My daughter always enjoys Sno-Cones from the time she had it in the Ozarks ….Her favourite place of course had to be My Grandpa`s Farm on the Katy Trail,which I have already spoken about at lengths in my previous post. Today was a particularly hot day and she wanted to have it – So I decided to make my home-grown version of it….Here it goes…
INGREDIENTS:
6 numbers of ice cubes.
3 spoons of Roohafza
A dash of rose water.
PREPARATION:
Pop the 6 ice cubes in to your mixer and quickly pulse it to get coarsely ground ice.
Drop it in to a glass and pack it in tightly.
Add 2-3 spoons of Roohafza Syrup and allow it to smoothly flow in.
Add a dash of edible rose water and enjoy watching your child delve in to cool rose flavoured Sno-Cone.
Play around with other flavours like lemon, strawberry, raspberry,Cotton Candy etc.
Rice sticks are as I already mentioned one of the things that I always have handy in my kitchen pantry. Whenever things run late, or there is no time to make an elaborate dinner, my first option would be rice sticks.I have already made Quick Mango Lemon Sevai in my previous posts. I some times use the 777 Dhideer Sevai or the Special Bihon rice sticks from the chinese section from a global market or a chinese store. They all use the same ingredients rice, cornstarch and water. All you need to do it so put a pot of water to boil with some salt and a few drops of coconut oil ( I love the flavour and aroma). Pop a whole bag and cook it only for 2 minutes and set to drain on a collander. Since the rice sticks are extremely thin, make sure not to overcook them. The oil in the water, prevents them from sticking to each other.
Once the rice sticks are done, the seasonings in to flavouring them should be done as soon as possible. I had made lemon sevai and tamarind sevai for dinner yesI:terday. These are the quick recipes for the same.
LEMON SEVAI:
INGREDIENTS:
1 pack of rice sticks.
1 Lemon
3-4 chopped green chillies.
Curry Leaves.
Bengal Gram
Salt to taste
Turmeric.
Hing.
PREPARATION:
In a kadai, add 2 spoons of oil and when hot, add bengal gram, chopped green chillies, hing, curry leaves and turmeric. Make sure that the turmeric does not burn.
Switch off the flame and add the cooked rice sticks/sevai to the kadai. Mix well taking care that the sticks dont break when they are getting stirred. Add adequate salt.
Squeeze the juice from the lemon according to taste.
Serve Hot with mango pickle.
TAMARIND SEVAI:
Traditionally this was the recipe used to make tamarind sevai, but many times, I simply use store bought Pulikachal Mix or home made Puliyodharai.
INGREDIENTS:
Rice sticks cooked.
A small gooseberry shaped tamarind ball soaked in 3 spoons of water and warmed.
3-4 red chillies.
Curry Leaves.
Hing.
PREPARATION:
In the mixer, grind soaked tamarind, red chillies, salt and hing to a fine paste.
In a kadai, add a spoon of oil and when hot, add mustard, curry leaves and this ground paste.
Saute the paste in the oil until its well cooked. As the tamarind is used raw this helps in cooking the ground paste.
When well done, switch off the stove and add cooked rice sticks and stir well.
Alternatively, if you have store bought pulikachal mix simply mix it in to the cooked sevai and add some seasoning with mustard and curry leaves for added flavour and moisture.
This time at the library, I found loads of books on sale and I was excited to see magazines like Vegetarian Cooking, Parents,Midwest Living etc om sale. I was browsing through one of them when my eyes fell on the Twirly Whirly Pizza in the Parent Magazine. I had also seen it in Madhuram`s page here.
Today was a lazy Saturday and I wanted to cook a light filling italian dinner for my family. I remembered the Pizza Rolls and the asparagus I had bought at the produce section yesterday. Another all time favourite of mine is zucchini which is a versatile vegetable. I made the following:
Colourful Stuffed Dosa Rolls served with Tomato Carrot Chutney.
