Roti!!!

How long has it been since I wrote anything here!!! I've missed you all and the blogging...
Hmmm... Lets see... I went to India, came back to the US, found a new place to live, moved into the new place, took up a new job, started sending my son to pre-school, went to India again for my sister's wedding, came back, welcomed my sister here, helped her a little bit to settle down and now taken a small break from work.... So, got back to blogging about my favourite thing - FOOD!!! and hoping I'd continue....

Mondays are roti days. Since I've been working, have not been able to make roti at home. I'd just pick up some from a restaurant on my way back home. Since I'm on a break now and was at home today, I decided to make it myself...

Actually, making roti has always been a challenge for me. It was one of those unconquered territories! My mom, a great cook (and my cooking inspiration) is a bad roti maker too! worse than me - can you believe that? Being rice eaters, this never made our everyday food any less delicious.

Roti, screams 'Indian'. When I call my self an Indian cook, I am supposed to make good (if not great) rotis. I set out on this mission... Made them over and over... not very successful or consistent in making the perfectly soft rotis. My MIL makes wonderful rotis and (unlike me) she never feels they were labour-intensive. This time when I was in India, I carefully observed her making rotis every time. When I got back this time, I replicated her method - viola!!! soft and great tasting rotis every time. Mission accomplished!!

Tonight, I used multi-grain atta (Pillsbury) and couple of table spoons of flax seed powder. I added chopped fresh basil from my garden, salt and couple of teaspoons of oil. Kneaded the dough with fingers, (new technique learnt - don't use the palm and don't put excess pressure while kneading) rolled the rotis and cooked them on a hot griddle. We really enjoyed our dinner and I felt a great sense of accomplishment.

Mirchi ka salan

The first time I had 'Mirchi ka Salan' was at a restaurant near my office in Chennai with friends and absolutely loved it. I ordered it again the next time I went there. One day, my colleague in the US, Latha, brought it for lunch and I thought I'll make it at home, but that did not happen. I am in Chennai now at my mom's place. My mom had bell peppers which she wanted to cook the same day. She was going to cook drumstick leaves and she said she is going to add bell peppers to that. I love bell peppers and felt it would be a weird combination with drumstick leaves. So, I told her I'll make something with the bell peppers and the first thing that came to my mind was 'Mirchi ka salan'.

Mirchi ka salan is a Hyderabadi side dish that is served with rice and biriyani. It is prepared with mild varieties of peppers like Anaheim, Poblano, bell peppers, banana peppers and sometimes Jalapenos. In Chennai, it is generally prepared with 'Bajji molagai'. The original recipe uses a flat-bottomed copper vessel and is covered with dough while cooking over low heat to enrich the flavours. The roasted and ground spices makes it so aromatic and it has a wonderful nutty flavour from sesame seeds and peanuts.

Ingredients:
Bell peppers - 1 lb cut into large cubes
Oil as required
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Juice of a small (1/2 lime sized) piece of tamarid

To grind set 1:
Onion - 1 large diced
Tomato - 1 large diced
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Garlic - 4-5 cloves

To grind set 2:
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Coriander seeds - 1 tsp
Red Chilies (whole) - 5 - 6 or to taste
Sesame seeds - 1 tsp
Peanuts - 2 tbsp

Method:
Dry roast cumin, coriander and sesame seeds separately and grind all set 2 ingredients together. In little oil saute cubed bell peppers until slightly wilted, remove and set aside. In the same vessel heat some more oil and fry ginger, garlic, onion and tomato. Cool, grind and set aside. Heat little oil, add curry leaves and once the spluttering stops, add mustard seeds and allow it to crackle. Lower the heat and then add ground set1 paste and mix well. Next, add ground set2 powder, salt, turmeric powder and tamarind juice, mix well and bring it to boil. Now add the sauteed bell peppers and allow to boil for 30 seconds, remove from heat and enjoy hot with rice.

Mainland China in Chennai

Situated in Sterling Road, Nungambakkam, Chennai, 'Mainland China' kind of hides behind Quality Inn. It is an upscale restaurant, surely not an affordable place to eat very often, but a perfect place for special days and celebrations. I have dined there few times in the last five years with family and friends and was never disappointed. As the name clearly suggests, they serve Chinese cuisine. The names of the dishes in the menu and the food presentation are authentic Chinese, but the food is of course Indianised Chinese which makes it more delicious. The decor and lighting are really good too - perfect for a quiet little celebration. They have weekend lunch buffet with a great variety of Veg and Non-veg dishes (including steamed dumplings - which my mom loved a lot). It used to cost around Rs. 250 per person few years ago and I'm sure it is a lot more expensive now.

