Kurukkan Noodles Upma (Ragi/Finger Millet)

Kurukkan noodles are made with red finger millet - It is highly nutritive with a high protein content. I have almost completely switched to making ragi Idlis & dosais at home. For some reason though, these noodles are NOT easily available in the Indian stores around where I live. So I have had to ask my mother-in-law to bring some for me from Canada. Ragi by itself has a slightly nutty taste like quinoa and needs no dressing up - But it is always good to throw in a vegetable or two to make it even more nutritious.  My little one loves baby carrots, so i chopped a few up and added it to my upma -
Upma the dish always brings to mind 2 people - One is my dad - he said the measure of a good cook is to be able to make a "rava or cream of wheat upma without any knots in it - soft, smooth and delicious - That has always stuck in my head and I do pride myself on making it just the way he likes it - sadly he didn't lived long enough to visit my home, see my as a married woman except during the wedding - But I do dedicate all my Rava Upmas to him :)
As for the second person, it is my husband's grandma - Paati - We'd been to Thirunelveli to visit her one time in 2000 during the millennium and at her age she was a mighty sprightly lady, drawing water from the well at 4 AM to heat water for us to bathe. She made us a Daliya or Cracked Wheat Upma - It was fragrant with lots of ghee (:) hospitality is meant to fatten you up, right? She had also added some freshly grated coconut (this is Thirunelveli afterall, so no dearth for fresh coconuts) and I LOVED a dish that I had hitherto always resisted.

My mother-in-law introduced me to these noodles - and ever since we have loved it. This upma joins the ranks of the bigwigs in the Upma category - Rava, Vermicelli, arusi, daliya and yours truly Ragi :)
SO easy to make and So light and wonderful on the stomach.

Prepration
They come in packs
1 use a whole pack for family of 5 and some leftovers - but half should suffice if it is a lunch/brunch dish
and # of persons of course.

• Like upma, temper in 2 tsp of oil of choice some mustard seeds, asafetida, urad dal and curry leaves and 1-2 green chilies - depending on their intensity.
• Once the mustard splutters and the urad turns golden, add 3 cups of water with some salt
• Bring to boil before adding the noodles (I do not roast them)
• All the ingredients are in now so all it needs is to cook so keep it closed and the heat in medium
• This will take about 7-10 minutes.
• Around the 7th minute, open the lid and allow the excess water to evaporate
• I always like some nuts in my upmas so I think I added cashews or chipped almonds
• Drizzle 2 tsp of either sesame oil or olive oil or butter on the top  and give it one stir before serving. I made some red bell pepper chutney to go with it. I had also made vadais that day - can get a peek of it on the plate :)

Happy weekend lunching folks :) 

Rainbow Cake

Outside decoration with edible markers

A baby shower in Spring - Colors around the house so vibrant and inspiring - A rainbow cake it is, i decided having not so long ago seen this one! I also tried the cake recipe from the same blog!  Here was my chance to experiment with natural colors - You may recall my Rainbow Cheesecake, which I made with food coloring a milestone post of mine - This time I decided I would make it a lot healthier - as cakes go - and used a bunch of different coloring agents for this purpose - Also with my cheesecake, we poured the colors one after another from the middle and had them spread to the sides - whereas these are individual cakes that make up the rainbow.

Here are my coloring agents
Freshly Juiced blackberries 2-3 tbsp
Freshly juiced Strawberries 2-3 tbsp
Freshly juiced blueberries 3-4 tbsp
Freshly juiced carrot  - 3-4 tbsp
Freshly juiced Spinach -3-4 tbsp
Saffron for Yellow - 6-8 threads
Rose Syrup (from Indian Store) for bright Rose
NOTE: All the colors get twice enhanced when they are baked - so don NOT be disheartened if the colors appear pale as you mix them in - I was a bit concerned but got with it soon enough :)

I would follow the white cake recipe from Joys of Baking or another renowned site - the cake that went with this recipe tasted awesome, but they initially dried up a bit and I fixed it by using sugar and evaporated milk - The end result was incredibly soft and completely flavorful cake - The Vanilla extract completely camouflages any smells of the spinach.
It was so much fun making the buttercream - I was blown away by how much was required and how labor-intensive a cake such as this one can be - But we do not make rainbow cakes everyday  and even one color at any given time will suffice -

Our cake expert, Anita Gupta gave me the recipe for the buttercream
Here it is  -

• 5 large Egg whites beaten to stiff but not dry peaks
• 1 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• pinch of Cream of tartar 
• 3 sticks (12 oz.) salted butter cut into small pieces, semi cold
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla
• 1/2 capful orange extract

