Fondue with Steamed Veggies

I am back after a month long vacation in India and a week of absolute inertia - a combination of jet lag and complete exhaustion from travel, unpacking, washing, putting away stuff - you know how it goes and contrived though it is, I would love a no strings attached vacation right now - in an beautiful island - in a tranquil and exquisitely decorated suite overlooking aquamarine waters - where i sleep as I wish, have massages aplenty and lots and lots of wonderfully nourishing vegetarian food brought to me for the asking or on a pre-planned schedule - a yoga and dance workout when I feel like it or I may most likely prefer a dip in that azure water - Someone to towel my hair dry and paint my nails as I read some books I've been meaning to for a long time... sigh - see - the holiday stupor has not left me one bit!  And this is a very concerted effort to get back to my blog in the hope that I will feel motivated with your comments - so PLEASE leave your comments for me and get me back to reality! Hugs in advance :)

Fondue with Steamed Veggie Platter

Fondue is a very high fat meal. Under normal circumstances makes me cringe at the number of fat calories we consume while eating this highly delicious, yet horrifically caloric meal. Hmm, what to do? How can I have my Fondue and eat it too?

This is when I start becoming an inventor – well I don’t dare claim that this has not been done before. Hardly that! But I think smart ideas cannot be copyrighted, censored or censured since many people have them at different times and when it comes to the gastric pleasures, people do experiment a lot. A typical fondue preparation required Gruyere or Emmentaler cheese (a couple fine Swiss cheese) white wine for the dip.  What we can do is find things to dip in the fondue that are low calories, and help offset the fat of the cheese like, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, peppers, green, red, yellow and orange and avoid meats, bread and other heavy stuff that compound the calorie intake.

If you are craving a chocolate fondue, try a semi sweet, dark chocolate melted with a little sherry or port wine or liqueur like Kahlua. But rather than dip pound cakes, rice crispy treats, or Blondies, restrict yourself to the pleasure of dipping strawberries, crisp apples or pears, nuts like walnuts or almonds.

The moral being, there are certain foods that are meant to be fatty or sugary. While we cannot put up much resistance to them, unless we decide to go vegan and use potato starch to make a stringy dip, the best we can do is control what we dip in these and make it a less guilt-ridden dish.

We love fondues and have always used lightly steamed veggies to dip, but bread has been a part of it which I now wish to avoid.  I have bought the awesomest steamer from India which I used for the veggies. turned out perfect!  

For the Fondue Preparation

1) 1 cup each (or more) of grated Gruyere & Emmentaler cheeses. I did not get Emmentaler yesterday but substituted with Fontina - basically you need cheese that will melt smoothly and easily so I am sure there are other choices.

2) 3 cloves of garlic

3) 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper (optional)

4) 1/4 cup of white wine  (I used a moscato -sweet wine which tasted brilliant in this since it was far too sweet to drink) Again many other kinds of wines will suit - google mama will only be too happy to help ya with your selection :) (this again is optional and can be substituted with 1/4 cup of milk, just to get the melting process started.

5) A pinch of nutmeg

Preparation

On low heat, start the melting process on a regular stove.

If you have a fondue pot, then transfer this into it and have a candle flame underneath to keep the cheeses from thickening - If this happens keep the pot on the stove ready and re melt. 

Go with non-startchy veggies like cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, mushrooms etc... Attack with gusto - it makes for a fun meal when some of us ate standing to get a better swipe of the cheese. The fun also lies in losing your veggies in the cheese. Enjoy and I hope to be back with more.

Happy New Year all and May all your dreams and wishes come true and may you have good health and good food always :)

Paneer-yarams with Creamy Fennel dip

Just when I thought I'd exhausted all my ideas for leftover idli atta, of course, kuzhi paniyarams struck me. When I posted on Facebook for ideas with Fennel greens, I had a wonderful list of things I could do with it from a bunch of friends, each one of them gems which i plan to make-
But the easy and delicious one which was immediately executable was Priya's suggestion of a dip - Then I decided I would also chop the greens and the bulb and use for the kuzhi paniyarams - had a block of paneer sitting around and decided to grate that into the kuzhi paniyarams making for delicious paneeryarams :)) Nothing like a little twist to tradition, what say?

