thayirsaadham

Hey all,

Am still here. Buried under lots of work. Sat down to write a post. Struggled with the words. End result - lots of drafts but no complete post. But I hate to leave the blog un-updated (Is that even a word?). Leaving you with some pictures.

I love fruits. I can have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is how much I eat every week. Please don’t judge me! (My sister does. She feels that I simply mow my way through fruits. My argument is - If I am not eating this, I am going to be eating chips. This is better, right?)

The topmost book there - A Walk in the Woods - please do read it. Extremely hilarious. I love Bill Bryson. The other non-cookbook - The Palace of Illusions - very good read. It takes us through Mahabharata from Draupadi’s point of view and deals with her complicated relationship with each of her 5 husbands and her friendship with Krishna. I really enjoyed this version of Mahabharata.

I love, love reading cookbooks. A quick confession. I own zero cookbooks. I have this fear that once I start, I will never stop buying them. I get mine from the library, extend each book multiple times. This is especially true of any of Peter Reinhart’s books. I must admit that I am totally intimidated by his recipes. I love to read them but scared to try most of them.

I love corn on the cob. It reminds of the many, many, many trips to the beach with friends back in India. And the food - pani puris, bhel puri, molaga bajji (pepper fritters). Let me stop before I end up drooling all over my computer.

I will be back with a recipe soon. You all have a great time and do not forget to send your entries for Global Kadai - Pasta.

Hey all,

Am still here. Just buried under mountains of work. Was also busy with some visitors along the lines of cold, cough and fever. That led me to an unplanned break. I am here for a quick announcement - the May edition of Global Kadai. I know this is very, very late. A huge apology to Cilantro.

Global kadai is an event started by Cliantro .

According to her, “This event will bring the creativity of food bloggers to try different recipes from around the globe giving an Indian twist and thereby creating a new look at Indian Influence on Global Cooking.”

The theme chosen for this month is Pasta.

Image courtesy : http://www.art.com/products/p12296550-sa-i1682166/riccardo-marcialis-pasta-italiana-i.htm

A quick confession. I first had pasta when I was in my first year of college. A bunch of us had gone to this restaurant and a friend of mine, S wanted to order for all us. She had been to the restaurant once before and said she loved the food and knew what we should all try. We all (the idiots that we were) said ok. We were all busy yakking and did not pay attention to what she ordered. Sometime later, there arrived 6 huge platters. All of them looked similar - they were all white in colour and looked creamy. Some of them had noodles and some had some other weird shaped stuff inside. A quick taste revealed one other similarity - none of them had any salt or any kind of spice. You should have seen the look on our faces. We had no idea what these were. We asked S and she used words like lasagna, alfredo sauce and we were like “We should have ordered dosai”. We tried hard to eat it. I mean, we were going to pay good money for that. So we tried. But then, they were really bland. We even tried adding salt, pepper and chilli sauce on those dishes. Nope. Did not help at all. S was the only one to finish her dish. We just kept ours away and I distinctly remember coming home and having a plate of curd rice with spicy pickle. Ah.. the bliss!

After I came to U.S for my Masters, I slowly started having pasta. First at home by adding vegetables and Indian spices to it. Then I started having it outside. I still don’t like alfredo sauce. I think I never recovered from the trauma of that experience. But I have started liking pasta enough to have it atleast once a week.

I love the variety that one can get with pasta - spaghetti, macaroni, fusili, rotini (my favorite). You can add vegetables, meat, eggs to pasta. There are a variety of sauces that accompany pasta like pesto, carbonara and the ubiquitous tomato sauce. My favorite way is to simply cook pasta al dente and add olive oil, garlic and butter (of course) and saute it for sometime. Quick and yummy

Here are the guidelines for participating in Global Kadai:

1. Use your imagination and creativity to prepare the above recipe using ingredients familiar with Indian Cuisine. Post your entries on your blog during the months of May-June 2010.
2. If you already have appropriate entry archived, send it along. There is no limit on the number of entries.
3. Provide a link back to this announcement page and also to Cilantro’s page and feel free to use the logo.
4. Email your entry to indhu.thayirsaadham@gmail.com with following details
* Your Name
* Blog Name
* Blog URL
* Recipe URL
* Photograph of final dish.
5.The deadline for this event is June 20 , 2010.
6.If you don’t have a blog but wish to participate in this event, send your entries with a picture, your name and recipe to indhu.thayirsaadham@gmail.com before the deadline. I will post the recipes with your picture in my blog and include it in the round-up during the last week of June.