Instructions

• Cook sugar, cream of tartar and water in a small saucepan over medium high heat, stir until sugar dissolves and syrup begins to boil. Cook to 240 degrees. Remove butter from fridge while syrup is cooking, set aside
• Cut your butter into small pieces and leave in fridge while cooking syrup. 
• Beat the egg whites in KitchenAid bowl with wire whisk attachment. Stiff, but not dry peaks.Turn mixer speed to medium low and pour the cooked sugar syrup at a steady stream, not too slow but not all at once either. Pour between the beater and the side of bowl to prevent splashing. Turn mixer to high speed and beat until the outside of bowl feels cool to the palms of your hands. 
• Change to the paddle mixer attachment, turn speed to medium low and add butter a few pieces at a time till it is all used and begins to combine, turn mixer speed to high and beat until the outside of the bowl feels cold to the palms of your hands and mixture has begun to come together, looks fluffy and shiny. Add the flavorings and beat till well combined.If mixture looks curdled or separated it may be because the syrup wasn’t cooked to 240 degrees, you pour the cooked syrup in too quickly, or you added the butter too quickly and it may have been too warm. It needs to have a slight chill to it. 
• You can still salvage the icing, continue to beat on high speed until it comes together and is fluffy. If you end up with a soupy mixture at the bottom put the mixer bowl and paddle attachment in the fridge for about 10 minutes. Beat again on low speed until it begins to come together, than turn speed to high and beat until fluffy and shiny.

Now for the pictorial

Follow recipe to make cake batter  - add the color to it

Fresh from the oven

The flavors

The stack before and after torting (looked like a leaning power of Pisa before being sliced down the middle yielding 2 mega cakes :)

Torting is slicing the cake down the middle - can be done with dental floss  

Torting the cake with a dental floss -this is a superlative and stress free idea - You must try it!

The buttercream

With a wedge cut off - first glance at the result

Thankfully a piece got photographed!! :)

To top this we were blessed with a real rainbow (I call it Shrey's rainbow since she spotted it and was SO excited to be the one to ) 

Ended up being a double rainbow -to match the 2 cakes - what are the odds ;)

The second rainbow is clearer in this one!

This was a wonderful experience and I got to do it with a friend which made it all the more doable :) These are projects to do with a friend or family member - the experience becomes that much funner!
Adios Amigos until my next post!

Cucumber Rasam

Cucumber Rasam

A long unprecedented hiatus from my blog – My mind has been overused by too many other things happening in my –as in – my children’s lives, I have not had a moment to stay focused enough to let any creative juices flow, a writer’s block so to speak. But I did have a fabulous vacation with my family when we got to relax without having to plan the next meal, the next drop off or pick up, pick up groceries and the other million things we normally have to do in our busy “American” mommy lives! But the next ailment is my extreme allergies to pollen in the springtime that shuts me down completely, especially since I have to be on many medications to keep myself afloat!  Thanks to all those who sympathized with me on FB when I posted those God Awful pictures of myself with my blood-shot eyes and Rudolph like nose! 

I have SO many recipes in my drafts it’s not funny and like any scaredy cat, I was afraid to even look to see what to blog, because the task seemed too daunting. But here I am with a couple of recipes I’d like to share _ The rainbow cake which I will get to second; the first is my Cucumber Rasam.

This was a lazy person’s idea to finish the cucumbers we’d bought earlier last week – Raita would mean some exotic or some other main dish – with my nose dripping and eyes watering, standing in front of the stove is the last of my desires, trust me.

I washed peeled, cut and ground the cucumbers with a cup of water

I added 2 tbsp of lemon juice (from a bottle) and some salt

So far, so good!

Then I took a 1-1/2 tsp of rasam powder, added half a cup of water and let it boil for a good long time so there would be no rawness to it

I added this to the cucumber juice and stir it in

As is the way, I tempered with some sesame oil/butter some cumin seeds, mustard seeds and curry leaves.

I also garnished with some cilantro.

It tasted AWESOME

NOTES:

Never heat up the cucumber juice

If serving with rice, ensure the rice is piping hot to compensate for the lukewarm rasam

Refrigerate if you want to have it as a soup -which I did

Hope you will try to make this rasam and enjoy it as much as we did. I will be back by the end of the week with the cake – Promise J

An appeal to all my blogger friends - I would like to hopefully restart commenting on all your recipes - but please help by getting rid of word processing that blogger has made even more difficult now - It takes time and acts as a disincentive - You can always control the contents by saving the comment to publish after you have seen them - thanks y'all and love ya!

Behtareen Biryani

One of the fanciest and most exotic rice preparations with rice is the oh-so flavorful and aromatic Biryani. Behtareen means "Perfect" in Urdu and Hindi. I have never really attempted a Biryani in the past, but inspiration got the better of me last month and I did attempt it and it turned out fabulous - Felt a huge sense of achievement that I managed to make something which we order rather longingly in a restaurant right here in my kitchen!! I was also happy in the knowledge that i used the healthiest and best ingredients to make it.

I was going to make a dhum biryani  - the kind you get at Cream Centre for those of you familiar with that restaurant chain in India. I did not make the atta- chappati covering to cook it, but instead used my rice cooker. But I layered it the same way and the more it stayed the better it tasted. The house was filled with the warm spell of spices and the naturally aromatic basmati.

Here is my version of this exotic rice preparation

The pictures are pretty self-explanatory and the masala for biryani has been approached in different ways depending on what tastes you prefer to be more predominant. 

NOTE: The ONE ingredient I did not photograph since I added it last is coconut - 1/4 cup of grated coconut for the masala.

