Ridge gourd and peanut chutney

Ridge gourd (Heerekayi in kannada) is usually unpopular.  I remember eating this mostly as a chutney or as part of a mixed veg sambar...never on its own. Now that I've started cooking, I quite enjoy the simple flavours of a home style ridge gourd palya or a dal. But I always go back to making this chutney whenever I have ridge in my fridge! :p

The best part about this chutney is that you can substitute whole ridge gourd with just the peel. Yea..really! So when you peel a ridge for dal or subzi , set aside the peel don't discard it. Use it to make this yummy crunchy chutney.

You will need:

--1 medium sized ridge gourd, roughly cut into large chunks OR 1 cup ridge gourd peels
1/2 cup peanuts
1 tsp seasame seeds
A thumb nail size bit of jaggery
Juice of half lemon
Salt to taste.

In a dry non stick pan, toast the peanuts and seasame seeds till they turn brown. Set aside to cool. In the same pan, saute the ridge gourd or just the peels till they become soft and start wilting. You can add a few grains of sugar at this stage so that the ridges retain their beautiful fresh green colour. 

Then put all ingredients into the mixie and blend well. When it comes to this chutney am a little moody. I like to blend it into a smooth paste at times..to go with hot rice. At other times, I like to pulse it with a dash of olive oil and it becomes a tasty bread spread. So, d o what you want to! Once blended, add the line juice.

If you'd like to try it with hot rice and ghee, I would suggest topping it off with some wonderfully fragrant 'vaghaar' or 'vaggarane' (seasoning) of mustard, whole curry leaves and hing.

Enjoy!

Home style veggie tawa pizza

Ever since the husband has been put in the high risk category for heart problems, I've been trying to cook meals that not only appeal to his peculiar taste buds but also do his health some good. So last night, instead of making the same old dry phulkas and subzi, I made pizzas. :)

The dough: this is entirely an experiment that I didn't regret. With some pointers from Gordon Ramsay in his show on TLC, I just did my own thing.

1 tsp Active dry yeast in about 2tbsp luke warm water with sugar. Leave it  alone while mixing the dough. 1 cup regular chapatti atta (my atta also has flaxseed, 1 tbsp roasted fine semolina and methi meal mixed in it), 2tsp olive oil, salt to taste. Knead into a soft sticky dough, adding water as you need.

By this time the Yeast should be activated. .frothy and bubbly. Just incorporate it into tge doygh..lightly. Then, smear your hands with oil and roll the dough aroubd coating it lightly with oil. Grease a container and place the oiled ball of dough in it. Cover tightly with cling film and tuck it away into a warm spot for about 2 hours allowing it to rise.  I warmed my oven and let it sit in the oven for 2 whole hours.

Toppings: I used whatever I had in my fridge. Luck was on my side as I'd replenished my stock of herbs and vegetables just that morning.  So I used a tomato pasta sauce as the base sauce. Red and yellow bell peppers, shallots, spring onion greens, black olives, and lemon basil. The idea was to have a thin crust and load it with toppings. I also used mixed spice, tabasco sauce and chilli flakes for heat.

When the dough was fluffy and rwady, I didn't bothet to knead it a second time. Just brushed my regular chapatti tawa with oil, pulled a ball of dough into a thin round base, poked it several times with a fork and loaded the toppings. 

The trick is to put it on high heat for a few minutes till the base starts cooking.  Then reduce the flame, cover with a glass lid and let it cook for approximately 10 minutes. .or until the toppings are tender and the base crisp and golden. :) just before serving, I drizzled abput a tsp if cold pressed flaxseed oil and roasted garlic flakes for an extra punch. Yummmmmm.. they were so light that we had sbout 3 pizzas each!

My pizzas were the size of small phulkas and loaded with veggies with very little oil and no cheese. So I didn't feel guilty after polishing off 2 pizzas all by myself. :)

I was so busy experimenting that I took just one picture. ..here it is. This one was for my brother... The only one who can afford to eat cheese snd is struggling to put ob weight!

Sweet avocado

Avocado a.k.a Butter fruit has slowky and steadily made its way into my fridge andvis now a regular there.

My fav way to eat this insanely creamy fruit is also one of my favourite post lunch go-to desserts. 

Cut open the avocado, remove the pit, scoop the cream into a bowl. Add 1-2 tsp of sugar and blend well with a fork / whisk. Let it sit in the fridge for an hour or two.  And then just dig in! Its yummmmmy.

I make this after breakfast and eat it after lunch.  Though loaded with goodness. .. it isn't the best fruit for weight watchers. :(

Onion chutney

The husband is currently on a very strict diey and has been told to avoid anything with coconut.

The thing is we are South Indians and chutneys are an important part of all our favourite recipes. This is a big challenge for me..to make chutneys without one of the core ingredients. ..coconut. I made this onion chutney and it turned out quite well.  So I have it on my list and here's the recipe

This is enough to mage a big bowl of chutney

3 large onions cut into quarters. .
2 tbsp bengal gram dhal, dry roasted
3-4 Fresh green or dry red chillies
1 tsp tamarind pulp
1/4 tsp jaggery
Salt to taste
Mustard, asafoetida (hing) and curry leaves for seasoning

Take a non stick pan  and with a few drops of oil, sauté the onions until they turn pink. Then roast the chana dal. Once they have have cooled, pit all ingredients into the mixer an d blend well with just enough water. Then heat a vaghaar pan, add 1 tsp oil, mustard.  Once the mustard crackles and settles down, add curry leaves and hing and turn off thw heat. Pour this fragrant seasoning over tje chutney and mix well to incorporate.