Eagerly waiting for your pasta recipes

Hey all,

How was your weekend? I had a really lazy weekend after a long time. I usually cook and do a lot of baking over the weekend. This weekend, I decided to take a break and did next to nothing. Cooked this black chana sambar once and had it multiple times

Do you guys have a “weak hour of the day”? Mine is at around 3 o clock in the afternoon. I start feeling hungry - not ravenous… but hungry enough to want something light. I start squirming in my seat and keep looking at the code but nothing goes in to my head. Our office cafeteria is designed to tempt me to hell and back. They have these really yummy muffins and cakes. But if I eat them everyday, I would require a crane to move in and out of my office. Plus those muffins are too big for a little afternoon snack. But since they are there, I end up finishing them .

I usually pack some fruits and/or granola to work. But sometimes, you want something spicy and the only thing spicy that I get at work is the cheetos from the vending machine. Not a good choice, eh? Plus I hate that my fingers get all orange when I eat that. For a long time now, I have been wanting to make spicy biscuits. I had seen this recipe on RedChillies for savory cookies. As is the norm around here, I was out of one important ingredient to make these - yogurt. I used a little bit of cream cheese (what else?) instead of the yogurt. I also made minor changes in the proportion of ingredients used.

Ingredients

1. All purpose flour - 1.5 cups
2. Unsalted Butter - 4 tbsp (softened)
3. Ginger paste + coriander leaves (chopped finely) + green chillies - 1 tbsp *
4. Cumin seeds (jeera) - 1 tsp
5. Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
6. Cream cheese - 1 tbsp
7. Baking powder - 1 tsp
8. Salt - to taste

Method

1. Sift the flour , baking powder and salt.
2. Add the softened butter, cumin seeds and the ginger-coriander-green chilli paste and knead well to make a soft dough.
3. Add the cream cheese in 1/2 tsp increments and knead it well into the dough. (The idea behind adding it in increments is to stop when you think it is enough. The original recipe used only 1.5 tsp. But I had to use around 1 tbsp to get the texture I wanted)
4. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes - 1 hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 350F.
6. Prepare a baking sheet by laying parchment paper or aluminum foil on top.
7. Pinch off a small portion of the dough and roll it out to a disc of 1/4 inch thick.
8. Cut into preferred shapes.
9. Place the cut shapes onto the cookie sheet and prick each with a fork till the tines pass through. (This is to let steam escape while baking)
10. Bake for around 20-25 minutes. ( The cookies will take on a light golden colour)
11. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack and store in an air tight container.

I really loved having these cookies around to snack on. These were crunchy and not at all heavy - perfect for that 3 p.m snack attack with a cup of coffee/tea.

Hey all,

How have you been? I have been great - swamped with work. But the work is awesome - so am happy . That is the reason I haven’t been around to your blogs. My reader is choking with unread items. But I will clear the backlog soon. I love browsing through the blogs looking at recipes, thinking of ways to adapt them. You get so many ideas and inspirations. And you get to drool all you want.

For quite sometime now, I have been itching to bake a quick bread. I love quick breads. They are quick to make (duh) , require no yeast (hence none of the “Is the water warm enough?” “Hope the yeast has not expired.” “Did I knead enough?” kind of self-doubts). You can play around with ingredients - swap out some yogurt for the sour cream, apple sauce for the butter. As long as the batter tastes good, the outcome is more or less good.

