Veg Moussaka

I adapted the recipe from http://arundati.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/moussaka-not-quite. It was truly yummy. If only I had a 8x8 baking dish, I would have had great pictures to post too.

I did make a few changes - I did not add the pasta as was suggested and I made the belchamel sauce a tad bit differently. However, I prefer plain belchamel sauce - made up of maida, butter n milk.

Ingredients

1. 12 thick slices of potato

2. 1 large brinjal cut into 1/4 inch thick slices

3. 2 tbsp oil

For the soya layer which replaces minced meat

3. 1 1/2 cup soya granules soaked in boiling hot water

4. 1 1/2 cup tomota puree

5. 1 large onion finely chopped

6. 1/2 capsicum finely chopped - I had this left over from the sandwiches that I made earlier in the week

6. 8 pods of garlic - I used the large variety which are considered more pungent

7. 1 tsp red chilli powder

8. 1 cinnamon stick

9. 1/2 tsp cumin/jeera powder

10. salt to taste

11. 1 tsp oil

For the belchamel sauce

12. 1 tbsp butter

13. 2 tbsp maida

14. 1 1/2 cups milk

15. 1 cup grated cheddar cheese

16. salt to taste - be careful as the cheese and butter are salted generally.

17. pepper to taste

How to make...

1. In a wide pan, heat the 2tbsp of oil. Lay the potato slices and fry till they are 3/4th done on both sides.

2. While the potato is getting done, you can salt and keep the brinjal slices aside so that any bitterness will be removed.

3. Once the potato is 3/4th done, remove and place on paper towels to drain. Fry the brinjal slices in a similar fashion till done. Remove on kitchen towels to drain.

4. In the same pan, add a little more oil. Put in the cinnamon stick. Fry the onions and capsicum till onions are translucent. Add the chilli and cumin powders. Add the soya, after draining all the water. Fry the soya for a minute. Next add the tomato puree. Adjust salt. Fry this till almost dry.

5. In another pan, melt butter. Fry the maida till fragrant. Add warm milk, whisking throughout to make sure there are no lumps. Add pepper, cheese and salt(with care). Once it reaches a sauce like consistency, take off from fire.

6. Now to assemble the whole thing together. Place the potato pieces at the bottom of an oven proof pan. Place the brinjal slices on the top of that. Layer with the soya granules. Now pour over the belchamel sauce. Bake for 30minutes in a pre-heated over at 180 degree C.

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Sakkarai Pongal

My sweet tooth got the better of me yesterday and I made sakkarai pongal, which is very simple and easy.

Ingredients :

Rice 1/2 cup

Yellow mung dal - 1/2 cup - dry roasted till fragrant

jaggery - 1/2 cup powdered

coconut milk - 1/2 cup

cashewnuts - a handful - dry roasted

almonds - sliced and dry roasted - a few

water - 2 cups

milk - 1/2 cup

ghee - 4 tbsps

How I made it :

1. Soak the rice and mung dal for about 30 minutes

2. Cook the rice and mung dal with 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of milk - slightly overcook them.

3. Mash the rice and mung dal with a masher or the back of a ladle.

4. Add the jaggery.

5. Once the jaggery melts and mixes in, add the coconut milk.

6. Add ghee. You could fry the nuts in the ghee before adding.

7. Decorate with the nuts and serve.

Tastes best cold. Add elaichi/cardomom pods if you like the taste of those. My hubby detests it like crazy. We constantly argue about this.

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Mom's pudina chutney

You will need

1 bunch of pudina/mint

1/2 bunch of coriander leaves

1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 medium onion chopped

4-5 green chillies

4-5 cloves of garlic

1 inch ginger

Salt to taste

Grind all these together, adding as little water as possible. Goes well with Parathas and can be used for chutney sandwiches. Sometimes, I do add this to the biryani masala.

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Chutney sandwiches - interesting sandwiches part II

I love my mom's pudina chutney. One very simple and easy sandwich would be the chutney sandwich. It is an ideal picnic option.

You will need :

2 slices of bread

1 stick of butter

1 tsp of pudina chutney

Method :

Spread the butter on one slice of bread.

Spread the pudina chutney on the other slice.

Place the slices of bread over one another. Go ahead and eat!!!

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Interesting sandwiches

I almost always experiment with the vegetables that I buy. This time it was with Capsicum. I totally love this vegetable, once liked only on Pizzas.

I bought some eggless mayonnaise from the store nearby and sandwiches it is for breakfast the next morning.

Ingredients :

1 medium sized capsicum chopped finely

1 small sized onion chopped finely

1 carrot grated

2 green chillies finely chopped

2 tsp pepper powder

6tbsp eggless mayonnaise

4 slices of bread

Method:

Spread approx 3 tbsp of mayo on one slice of bread. Sprinkle green chillies, capsicum, onion, carrot and pepper over the mayo. Place the other slice of bread over this. Repeat this with the other 2 slices of bread. Toast/grill and enjoy with tomato ketchup.

