Sunchoke Chips

                                                            ~Sunchoke Chips




                                                          ~Sunchokes a.k.a  Jerusalem Artichokes



                           Sunchokes are great for diabetics because of its Inulin content .

                                                 ~   Bounty from my garden

                                                ~ Drizzled with Olive Oil and Pepper

                                                                ~Baking in Process

                                                               ~  Crispy  Chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice the cleaned sunchokes with a mandoline. Sprinkle salt and drizzle some olive oil. Place them in a single layer on a baking sheet. Turn the sunchokes halfway through and bake it for about 10-12 mts, or until crisp and golden. Yummy!

Caution: Do not eat large amount of sunchokes in one meal  as it causes heavy stomach discomfort..

Holiday Cheese Platter

                     ~Holiday Platter that I set up for Christmas Dinner.

         A delicious assortment of  Strawberries ,  Blueberries, Grapes ,Vegetable Crackers complimented by Gouda , Gruyere and Sharp Cheddar Cheeses

Navaratri Golu Celebration -2014

~ Guruvayoorapan and Varaha Lakshmi - new this year

                                                   

                                                               ~Flowers for Pooja

                                                 
                                                     ~Strung into garland for Vilaku by my mom

                                               ~My saree choice for the day and  Jasmine flowers

                                   ~Mr. B and My daughter decorated the brass uruli with flowers

                                                  ~Flowers in Brass uruli

                                                 ~My daughter and Mr. B playing puzzles
                                                          while waiting for the guests

Fava Bean Falafel

Falafel is a Middle Eastern version of our parupu vada made with fava  or garbanzo beans or combination of both. The beans are soaked overnight, ground to a coarse mixture, rolled them into small balls and deep fried  in oil. It can be eaten just as a snack or roll them in a flatbread drizzled with homemade Tzatziki  sauce (yogurt sauce) and hot sauce. I tasted the Falafal  for the first time in Amsterdam, many years back. I was hooked to Falafel since then. Amsterdam has lot of Falafel joints because of Turks and Moroccan population there. 

 I have made Falafel several times with Chickpea (Garbanzo beans). But this time I tried with dried Fava beans. 

Ingredients:

       Fava Beans              - 1 lb. (soaked overnight)

       Red Onion               - 1 (very finely chopped)

       Garlic                      - 1-2 cloves

       Parsley                    - 1/2 a bunch, chopped

       Cilantro                   -1/2 a bunch, chopped

       Chili powder           - 1 tbs

       Cumin Powder        - 1 tsp

       All purpose flour (Maida) - 2 tbs

       Baking powder      - 1/2 tsp

       Oil

       Salt

Method:

In a food processor, combine  beans with onion, parsley, and cilantro . Grind them to a coarse mixture. Add chili powder, cumin powder, flour, baking soda and mix it well. Roll the mixture into small balls and deep fry them. Stuff the falafel in a flatbread along with lettuce, onions, hot sauce, and yogurt-dill sauce.                                        

                                                 

                                                                 ~Yummy Falafel

                                                              ~ Slightly toasted flatbread

                                 

Yogurt Sauce

Ingredients:
Greek Yogurt – 1 cup
Dill or Mint leaves – 2 tbs (finely chopped)
English Cucumber- ½ (finely chopped or grated)
Garlic Clove  -   1 finely minced
Lemon Juice – ½ tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp (toasted and powdered)
Siracha Sauce - 1 tsp
Salt & Pepper

  

Method:

Mix all the ingredients and refrigerate until ready to serve. 

Here is the Falafel wrapped in a Lavash (Armenian Flatbread).

 

A Quick Evening Treat - Fried Oreos

Ingredients :-
Pancake Mix   - 1 cup
Milk                -  1/2 cup
Vegetable Oil  - 2 tsp
Egg White      -  1/2 egg white
Vanilla Essence - 1/4 tsp
Oreo Cookies

Method:-
           
              Heat oil in a deep frying pan. Mix together the pancake mix, milk, egg, essence and oil in a bowl.

                                                     ~ Make sure there are no lumps in the batter.

                                             ~Dip the Oreo cookies one at a time  and deep fry them in the oil.  Sprinkle some powdered sugar on top before serving.

~This little treat put a big smile on my son's face.