As much as you want to play with the ingredients, in some cases, you want to stick with the original recipe. Like this chocolate-hazelnut swirl bread recipe from TasteofHome. I had all the ingredients in my pantry except for sour cream and hazelnuts. I used walnuts instead of hazelnuts. I wasn’t sure whether to use milk or yogurt for sour cream. While I was contemplating this, I remembered seeing a very similar recipe sometime back in one of the blogs I frequent. A quick search and Bingo! DK of Chefinyou has a similar recipe on her site. I referred her version and saw that she had used yogurt. Problem solved. When an expert says to do something, you do it

Ingredients

Batter

1. Unsalted butter - 1/2 cup (1 stick) - softened *
2. Sugar - 1 cup
3. Eggs - 2 (large)
4. Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
5. All purpose flour - 2 cups
6. Baking powder - 1 tsp
7. Baking soda - 1 tsp
8. Yogurt - 1 cup **

Topping

1. Chocolate chips - 1/3 cup ***
2. Sugar - 3 tbsp ****
3. Finely chopped walnuts - 1/3 cup
4. Cinnamon - 1 tsp

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Butter (or use parchment paper) a 9X5 loaf pan.
3. Mix the dry ingredients (5, 6 and 7 in the batter ingredients) and keep them aside. (I sifted them to get a lighter product)
4. Mix the ingredients for topping and set aside.
5. Cream the butter and sugar till they become fluffy.
6. Add the eggs one by one and beat well after each addition.
7. Add the vanilla extract to the batter.
8. Add the mixed dry ingredients alternately with the yogurt.
9. Pour half the batter into the loaf pan and spread it evenly.
10. Sprinkle around 2/3rd of the topping on the batter and spread it evenly.
11. Pour the remaining half of the batter.
12. Sprinkle the remaining topping over the batter.
13. Pop the loaf pan into the oven and bake for 60-70 minutes. (In my oven, it took 65 minutes. I would suggest you start checking from the 55th minute mark.)
14. Check for doneness with a toothpick inserted in the center.
15. Once done, let it cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes. Then slide it on to a wire rack and cool it thoroughly before slicing it.

This cake tasted awesome. The chocolate chips had melted and you had a nice, gooey and nutty texture right in the middle. I had one problem with this recipe though. I wasn’t able to get clean slices. Even though I had cooled the cake well, it crumbled all over me when I tried to slice it. One reason could be because I went overboard with the topping. I increased the amount of chocolate chips to 1/2 cup and walnuts to a little more than 1/3 cup. I am not sure if that was the reason. If any of you have any good guesses, please mention them in the comments. The next time I make this, I would add some instant coffee to the topping. I am guessing the bitter taste of coffee would go well with the chocolate and walnuts.

Notes

* To soften butter, just place it on the counter for 1-2 hours.
** I used low fat yogurt. But I am guessing fat free or full fat would also work here
*** I used semi-sweet mini chocolate chips. But I might try using bitter sweet the next time. This cake was a bit too sweet for my taste.
**** I used white sugar. But I would definitely go with brown sugar here. Brown sugar works so much better than white sugar as a crumb topping ingredient.

Hey all,

How have you been? Am doing great :).
One rhetorical question - how many of us feel happy for what we have? I was talking to my cousin the other day and we were discussing about this dialogue that came in some movie one of us had watched (How specific is that? ). The dialogue went something like this “I have gas in my car. I have a variety of food to choose from in my refrigerator and if I feel like it, I can always go out and eat. I have clothes to cover my back and I have a roof over my head. Why do I have to feel sad for what I don’t have when I seem to have so much more than what a lot of people have?” After the conversation, I was just thinking about how lucky I am. I do have my fair share of problems. I mean, who doesn’t? So much of our life goes away in dealing with the problems we have that we forget to be thankful for the smaller things in our life. Though this is going to sound like a cliche, I am going to say it - I really am thankful for the spring weather that we are having here. Something about the blue skies makes me happy. I just take a deep breath and settle down on the couch with a good book and a cup of coffee next to me. Another smaller nicer thing happened to me last week. I found one of my favorite t-shirts at the back of my closet which I thought I had lost. It’s a different issue that I am not fitting in that as well as I used to.

Have you ever started cooking with something in mind and then going somewhere else with the recipe? I am sure I am not alone in this. The recipe I have for you today is the result of one such experiment. I started cooking with bisibelebath in my mind. Then I realized I did not have rice. (Cue for applause on my planning skills). So, I decided to make a sabzi for roti instead. Since I was no longer having rice, I wanted to make the meal substantial and added some black chickpeas that I had soaked sometime back. The spice mix that I used is very similar to the one I use for bisibelebath.