This tastes great with dosas and idlys. I used aome leftover chutney as a bread spread and it worked well. :) so go ahead and try it out!

This chutney tastes good for when thick. I dont like it thin and runny.

Hearty pumpkin soup

After watching Matt Preston's simple pumpkin soup on Masterchef Australia last night, I knew I had to make it. pumpkin happens to be my new favorite veggie, knocking cauliflower and potatoes off the list. I <3 the simple south Indian red pumpkin subzi. And to that I addthink buttermilk to make a yummy raita. And the usual sambar.

 But that's about how far I had gone with using the pumpkin in my food. This pumpkin soup gave me purpose.. More variety. I didn't follow the recipe shared by Matt Preston..I just did my own thing. And it turned out wonderfully fragrant, think, creamy and so delicious. 

Here's what I did

I had 1 whole red pumpkin (about 700 gms) and decided to use the entire thing. 

5 cloves of garlic

2 large onions

1 small potato

1 large carrot.. This is just for colour and of course the goodness..I somehow don't like the yellow of the pumpkin.

A generous sprinkling of cinnamon powder

A pinch of royal garam masala

Salt to taste

olive oil

maharashtrian garlic chutney powder as a relish..just before eating

As Matt Preston suggested, I cut up all the veggies into large chunks and placed them on my baking tray. Drizzled olive oil, sprinkled cinnamon powder, garam masala and salt and tossed well to incorporate the masalas. 

I put it into a 170 degree oven for 45 mins. Here I had a bit of a problem. I had cut the pumpkin into very large and thick slices so they were still raw at the end of 45 minutes. I decided to go with the slow / pressure cooker method that am most comfortable with.

 So I tossed all the beautifully cooked, slightly brown veggies with 3 small cups of water into a cooker. I dont have a gas connection so most of the cooking is on my induction cooktop. Set it on 'pressure cook' mode at 1000 degrees for 3 whistles.  With every whistle, the aroma filled the house and I was becoming more and more impatient. I just had to eat it! 

Once I opened the cooker, I hurriedly peeled the skin off the HOT pumpkin chunks, juggling them between both hands and blowing desperately to cool them. Yes.. I do get hopelessly impatient when it comes to tasting new food. :p 

Put the veggies under a fan to cool them, tossed them into my mixie and whiiirrrrrrrrrrr. The soup was ready. Thick and a beautiful light orange. I Quickly served it in a bowl, added a few pieces of paneer and a teaspoon full of the garlic chutney powder ( I love anything garlicky also. you can gladly omit this) 

Oh yummmm. Heaven. Polished off 2 bowls of the soup and am craving for more. 

The next time I make it, I will oven bake only the onions to get that beautiful, slightly burnt, sweet flavor going. All the other veggies will go straight into the pressure cooker. 

Gulpaote (gul- pao-tay)

This has been a favourite ever since I can remember eating sweets. And I like the one my grandmother makes.. none of the other versions even come close.  So this time, when she visited us, I got her to teach me how to make it. And its so simple. Took less than 20 minutes in all!

You need

1 measure fine sooji
1 measure dessicated fresh coconut
3/4 to 1 measure powdered jaggery (depending on how sweet you like it)
A little milk (to moisten sooji)
Ghee 1 cup

Heat ghee in a non stick pan. Add rooji and roast till it turns golden brown. Take it off the flame and det aside to cool.

Then heat jaggery ober a low flame, stirring constantly. Once it turns into a syrup, check for any impurities and strain if necessary.  While still on the flame, add the dessicated coconut to thw jaggwry syrup and allow it to cook in the syrup for a few minutes. 

In the meanwhile, thw sooji should have cooled down.  Add about 2 tbsp of milk (at room temperature) to the sooji and mix well. Allow it to rest for a max. Of 5 minutes.  By this time the coconut and jaggery mixture should have turned a beautiful golden brown and wonderfully fragrant. Add the moistend sooji to it and keep stirring to avoid any lumps.

Let it sit on a low flame, remembering to stir all the while, till the sooji soaks up all the jaggery and coconut syrup. Once done, it will start leaving the sides of the pan.  Take it off the heat, top it with a generous amount of ghee, mix well and let ut cool.

You can then made small laddoos or scoop it into a bowl and enjoy it.

Note:
1. I prefer using a deep nonstick kadhai as it tends to get messy.
2. You may add dry fruits and cardamom if you like it. I like the plain version the best.

If you tried it...tell me how it turned out!

Maalpua!!

Easy recipe + simple everyday ingredients + desperate craving is what pushed me to making this.

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
1 cup maida
1 cup khoya
5-6 tbsp desi ghee (for frying the maalpuas)
warm water (to make the batter)

Make a thick sugar syrup by boiling the sugar in little water. keep stirring continuously and keep aside.

Add water to the maida and make a thick batter. Grate / powder the khoya and mix well with warm water to make a slightly thin batter. Mix both the batters and keep aside for about 15 minutes.

Heat the ghee in a deep vessel on low flame. Put scoops of batter in the ghee and fry till they turn golden brown on both sides.

Remove the golden maalpuas and strain the excess oil. Put them into the sugar syrup.

Place them on a plate and garnish with pistachios, almond and saffron. Serve hot!

Credits: Chef Marut Sikka for the simple recipe.
http://cooks.ndtv.com/listrecipesbyanc.asp?chef=Marut%20Sikka&pg=recipes