thayirsaadham

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,

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,

How you doing? (To be read in a tone similar to the one used by Joey in Friends). By the way, how many of you have watched Friends again and again and again? I know 99% of the dialogues by now and I am working on getting it upto a 100%. Wish me luck

I know I have been late in posting this. I really wanted to post this long back - just did not get the time. I joined a swimming class at the gym. So if any of you see a person wearing senthil trousers (I am sorry but I cannot explain that to the non-tamizh audience ) trying haaaaaard to stay afloat, please say a hi and send some prayers my way. I went to the gym today morning to practice and I was doing fine upto a depth of 6 feet. As soon as I realized I was swimming in waters with a depth of more than 6 feet, what did I do? I did the exact opposite of what I was supposed to do. I panicked! Instead of continuing to swim, I completely stopped moving my legs and sank like a bag of potatoes. Drank a lot of water and came back up sputtering and coughing. Not a pretty sight!

On to today’s recipe, I have been seeing a lot of cake and quick bread recipes with zucchini in them. I am sure a lot of you had the same question as me - a vegetable in a cake? I know there are carrot cakes. But somehow, zucchini seems a lttle weird. I finally decided to try one. I wanted to go for a plain zucchini bread. But I chickened out and made a chocolate version hoping it would mask the taste of the zucchini. Maybe I will try a plain version the next time. The basic recipe is from ClosetCooking. I modified it a little bit using the ingredients available in my pantry.

Ingredients

1. All purpose flour - 1 cup
2. Whole wheat flour - 1 1/4 cups
3. Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
4. Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
5. Cocoa powder - 1/4 cup (I used Hersheys unsweetened chocolate powder)
6. Cinnamon - 1 tsp ( I added 2 tsp because I love cinnamon)
7. Grated zucchini - 1.5 cups
8. Brown sugar - 3/4 cup
9. Honey - 1/4 cup
10. Oil - 1/4 cup
11. Vanilla yogurt - 3/4 cup (I used low fat)
12. Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
13. Egg whites - 2 (lightly beaten)
14. Walnuts - 1/2 cup (cut into little pieces)
15. Chocolate chips - 1/2 cup

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F
2. Mix the dry ingrdients (1 to 6) together.
3. Mix the wet ingredients (7 to 13) together.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
5. Fold in the nuts and chocolate chips. You can also omit the chocolate chips but please don’t. Once they melt in the oven, they give such a yummy taste and awesome texture to the bread.
6. Pour the batter into a greased 9X5 inch loaf pan.
7. Let it bake for 45-50 minutes. (I checked mine after 35 minutes and kept an eye on the bread.) Check for doneness and remove the bread from the oven.
8. Let it cool on the pan for 10 minutes.
9. After 10 minutes, remove the bread from the pan and let it cool on the wire rack.
10. Once it is completely cooled, slice and eat or store it in the refrigerator.

This bread is not too sweet. That is the way I like it. But if you want it to be sweeter, increase the sugar or the honey. Entirely upto you.

This bread tasted much better the next day. I read somewhere that whole grain breads taste better when you leave them overnight. Is that true? I popped it in the refrigerator and when I wanted to eat it, I let it sit on the counter for 15-20 minutes and zapped it in the microwave for around 15 seconds. Good to go

Hey all,

Having a major writer’s block. It is not like I can rival J.K Rowling with my writing skills. (By the way, I have started reading Harry Potter… again… and sooo loving it! I can almost feel myself reaching for my (non-existent) wand at times to do spells ). I don’t like going to the recipe directly.. seems bleh. But that’s kinda what I am going to do today.

Sundal is a dry snack made with pulses and legumes. This is pretty famous in South India during Navarathiri - the 9 day festival. I remember my mother making 9 different kinds of sundal - one for each day. The one made with chickpeas is my favourite. It has a slight crunch from the chickpeas and coconut. The spices used are very minimal - just some mustard, urad dhal and asafoetida. This is a simple wholesome snack and we can get our protein fix from the chickpeas.

Ingredients

1. Chickpeas - 2 cups
2. Olive oil - 2 tsp
3. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
4. Urad dhal - 2 tsp
5. Red chillies - 3 (Adjust according to your preference)
6. Salt - according to taste
7. Coconut (grated) - 1/4 cup
8. Curry leaves - 5-8
9. Asafoetida - a pinch

Recipe

1. Wash and soak the chickpeas overnight. Then pressure cook them for 2 whistles. You can also use canned chickpeas. In that case, proceed to step 2.
2. Add the oil to a pan and splutter mustard seeds. Add urad dhal and once they start turning light brown, add the red chillies.
3. Saute for around 30 seconds till the red chillies turn darker.
4. Add the curry leaves and asafoetida. Saute till the curry leaves become dry - around a minute.
5. Add the chickpeas and salt and mix everything. Let this cook for 3-4 minutes. Since the chickpeas have already been cooked, we only need to wait till everything is mixed well.
6. Add the coconut and saute for 2-3 minutes.
7. Adjust for taste and we are done.