Ingredients

1. Black chick peas (soaked and cooked till soft) - 1 cup*
2. Potato - 1 (chopped into bite sized pieces)
3. Onion - 1 (chopped finely)
4. Tomato - 1 (chopped finely)
5. Peas - 1/2 cup
6. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
7. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
8. Oil - 2 tsp
9. Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
10. Salt - to taste

Spice mixture

1. Ghee - 1 tsp **
2. Cinnamon - one 1″ stick
3. Whole black pepper - 1/2 tsp
4. Coriander seeds - 1.5 tsp
5. Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
6. Red chillies - 3-4 ***
7. Cloves - 4
8. Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
9. Coconut - 3-4 Tbsp

Method

1. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan.
2. Add the mustard seeds to the pan. Once the seeds begin to pop, add the cumin seeds.
3. Once the cumin seeds start sizzling, add onions.
4. Fry the onions till they turn translucent.
5. Add tomatoes and add a little water and cook the tomatoes till they turn mushy.
6. Add the potatoes and peas.
7. Add salt and the chilli powder and let the spices mix with the vegetables.
8. Now, add the chickpeas and add around half a cup of water and let the chickpeas cook for around 5-10 minutes.
9. In the meantime, roast the ingredients for spice mixture (except the oil) in the oil and then grind these with a little water into a coarse paste.
10. Add the spice mixture to the mixture in the pan and let it come to a boil.
11. Once it comes to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for around 10-15 minutes.
12. Add water accordingly to get a mixture of the preferred thickness.
13. Adjust for salt and switch off the stove.

Serve with rotis and yoghurt on the side. You could also have this with rice (if you are unlike me and plan well)

Notes

* I usually soak the chickpeas in water for around 8 hours. Then I cook them on the stovetop for around 30 minutes till they are soft but not mushy. They should have a mild bite to them. You could also cook them in the pressure cooker for a couple of whistles.
** You could roast the ingredients for the spice mixture in oil. But please use ghee - an awesome aroma fills the kitchen when you roast it in ghee. You do not want to miss that!
*** Adjust the amount of red chillies in the spice mixture according to your level of spice tolerance. I like mine spicy and I used around 6 red chillies.

Hey all,

I am so tired of saying “I am back” again. So, what happened this time? I switched to another team at my workplace. Had to go through the whole process of preparing for interviews, giving interviews, etc. all over again. Though I am smiling now, it was sooo NOT fun. But I am glad I am done and am really excited about the new team and the work there.

I did very very minimal cooking the past 1 month. Last weekend was my first free weekend in a looong time and what did I do? Yep.. you guessed it right! Slept like Kumbakarna . I also made pancakes, baked some muffins and tried making apple turnovers for the first time. You know what? I was never a fan of apples in baked goods. But I am a changed person now. Loved the apple turnover. I did not take pictures of anything that I cooked - just concentrated on shoveling them into my mouth.

The recipe today is something that I made a long time ago - cream cheese pound cake. A little confession here. I am addicted to cream cheese. I do not like cheese and don’t even like pizza that much. But cream cheese - a totally different story. I have been known to eat enormous amounts of wheat thins with cream cheese. I convince myself I am getting whole grains and protein into my diet. And I always, always make it a point to lick the mixing bowl and spatula clean whenever cream cheese is involved. Okay.. Okay.. I do it whenever any cake batter is involved. But I do a really good job when there is cream cheese.

Coming back to this cake, I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen. I made a few changes - dialed down the sugar, increased the cream cheese (hardly a surprise) and skipped the strawberry coulis because I did not want anything to overshadow the cream cheese. Also, I halved the recipe and baked it in a loaf pan. This is not a low-calorie cake. But I fully believe that indulging in your favorite foods is okay if done in a moderate fashion. As you can see from the above picture, I sliced the cake into thin slices - not that this stopped me from having more than one slice. But I tried.