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Banana cake

Jyothi Madanlal January 28 at 9:40am

I adapted the recipe fromhttp://www.cookingandme.com/2011/01/best-banana-cake-recipe-ever-with-cream.html

Ingredients:
1 cup wheat flour
2 large ripe bananas mashed
3/4 cup powdered jaggery
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts dusted with flour to prevent them from sinking in the cake(did not have these that day)
1/4 cup oil/melted butter
1 egg
A pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
Milk - as needed to get the correct batter consistency

How i made it:
Prepare baking tin - line with butter paper or spread butter and dust with flour.
Preheat oven at 180 degree C
Mix together all the dry ingredients - wheat flour/baking powder/baking soda/salt.
Whisk together the banana/butter/jaggery/egg. Add the vanilla essence.
Fold in dry ingredients into the wet. Add the walnuts
Pour into the cake tin and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Milk will be required if the consistency is too lumpy/thick

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Honey Garlic Grilled Eggplant

I adapted the recipe from http://www .beyondsalmon.com/2006/09/honey-garlic-grilled-eggplant.html.

Ingredients :

1 large eggplant/aubergine/brinjal

4 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp of vegetable oil

1 tbsp of honey

1 tbsp of white vinegar

2-3 drops of dark soy sauce

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

How I made it:

• Cut the brinjal into rounds, about .5cm thick each
• Smear some salt on either side and leave aside for 15 minutes
• Pat dry the rounds and keep aside
• Mix together the remaining ingredients in a bowl
• Graciously dip the rounds in this marinade and grill/cook on a tawa both sides of the rounds till golden. This was truly delicious. Loved the sweetness of the honey and the sharpness of the garlic.

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My version of Bharwan Karele ;)

Well, Pras loves his Karela. However, he loves them the south-indian way - with the skin not peeled and only the hard seeds removed, as a poriyal. I had other things on my mind when I picked up these tiny baby karelas from the store last week - yes, Bharwan Karela. ;)

I got home on Friday evening with plans of making this dish but had a customer feedback session by 6:30pm and I was sure that I would not be able to make the dish in time. Fortunately, Pras and I had a fight and we both went to bed hungry ;) Come Saturday morning and I was all set to make the dish.
It turned out real good that things were back to normal between Pras and me... So,here's how I made it :)

You will need :
Baby Karelas - 5 (preferrably soaked in salted water for a few hours)
Onions - 1 medium sized chopped finely
Tomatoes - 3 pureed
Garlic pods - 3 crushed
Garam masala powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Red chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Oil - 3 table spoons

For the stuffing :
Besan/Gram flour - 1 cup
Red chilli powder - 3/4 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Coriander powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin powder - 1 teaspoon
Garam masala powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Onion - 1/2 finely chopped
Water - to bind into loose lumps
Salt to taste

Method :
1. Scrape the skin of the karelas. Slit the karelas lengthwise - make sure that you don't go all the way through. Scoop out the seeds et al. I discarded the peels as well as the insides. Some people suggest using them in the stuffing.
2. In a bowl mix all the ingredients for the stuffing. Add just enough water to bind the ingredients together till they resemble coarse bread crumbs
3. Fill the empty karelas with the prepared stuffing
4. Heat oil in a wide skillet. As the oil heats, add the crushed garlic pods and cumin seeds.
5. When the cumin seeds crackle, add the chopped onions and fry till they turn golden brown.
6. Throw the red chilli powder and fry for a minute.
7. Put in the tomato puree. Fry for 3-4 minutes. Add garam masala powder and salt to taste.
8. Place the stuffed karelas in this tomato chutney. Pour some water till the karelas are partially covered. Cover the vessel and cook on low heat. Every now and then, you can turn the karelas around to make sure that they are cooked evenly.
9. Garnish with coriander and serve with hot rotis.

I loved it and so did Pras. The karelas were a bit bitter but the sweetness of the besan and the sourness of the tomato chutney blended with it well.

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Dal payasam anyone??

My parents-in-law were very upset to know that Pras and I wont be visiting them for Onam. Hence, my mother-in-law quickly got down to making some dal payasam for us. I thought that it would be a very tedious task but she made it look very simple. Yet, I think I shall take the shortcut of using coconut milk from a tetra pak rather than extract it myself ;)

Here goes the recipe[this will also help as a reminder for me]
Ingredients
1. Coconut milk extracted from one coconut - don't mix the first and second pressing
2. yellow mung dal - 1 cup boiled
3. Jaggery - 250gms
4. ghee - 1 tbsp
5. cashew nuts - a few for garnishing
6. elaichi - a few for garnishing

Method:
1. Boil the jaggery in a little water
2. Pour the second pressing coconut milk and jaggery into the dal and allow it to boil for a while.
3. Fry cashewnuts and elaichi in ghee.
4. Add the first pressing coconut milk, ghee, elaichi and cashewnuts. Do not let it boil.

For extracting coconut milk, boil a little water. Grate a coconut. Add a tiny bit of hot water to the coconut and squeeze the coconut bit by bit, extracting the coconut milk. This is the first pressing.
Add a little more water to the squeezed, grated coconut and squeeze again to get the second pressing coconut milk.

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Tomato cheese rice

The other day I wanted to make pizzas. Unfortunately, after I had prepared the toppings, I found that the base was bad. So, I used my intuition and made the following

Ingredients:
One large onion - sliced
Two large tomatoes - sliced/chopped
Garlic paste - 1 teaspoon
Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
Cheese - 3 cubes grated
Oil - 3/4 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Rice - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups

Method:
Heat oil in a pan. Once oil is hot, put in the sliced onions. Once the onions start turning brown, put in the garlic paste. Put in red chilli powder and fry for a minute. Then add the tomatoes and the salt. Once tomatoes are cooked and soggy, turn off heat and leave to cool. Grind this into a paste.

Put this paste in a cooker alongwith the rice, cheese and water. Pressure cook till rice is done.
Tasty and yummy tomato cheese rice is ready :)

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