Wasn’t that simple? This is one of the quickest dishes you can make and is very healthy. If you have the chickpeas ready (soaked and pressure-cooked or canned), this dish doesn’t take more than 10 minutes. So, off it goes to Mahimaa’s 15 minute cooking event. I am very eager to see the round up for that event … as I am sure all of you are. I am always looking for quick-fix recipes and the idea of getting dinner ready in 15 minutes is so enticing .

I just realized that for a person with writer’s block, I have rambled on. Ah..well… if only self-control was easier

Hey all…

If you haven’t noticed, I changed my site’s layout. The old one (if you can call it a layout) looked…how do I put it… UGLY!!! I have been meaning to change it for a looooooong time… but was just plain lazy to do it. I was thinking that I will develop the site on my laptop, perfect it and then publish it. Ha! FAT chance of that ever happening. I am the queen of procrastination. So, I decided to publish what I have and then work on it. The first thing I need to do is work on my recipe index. I am having some issues tailoring it to suit the new theme. Now, I need to find someone to give me a swift kick in the b*** if I don’t update the site with the features. I am relying on you guys for a virtual kick .

Coming to today’s recipe, I wanted to use oat bran in some recipe. Let me digress here and say something that I am sure a lot of you would agree with. One of the main benefits of blogging and having this network of foodies is the increased awareness about eating healthy. My knowledge on healthy diet was very minimal. I mean… I knew that fruits and vegetables were good for health, too much of rice was bad… you get the idea. Browsing through the food blogs, I gained so much knowledge on which food has what nutrients, how to substitute for a not-so-healthy ingredient with a healthy alternative… the list is endless. Healthy eating is no longer a struggle. I look forward with pleasure to my breakfast of oatmeal every morning - tasty and healthy.

So, coming back to the recipe before you guys start grinding your teeth, I got some oat bran from Whole Foods and was looking for some recipe with it. For people who are not familiar with oat bran, it is the outer casing of the oat kernel. It is an excellent food for people with high cholesterol levels. It is very effective in bringing down the level of LDL or the “bad” cholesterol. You can use oat bran in a variety of dishes. You can toast some oat bran and top your morning cereal with it. You can add it to smoothies. You can make cakes, breads,etc using oat bran. I made a coffeecake with oat bran. I found the recipe on wholegraingourmet. I changed the recipe to suit my taste and the contents of my pantry. I have mentioned my recipe below. You can refer to the link I have provided for the original recipe.

Ingredients

1. Oat bran - 1 cup
2. Whole wheat pastry flour - 1/2 cup
3. All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
4. Brown sugar - 1/4 cup
5. Baking Powder - 2 tsp
6. Organic Fat-free milk - 1 cup
7. Egg whites - 2
8. Honey - 1/4 cup
9. Vegetable oil - 2 tbsp
10. Cinnamon -1 tsp
11. vanilla extract - 1 tsp
12. Blueberries - according to your taste
13. A combination of your choice of nuts - almonds, pecans, walnuts, cashews.

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. Mix the dry ingredients (oat bran, whole wheat pastry flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, cinnamon) and set aside.
3. Mix the wet ingredients (egg whites, honey, vanilla extract, milk, oil)
4. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix. Do not overmix.
5. Gently fold in the blueberries and nuts.
6. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray (or grease with butter) and pour the mixture into the dish and slide it into the oven.
7. Let it bake for 30-35 minutes. (I had to bake mine for 40 minutes. So, please adjust according to your oven)
8. Check for done’ness with a toothpick or a fork.

The changes I made to the original recipe are as follows
* The original recipe mentions the use of 2 cups oat bran. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. So, I used 1 cup of oat bran, 1/2 cup of whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 cup of all purpose flour.
* I did not add banana to my cake as I did not have any banana.
* I added a tsp of vanilla extract to the wet ingredients for the flavor.
* The original recipe says to use a square baking dish and not a loaf pan. I don’t know why. I used a 8X8 baking pan and got 16 squares.

This cake made for a wonderful combination with coffee. Some days, I paired it with fresh fruits and it made for a very filling and healthy breakfast. This cake is not very sweet as I don’t like my breakfast to be overly sweet. You can increase the amount of brown sugar or honey to suit your taste. Or drizzle some maple syrup on top for your breakfast. Dig in to this healthy cake without any guilt

Yup! Finally, I baked my first bread. I have baked brownies and cakes before. But this was the first bread with yeast

Baking a good bread improves the mood a lot… or it could be because of the weather in Seattle last weekend. It was GORGEOUS! I went to the Green lake park in Seattle (Got stuck in horrible traffic on the way. But nothing could have made me stay indoors that day) . Everyone was outside with their kids and dogs. It was so damn nice to see so many happy faces

Before I start the recipe, many thanks to Varsha and AnuDivya for clearing my really stupid questions .