Ingredients

1. Unsalted Butter - 1 stick *
2. Cream cheese - 1 8 oz package (I used Philadelphia brand of cream cheese)
3. Sugar - 1 cup
4. Eggs (large) - 3
5. All purpose flour - 1.5 cups
6. vanilla extract - 1 tsp
7. Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 325 F.
2. Butter and flour a 9X5 loaf pan.
3. Beat the butter and cream cheese for about 3 minutes - till they are fluffy.
4. Add the sugar and continue beating till the mixture is airy.
5. Add one egg at a time and beat well (for 1 minute) after each addition.
6. Add the vanilla extract.
7. Add the flour and salt and beat just until the flour is incorporated into the batter.
8. Pour the batter in the loaf pan and bake till a toothpick inserted comes out clean. This took around 55-60 minutes for me. **

I loved this cake. Less sugar and more cream cheese made the cake taste more tangy which I just love. Adding some lemon zest or a few drops of lemon juice to the batter would be a great idea.

* Make sure the butter, cream cheese and eggs are at room temperature. I usually keep them out on the counter for 2-3 hours. To get the eggs come to room temperature quickly, just pop them in warm water for a few minutes. Room temperature butter and cream cheese lead to a lighter cake.
** The cake took around 55 minutes to get done. But my oven is kind of cranky and I am hesitant to give an exact number. I would recommend that you start checking after 45 minutes.

Hey all,

I started 3 different posts and all three times, I could not write anything. I am by no means a writer. But this is seriously weird. I cannot get one coherent sentence. So, I am jumping right into the recipe.

Ingredients

1. Beans - 1 cup*
2. Onion - 1 (chopped finely)
3. Garlic - 1 clove**
4. Tomato - 2 (chopped)
5. Potato - 1 (chopped)
6. Green beans - 1/2 cup
7. Carrot - 1 (chopped)
8. Spinach - 1 cup
9. Pasta - 1/2 cup***
10. vegetable stock or water - 2-3 cups
11. Olive oil - 1 tbsp
12. Oregano - 1 tsp
13. Salt - to taste
14. Pepper - to taste

Method

Preparing the beans

a. Soak the beans in water overnight.
b. Drain the beans.
c. Bring water to a boil in a large vessel.
d. Add the beans and let them cook on medium heat for around 30-45 minutes. (The amount of time depends on the type of beans. You want the beans to be cooked well.)
e. Around halfway through the cooking time, add some salt to the beans so that it gets incorporated and the beans don’t end up bland.
f. Once the beans are cooked, drain them and keep aside to be used in the soup.

Soup

1. Take a heavy bottomed pan and add the oil to it.
2. Add garlic and saute a little bit and make sure the garlic does not burn.
3. Add the onions and the tomato and saute till the tomato breaks down. You can add salt at this point.
4. Add the potato, carrots, green beans and let everything cook for 5 minutes.
5. Add the vegetable stock / water.
6. Add the oregano.
7. Close the pot and let the soup simmer for 10-15 minutes.
8. Add the beans and let it simmer for around 10 minutes.
9. Now, add the dry pasta and let it cook for the amount of time specified on the pasta box.
10. When there is 5 minutes left for the pasta to finish cooking, add the spinach to the soup.
11. Let everything simmer for another 5 minutes.
12. Add salt and pepper according to taste and we are done.

I started this soup with no idea of what was going to be in it - hence the name. I was sure only about the spices - I was going to add only oregano, salt and pepper. A lot of the soups I make, I add a bunch of spices and the taste of the beans and vegetables gets overpowered by the spices.

I am sending this soup over to Usha’s Healthy Inspirations Event - Soup.

* I used a mix of kidney beans and pinto beans
** This was the first time I used garlic in cooking. I wanted to start slow and hence used 1 clove. Use according to your taste.
*** I used rigatoni because that is what I had. You can use any kind you have or you can skip it totally.

Hey all,

When I was young, I used to read a lot of books by Enid Blyton. Famous Five, Secret Seven, St.Clare’s, Malory Towers. I loved them all. I was particularly enamored by the Famous Five series. These kids had their own island for crying out loud. And oh boy! The adventures they had in those books. The closest I have ever come to an adventure is when my dad and I would try to steal the cashew nuts from under my mother’s really really sharp eyes and nose. She hates it when she runs out of cashews when she is about to make a payasam and finds out that we have simply eaten all the cashews. Hell hath no fury like a woman who finds out she is out of cashews.

