A Peek into my Life

Last week I tried a couple of new recipes, so I thought this is a good week for a weekly recap to showcase them. I had ordered an energy bar from bigbasket since there was an offer on it. Otherwise, those things are expensive! The daughter loved the bar, so I saved the wrapper for reference to create my version of it. It contained seeds like sesame and pumpkin along with figs. The daughter is not excited about eating seeds on their own and she kind of hates the look and texture of dates. So I looked at it as an opportunity to feed her superfood seeds and dates. I based it on my dates ladoo recipe. Super Seeds Energy Bar (nobake) Seed and fruit energy bar Ingredients: 1 cup mix of raisins, dates, and figs* 1 tbsp ghee 1 tbsp honey 1/4 tsp rock salt 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder 3/4 cup oats 1 cup nuts and seeds* Method Dry roast oats in a small iron kadhai till crisp; about 4 minutes. You can dry roast the seeds and nuts if they are no...

I had bought some mustard greens and was thinking of ways to cook them. The obvious one was sarson ka saag. I wanted to go a little simpler. I thought of pairing them with one of our favorite dried bean - black-eyed peas. I based this recipe on the famous palak paneer and followed a similar method. This has become our new favorite way to eat greens. I recently made kale this way too. I am so glad to have found another way to eat greens in a totally yummy way while still being so healthy. It never fails to impress the husband (and of course, me too) with its taste. Think of this recipe as a technique and use it on any of the greens, pairing them with different dried beans. Mustard greens with black-eyed peas Ingredients: 1 bunch (4-5 cups) mustard greens 1 cup black-eyed peas 1/2 cup spinach leaves (frozen) * 3 green chilies 2 inch ginger 1 small onion 4 large garlic cloves 1 tomato 1/2 tsp garam masala 2 tsp milk powder * S...

These days we are getting some good methi leaves in the local indian grocery store. I always pick up a couple or more bunches every time I visit. I stagger my methi preparation steps because I cannot get it all done in a day with a busy 3 year old to take care of. I pluck out the leaves one day, the next day I wash and chop them and the methi gets prepared on the third day. We do eat other vegetables that take less prep time on day 1 and 2 in case you are wondering :) Steamed Methi balls in Kadhi One day, while talking to my mom on the phone, she mentioned she saw a steamed methi ball in kadhi recipe on the TV that day. I had the methi all prepped and ready to go. This was as good a day as any to try the recipe based on the general idea. My daughter loved to help me make the little balls. She was inspired to eat them too :) methi ball kadhi with a mix of white and brown rice Ingredients: For Methi Balls 1 bunch methi leaves, cleaned and chopped 1 medium onion ...

I have a special place in my heart for gujarati food. Having tasted authentic home-cooked gujarati food, I have very high standards when it comes to eating gujarati food. In my experience, it is very difficult to get the gujju taste outside of Gujarat. Although here in the US, gujarati food in Atlanta does come close to meeting my standards. I haven't tasted the food since a couple of years so I hope this still holds true. Today's lunch thali of chana bataka nu shaak (black chickpeas and potato curry) and kadhi with rotis and rice is a special combo where everything goes so well together. These recipes make me feel I am back in Gujarat eating a homely meal. Chana Bataka nu Shaak Black Chickpeas and potatoes are cooked in a sweet spicy gravy thickened with besan. The besan is a key ingredient to get the signature gujarati texture and taste to the gravy. Ingredients: 3/4 cup dry kala chana 2-3 potatoes 1 tomato 2 cloves garlic 1 tbsp jaggery ...

I am always looking for new ways to make the humble and healthy lauki (bottlegourd). It is not a vegetable most people look forward to eating. Lauki chane ki dal is the usual way it is made in our house, which is an acceptable way for the picky eaters in the house. I was looking for something more exciting to add variety to our lauki eating habits. I came across this member contributed recipe on tarla dalal website. This recipe completely disguises the lauki and makes a pretty looking and pretty tasting dish. It will not evoke any of the boring expressions which usually accompany a regular lauki ki sabzi. Bottlegourd gatte in yogurt gravy Grated bottlegourd is kneaded into a dough and steamed to make the gatte which are then lightly toasted on a pan before adding to a light yogurt gravy. These go perfectly with some rotis. I used this recipe from tarla dalal website with a few changes. Ingredients: For Gatte: 1 medium bottlegourd 1 cup besan 3/4 tsp salt ...

Chickpeas and apples do not seem to make sense together. But when you think of the apples as a tart and sweet flavor; that flavor does go great with chickpeas. Also, when you end up buying apples that are a tad tart to eat on their own (we just like our apples sweet), you have to come up with creative ways to use them. Chickpea-Apple curried chutney I am not sure whether to call this a curry or a chutney because while the consistency is curry-like, the flavor is chutney-like. That is where the famous word "curried" comes in and I decided to call it a curried chutney. The tart-sweet flavor accentuated by spices is always a hit with my taste buds and I loved the curry down to the last drop. I served this with spinach pesto parathas. Any kind of flavored parathas would go really well with this. The dish does not photograph too well and even I had not taken much effort to take a pretty picture. I was in a rush to finish the picture taking and dig in. Ingredients: ...

Yesterday I made a different gravy for my mixed vegetables. I saw The singing chef blog and a peanutty gravy was something that was tempting me in my mind for a few days. Although I have never had a peanut-based gravy before. So I took the veggies lying in my fridge. 3 small carrots, some beans, a potato, half a capsicum and some frozen corn. I cooked all of this in some oil which had mustard seeds spluttered in it along with some jeera, hing, and turmeric. For the gravy, I blended around a tablespoon of peanuts with half a tomato, some curd, coriander leaves, ginger, some mint leaves, few pistachios, green chillies, cinnamon, some peppercorns, and cloves. This goes into the almost cooked veggies. (And psst...a secret..the leftover tomato soup also went in ;) ) I had to add a bit of coriander powder and sabji masala and sugar, out of habit. Can be left out. The result was quite nice and did perfect justice to my peanut cravings. And to think I hated peanuts when I was a child! Well...