I used
1/2 a bulb of fennel,
2 stalks of fennel greens,
1/4 red onion, 1 green chili,
1/2 tsp of turmeric
3/4 cup of grated paneer,
1/4 cup of grated cheddar.
I lightly sauteed the fennel, greens, onions. turmeric and chili in 1 tsp of olive oil.

Batch 1

First batch I made, I tried to do a sandwich with the cheeses. It tasted great but made for messy pouring - so I simply incorporated the paneer & cheddar into the batter and poured the second batch like that - result = awesomeness!

Batch 2

Fennel Dip
3 short stems of fennel greens chopped fine
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1tbsp low fat yogurt
1tsp of Tzatziki herb mix
1tsp salad spice mix (this is like paprika)
mix in and serve with hot Paneeryarams.

Showcasing dip and my peeling nail polish :)

Idli Manchurian

This part 2 of the leftover idli saga :) So those of you who read my post on Idli Bajjis, I saved some of those Idli Bajjis and made an Indian- Chinese dish out of it - Please do try - I assure you that you will LOVE it.

I added 1 tbsp each of  Spricy Szechwan stir-fry sauce and Asian hot sauce;
2tbsp each of garlic chives and spring onions
3 spicy red chilies
1 tsp of sesame oil

Prepare
Saute the above ingredients (except the sauces) in hot oil and add the idli bajjis and stir.
Add the sauces last and mix it in well -
Hear the sizzle of the sauces evaporating  - its time to switch off the stove. Serve piping hot :)

There you have it - the new and exotic avatars of a rather seeda sada and chammathu idlis :)

Idli Bajjis A.K.A Seetha aur Geetha Idlis :)

Car update - Dealing with the insurance was LOT less scary than I anticipated. But sometimes expecting the worst could actually be beneficial (this comes from the most optimistic person I know - me :) because when then anything lesser seems to be a huge relief - Saw my sweet van being towed away an hour ago and then started to of lunch - there were my idlis from yesterday and I was feeling bad as in I wanted to be bad, as in taking a perfectly healthy thing and turning into something wicked-good?  so I cut the idlis up into cubes and mixed up a handful of besan/ chickpea flour (kadalamavu) threw in some sambar powder, added water and made the batter  (I want to say 2 tsp), fired up the oil and before I knew it was on my way to eating one of THE most delicious dishes  - Idli bajjis :) I KID YOU NOT!
A simple twist to make a delicious Geetha evil-twin of the healthy idlis :) Seetha Bangayi Geetha- (For those who not have watched Seetha aur Geetha, Seetha is an utterly boring twin sister of the rather spunky Geetha in a Hinid movie from the 70s, which got remade in Tamil as Vani-Rani with Vanishree in the lead) The western connotation would be Dr. Jekyl & Mr Hyde :)

I have not fried anything in my home for over a month now so I quell the guilt - besides when I was out this morning after the insurance was dealt with, met up with my sweet prego friend and enjoyed a wonderful session of girl-chat.
Here is a 4 step pictorial of the process :) Please do try it and let me know how you liked it!

Not wanting to stop at the evil twin, I created another avatar with them which I will blog about next - You can hold your breath - I am not planning to take long to post this next one lol!