Dosas are always a pleasure to have at anytime. My daughter and husband, would nt mind dosa everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It`s also possible to variate the dosa with so many different sides like Tangy Tomato Gravy, Tomato Carrot Chutney, Coconut Chutney etc..Many times, I would like to supplement dosa along with some thing a little more healthier. Dosa for lunch becomes a problem as it gets very dry and brittle, and is hardly filling. Stuffed Dosas are a great lunch idea, as they are lined with a healthy chutney and layered with a stuffing that is hearty and filling, making them into bite size pieces.It`s filling, healthy, non-messy and non-fussy!!! Try it and you will love it!
INGREDIENTS:
Dosa Batter
Tomato Carrot Chutney.
Potatoes,Carrot,Onions & Peas filling.
PREPARATION:
Make soft dosas on the tava and set them aside in a casserole so they remain warm. It`s essential that the dosas for this preparation are SOFT and not brittle.
Place a dosa on your work surface. Line it with the prepared Tomato Carrot Chutney. This forms as a layer for the filling to stick, and also to keep the dosa moisturised.
Dosa lined with chutney and vegetable filling.
Spoon out enough filling to cover the top of the dosa. Do not spread near the corners of the dosa as this may spill out when you roll them.
Place a second dosa on the filling. If the dosa is warm, it will immediately stick to the filling.
Carefully roll this and slice it diagonally in to little cartwheels.
Serve with a side of Chutney or a little cup of curd.
This a great picnic snack as well as a travel snack!
Stuffed Dosa Rolls.
NOTES:
The filling could be anything that you have. Depending on the kind of filling, you could make the sauce.
If you have leftovers of a dry subzi, from the morning, you could line the dosa with pudina chutney or sweet tamarind chutney and serve with a cup of curd garnished with chat masala and cilantro.
Every evening I have to think of healthy easy quick fix snacks for my husband and daughter…I am not a snack peson, but I have to cater to two completely different palates. There is always the resolve to add as much green leaves and vegetables to our daily food intake. Sometimes I have to give in to certain kinds of snacks like “Bhujia, Chips, etc which are not healthy. So I try to make it up by adding healthy food which my daughter does not prefer to go with the not-so healthy snack, wherever possible. Like this Easy Bhujia Chat. I have added thinly diced raw carrots, raw tomatoes and a spoon of flax powder. I also add a 1/2 cup of pomogranate seeds whenver I have them.
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups of Bhujia.
1 carrot diced small.
1/4 onion chopped to small pieces.
1/2 tomato chopped in to small pieces.
1/2 cup of pomogranate seeds.
2 spoons of flax powder.
A dash of squeezed lemon.
Chopped Cilantro.
Sweet Tamarind Chutney for garnish.
PREPARATION:
In a bowl add the bhujjia, chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, diced carrots and pomogranate seedsand give it a quick mix.
The water from the tomatoes helps in binding the ingredients together.
Add 2 spoons of flax powder and do not worry about it altering the taste. It acts as a catalyst and boosts the fibre in your food, but never changes or alters the taste.
Serve on to cups, add a dash of squeezed lemon and garnish with chopped cilantro and sweet tamarind chutney.
Your kids can help assemble this and its also an easy pre-party snack.
This would be my one more entry to FIC Orange brainchild of Harini of Sunshinemoms and hosted by Aparna of MyDiverseKitchens.
Weekends are always a time to sit back and laze, read your favourite books, watch your favourite tv shows, listen to the music you`ve always wanted to, eat simple delicious home cooked food and enjoy a lazy siesta…I never prefer to spend a lot of time in the kitchen over the weekends as this would essentially take time away from my family. Weekends are, therefore Khichdi times…I would prepare easy khichdi and some subzi on the side to go with it. As one item is essentially easy and the process of cooking is done inside my pressure cooker, the subzi gets done along with the khichdi.
