The simplest herbed bread with onion and cheese... and the yummiest

Since I was already baking a cake, i decided to bake bread too. Yeah, the stupid irresistible urge to bake... Baah!

Baking bread is time consuming and requires a lot of patience what with the waiting for it rise and all... but home baked bread is well worth all the effort you put into it.

This one i found on Haathitime's Hungry and Excited. It's quite simple to make and awesome to eat. I ate the bread just like that... no butter or curry or cheese or olive oil. It was divine just as is. Another winner... I was one lucky gal yesterday... both the recipes i tried turned out simply awesome... Needless to say... I pigged out.

{Learn to make the Herbed Bread with Onion and Cheese here}

The best eggless chocolate cake I have ever made

I woke up yesterday with an urge to bake... the kind that refused to shuttup and let me go back to sleep.

So I baked this cake.

The recipe is a winner and it looks like this is going to become my go-to recipe whenever i want to bake a chocolate cake... In fact, there is another one of these baking in the oven right now, while i am typing this and the house smells chocolatey and lovely!!

{It's eggless and also a one-pan cake so less dishes to clean up after. Find the recipe on the Stephanie's JoyofBaking}

PS: I ran out of sugar while baking this yesterday so i substituted brown sugar instead of regular sugar and it still turned out fine! :D

Best Chocolate Brownies I Have Ever Had

I recently reconnected with Shilpa, a school friend after 2 decadesand we have been bonding over afternoon booze sessions.

She recently invited another school friend Maddy and me over to her home for a marathon baking session. We baked brownies, an orange cake, and two types of bread (my participation was zero and only limited to eating and taking pictures!)

Maddy swears by Stephanie's brownie recipe and honest to God... these were the awesomest brownies I have ever had. Rich and moist and very chocolatey. Divine and guaranteed to take you to food heaven.

If you'd like to make them brownies, head to the Joy of Baking. You can thank me by sending a couple of pieces when you bake them :D

PS: The brownies, unfortunately, are not eggless.

Cookery: Easy Peasy Green Moong Dal Parathas

I don't like plain parathas much. I love the stuffed ones the most but it takes a lot of time and effort and i am not willing to spend that much time on cooking often. So I found a simple middle path... jazz the basic paratha with different things at the dough stage itself.

When i am feeling super-lazy, I just add chili powder, cumin and salt to the dough. I have also tried parathas with grated carrots, chopped onions, grated bottle gourd and even beets. The moong dal variant is one of my favorites and also i guess, very nutritious.

{Recipe for 4 parathas}

Soak 1 cup moong dal (green gram - split or whole) overnight or for 6 hours at least. Pressure cook with a little water for 1 whistle. Drain the water and leave the dal in a colander / strainer for a few minutes so that all the water drains out completely and the dal cools down as well.

Now transfer the dal to your mixing bowl. Take a 1 inch square piece of ginger, finely grate it and add. Also add a lot of finely chopped coriander, 1 finely chopped green chili and salt to taste (you will need to add more than you usually add to your plain dough).

Add 1 cup whole wheat flour or multi grain flour to the dal and mix and knead the dough till it comes together. (You may need to add more flour, if you think the dough is still too sticky. But yes, this dough is much softer than the regular paratha dough you make). Add 1 tsp of oil and knead again.

Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Use lots of dry flour, roll the parathas and cook on a tava with as little oil / ghee or as much as you like :).

Serve hot with curd and pickle. 

Cookery: Sabudana Khichdi

Sabudana khichdi is one of my favorite breakfast dishes. It's filling, delicious and a little unhealthy as well - my idea of the perfect breakfast!

And since i made it after a really long time today, i over-indulged!

I like it for You can make it as an evening snack as well.

{Recipe for two}

Soak 1/2 cup sabudana / tapioca pearls for 3 hours. Drain the water completely and let the sabudana sit on a strainer or colander for a few minutes.

Next, crush the peanuts using a mortar-pestle. (I hate doing that so i just use the mixer, taking care to not grind it too fine).

Heat 3 teaspoon oil in a wok. Add 1 teaspoon cumin seeds. When it crackles, lower the flame and add the crushed peanuts. Fry this on a low flame till the peanut starts to brown. Add two-three green chili and 6-7 curry leaves. Stir.

Add 1 chopped potato. Stir. Cover with a lid and leave to cook on low flame. When the potato is cooked, add a chopped tomato. Stir in a little salt. Cover and cook.