Mixed Veggies in Cashew Gravy

For blog hop wednesday, I was paired with Divya of Divya Z EasyRecipes. I picked a mixed veggie with Cashew gravy among her many wonderful recipes.  The dish looked tempting and delicious.  But yesterday turned out to be a most bizarre day with not just the horrible accident where a deer ran on to my car literally from nowhere and crushed the front hood verily leaving me shaken and distraught at the insurance claims to be dealt with!! I also forgot to serve this dish to my sweetest friend who had come over for lunch - I had made idli sambar and chutney and I guess this did not go with any of those and my brain froze! Well whatever! I don't have much time to edit my pictures, but I used the veggies I had to make it and beets kinda took over the color :) - I used some sambar powder, bay leaves and garlic for flavors. And I used my cashew butter (2 tbsp) instead of crushing cashews etc... here is my dish and I am so sorry about this haphazard post! It is almost 8 am and I have a busy day ahead of me!!! Wish me luck and think only good thoughts of me please :) Love you all!

This is part of Radhika's humungous-ly successful Blog Hop Wednesday Event -

Baked Pakodas

Want every flavor of hot onion pakodas without the hassle of frying or the fat an guilt that go with it? Here is an admirable way of literally having your pakodas and eating them too. A few months ago, Uma had blogged something which caught my eye. It however had egg and made them muffins.
Taking off on that concept, I decided to make my baked pakodas without eggs and it was a big hit with all who tasted them.

Ingredients
3/4 cup each of all purpose and whole wheat flour sifted
1 large green onion finely chopped
1 cup of chopped spinach or 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
2 hot green chilies finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1tbsp baking powder
3/4 cup of milk (I used 1 percent)
1/2 cup of cheese of choice (optional)
2tbsp of olive oil
A pinch of asafetida

Preheat oven to 400 F
Prepare your muffin pan by greasing with olive oil

Preparation
In a pan, heat oil and lightly fry the onions to remove the raw smells
In your mixer bowl or regular bowl, sift the flours
Add the baking powder and the salt to the dry flours and mix
Now add the spinach, onions, chilies and cheese
Mix these for a minute before add the the milk
Mix with milk for a minute or two
If you are kneading with hands, make it pakoda consistency
Scoop with table spoon or ice cream scoop into muffin pans. I used the mini muffin pan to yield more as an appetizer.
Bake for 25-30 minutes ( Check after the 25th minute) or until you see the slight browning on the top.
Enjoy hot with some sauce or just by itself.

NOTE: my next attempt will be with besan the original pakoda flour.. will post pictures if they turn out well.
Until Blog Hop Wednesday, Adios & Alvida

Sweet Potato Parathas - Thanksgiving Special :)

This is one of the most delicious parathas I've ever tasted - Of all the veggie kinds we make, this certainly appeals to me most, probably because I love sweet potatoes and know how much goodness the veggie contains! I always have a willing helper whenever I make chappatis or parathas and it always becomes a super fun experience (forget about the cleaning up part - blessed to have a son and a hubby who help out in that department)

Here is the recipe
Ingredients
2 cups of whole wheat atta (chakki) bought from indian store
3 boiled and mashed sweet potatoes
2-3 green chilies finely diced
1 red onion diced (optional)
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp baking powder
1tbsp cliantro finely chopped
salt 1tsp
1tbsp of warm milk or water - if necessary!

Preparation
First heat the oil and lightly fry the onions to get rid of the rawness.
If you have a mixer, add the atta and the baking powder and salt and spin to mix. Or dry mix the 3 ingredients.
Add the peeled, boiled and mashed sweet potatoes, onions, cilantro and chilies and knead into the dough either with hand or in the mixer for about 4-5 minutes on medium speed until it forms into a nice ball.
Let the mix rest for about 10 minutes (not required to let it rest for too long, although it does no harm)
*if you find the mix too thick and dry, add 1 tbsp of warm milk or water to it.
NOTE: the dough should be soft and pliable without being sticky.
Dust the rolling surface with flour
Make plum sized balls with the mix and roll out.
If you use a non stick, there is absolutely no need to add more oil, since often as Indians we have these with pickles :)
This is a wholesome dish that does not require sides since we've already flavored it with some yummy stuff,  but enjoying these with some dahi or yogurt takes them to the next level of bliss :)

A PERFECT INDIAN DISH FOR THANKSGIVING, Hot Delicious parathas in 30 minutes flat :)