Homemade Coriander Powder

                                             
                                                      ~Homemade Coriander Powder

   
  ~ Dry roast the Coriander seeds in a pan

~Roast the seeds till it become brown

~Powder the seeds in a dry blender

                                   
                                   ~ Freshly ground Coriander powder- Store the powder in an airtight container.

Tofu-Paneer Cutlet

Bought a large pack of Tofu from Costco hoping to make Tofu-Paneer  fritters. But ended up making  cutlets that turned out to be really  good . Kids enjoyed eating them with the ketchup.

Ingredients:-

Paneer/Indian cottage Cheese    – ½ block -7 oz (Nanak Paneer)

Tofu                                          - 2 small blocks – around 9.5 Oz

Green chilies                              - 2  (finely chopped)

Coriander Leaves                      - handful ( finely Chopped)

Coriander seeds                        -  1 tsp crushed

Cumin powder                          - ½ tsp

Chili Powder                             - ½ tsp

Amchur powder                        - ½  tsp

Garam masala                           - ½ tsp       

Salt  

For Dipping & Coating

All Purpose flour/Maida            - 5 tbs

Bread  Crumbs                         - 1 cup

Method:-

    In a wide bowl, make a thick batter of maida by gradually adding water. Spread the bread crumbs on a plate.  Crumble the paneer and tofu and mix it with remaining ingredients. Roll the paneer–tofu mixture into slightly flattened balls. Dip them in the flour batter and make sure it is uniformly coated with the batter.  Then roll them on the bread crumbs. Heat oil in a kadai. Once the oil is heated, deep fry them in medium heat.

Enjoy the cutlets with Ketchup or Chili Sauce.

Sunday Brunch

                             ~ Venpongal, Chutney, Sambhar and Pineapple Kesari - Hotel Arya Bhavan Style

Baked Kale Chips

   My daughter kept on bugging me to make kale chips for long time.  I made kale chips finally last week and  came out  really crunchy . It's definitely a better alternative for the store bought chips. But I would prefer eating kale by sauteing or cook with dals.

~Rinse Kale using a salad spinner

~ Sprinkle little sea salt and pepper

~Drizzle some olive oil and into the oven at 350 degrees.

~Bake for about 10 minutes or until crisp

~ Crunchy Kale Chips

Nattu Vazhakai/Plantain Bajji

Ingredients:-

Nattu Vazhakkai/ Plantain         - 2 small

Gram Flour/ Kadalai Maavu     - 1 cup

Rice flour                                 - 3 tbs

Garlic                                       - 2 cloves (grated)

Baking soda                             -  a pinch

Asafoetida                               -   1/4 tsp

Red Chili powder                    -   1 tsp

Salt                                                    

Oil           for deep frying  

Method:-

Mix the flours, chili powder,  garlic, salt and hing in a wide bowl. Make a thick batter (should stick to the plantain slices) by gradually adding water.  Peel the plantain skin (I prefer to leave some green fiber on top). Slicethe plantain into thin slices using a mandolin or a slicer.  Heat oil in a kadai.  Dip the slices in the batter and deep fry them in the oil.  Make sure you cook the bajji in medium flame to ensure proper cooking.

Enjoy the Bajji’s with coconut chutney.

Lentils and Chicory Greens Soup

Ingredients:

Masoor Dal – ½ cup
Channa Dal – ½ cup
Toor Dal   – ½ cup
Water       -4 cups
Chicory Greens - 1 bunch (cleaned and chopped)
Onion      - 1 (chopped)
Tomato     - 3 (chopped)
Green Chili– 3
Garlic     - 3 cloves
Turmeric   - 1/2 tsp
Lemon Juice– 2 tbs
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Red chili - 2 broken
Clarified butter - 1 tsp
Oil
Hing
Salt

Method:
 
        Pressure cook all the dals along with green chili, garlic and turmeric for one whistle. Meanwhile heat some oil in a large pan. Add cumin and mustard seeds. Once the seeds crackle, add hing and chopped onions. Sauté it until the onion becomes translucent. Add chopped tomatoes and salt. Once the tomatoes become mushy, stir in the chopped chicory greens and sauté it until the leaves are wilted. Reduce the heat and add the mashed dals to the pan. Let it cook for some more time (5-6min) in a medium flame. Stir in lemon juice at the end. Fry the red chili in a tsp of clarified butter and add it to the dal.  Add cracked pepper before your serve.