Easy, Peasy Cheesy Spread

This is my entry for the Hush Hush week of Avant Garde Cookies. Priya Sreeram gave me an easy ingredient - cheese. And I had just stocked the fridge with Feta from the Indian store (never again since it was too salty, but perfect for the dish I made) and Gruyere from Trader Joes.
What to make??? I also had some paneer sitting in the fridge from a previous purchase, however it was not an option for this meal.

I have been cooking but blogging has been a luxury I have been unable to indulge in! Other priorities, kid applying to colleges, baking goodies for all the teachers and friends who have enriched our lives, horrific news that makes me want to sometimes curl up under the comforters with my children and never come out! Oft are the times I feel like taking them all back in my womb where I can keep them safe! If only that were an option! Kids grow up, get bigger than you, finish school and flee the nest in pursuit of their own destinies. As parents you have to learn to dwell on their success and not at the void they leave in the home as they do so!

I want a safe environment for the children and for all the people of the US. Many countries survive just fine with no weapons in their homes - I dream of a gun-free country where people once again learn to love their neighbors and let go of this built up hate and frustration.

Sorry to digress, this is after all a food blog and I am happy that is one thing that can please, made the right way :)

This was an uber delicious spread and a perfect addition to any dinner table and for entertainment.

Ingredients
1 pack of frozen peas (12oz)
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 cup of gruyere cheese
1/4 cup of creamy Feta cheese
3 spicy green chilies
2 tomato
2tsp of olive oil


Method
Sautee until all veggies are cooked.
Add the Feta to the veggies and melt
Cool and grind and put in a baking dish
Add grated gruyere
Bake at 350 for 20 -25 mins

Serve as dip or spread

Cardamom & Pistachio Cookies

These should ideally be called the everything-in-it cookies.

After yet another looooong haitus, here I am back in a holiday mood with a cookie recipe. It was also for a friend’s son whose birthday. If one knows the basic requirements to make a cookie, like flour and baking soda, oil etc, then one can get creative with cookies and make them as healthy or decadent as one wants it. I had experimented with Giada’s pumkin and Raisins oatmeal cookies and they were a hit even with my little lassie, so I ventured on to try a similar cookie with several new and interesting ingredients. My little one offered a cookie to a lady who took her pictures and my son’s senior pics and I just got an email from her with compliments on the cookie and a recipe. So this one’s for you Melody J Most of these ingredients are dispensable or changeable depending upon what’s available in your kitchen and what you like in your cookie. And with those caveats in place, let’s check out the recipe.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Bake time 15-18 minutes

Makes about 25-30 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tbs coconut powder
• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• 3 tbsp quinoa flakes
• 3/4 cup turbinado raw sugar
• Zest of 1 clementine
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 cup of chopped dates
• 1/2 cup of raisins
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 1/2 cup veg oil
• 1/4 cup chopped pistachios
• 3 tbsp milk 

Method

1. Set oven to 350 F
2. Grease couple of cookie pans
3. (parchment paper –optional)
4. Mix all the dry ingredients nicely
5. Throw in the nuts and the dry fruits
6. The proceed to add the oil, milk and maple syrup
7. This should make a thick nice consistency – you may add additional spoons of milk should you find your mixture too thick.
8. Either with your hands or with a tablespoon, drop small amounts on to the prepared cookie sheet an inch apart.
9. Cook for about 5 minutes –
10. Open oven and pull out the cookie sheet
11. With a flat spatula gently press down on the cookies – they will have melted just enough at this point for your to shape them
12. At this point sprinkle some sugar on top of each cookie
13. Put them back in the oven and cook for the rest of the time
14. Each oven varies so please keep a watch on the cookies and if you see their underside getting browned that is a good time to remove them
15. Cool on rack and enjoy with friends and family  These will make great holiday gifts and don’t forget Santa – a personal and delicious one.

Enjoy and I will try to be back more holiday recipes soon.

Garden Fresh Salsa

When you have a garden that gives you the freshest ingredients to make the finest salsa, I say, heck why not make the most of it! :) The garden truly is on its way out with the chill of Autumn setting in. Nevertheless that chilies are putting out their last produce for the season as are the tomatoes. The cilantro is still going strong although not for much longer, perhaps and the bell peppers are finally making an appearance. So whatchya waiting for? That's right! Get that salsa made already, will you?!
Chop up some onions and garlic and squeeze some fresh lime juice into the above ingredients and a smidgeon of salt and voila - And what is the secret ingredient? Habanero peppers of course :)
A quarter goes a looooooooong way so be judicious in your use of this dynamite pepper

Ingredients

• 2- 3 medium sized tomaotes
• 1 small onion
• 1/2 cup of fresh cilantro
• 1/2 habanero
• 1/2 bell pepper
• 2cloves of fresh garlic
• 1-2 tsp of lime/lemon juice
• salt

Method

1. Chop all ingredients finely if you do not have a mixer that can make the salsa for you
2. Otherwise, chop roughly and put in your vitamix or magic bullet and let it go until it is blended but retains some texture
3. Refrigerate immediately if you are not using right away

NOTE: this tastes best fresh or made half an hour before use - keep refrigerated for best taste.

