flour.

4. Line muffin pans with paper cups and scoop 1/4 cup of the mix and decorate with cornflakes, oats or cheerios and sprinkle sugar for a little bit of sweet.

5. Bake for 27 minutes at 375 degrees.