Sometimes, when its cold, and I want to have comfort food, Khichdi it is. My daughter loves it, as she helps me in the preparation. I dollop an extra spoon of ghee on her serving, so she is thrilled. It was this one time when she was three, and we had been to the Saravana Bhavan Gujarati Restaurant in T.Nagar. Chennai. They serve this amazing simple thali, and the main course would be some pulav and this khichdi. He would bring it steaming hot, in one of those heavy silver pots, and serve huge ladlefulls on our plate and top it generously with ghee. The taste is simply heavenly and combined with the fact that its piping hot – It was sweet heaven. Since then, this dish has been a regular in my weekend cooking.
Your kids and family would definitely love this mushy khichdi so, go ahead and try it out this weekend
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup raw rice.
1/2 cup toor dhal.
1/2 cup moong dhal.
Seasoning:
2-3 pods of garlic.
1 inch piece of ginger
5-6 green chillis
Curry Leaves.
2 spoons of jeera
3-4 spoons of ghee.
PREPARATION:
In a pressure cooker, add 1 cup of water and switch on the flame. Measure out the rice and the dhals together in a container. Wash the rice and dhals and add water in the ratio: 1 : 3 1/2. This means for the 2 cups ( 1 cup rice + One cup Dhals) we need to totally add about 7 cups of water. Add adequate salt.
Allow 3-4 whistles in the cooker and switch off.
Take the mortar and pestle and crush the ginger, garlic and chillis together to form a coarse mix. We don`t grind it in the mixer, as this would overpower the taste of the khichdi.
In the meantime, take a seasoning kadai and add 3 spoons of ghee. When the ghee begins to get hot, add jeera, the garlic-ginger-chillies mix, and the curry leaves.
Seasonings in ghee.
Allow a few seconds for the seasonings to get fried in the ghee and then pop it over the cooked khichdi. Mix well. I
If you feel that the consistency is not “mushy” , you could add 1/2 cup of milk.
Serve Hot with a spoon of ghee and a side of Channa and Mango Thokku.
Sending steaming hot bowls of Khichdi and Pickle to Recipes for the rest of Us – Dinner, the brainchild of Ramki of One Page Cookbooks , and hosted by Siri of Siri`s Corner.
This simple home made cookie or biscuit as I call it, is a slight variation from my fragrant Coffee Cookies. Many people do not like the aroma of coffee to be taken to cakes and biscuits….And of course, a coffee cookie cannot be served to the kids at large. I wanted to make some thing that is not too sweet and could be enjoyed n the evening as a snack with a cup of tea or coffee. My daughter S, loved it and so did many of my friends.
It`s one of those things that take 20 minutes flat to get done and rolled out…Oh yes, you heard me right…20 Mins…So the next time you need to whip up a quick snack for the evening for your kids and your hubby…think of my home made biscuits!!! One suggestion is to try any baking recipe in a small quantity say half a cup and then extend it to a larger amount. There could be differences in the dough, the power and wattage of the oven, the depth of the baking dish etc. Once you have benchmarked the proportions that worked for you, then you could start out to try larger quantities.
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup All purpose flour.
2 tsp of butter.
1/4 cup of Powdered Sugar.
Pinch of Baking Powder.
10 numbers of crescent shaped cashew halves.
1/2 tsp Cardamom Powder
Pinch of saffron soaked in a tsp pf milk.
PREPARATION:
Measure out the baking powder and mix it in to the all purpose flour.
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter (which is preferably at room temperature) and the powdered sugar till it becomes a creamy crumble.
Add the flour, cardamom powder and the soaked saffron to the mixing bowl and make it in to a smooth thick dough. If you feel that the dough is too dry, add milk or water in spoons and try to incorporate the mixture.
Make in to small balls and flatten them and place them on a greased cookie sheet.
Decorate with a half cashew pressed on the face of the biscuit. Mark little patterns on it if you want.
Ready to be baked.
Preheat the oven to 375 F and bake the biscuits for 12-13 minutes or until they turn golden brown.
Dont worry if they feel soft, they will harden as they cool.
NOTES:
I have included the saffron as its aids the body in fighting fatigue and because of its therapeutic properties of strengthening the heart anf the nervous system. If you find the flavour and aroma unacceptable, you could exclude that from the ingredients and just use the cardamom powder.