Enjoy amigos!

Cashew-Peanut Vegetable Stir Fry

A nutty idea but trust me when I tell you you could eat it all up and hanker for more - This is another of those one the spot recipes - a new take on stir-fry which was hugely successful with the family - The only time it takes is to cut the veggies... and when it comes to cutting multiple veggies, I love to do it since I always get so turned on by the brilliant colors of them all and I feel like an artist creating amy own color palette.

Here are the veggies I used - 

• 1 each of orange and yellow and green peppers
• 1 perfectly juicy and ripe tomato (big)
• 1 big red/purple onion
• 2 small (long) eggplants

Nuts, herbs and spices

• A fist full of 
• cashews, peanuts, sesame
• 2tbsp Spicy Schezwan sauce

Plus 2 tsp of sesame oil to saute the veggies in

Method

In a wok/wide pan, heat oil and throw in the veggies

Cook until tender but still crunchy

Powder the nuts together

Add the sesame whole and the nut powder along with the sauce and stir until all the veggies are coated with these

Cook for a minute or two longer

Serve hot with noodles, chappatis or eat as is.

Broccoli & Coconut Usili Curry

This is the simplest and tastiest and healthiest broccoli preparation if one is looking to Indianize this green and great veggie. It is light and delicious and can be paired with chappatis or rice or couscous or can even be had as is. Takes 10 minutes flat to make and is highly satisfying.

Ingredients

• 2 medium broccoli bunches
• 1/2 grated coconut
• 2red chilies
• 1/2 tsp urad dal
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp oil

Method

1. Grate the broccoli with the bigger scraping side
2. Steam broccoli until tender (not soggy) this keeps the lush green color intact
3. In a pan, heat oil, add urad and brown
4. Add chilies and broccoli and turn in the pan
5. Add the salt and the grated coconut and let all the flavors blend
6. Serve as desired

Simple Spinach Dip

 For the Avant Garde Cookies this time, my hush-hush ingredient was spinach given to me by my partner Jayanthy. I had some fresh baby spinach handy which i used to put this dip together...

Ingredients

• 2cups of baby spinach leaves
• 2 red chilies
• 1.5 cups of thick yogurt (greek would work)
• 1tbsp of spices 
• 1tsp olive oil

Method

1. Sautee the spinach with 1 tsp of olive oil and the chilies. 
2. Add salt. cook and remove from heat
3. If the yogurt has some whey, use this to grind the spinach not too smooth
4. Add the yogurt to the blended spinach
5. Top this with 1 tbsp of spices of your choice - Tzatsiki, or your home blend of thyme, garlic, parsely, oregano etc
6. Whip it in until blended well
7. Refrigerate until ready to use.

We enjoyed ours with steamed sweet potatoes!

Goes to Avant Garde Cookies -Check out the other AGC thoughout this week 

Anusha, Jayanthi, Kavitha, Radhika, Veena, Priya S, Roshni

Cilantro Pilaf (HarDaniya Pulao/Kothamali Pulao)

Happy Happy NAVARATHRI to all my friends and followers. Wish you much prosperity in health, happiness and of course wealth. So Golu is up and the first of the Sundals I made was a green split moong dal (pacha paasiparuppu sundal) and it was a happy success with all. I will blog this soon. But today I present to you my cilantro pulao which I made several weeks ago and has been languishing in my notes waiting for its turn to be blogged. I had to make some Kothamali chutney the wet thick kind and steamed some veggies and sauteed them like a curry. I added paneer to make it more "fancy" then made some steaming hot basmati rice and mixed in the chutney and the veggies and sauteed once more with onions and cashews. This is a one-pot meal and is a perfect Sunday brunch idea. You can avoid the onions and still have it taste amazing during this festival time.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of basmati rice (rice cooker cooked)
• your choice of veggies
• 1 cup of cubed paneer
• 3tbsp cilantro chutney

Method

1. Add chutney to rice and mix in well with a fork
2. Cook the veggies with desired spice and salt in a separate wok
3. Add to the rice and chutney mix
4. Garnish with cashews or more fresh cilantro