Recently, I took my parents, sister and my aunt and uncle who were visiting from Singapore, there for dinner. The food was really good and the service was exceptional as usual. My uncle was really impressed with their service. I was surprised to see that the restaurant was almost full on a regular Tuesday night, that too towards the end of the month. We ordered Pepper lemon vegetable soup, Sweet corn soup, Crispy chilli corn and Crunchy spinach (was not in the menu card - suggested by our waiter) for starters. The soups tasted amazing and was not loaded with corn starch as done in most Chinese restaurants. The starters were crunchy and had unique flavour. For main course, we ate Vegetable fried rice, Crispy noodles with sweet and sour vegetable, Exotic vegetable clay pot and Pepper lamb curry. All the dishes tasted great except the lamb. My uncle and aunt felt that the lamb was imported frozen lamb and hence was tough and not as tender as Indian mutton. We ordered Date pancake with Vanilla ice cream for dessert. It took really long to get our dessert to the table and we were getting a little restless at the end. As expected, the pancake was fantastic. We paid about Rs. 2300 for six people - which is expensive yes, but truly worth it. I would rate Mainland China with 4 1/2 stars out of 5 (1/2 star less because of the lamb and long wait for the dessert).

Paneer Burji

We are in India right now and the first three weeks have been very busy with festivities. We have gotten out of jet lag, finished my dad's 60th birthday at Thirukadayur, went to Thirupathi, celebrated Karthigai deepam and have finally settled down. I have some breathing room before the preparations for my bil's wedding would start and decided to utilize that in my blog.

Paneer Burji is a very simple and easy dish and can be served as a side dish with roti or separately as a breakfast entree. It is very nutritious and high in protein. 'Pal curry' (Curried milk), as my mom would call it, is made when she has excess milk or when she suspected the milk would turn sour soon. She would boil the milk, curdle it using lemon juice or curd, separate out the curds from whey water by filtering through a 'veshti' (dhoti) cloth and hang it to drain the excess water. Then she would crumble the paneer with her fingers and use it in the curry. As a kid, I somehow never liked this dish and that thought stayed in my head. When I prepared it at home for the first time, I was apprehensive about the taste. I took the first spoon expecting it to taste bad. I was surprised by how much I liked it. I realized that our tastes grow with us and our horizons widen each day.

My version here uses store bought paneer for ease, and can be substituted with home-made paneer. I made this recently as a side dish when we had invited a couple of Murali's (husband) colleagues home, for dinner. We loved it so much that the four of us finished all the burji made from about a pound of paneer (apart from the other dishes). My little son liked it too - which was an additional plus.

Ingredients:
Paneer - 400 gms pack grated
Onion - 2 finely chopped
Tomato - 3 finely chopped
Green chillies - 4-5 or to taste
Ginger paste - 1 tsp
Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Cilantro - 2 tbsp finely chopped (optional)
Oil - 2 tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:
Heat oil over medium heat, add cumin seeds and fry until brown. Add onion and green chillies and fry for a minute. You can add little salt at this stage to bring out the sweetness of onion. Now add ginger paste and garlic paste and fry until the mixture turns light brown. Keep stirring to avoid burning. Now add tomatoes and fry for 2 minutes. Add salt (include salt for paneer too), garam masala powder, turmeric powder and add little water and cook covered for 5 minutes. Now add the grated paneer and mix well until heated through. Add cilantro mix well, remove from heat and enjoy hot.

Double frenzy - long vacation and moving

I have been cooking all morning... food for this entire week. We are traveling to India on a 2-1/2 month long vacation. We are also vacating our apartment and storing our belongings in a mobile storage. This works out more economical for us. The storage container will be delivered to us tomorrow (Sunday) morning and we have until Wednesday morning to load it... Since, I'll be busy packing, and then cleaning, and I'll have to pack up my kitchen too, I cooked for the rest of the week and stored food in yogurt containers in my refrigerator. When done, I would just dump the containers in the recycle bin after a quick rinse - No washing or storing :))).

I generally cook in the evenings (dinner). So, my food pictures have to be shot indoors under artificial light. I do not have any studio kind of lighting, nor a great digital SLR camera (I am planning to invest in one soon). Most of my pictures are shot in normal room light without flash in macro mode in my simple Olympus but good (18X optical zoom) camera. Obviously, my pictures do not turn out great. Why am I talking about all this?? Hmmm... now I remember... to explain the picture in this post... Today, I cooked in the morning (unlike other days). The peas carrot and corn poriyal (sauteed vegetables) that I made, looked so colourful, the day was wonderfully sunny and I could not resist taking a picture. I don't say this picture turned out great either. Before I could get the perfect shot, my camera gave up on me with drained batteries. My replacement batteries were not charged either.... I could neither shoot anymore, nor anything else I cooked. Amidst all the other things, I did not have the patience to charge and then take pictures.