You could later on also substitute the cardamom with real fruit extract like banana, cherry etc or with orange zest.
As always I am looking for newer and more innovative methods to present the same food to my daughter to spruce it up to make it look a lot more colourful and lively. There are certain food items where she also helps me making it, so there is that additional excitement, that her labour has gone into it too. I also believe that the physical presentation and appeal are quite important in itself . So I try to make the maximum use of colors to play with one another, keeping in mind not to alter the original intended taste and yet to see If I could use many items.
Yesterday we had this surprise bday party for my friend A, with the Valentine theme, and we had to decide what to chip in for starters. I offered to make these Colourful Heart Sandwiches as they are easy, fast, colourful and of course go with the theme. I had picked these lovely heart shaped cutter from Dierbergs yesterday …so I wanted to put them to use. The method is pretty much the same, only I dressed it up with half a cheddar cheese topping for the kids and pepper jacks for the adults…Here`s how..
INGREDIENTS:
2 Medium sized Potatoes.
1 Juicy Carrot.
1/4 cup of Peas.
1/2 spoon Dhania Powder.
A pinch of garam masala powder.
1 tsp salt.
Somph or Fennel Seeds to season.
Chopped Corriander.
1 loaf of White Bread / Sandwich Bread sliced.
Slices of Cheddar Cheese and Pepper Jack Cheese sliced in to triangles.
Ketchup.
PREPARATION:
It`s ok to make this filling a day ahead, If you are planning a small party or your kid`s sfriends come over for a snack, or even for a picnic.
Cook with minimal water, potatoes and carrots in the cooker with a little bit of salt. Chop the veggies roughly so they cook easily.
Take them out when cool, and roughly mash them.
In a kadai, add a spoon of oil and when smoking, add somph/fennel , chopped onions (optional) mashed veggies, peas, dhania powder, garam masala, turmeric, and salt.
Stir it all in and after 5 mins switch off the stove.
Garnish with chopped cilantro and keep your filling ready.
When it`s time to serve the sandwiches, use the cutter and cut out cute hearts from the bread slices. Save the corners as this can make you delicious bread crumbs for cutlets etc.
Lightly toast the bread hearts on a tava and arrange them on a serving platter.
Heart Shaped Cutter.
Squeeze a little ketchup on the top side of the bread hearts and spread them lightly so that the filling sticks on them.
Use a spoon and scoop a small serving of the filling on the bread hearts and spread them.
Top them with a triangular slice of Cheddar cheese.
Continue and complete all the slices with this arrangement.
Pop the entire plate in the microwave for 30 seconds. This slightly melts the cheese triangles and makes a little pocket for the filling, so it stays in to the cheese pocket.
Decorate with a squeeze of ketchup over the cheese so you get a pretty colour and flavour!!!
Watch your kids enjoy the colorful sandwiches.
HINT:
This is easily a quick fix snack for a potluck or as a starter. Use any filling that is left over in your pantry.
Also a snack that can be easily whipped up for unexpected guests.
Rice sticks are definitely a quick and easy substitution for its fresher variant we do back home – “Sevai”….Sevai is when grind rice that has been soaked, cook it over a stove top to make it thicker, shape it in to dumplings and steam them in the cooker and then extrude the cooked rice dumplings in the form of noodles with the help of a press. This is then flavoured with lemon, tomato, pulikachal (tamarind paste), coconut or some times eaten as they are!!! Many of us, when we were kids, liked the unprocessed sevai, smelling of a trace of hing, and coconut oil….YUM!!!