But I digress. The main reason for my craze with that series - the food! The English sure know how to eat - scones, clotted cream, shortbread, ginger beer, icecreams… I could go on and on. Except for ice creams, I had no idea how the rest would taste or even look. Unlike now, there was no way to go online and look for images for these food items. (Typing that makes me feel old. Do kids nowadays realize how blessed they are with internet? ). I somehow knew all these would taste awesome. Up until recently, I thought shortbread was something similar to a bread - maybe smaller in size. Literal? yeah… that’s me. According to Wikipedia,

“Shortbread is so named because of its crumbly texture (from an old meaning of the word short). The cause of this texture is its high fat content, provided by the butter.”

The mention of butter sold me. I looked for shortbread recipes and I found the recipe for espresso-chocolate chip shortbread in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home To Yours . I made minor changes to the recipe.

* I did not add espresso powder as I did not want to make this with the coffee flavor the first time. But the next time I bake this (oh yeah.. there will be a next time), I will add the espresso powder.
* Also, I did not have any mini chocolate chips and hence added regular chips. But I would suggest going with the mini chips. You need to roll the dough and then cut it into squares. Mini chips will make it easier while rolling and while cutting. Otherwise, the square boundaries might span the area of a chip and it gets messy. Not a huge problem. But just wanted to give a heads-up.

The recipe says you can get 32 cookies. I got around 40 cookies. I guess I rolled my dough a little thinner than instructed.

Rolled out cookie dough

Ingredients

1. Instant espresso powder - 1 tablespoon ( I skipped this)
2. Boiling water - 1 tablespoon (I skipped this)
3. Unsalted butter - 2 sticks (8 ounces) (at room temperature)
4. Confectioners’ sugar - 2/3 cup
5. Pure vanilla extract - 1/2 teaspoon
6. All-purpose flour - 2 cups
7. 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (plain, or a toffee variety), finely chopped, or 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
8. Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional - I did not use this)

Method
1. Dissolve the espresso in the boiling water, and set aside to cool to tepid.
2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and confectioners’ sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in the vanilla and espresso, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it disappears into the dough. Don’t work the dough much once the flour is incorporated. Fold in the chopped chocolate with a sturdy rubber spatula.
3. Using the spatula, transfer the soft, sticky dough to a gallon-size zipper-lock plastic bag. Put the bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and roll the dough into a 9 x 10 1/2 inch rectangle that’s 1/4 inch thick. As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough so it doesn’t cause creases. When you get the right size and thickness, seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, or for up to 2 days.
4. Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
5. Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open. Turn the firm dough out onto the board (discard the bag) and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1 1/2-inch squares. Transfer the squares to the baking sheets and carefully prick each one twice with a fork, gently pushing the tines through the cookies until they hit the sheet.
6. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. The shortbreads will be very pale–they shouldn’t take on much color. Transfer the cookies to a rack.
7. If you’d like, dust the cookies with confectioners’ sugar while they are still hot. Cool the cookies to room temperature before serving.

Shortbread before baking

These cookies taste awesome and are really easy to make. They are crumbly and they just melt in your mouth. All that butter helps. These keep well at room temperature in an air-tight container.And the rolling technique? So cool. I am actually thinking of doing it for my other cookies as it makes for really pretty even cookies. Usually my cookies are all of different sizes since I do not have a cookie scoop and I just end up plopping different sizes on the cookie sheet. I console myself by calling it the rustic look .

I am sending these shortbread cookies to Mahimaa’s Contribute Your Recipes Event - Cakes and Cookies.

Hey all,

Happy New Year to all.