Now add the sabudana pearls and salt. Mix and cook on low flame for 3-4 minutes till the sabudana pearls look like they are starting to melt / till that start becoming translucent. Mix 2 teaspoon of ground cumin powder.

Turn the gas off, add chopped coriander. Serve hot.

Do you make sabudana khichdi the same way? My friend Raam's mother makes it in a very different style but that's delicious as well... i will try and find the receipt on her next visit.

Have a lovely week y'all... Hugs!

Cookery: Mixed vegetable pakodas

How deep fried is your love?

I made these pakodas for lunch yesterday. Yes, i can deep fry anytime. That's how much i love fried food!

All ye health nuts, go away now!

I learnt to make this version of pakodas from my mother who never ever experiments but she did try to this one time and it was a super hit. (Btw, i have a lot of recipes for fries!!)

{Recipe}
I threw in equal quantities of finely chopped carrots, potatoes, beans, cauliflower, american corn kernels, onions and peas and lots of coriander. It was about 2 cupfuls in all.

Add besan / chickpea flour - enough to cover the veggies, about 3 tablespoon, i'd say. Add salt to taste and 1 teaspoon read chili powder. Also add 1 and half teaspoon ginger garlic paste. Add water. Mix.

The mix shouldn't be watery at all... add water little by little till the dough comes together. Heat oil in a iron wok or non-stick frying pan (i prefer the former... it's healthier i think!). Drop small lumps of the batter and fry for a bit in low flame. Raise the flame after a minute or two. Remove when they are golden brown. Serve.

Awesome as is. But you can serve with homemade mint or coriander chutney.

{All my cooking is andaz se / approximate so that's how my recipes posts will be! Sorry!}

Cookery: Cucumber and Coconut Salad

I learnt to make this salad from my ma and it is one of my favorites. It's got texture and flavor and of course it is very easy to make.

To make: Soak for 45 minutes 1/4 cup Moong Dal (Yellow gram). Peel and chop one cucumber into small pieces. Grate or dry grind 1/4 coconut. Finely chop 1 green chili and as much coriander as you like. Mix it all. Add 1/4 tsp salt. Mix. Serve. Enjoy.

Hope you had a lovely weekend.

XOXO
Ambica

Cooking tip: Roti dough

Add a little curd to the wheat flour, if you aren't already doing that. The chapattis will turn out softer and fluffier. I promise.

You can also use the water from the curd or milk or the whey from paneer.

How much or how little to use? That's entirely up to you! You can knead the flour entirely with curd but that makes rolling the chapatti / roti a little difficult. 

Learning something new: Adobe Illustrator

I am learning to use Illustrator and even though i have ghost-designed a few wedding cards and some other random stuff in the past... this is my first attempt at creating something using the software...

I made this poster for my friend Arundati, who is a blogger, a trainer, a culinary expert and my go-to for most things baking.

{Only 1 seat left for the next session... contact A if you want to sign up.}

What do you think people? Please, for once, don't be silent... and leave a comment on this post... I know a lot of you read this blog and share your feedback one-to-one with me... but i really need your support here... so please don't be shy...!!

PS: If you need a poster or something that requires the use of Illustrator or some such software, feel free to get in touch with me.

PPS: A previous post on A's baking session and what i thought of it.

Ragi Uttapam aka Finger millet pancakes

This was made for breakfast this morning. I have made Ragi dosa and Ragi roti many times before for breakfast and every time i try something different with it. Finger-millet or ragi powder is nutritious or so they say and i love that it can be made quickly and lends itself pretty nicely to pretty much anything i add to it!  

Here's how i made today's version:

Mix together 3 parts ragi powder + 1 part rice powder + 1 part curd + 1 tsp Red chili powder + 2 tsp Cumin seeds + 1/2 Cup Kasuri Methi + Salt to taste + Water

Let it stand for 10 minutes.

The consistency of the dough should be a little thicker than dosa batter.

Pour over a hot tava, sprinkle finely chopped onions, pour 1 tsp oil around the uttapam, reduce the flame, cover and cook for a few minutes. Turn over and cook for a minute or two.

(The sweetness of the onions really brought out the flavor of the kasuri methi and made the uttapam yummier. I made the first few without the onions but preferred the ones with onions.)

Serve hot with coconut chutney or tomato curry. I like it most with hot and sweet tomato curry but today we had it with tomato chutney.

Hope you try it! It's quick and easy and doesn't require any preparation or grinding.

