Khadi Pakora

Picking off from my earlier post on "Lemon Rasam", talking of comfort food, I believe Khadi Pakora counts for a few people although I was only familiar with the South Indian counterpart of Khadi - the "more kozhambu" in Tamil or "majige huli" in Kannada. But there are fundamental differences between these two. Thanks to my mother-in-law I learnt how to make this delicacy.

The pakoras are something I have experimented with a couple of times using moong dal and this is the recipe that has worked for me.

The Khadi and pakoras have to be made simultaneously. The pakoras have to be fried and dropped hot into the Khadi that is cooking. Time the recipes accordingly as per your convenience.

What usually works for me:
Grind the paste for the pakoras without adding baking powder and then go ahead with the khadi preparation.
While waiting for the khadi to boil after adding water, heat the oil for frying pakors, add baking powder to the pakora paste, and start frying them.

Recipe for the Pakoras (Makes about 25 small lemon sized pakoras)

Ingredients
Moong dal - 6 tbsp
Dry red chillies - 2
Salt - to taste
Rice flour/Besan -  1 tbsp
Baking powder - a pinch
Turmeric powder - a pinch

Method
Wash and soak the moong dal in just enough water to cover the dal, for about half an hour to an hour.

The dal should have soaked most of the water. Drain the rest of the water out if any and grind the soaked dal, dry red-chillis, salt and besan/rice flour into a paste.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed kadai. By now the Khadi should be cooking in another kadai.

Add baking powder to the paste made earlier.

When the oil is hot, pick small half-a-lemon sized portions of the batter and drop them into the oil. Fry until golden brown on all sides.




Recipe for the Khadi (serves 4)

Ingredients
Besan (gram flour) - 1 tbsp
Thick curd - 1/2 cup
Water - 1 cup
Salt - to taste
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch

For Tadka (Tempering)
Oil - 1tbsp
Cumin seeds (Jeera) - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 6-7

Method

Make a paste of gram flour (besan) and curd and set aside.

Add oil to a hot heavy bottomed vessel and when the oil is hot enough, add the cumin seeds and curry leaves. When the cumin turns brown, add the curd-besan paste. Add salt, chilli powder and mix well. When the mix comes to a boil, allow it to cook in low flame, until the raw smell of besan is gone. After that add water mix well. Make sure there are no lumps. You can add water gradually, stirring all the while. Let it come to a boil again in low flame.

While the Khadi is simmering, add hot pakoras into the mix.

Hot khadi-pakora is ready to be served with rice or roti.

You can drop half the fried pakoras into the khadi and reserve to rest to share as a crispy treat either with lunch or at tea-time. My kids prefer eating the pakoras as such and don't prefer Khadi as much.

Verdict This has been a hit with folks at home. A welcome change from regular dal and sambhar we make, so the grown ups love it, and the kids love the pakoras, so a win-win. 

Lemon Rasam

"The Hundred Foot Journey" is a movie about an aspiring cook who wants to work at a french restaurant. The matriarch,  played by one of my favourite British actors, who runs the restaurant has a simple test for the applicants. She asks them to make an omelette.

One would wonder what is so complicated about making an omelette that a chef needs to clear such a task in his job interview. But how innovative one can be with the combination of spices and flavours, how long the omelette needs to cook on the pan, how much oil to use, everything counts.

Drawing parallels to that movie, I have always considered Rasam, the quintessential part of South Indian cuisine, as the benchmark of how good a cook one is.

Personally it is my comfort food. Rice and rasam, with a spoon of ghee and side of papad is just what I would love when I am feeling under the weather.  Even for babies that start off on solids, we beat rice and dal, and add a few spoons of rasam to smoothen the mix. That childhood taste is probably what makes it a comfort food for most of us.

Every one has their own version of good rasam.

A friend of mine used to say, "ரசம் இலுப்பை சட்டியில தான் பண்ணனும். கொதிக்கும் போது வேளாவனும். அப்போ தான் நல்லா ருசியா வரும்"

Translation: Rasam has to be boiled in a heavy bottomed iron vessel. And when it comes to a boil, it has to be stirred a few times. Only then it gets tasty.

That is her version of good rasam.

So back to my version, there has to be dal (no two ways about this) and something tangy preferably, yes you got that right, juice of a lemon!

I typically make this on Sundays. Even if I am not making rice for lunch, I still make a bowl of lemon rasam to be consumed as soup.