Cilantro Chutney recipe
Ingredients

• 2-3 lbs of cilantro fresh washed thoroughly, ends of stalks trimmed
• 5-8 red chilies (depending on how spicy your red chilies are)
• Urad Dal 1/4 cup
• 1tsp asafetida
• 1tsp soft tamarind paste
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• Salt

Method 

1. Heat oil add the urad dal, chilies, asafetida and tamarind paste
2. Then add the cilantro and stir until cilantro softens and the urad is roasted brown.
3. Cool and grind coarse in a food processor

Mix the rice with the chutney

The veggies with paneer

In a bowl

In a cool copper pot

on your plate

Nutella Cookies

My first post for Avant Garde Cookies this month was a challenge - to make a dish with 5 ingredients or less - now as an Indian, you will know we use a lot of ingredients to make our food and I was turning a few recipes in my mind, including the raita I posted last ... But as luck would have it, my yoga teacher posted this cookie recipe with 4 ingredients and I was jumping with joy - Yes!!!!!! There is my post for the event :) A recipe from My Tasty Kitchen

Simple and delicious Nutella Cookies -Makes about 22- 8 minutes to prepare and 8 minutes to bake and voila!

Ingredients

• 1 cup nutella
• 1cup all purpose flour
• 1/2cup of sugar
• 1egg

Method

1. Heat oven to 350 F
2. blend all 4 ingredients together 
3. Make 1 inch balls 
4. Flatten with the base of a cup
5. Bake for 8 minutes

Goes to Avant Garde Cookies -Check out the other AGC thoughout this week 
Anusha, Jayanthi, Kavitha, Radhika, Veena, Priya S, Roshni

Cucumber Raita

This is not a dish to be taken lightly, simple though it may seem to make. You need the perfect texture of yogurt, and sweet, tender and non-bitter cucumbers to make the right kind of raita. You need that 1 perfect chili that will spice it up just so and you need that perfect dash of salt that makes you want to crave this popular side dish. Raita is a dish that is served on the side with spicy pulaos or biryanis to cool your system even as you spice it up. South India has an equivalent for this called thayir pachadi.

Things that can go wrong and prevent you for making that perfect raita
you can make it
too watery (juice from the cuke)
too thick
use a yogurt that is gooey
make it too sour
over salt
make it too spicy - defeating the purpose of it
cucumbers can be too seedy so much so you miss the raita for the seeds!
and so on...you can tell I've seen them all which has really put me off raita quite a bit, unless I make it myself (sorry to sound vain, but it is the truth)

Ingredients

• 2cups of Danon plain yogurt (do not use the whey)
• 3-4 small sweet seedless cucumbers
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 green chili cut big 
• mint/ curry leaf/sprig to garnish

Method

1. Add a pinch of salt and whip the yogurt into a smooth consistency
2. Grate your cucmber
3. Squeeze all the excess juice out of it (you can drink it or use as an eye pack)
4. Add to the yogurt and mix in well
5. Add chopped chili and stir in
6. Place the mint on the raita for garnish and chill until ready to serve. (I used tender curry leaves from my plant for this - it smelt so delicious)

NOTE: I have also used some Patatas Bravas and a Tzatziki spice mixes from Oil & Vinegar for decoration on top - they also lend beautiful flavors to the raita

Milaga Bhajjis - Green Chili Fritters

It is the weekend and we are all getting ready to party... or perhaps have a wonderfully quiet and peaceful time with family -either way, Milaga bhajjis is a good way to celebrate on the weekend. These again are made from the homegrown chilies, which are not so spicy and lend themselves marvelously to this dish. For those who wanted to know the other recipe I had made with these green chilies, here you go.

For the batter

• 1 cup of gram flour/kadalamavu/ besan
• ½ cup rice flour
• (I recently found out that 1:1 of besan and rice flour) also works like a charm
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp sambar powder
• 1 pinch of Asafetida
• Salt to taste
• Curry leaves chopped
• Oil to fry
• Water enough to make the batter breamy smooth (about 1 cup usually)

Method:

1. Wash and dry your chilies thoroughly.
2. Keep the stem if tender, else chop off
3. Keeping the stem makes for less splattering of seeds bursting in the oil
4. Coat the chili with batter fully
5. Heat oil
6. Drop gently in hot oil
7. Do not overcrowd.
8. Remove and place on kitchen paper towels to drain off any excess oil
9. Enjoy as is or with dip of your choice - ketchup is a good place to start or how about the chili thokku I posted earlier ;P

Cheers and wish you a fabulous weekend. Plenty of exciting fall preparations on their way - stay tuned.