For the Masala

The veggies, Paneer, (Raisins & Almonds) for sauteing
Peas, Beans,Carrots, Onions, Cauliflower, & Paneer. Saute and cook with olive oil/butter and salt - I added a 2 tsp of curry powder to cook the veggies -
Saute Paneer with 1 tsp of curry powder
Next, saute rice with butter and add the masala paste to it along with salt. Cook in rice cooker

Secret Ingredient 4-5 strands crushed lightly - Saffron - Zafrani (cook with the rice)

Once the rice is cooked, layer veggies and rice finishing preferably with rice layer on top. Once you serve it can be mixed up on the plate or in the copper vessel that I have presented it in. Enjoy HOT with raita & pappad.

Ta-Dah!

Sprouted Green Gram Sundal/Salad

Back after an unannounced break with the simplest yet most healthy and as tasty dish. I am guest hosting the Sprouts event of Mom Chef -Sizzling Tastebuds and had made 3 recipes for this purpose - This is not an uncommon dish to people who used sprouted grams - but the beauty of this dish is to sprout your own grams - it is truly amazing the wonder of things when you see the little white stems poking out of the gram only to grow long in a matter of a day!  So give this a shot - you will be doing yourself a favor by eating this incredibly healthy dish, South Indian Shtyle :)

Sprouting green gram requires soaking, draining and rinsing intermittently until such time you see some sprouts - Using a thin wetted towel could help this process -Although I did not have enough foresight to take pictures of the process, I do have some pictures of the dish :)

This is off to the event - please follow link to see other entries and if you have not submitted one already, please do so - I will sprout back with some more dishes this week

Kumato- Mozzarella Hors D'oeuvre

Kumatos is a brand name but the most common one that comes up if you are googling brown tomatoes. The first time I saw them I was intrigued! Thought it was a cross between a plum and a tomato - My friend used Kumatos in a salad the first time I tasted them and I loved the crisp sweetness of it raw and enjoyed them a lot more than the regular raw tomato.

Of Spanish origin, Kumatos are a cross of red & green tomatoes. They are from the Mediterranean region of Spain but are now being grown in many parts of Europe and Canada since people have come to taste them and realize how incredibly sweet they are :) So it was a pleasure to make something with them for the first time after which I have gone on to experiment with other dishes which I will post soon, hopefully.
This hor D'oeuvre is a simple & sophisticated dish and would be an amazing addition to either fine dining or a casual party. I used port wine along with other ingredients to be listed below to marinate the mozzarella. I know many people in my circle who are not crazy about raw tomatoes, but even they loved this preparation.

Ingredients

6 Kumatos
About 6 ounces of Small fresh mozzarella
For the Marinade
2 tbsp port wine
1 tbps balsamic vinaigrette
1/2 tsp herb de Provence
1 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1tsp of agave nectar
1/2 tsp of freshly ground pepper
Fennel greens for garnish

Slice the tomatoes into 1/4 inch thick slices (this can be done before serving)

Similarly cut the Mozzarella balls into wedges

Mix all the ingredients for the marinade together in a flat plate with sides - Soak the mozzarella in it and refrigerate for until an hour to half an hour before serving.

Arrange the cut tomatoes in a serving plate - Top with cheese as shown in the picture. Drizzle any extra marinade over the tomatoes as well. Place you fennel on each serving decoratively and hear the Mmm mmms or Wows :)

Event Announcement

My blog is guest-hosting hosting Mharo Rajasthan's blog event - Veggie/Fruit a Month and the star veggie on my blog is the much touted (by me thanks to Dr Oz) and supposedly one of the healthiest vegetable - The Sweet Potato - or La Patate Douce or Chakravelli Kazhangu, Camote etc - If you have not cooked with this wonder veggie hitherto, please, this is your chance to give them a shot - here are some of my sweet potato recipes - Thank you Priya for giving me this wonderful opportunity to showcase my most favorite veggie :)

There are few rules of this event:

·              The chosen veggie or fruit has to be the STAR of the recipe.

·              It can be cooked in any way or can be in its raw form in the recipe. 

·              It can be any course of the meal (appetizer/main course/side dish/dessert/beverage or breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack).

·              Recipe has to be strict vegetarian (eggs are allowed). This is simply to re-enforce the fact that we can eat veggies without any meat and also for all our vegetarian friends, who do not eat meat.

·              You HAVE to make new recipes and old archived posts are not allowed. This is just so that we try and make new fresh recipes :)

·              Please send in your entries before end of March 31, 2012.

·              Link your post to the original event post along with the event announcement for that month.

·              You can choose any kind of fruit/veggie that is featured. Feel free to mention the variety if you know.

·              Always try to buy and use locally grown veggie and fruits :)
Please use linky below to enter your recipes

Please feel free to send any suggestions or feedback on the event or if you have any questions regarding any of the rules.


******REMINDER*******


Ongoing event "Cooking for Kids", A brain child of Kalyani -Sizzling Tastebuds - The ingredient - Sprouts- I have cooked 3 recipes I cannot wait to share! 
Do send your entries to both events


Look forward to your entries - send them along starting now ...:)