I tried once before and the yeast did not froth at all. As expected, the end result was a spectacular disaster. I threw it out. Later, I learnt that the water was too hot and it killed the yeast. This time too, the yeast did not froth in the beginning. I almost gave up. Then I tried warming the water for another 20 seconds. That helped and the yeast became all frothy. It was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen. Actually, when the dough doubled, that was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen - apart from Surya in vaaranam aayiram .

Anyways, let me stop waxing eloquent and take you to the recipe. Very simple one for all the expert bakers out there. This is for beginners like me

Ingredients

1. 2.5 cups bread flour (I used King Arthur)
2. 1 packet yeast (I used fleischmann active dry yeast)
3. salt - 1 tsp
4. sugar - 2 tsp
5. honey - 1/8 cup (1/8 cup = 4tbsp)
6. olive oil - 1/8 cup
7. milk - 1/4 cup
8. water - 1/4 cup

Recipe
1. Warm the water for around 20 seconds in the microwave.
2. Add the yeast and sugar to it. Set aside to froth. This will take around 10-15 minutes.
3. Now, add salt, honey, oil and milk to the yeast mixture and combine everything in a big bowl.
4. Add the flour to this and mix with a spatula till you get a sticky mass. Now, its time to knead
5. Knead the bread till it becomes smooth. Depending on your arm strength, this takes anywhere from 8-20 minutes. (I was very slow and it took me around 25 minutes. I was so paranoid about this step that I searched online for kneading tips. I found a nice video and followed it. I have the link in the notes section at the end. It also tells you how to find out if your dough has been kneaded enough)
6. Take a large oiled bowl and place the dough inside it and flip so that the dough gets coated with oil.
7. Cover this with a damp cloth or a thin plastic wrap and let it sit in a warm place till the dough doubles. This should take around 1-2 hrs.(I put mine in the oven with the light on and I left it for around 3 hours. I was supposed to take it out after an hour. But I went out and kind of forgot! )
8. Take the dough (aaah… looks beautiful… tough competition Surya) and punch it down to release the air bubbles.
9. Place parchment paper in a loaf pan and shape the dough and place it inside the pan.
10. Place it back in the oven. Let it rise till the dough comes to about an inch over the pan. This should take around an hour.
11. Now, take the dough out of the oven.
12. Preheat the oven to 350F.
13. Place the dough. Let it bake for around 35-40 minutes. It is done when it sounds hollow when you tap it.
14. Tada! We are done. Not quite… Take it out of the oven. Let it cool and then cut a slice. Slather some Nutella on the slice. Take a bite and slip sloooooowly into heaven

Notes

1. I microwaved the water for 20 seconds first. The yeast did not froth that well. So I again microwaved for 20 more seconds. That seemed to work. It depends on the power of your microwave. If the yeast doesn’t froth up at all, it has probably expired.
2. This is the video that I watched to learn how to knead the dough - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWj8oHMPFm0
3. Adding sugar is optional. I read somewhere that sugar helps in activating the yeast. So I used that. You can also skip it.

I did not add anything to the bread like herbs, cheese, nuts, etc. Was too scared to experiment this time. I did add some sunflower seeds on top of the dough. Will definitely try something with flavour the next time.

Oats - my latest addiction
I am relatively new to cooking and I discovered the goodness of oats through the food blogs. I am so glad. I am totally in love with oats and can have it all the time. It can be incorporated in so many recipes - cakes, cookies, dosai, upma, idly, granola bars, etc. I guess that’s enough from me

This is a very simple recipe and is very apt for breakfast. It is very filling and keeps me from reaching for any munchies before lunch. I feel kind of embarrassed to give a recipe for this as it is too simple to warrant a post. But then, I am in love. So, here goes

Ingredients

1. Old fashioned oats - 1 cup
2. Milk - 1 cup
3. Ground Cinnamon - 1/4 tsp
4. vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp
5. brown sugar - 1 tsp (you can also use white sugar)
6. grapes - a handful
7. almonds - a handful
8. raisins - 1 tbsp

Method

1. Add the oats and milk to a bowl.
2. Add brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract to the mixture.
3. Heat it for around 3 minutes. (You might want to alter this time based on your microwave)
4. Meanwhile, toast the almonds and cashew nuts on a pan.
5. Once the oatmeal is done to your liking, add the toasted nuts, raisins and grapes.
6. Dig in

You can add add other fruits like grapefruit, strawberries, banana, etc. You can also add honey instead of sugar and use whatever nuts you feel like. I just had almonds and cashews with me. Basically, just experiment.

Yasmeen of HealthNut has passed this lovely award that she designed herself. Thank you Yasmeen