Missing ma and dreaming of samosas

My mother is a fantastic cook and there are some things that she makes that no one in our family can ever better. From the top of my head, foods that i remember include gulab jamun, idli, vada curry (a chennai special moong dal vada accompaniment to dosas), bhindi sambhar, bhaapia (a traditional seherwali dish), and of course samosas.

And the weather is perfect for it. (The weather is perfect for fried food everyday!)

And my mother is away. A 20-day trip has stretched to a month long one and today, i am missing her and the awesome samosas she makes.

Sitara Manzoor recently shared this aloo samosa recipe which is very close to how my mother makes it and i thought i'd share it with you guys. No i am not going to make it... but i can look at this picture, miss my ma and dream of samosas.

PS: I was trying to fill the passport renewal form for my parents but i got stuck since i don't know what my mother's birthmark is. :( 

Yummy: Goosebumps

I wasn't a big fan of pickles. That changed a little over the last two years... I am still not a big fan but i do like pickle with my food once in a while. Nothing like hot rice, dollops of ghee, some spicy pickle and papads to make a super yummy meal :)

I came across Goosebumps a couple of weeks ago and wanted to share with you this delicious looking site where you can buy homemade pickles online. You can also make your own and give it a name too... Yay!

I think this would be a really sweet gift to send to friends who live alone and survive on pickles. Or to your favorite aunt who lives far away but you think of her often. Or to your pregnant bhabhi whose crazy hormones make her crave that something 'khatta'.

Pretty brilliant idea methinks. And considering that my cousin and i gave this homemade pickle and savory online business some thought about a year ago, and even made excel menus, i am also incredibly sad that we didn't take it one step ahead.

{Goosebumps}

CC, you think we should get our super-talented mothers and their super-talented daughters-in-law to at least think about a food business?

Weekly Challenge #12 - Baking Bread - Done.

Thanks Revathi. I couldn't have done this without your blog. 

This bread thing was one of my most difficult challenges. The constant power cuts delayed the project. Apart from the scheduled power cuts, i had to deal with the unannounced ones. And then there was work... plenty of it.

But i did it finally.

I managed to bake bread yesterday.

I had initially wanted to bake something from Saee's blog but i couldn't decide which one to make and then when i finally wanted to bake yesterday, her site was down :(

So what do i do? I google and when that fails, i look through my bookmarks.

I don't read too many blogs but i have been blog-stalking Revathi's blogs Haathi and Hungry and Excited since a couple of years now. When i came across her masala bread recipe, i knew i wanted to make it. It was simple, used whole wheat, did not need eggs, and had Indian spices in it. Perfect. The icing on the cake was the step-by-step pictures. A baking novice like me needs any extra help she can get.

And i made not one, but two different masala breads - 3 loafs in all!! Talk about getting excited!!

Mint and coriander masala loaf. I followed the recipe to the T. Well, almost... i didn't have any mint so i just added more coriander. And baked it for a little bit longer.

Verdict: The bread is delicious. I thought the bread hadn't been baked enough so i baked it for another ten minutes - i shouldn't have done that... it made my bread crumbly and difficult to slice.

Fenugreek and Sundried Tomatoes: I wanted to bake some more. So i kneaded more dough. But this time i omitted the onions and the coriander. Instead i threw in some sesame, dried fenugreek leaves and sundried tomatoes. And made two mini-loafs instead of one so i could send over to mummy.

Verdict: This one turned out even better. I didn't over bake the bread so it sliced perfectly. The tomato added a lovely tang and the fenugreek a mild bitterness that's quite lovely.

Both the breads can be eaten just so. The bread was moist and bursting with flavor. It's 100% wheat so it is very healthy.

A word of warning: Don't bake bread at home unless you can make it often. It's going to be impossible to like the store-brought variety after this. Unless you want to toast it and eat it with mangoes. Or make bread upma.

I am still running behind on the challenges. I have one for last week, and another one for this week. But i am going to catch up. 

PS: The sundried tomatoes are home-made... i made them last week.  

My go-to food during the summers: Mango and toast

I remember as a child, bananas sandwiched in bread was one of my favorite after school snacks. I still love it. But what i love even more is mango slices sandwiched in buttered toast. High on calories, but so amazingly yummy, it's my favorite comfort food. Do you think it's weird? Have you tried it?

I also love eating hot puris with cold mangoes... :)

Do you have a bread and fruit combination you like?