My mission for today's cooking was to use up all the veggies that I had in the fridge. I made apple, pear and mango - blueberry purees for my son's oatmeal. Frozen Suran (Indian Yams) from the freezer and sambar from the previous day went into the Suran black eyed beans curry (kuzhambu). Frozen peas, corn and carrots went into the poriyal in the picture. Half a bottle of salsa went into Aloo mirchi mutter. I wanted to take a picture of that too as it was tasty and colourful, but, that did not happen. I made dal chutney (paruppu thogayal) with left over red cabbage and 1/2 bunch of cilantro. I made dal with all the other veggies I had in fridge and freezer (I counted 13 of them other than onion and tomato :) ). I made a huge batch made idly / dosa batter few days ago. I am retaining the electric rice cooker and will leave it in the car. Roti, we will bring from store. With all this we will survive for a week without cooking. I think, we may have leftovers too, but have to be trashed :(. At the end, I am left out with 2 potatoes, 1 whole bulb of garlic, 1/2 packet frozen mangoes, 3/4 packet frozen pineapples, 1 1/2 packets of frozen coconut (they had buy 1 get one free during last week's grocery trip - unfortunately, last week than any other time...) and of course some fruits for rest of the week. Considering this, I would say "Mission Accomplished".....

Lemon rice with a healthy twist for brunch

On both Saturdays and Sundays, my husband and I eat brunch around 11.00 AM. I leave my little one out of it... He gets to eat his regular 3 meals and 2 snacks a day. For me, brunch should be easy, quick, tasty and at the same time a wholesome and nutritious meal. I would not want to stand around the kitchen for long on a weekend morning.

One Tuesday, during our regular walk back from the library after the story time for kids, Rose and I were taking about healthy eating. Rose said that she has seen her friends eat 'just coloured rice' for lunch (like lemon rice, tamarind rice), which is only carbs without any vegetables or dal. Another day, when we were having a potluck, Smita suggested adding spinach to lemon rice and I thought it was a great idea. I tried it out and we all loved it.

Ingredients:
Raw rice - 1 cup
Chopped spinach - 1 lb (I used frozen as it is quicker)
Whole peanuts - 2 tbsp
Channa dal - 1 tbsp
Urad dal - 1 tbsp
Red chillies - 5-8 broken into halves
Hing - 1 pinch
Curry leaves - few
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons or to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1 1/4 tsp or to taste
Oil - 2 tsp

Cook rice with 3/4 tsp salt and 2-3 drops of oil. I use a rice cooker. Once cooked, separate the rice granules with a fork, spread on a large plate and let it cool for 10-15 minutes. This makes the rice granules separate and do not squish while stirring.

Heat oil in a pan on medium heat. Add hing and curry leaves and fry till the spluttering stops. Add red chillies and mustard seeds and fry until they start to crackle. Now add the penuts and fry for a few seconds. Then add the channa dal and urad dal and fry until golden brown. Now add the spinach and stir until slightly wilted (about 30 - 45 seconds). Turn the heat to low, add lemon juice and turmeric powder and stir well. Now start adding the rice in portions and continue stirring until heated through. Tasty spinach lemon rice is ready to serve. I served it with mung beans sundal (cooked and sauteed mung beans with onions tomatoes and spices) for the protein. We relaxed and enjoyed the brunch in front of the TV ;-)

This is my entry for 'Monthly Mingle (Brunch)' hosted by 'What's For Lunch Honey?'.

Beans paruppu usili - Green beans with lentils

Paruppu usili can be made with green beans, gover beans or banana flower. It is a traditional side dish and tastes wonderful with rice and rasam or mor kozhambu. I love paruppu usili, but do not make it very often as it takes a bit of effort. This time, I served it with mor kozhambu, we all loved it and I felt, it was the best paruppu usili ever.

There are two basic variations in cooking the dal (lentils).
1. Soak, grind and saute
2. Soak grind, steam and saute
Steaming before sauteing makes the usili taste better and consumes less oil (and of course takes longer to prepare)
Ingredients:
Green beans - 1 pound cleaned and cut into about 1 inch long pieces
Toor dal - 3/4 cup
Channa dal - 3/4 cup
Toor dal - Channa dal proportion can be varied slightly based on the final texture you would like to achieve. Toor dal makes it softer and channa dal makes it crispier.
Oil - 2 tsp
Asafoetida (hing) - 2 pinches
Curry leaves - 6-8
Red chillies broken into pieces - 4-6 or to taste
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Ginger paste - 1 tsp

Method:
Soak toor dal, channa dal and 3-4 red chillies in water for 2-3 hours (not longer). Grind into a coarse paste. Place dal balls on oiled idly plates and steam for 10 - 15 minutes. Cool, remove from idly plates and break into very small pieces using your fingers. Cook the beans in microwave oven with water sprinkled on, until 3/4 cooked. Heat oil in a pan, add asafoetida and curry leaves and fry until the spluttering stops. Add mustard seeds and when they start crackling, add the remaining red chillies and urad dal. Fry until urad dal turns golden brown. Add ginger paste and fry for about 30 seconds. Now add the steamed dal and cooked beans and mix well. Fry on medium-low heat until dry and desired crispness is reached. This may take about 20 - 30 minutes of patient stirring. Then, enjoy the reward of your patience :)