Recipe (Serves 4)

Ingredients

Toor Dal - 1/4 cup
Tomato - 1
Ginger - 1/2 inch piece
Garlic - 4-6 cloves
Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste

For tadka (tempering):
Oil - 1/2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Whole Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 6-8
Dry red chillies - 2 broken in halves

Coriander - finely chopped for garnishing

Juice of half a lemon - for the final flavour

Method

• Boil toor dal with turmeric powder until soft and of mashable consistency. Allow to cool.
• Use the mixer or food processor in pulse mode for a couple of seconds to make a smooth paste of the dal.
• Mash the tomato, garlic and ginger into a fine paste.
• Heat a heavy bottomed kadai, and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, chillies and curry leaves.
• When the mustard seeds splutter, add the tomato paste.
• Add the pepper and cumin powder and salt. Allow the paste to cook well until the raw smell disappears.
• Add the dal paste and sufficient water. I usually add about 2 cups. Give it all a stir and let it all come a boil.
• Take it off the heat, transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with coriander leaves and squeeze the juice of half a lemon into the rasam.
• Tada, your tangy dal-based rasam is ready!!! 

Feel free to gulp down  a few spoonfuls while you taste it, but be careful not to burn your tongue else you will be sorry as you cannot taste anything for the rest of the day.

Verdict: Piping hot rasam, whether served as soup or with rice is a welcome addition at my home. While I was writing this post, my little one looked at the picture and said, "Ma, from tomorrow onwards can you please add rasam to my rice?". This is the highly picky child who has stopped mixing even ghee into her rice and eats plain white rice, with veggies or salted peanuts on the side. No amount of verbal persuasion changed her mind, but the picture above did. There you go! You have the verdict...

Chocolate Truffle Brownies

“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life” - Mark Twain.

Well I am certainly blessed with all of the above! First of all blessed to have good friends in life. Thank you all! The rest just follows. 

So a friend of mine gifted me Popina Book of Baking by Isidora Popovic a few years back and boy, was I thrilled. This is an incredible baking book with mouth watering recipes and to top it all such beautifully rendered photos!  

Even today just looking at the pictures in this book is so therapeutic. Not just for me, but my girls love to browse through this book before bedtime. They also make plans on what to bake the coming weekend and so on. 

Once such night, they came across this page and my little one who is a big fan of chocolate wanted me to bake these brownies. She asked me to read the recipe to her and the moment I said dark chocolate she was thrilled and declared we are going to bake these brownies this weekend. And so the adventure began...

Although I agreed enthusiastically, to be honest, the recipe gave me the quivers. Firstly, it uses very little flour, and expects us to whip the eggs and sugar to a pale-creamy consistency. I really wasn't sure until what point I was supposed to whip. There is no baking powder in this recipe and no vanilla essence either. So I was a little apprehensive, and rightly so, but for the wrong reasons! You will get what I mean, in just a bit. 

The pictures here are from the second attempt at baking these brownies. 

The first time around (a week before), I ran into a couple of hiccups. 

First, I was short of about 80 grams of dark baking chocolate and ended up using some white baking chocolate, but that diluted the chocolate mixture. 

Secondly, I had to wait for the chocolate mixture to cool down for a long while. During that time, the egg and sugar mixture had deflated almost. 

On the whole the brownie mix, turned out a little dilute and on baking, yielded delicious, but gooey-in-the-middle brownies. I had to refrigerate it with the baking tin, and then slice it into squares. 

Ok, lesson learnt the hard way. 

I will never ever breach the following rules: 

1. Never mix white and dark chocolate, they have different consistencies. So the end product will not have the desired consistency if you use the wrong kind.

2. Never overheat chocolate. It is extremely sensitive to heat and should not be overheated.  

I used the tradition method of heating chocolate in a glass bowl on top of a saucepan with simmering water. However the glass bowl overheated and the mixture turned out lumpy and muddy. 

https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-fix-overheated-or-burnt-chocolate-521579

The above page gives tips on how to salvage overheated chocolate. Unfortunately I did not have any more dark chocolate to fix this. 

There is another method, using the microwave that can be used. In the second attempt I used the microwave method. 

3. Always prepare the ingredients in the order specified. 

In this case, 

Step 1. Melt chocolate and butter and keep it aside to cool. 

Step 2. Whip up the eggs and sugar. 

Once the chocolate mixture is almost cool, start whipping the eggs. 

Okay, now that we know what not to do, let us get on with what needs to be done, shall we? 

Recipe (Makes 16 squares) 

Baking tin: 7" square baking tin
Actually the recipe calls for a 7" square baking tin, but since I don't have an 7" square, I used an 8" tin.