Hosting a party and my food menu

We have a family kitty that has 13 people. We meet once every month, talk, play two rounds of tombola, another game that the host decides, munch snacks, chat some more, make silly jokes, eat some more, and then maybe play teen patti for a bit. It's a nice way for the family to meet and hangout.

Yesterday was my turn to host the kitty party. I decided the menu on Wednesday, did the grocery shopping on Friday (where an idiot bumped into my car and scared me of out of my life) and started the prep on Saturday evening.

But i was nervous as hell.

Saturday night, i was so anxious, i couldn't sleep. I was worried that, both the quantity and the quality would fall short. And then i was worried people would not turn up because i have only attended 3 of the 11 so far because of all the travelling i have been doing.

Also, for the first time in my life, a lot of the dishes on the menu were things i was going to try out for the first time... yikes! Was i even thinking?

Here's what i served: 

Bread Idli

I had visited my aunt's home recently and her cook offered me 'bread idli'. I wasn't hungry but i was intrigued by the name and the description she provided, so i decided to give it a try. The dish is nowhere close to what an idli looks or tastes like, but it tastes super and uses bread, one of my favorite foods. I made it at home recently and it turned out pretty awesome so i went ahead and took pictures to share here with you.

You could make it for breakfast or an anytime snack.

{Ingredients}

4 Slices Bread
4 T Curd
2 Potatoes - Large - Boiled, Peeled and Mashed
6-7 Curry leaves
Coriander Leaves
1 Green Chilly - Finely chopped
2 t Oil
1 t Mustard Seeds
Salt to taste

{Modus Operandi}

1. Beat the curd. Add salt.
2. Heat 1t oil, add the mustard seeds. After it crackles, add the chilly pieces and the curry leaves. Remove from flame after a few seconds. Mix the tempering into the curd.
3. Mix salt and coriander leaves in the mashed potato. Shape into discs.
4. Using a cookie cutter, glass or bowl, cut the bread into rounds.
5. On a hot griddle layer the potato and the bread slice. Cover with a bowl and allow it to steam for a minute or two.
6. Remove from flame and serve topped with a spoonful of the curd mixture.

Bread Upma With Curd

Bread Upma with Curd

Dosa is my go-to food but there are times when you don't have the batter and everything else you want to eat will take a lot of time. So Bread Upma is pretty much my savior a lot of times since I love bread and can eat it anytime. You can make it without the curd but the bread absorbs the flavors much better with the curd.

I made this for lunch recently and it turned you finger-licking good. It's quick, easy and you can make it for breakfast or an any-time snack.

If you'd like to make it... read more

Weekly Challenge #5 Frosting - Done

This one's been giving me nightmares. And the result is almost one. But hey, you know what they say - it's the effort that counts!

All ye bakers who ice, i bow down to thee. It's waayyy more tougher than it looks. I know now.

PS: Does anyone want an icing bag and six nozzles?

Cooking with Siri

I have been drooling over Siri's blog the last few days... the recipes look simple and her food pictures are amazingly gorgeous.

She works full-time and blogs when she can - i don't know how she can find the time and energy to cook, write and take such pretty pictures... hats off to her!

Featured here is picture of black-eyed
peas pakoras... black-eyed peas are one of my favorite legumes and i am definitely going to give this a try.

{To drool or find food inspiration, visit Siri}

Strawberry and Milk Pudding

I had some strawberries in the fridge that had to be used soon. After hunting high and low for a recipe that was simple, eggless and used ingredients that i already had, i finally found this recipe called Strawberry Paradise on my go-to food site - Tarla Dalal.

This one is simple and can be made before-hand and kept in the fridge.

I modified the recipe a bit, you can find the original on the link above.

{Ingredients}

Pudding
4 1/2 C Milk
7 T Sugar
13 T China Grass
1 C Water

Strawberry Sauce
3/4 C Pureed Strawberry
2 t Cornflour
1/2 T Lemon Juice
8 t sugar
1 C water

{Modus Operandi}

Boil the milk and sugar.
In another pan boil the agar agar and water till till the agar agar dissolves completely.
Mix the agar agar into the milk and boil for 2 minutes more. Cool.

~

Mix the cornflour in cold water and boil till it becomes thick and clear. Cool.
Add the pureed strawberry and the lemon juice.

~

Mix the strawberry sauce and the milk-agar agar mixture together. Transfer to a silicon pan or a fancy dish and refrigerate till set.

~

Loosen the pudding from the sides of the pan, invert to a serving platter and serve. The pudding kind of begins to melt in the heat, so bring it out of the fridge only when you are ready to eat.