A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other. ~Author Unknown

Do you have any resolutions for the new year? For a long time, I never made any new year resolutions. I was under the impression that I was perfect :). As I grew older (and hopefully, wiser), I realized I am not. So, I started having some resolutions - losing weight, eating healthy, etc. I feel that I am now at a comfortable weight. But I am not toned (not even close). You can pinch me almost anywhere and you will find flab. One of my resolutions is to start strength training. I want to reduce my body fat percentage. All I have done so far is to read up on strength training :). My other resolution (and the toughest for me) is to wake up early. I have lost track of the number of times I have tried to wake up early. The snooze button on the alarm clock is out to get me. I always find myself trying to do too many things and having to forgo some due to lack of time. I am aware that the issue is not lack of time but poor time management skills. My mother used to tell me that I need an alarm clock that would pour a cup of icy water on my head if I don’t wake up when it rings. If someone invents that, I think my mother will be the first one to order .

Eating healthy will figure on the list of resolutions for most of us. So, I thought I will start the new year with a healthy, easy and yummy recipe - granola. Granola is chock-full of healthy ingredients - oats, nuts, dried fruits. It also has a sweetener like honey or maple syrup. There are tons of recipes available for granola. Some people like it without nuts, some like it mildly sweet, etc. I have given my adaptation below. Feel free to tweak the recipe for your palate. I have also given some variations on this recipe at the end of the post. (I have included some step-by-step pictures for this post. This recipe is too simple to justify this . But I am just learning to take better pictures and I always feel that more pictures help in understanding the recipe better. Hopefully, I will be able to include better step-by-step pictures.)

Ingredients

1. Oats - 2 cups
2. Wheat germ - 1/2 cup
3. Sunflower seeds - 1/2 cup
4. Coconut flakes (sweetened or unsweetened) - 1/2 cup
5. Cinnamon - 1 tsp
6. A combination of almonds, pistachios, cahsews, walnuts or any other nuts of your choice - 1 cup
7. Honey - 1/8 cup
8. Maple syrup - 1/8 cup
9. Brown sugar - 1/4 cup
10. Olive oil - 1/8 cup
11. Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
12. A combination of dried fruits (cranberries, raisins, blueberries, etc) - 1 cup

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 300 F.
2. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and grease the foil. (I used a non-stick spray for this)
3. Mix the dry ingredients (1-5) in a bowl.

4. Add the nuts to the bowl. I used a combination of almonds, cashews, pistachios and walnuts. Use whatever you feel like.

4. Add the oil and brown sugar in a saucepan set on low heat.
5. After 1 minute, add the honey, maple syrup and vanilla extract.
6. Let it mix for 1 minute. (As you can see in the picture below, I forgot the oil - not in the recipe, just in the picture )

7. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and toss to coat well. (I use my hands to do the mixing. I feel it does a better job than a spatula)

8. Spread this on the baking sheet and pop into the oven for around 45 minutes.
9. Every 15 minutes, just stir the mixture on the baking sheet to ensure even baking.
10. The granola will turn golden brown as it bakes. You can pull it out at this stage. Even if it feels moist, it is ok. It will dry out as it cools.
11. Once the granola has completely cooled down, mix the dried fruits and store it in an air-tight container. ( I used raisins and cranberries) (Granola keeps very well at room temperature)

Some ways to have granola

1. With milk as your cereal
2. With yogurt and fresh fruits
3. Just grab a handful and eat it as a light snack (My favorite)
4. Make a crisp with your favorite fruit and use this granola as the topping. I have not tried this one but I am gonna

Some variations for the ingredients

1. You can use chocolate chips and/or M&M’s to the cooled granola.
2. I used a variety of sweeteners because I like the combination. You can cut out any of the sweeteners and make it for your sweet tooth. Alternatively, you can use other sweeteners like molasses, brown rice syrup.
3. Experiment with other whole grains. I am considering a version made with spelt. Not sure how it will turn out though. Will update with results.

Also, please do let me know if you would like to see more recipes with step-by-step pictures from me.