Oven: 150 degrees C.
Baking time: 15 mins

The above specifications are from the recipe. For the settings that worked for me, please see the note on baking temperature and time below.

Ingredients: 
Dark Chocolate - 240 g (70% cocoa solids) (I used dark baking chocolate, chopped fine)
Unsalted butter - 100g
Eggs - 3
Golden caster sugar - 135g (I used white caster sugar)
Plain flour - 55g

Cocoa powder, to dust

Method:

Keep all necessary ingredients out on the kitchen top atleast an hour before you start. The butter and chocolate should be kind of soft and easily melting with the slightest heat. The eggs should be at room temperature. 

Line the baking sheet with parchment paper and keep aside. 











Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C. My oven can only be set in 20 degrees steps and hence I either have to use 140 degrees C or 160 degrees C. I went with 140 degrees C and decided to increase the baking time.

Melt the chocolate and butter and mix into a smooth paste. I used the microwave method.

Microwave method to melt chocolate: Put the butter and chopped chocolate into a glass bowl and stick it into the microwave for 30 seconds, at half the power. Pull it out and give it a stir with a silicone spatula. Pop it back into the microwave for another 30 seconds. Keep stirring and microwaving at half-power until the chocolate melts and mixes with the soft butter. It took me about a minute to melt the chocolate this way. It certainly helps to have to the butter and chocolate soft at room temperature.

Keep the chocolate-butter mixture aside to cool. This did not take long.

Beat the eggs and sugar with a hand mixer, until pale and creamy. this took about 4 minutes. The mixture was thick like whipping cream forming soft peaks.

Sift in the flour and fold in gently. I used the spatula for this. Finally fold in the molten chocolate mixture and mix until smooth. I used the hand mixer for just a few seconds to blend in the chocolate mixture into the egg-sugar-flour mixture.

The batter turned out thick and creamy like this:


Bake this in the oven for about 40 minutes. Check every 5 mins, after the first 20 minutes to see if the brownies are set inside. No one wants an overbaked brownie.










Note on baking temperature and time:
Recipe states 150 degrees C for 15 minutes, but since I had set the oven at 140 degrees C, I had to increase the baking time.

After 20 minutes, I used the toothpick method to check on the brownie and although the top had risen and formed the crust the inside was still gooey.

I baked it again for about 10 minutes and still found the brownies gooey, so I baked for another 10 minutes and this time the toothpick test passed.

















The brownies should have risen slightly. Leave to cool completely and then dust with cocoa powder. Cut into squares and serve.

Verdict: I should have had no misgivings about not having any leavening agent in this recipe. The whipping of the eggs and sugar is the key step here, and that takes care of giving the brownies the texture and leavening needed. Crispy outer crust, with soft melt in the mouth core and such chocolatey goodness, this was such a hit with the kids. It does have the texture of chocolate truffles and hence the name. Thank you, my friend for gifting me this treasure of recipes! 

Whole Wheat Belgian Waffles

Recipe (Makes about 6-7 waffles)

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 1 cup
Baking powder - 4 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Sugar - 2 tbsp

Oil - 1/3 cup
Egg - 1 (you can optionally replace with a large ripe mashed banana)
Milk - 1 cup
Vanilla essense - 1 tsp

Garnishing: (any or all of the below 😉)
Syrup of your choice - maple, chocolate, caramel
Whipped cream
Jam
Fruits

Method:

In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar until evenly mixed.
In another bowl, whisk the oil, egg, milk and vanilla.

Add the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture and mix into a smooth batter.

Heat the waffle-maker and coat it well with either butter or some oil spray.

When ready, pour the batter into the waffle maker until the brim and let it cook as per the wafflet maker's specification.

Gently dislodge the waffles from the waffle maker and transfer to the serving plate.

Yummy waffles are ready to be served with fruit, whipped cream or syrup.

Verdict: Well Sunday breakfast is a no-brainer with such recipes in hand. Healthy for the most part and yummy to convince kids to finish up with a glass of milk. What more can one ask for?

Egg curry

Bored of cooking the same veggies and yearning for something spicy yet healthy to serve? That particularly happens to me on rainy evenings. So a couple of days ago, I got bored of carrots and beans and green peas, and was looking to make something quick and tasty, and something that my little one will eat as well. I realised there were a dozen eggs in the fridge and decided to make some egg curry. My Little one calls it, "maasa egg", her way of saying "masala egg".