As you can see for yourselves, homemade granola is ridiculously easy to make. Mix everything and pop into the oven. That is all there is to it. It lends itself to a lot of tweaks and variations. Really, there is no excuse to not try this. Go on then. Start the new year on a healthy note. Once again, Happy New Year

Hey all,

I am back (hopefully, this time to stay). Lots of reasons for my absence - the usual ones like work, moving apartments, laziness, etc. Also, somewhere along the way, I started feeling some kind of pressure if I did not post. The more I felt the pressure, the more I stayed away from posting. I think I forgot the reason why I started this blog. I did this because I love cooking and I love sharing it with others. I don’t know how to explain it exactly… But I am sure all of you must have felt it… a kind of happiness when someone says they tried your recipe and it came out good or when someone tries your recipe, changes some ingredients and posts about it. When I have questions on some recipes as to why they did not turn out as well as I hoped, you guys are always ready with your opinions and suggestions. I love that. I started missing these exchanges and that is when I realized I wanted to blog again

So, what was I up to the last few weeks? As I mentioned before, work took up a major part of it. I am working on a new project and loving it. It is very interesting and daunting at the same time. Also, I moved apartments. Twice! Within 3 weeks. The apartment that I moved into first was good in all aspects except for the fact that I could hear my upstairs neighbor breathe. (I should mention that some of my friends would say I am the queen of exaggeration). Seriously, the walls were so thin that I could hear EVERY SINGLE THING. And, they had kids - who would always wake up early on weekends and run around. I decided nothing was going to come between me and my sleep. After all, I am Kumbakarni. I have a reputation. So, I moved again and the place I am currently in is awesome. Oh… I have to share this. I baked a cheesecake. Two, in fact. A plain one and a chocolate one. I baked them for a party at work. I loved them, especially the plain one. The chocolate one was good too. But I felt that the chocolate completely overwhelmed the cheesecake flavor. I am definitely baking the plain one again.

Today, I have a very simple biscotti recipe. I love to have something to munch on when I am having my evening coffee/tea. Back home, my father used to always have his coffee with murukku/thattai or the Marie/Parle-G biscuits that we get in India. I think I got this habit from him.

Biscotti are twice-baked cookies, often containing nuts or spices. I have made the plain version before. I just added some chocolate chips this time. The basic recipe is from King Arthur Flour website. I did not change it much except to add some chocolate chips and cinnamon. I have no idea why I added cinnamon. My hand simply reaches for that spice and I add it to almost every thing I bake.

Ingredients

1. Butter - 6 tablespoons
2. Sugar - 2/3 cup
3. Salt - 1/4 tsp
4. Vanilla extract - 1 to 2 tsp
5. Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp
6. Eggs - 2 large
7. All-Purpose Flour - 2 cups
8. Chocolate chips - 1/2-3/4 cup
9. Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) one large (about 18″ x 13″) baking sheet.
2. Beat the sugar, butter, vanilla extract, sugar and salt till the mixture is creamy.
3. Add 1 egg at a time and beat well after the addition of each egg.
4. Whisk together the flour, cinnamon and baking powder.
5. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix until the flour is incorporated.
6. Add the chocolate chips to the mixture.
7. Now, drop the dough on a greased baking sheet and shape it into a log 14″ long x 2 ½” wide x ¾” thick.
8. Bake the log for 25 minutes.
9. Remove it from the oven and let it cool for 20-25 minutes.
10. In the meantime, reduce the oven temperature to 325 F.
11. Now, cut the log into slices.
12. Place the slices on the baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes.(Take them out when the biscotti are just starting to brown at the edges. They will dry and get crisper while they are cooling. )

Just some things to remember while making biscotti.
1. While shaping the log, you can use a wet spatula or wet your hands and use them. This helps in working with the sticky dough.
2. When cutting the biscotti, try to use a serrated knife. This helps is getting clean slices.
3. A lot of people specify that spraying the once baked log with water will help in cutting without the log crumbling. I have not faced this problem and so did not spray with water. But please follow it if you find your log crumbling. Also, waiting till they are really cool will also help with in getting clean slices.

The one problem I had was that my log spread while baking for the first time. I think it was because I used too much water while shaping it. But it did not affect the taste or the ability to get clean slices. I would love to know the reason behind this though. Also, don’t worry too much about the measurements they have specified for the log. I can never get it to 14″ long. I just try my best in getting a rectangular shape with a decent amount of thickness.

You can add chocolate chips, pistachios, cranberries, etc. Anything goes, really. The King arthur flour website gives a list of additions.