The recipe is very simple. Just finely chop a large onion, and a large tomato, fry them to a pulp, add the necessary spices and finally add boiled eggs. Serve hot with rice or roti. 

Simple isn't it? Easy when you are running short of time too. 

Recipe 
Ingredients:
Eggs - 6-7 boiled 
Onions - one large or two medium sized ones, finely chopped 
Tomato - one large or two small ones 
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp 
Salt - to taste 
Coriander powder - 1/4 tsp 
Tumeric - a pinch 
Oil for frying 

Tadka: 
Curry leaves - 5-6 

Cumin - 1/2 tap 

Method: 

Chop the onions and tomatoes finely. In a heavy bottomed utensil, heat a tablespoon of oil (I prefer olive oil for this).  When the oil is hot, add the curry leaves and cumin. When the cumin is changing colour, add the chopped onions. Add a pinch of turmeric and fry the onions until they are transparent. Add the chopped tomatoes, salt, chilli and coriander powders and continue frying, until the whole mixture looks well blended. 

Now, add a little water and cover the kadai with a lid.  The onions need to cook until soft. Add additional oil if necessary. 
Finally, the curry looks like this in the picture above.  Now make slits in the eggs as shown in the picture. I make four such long slits around the eggs.  

Gently drop the eggs into the curry, toss them around to coat the sides and turn off the flame.  

Transfer to the serving bowl, garnish with more curry leaves or coriander leaves and serve hot with rice or chapati. 

Note 1: 
If you have some time, before adding the eggs, you can cool down the curry and grind it into a paste. That will yield a smooth curry. 

Note 2: 
Boil the eggs only until the yolk is fully cooked, and still yellow in colour. Sometimes the egg yolk starts turning grey, and that is a sign of overcooked eggs. 
I use the pressure cooker, with a slice of lemon in the water, and keep on high for just one whistle. I remove the eggs as soon as the cooker cools down and peel them. 
If boiling in a saucepan, boil for about 15-20minutes. 

Verdict: Simple, quick, go to menu when short of time or ingredients. 

Pillow Cakes

Hello All! I am back from an extended hibernation mode.

Thank you so much for your patience and continued patronage. I see some likes cropping up on my Facebook page every now and then. I am very grateful for that and it is a reminder for me to share the joy of cooking with the online community.

Well, there really is no specific reason for being away from the blog, I think I was just overwhelmed with the entire parenting experience all over again!

I was just reminiscing to my elder daughter about all the yummy baked goods I used to make for her and ended up showing the blog, while my little one saw all these pictures for the first time, that I had baked cookies and cakes and brownies, she had a forlorn look on her face. At that instant I decided to resume blogging as she is now slightly older and independent and is also very helpful around the kitchen. She was thrilled.

Little tummies need to be filled and "yummy yummy food for the tummy" is always being cooked, but not being photographed and blogged about.

I did not have the luxury of plating up and photographing, simply for lack of time and/or not being able to find my phone. Two kids need digital baby sitters you see and my phone serves me well.

So what better way to get back on the blog than with a tasty and quick breakfast option for lazy Sundays!

I honestly wanted to make better use of the sandwich maker and was looking at recipes I could use it for and came across these easy breakfast/snack options.

The little one does not have a sweet tooth and is a very picky eater. But chocolates, cakes and ice-creams are always welcome on her palette.

So let us go back to the delicious pillow cakes baked in the sandwich maker.

I picked a recipe that called for whole wheat flour. I just omitted the sprinkles and used a piece of dark chocolate for the filling. You can skip this if you please.

Recipe

Ingredients
Whole-wheat flour - 1 cup 
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1
Milk - 1/2 cup or as needed
Oil - 3 tbsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Chocolate pieces - if using

Icing sugar for sprinkling

Butter for greasing the sandwich-maker plates.

Method

1. Mix oil, sugar, vanilla and egg in a bowl until combined.
2. Now add in flour, baking powder and fold gently.
3. Pour milk and fold gently till smooth batter.
4. Heat the sandwich maker and grease with some butter.
5. If making plain cakes pour the cake batter into the moulds to the brim.
6. If using chocolate filling, pour a little batter, place a piece of chocolate and cover with another layer of batter.
7. Cover and let it cook for about 5-6 mins. 
8. Remove form mould, dust with icing sugar and serve. 

The sandwich-maker's ready indication may over cook the cake. Keep a watch on the progress and remove the cakes when they are golden brown. 

Verdict:
When served hot these cakes just vanish, each kid downs about two of these easily. Need I say more?