When I was a school kid, sevai was an elaborate event planned for every alternate saturday afternoons. Madurai amma would supervise the grinding of the rice batter by my mami and amma would chip in, after half day`s work at the bank, by cooking the 4 cups of rice batter on the stove top. We lived in a lovely large joint family of 8, so there would definitely be no holds barred. Then all the children of the family would be called for shaping the cooked balls in to rough round dumplings to steam in the cooker in multiple rounds. THEN, all of us would take turns in extruding the sevai from the iron press – This was one with a huge tripod stand, and a big receptacle for the dumpling to sit in and a large handle to push in the press, to extrude out the steaming hot sevai. This pressing would have to be finished when the dumplings are still hot, so Madurai amma would be watchfully overseeing us, to make sure that there is no small talk in the middle of the proceedings! Then she would divide them in to 4 portions – The bigger portion would be for the spicy tamarind sevai, one portion for the lemon sevai, one for the coconut sevai and the plain tiny portion for my little baby cousin!!! The fruit of the 3 hours labour would vanish when we all sit down and partake of our favourite sevai for tiffin as well as for dinner!!!
When my daughter S, visited Madras last year, and we were all helping out with the usual Sevai routine, she was thrilled to see white steaming noodle ribbons getting pressed out and she exclaimed in glee!!! Madurai amma happily doled out a huge portion to her which she ate in minutes with hundreds of tiny pieces strewn on the dining table, expectantly asking for more…S loved it so much, she offered to press the sevai to help us with it…Madurai amma was proud of her great grand-daughter…She had dutifully wanted to chip in to the family tradition!!!
Knowing that my daughter loves Sevai, I can only give in to her request, which are pretty much last minute, by using 777 Dhideer Sevai or Rice Sticks that are available in the Asian Grocers. Both have to be cooked in boiling water for 5 mins, but I indulge by adding a few drops of coconut oil, so that the rice sticks are fragrant and dont stick to one another. Once they are cooked, drain them on to a collander, and allow to stay for ten minutes. Take the precaution to keep the collander closed so that the rice sticks are not robbed of their moisture.
Today, I wanted to try lemon sevai, but decided to add Mango also to it….My friend Rekha, had once made Mango Rice and so I adapted it to suit my daughter`s palate!!! This is an excellent dish to take when you have long drives ahead of you. Easy to eat, as its non-fussy, very tasty and requires minimal time in the kitchen!! Also great for potlucks and parties and kids always love them!!!
INGREDIENTS:
1 pack of rice sticks.
1 Mango freshly grated.
Juice from 1/2 lemon.
Turmeric Powder.
1 Onion chopped.
Salt to taste.
2 Green Chillis chopped.
Cilantro to garnish.
Seasoning:
Oil. Mustard, Channa Dal, Curry Leaves, peanuts.
PREPARATION:
Take a wide mouthed kadai and add 3 spoons of oil. When warm, add mustard, bengal gram, peanuts, green chillis and curry leaves in that order.
When the mustard splutters and the dals are a little brown, add the chopped onions and saute well till they are pinkish brown.
Add turmeric and salt and grated mango and simmer the stove to very low.
Mix in all the ingredients carefully so as not to break the soft grated mango pieces.
Swirl in the cooked rice sticks and mix well with the cooked ingredients after adding adequate salt.
Finally squeeze juice from half a lemon and garnish with chopped corriander leaves.
You can also serve HOT with coconut flakes garnish.
This delicious tangy Mango Sevai makes an excellent easy Breakfast to be sent to Divya`s Show Me Your Breakfast.
My daughter has always been a poor eater all the way. And like any another kid, getting her to have her daily dose of vegetables is a pretty herculean task. I some times wonder how big chunks of pasta and pizza can get past her oesophagus in a matter of seconds, but rasam sadam and keerai always seems to get stuck some where midway!!! But, as is the dilemma of other moms, I have to invent creative little dinners for her to eat, on the other hand, make sure that she does not lose her veggie spread . Yesterday I had to create a quick fix one for daughter and one for the dear dad for a Valentine Day Pre Party snack!!! They both enjoyed it and I did too…
INSTANT BREAD PIZZA:
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup The prepared Vegetable Topping.
Tomato Ketchup.
Salt to sprinkle.
1/4 cup part skim mozzarella cheese grated.
Bhujiya to sprinkle
ASSEMBLY:
Take a single slice of bread either slightly toasted or plain. Start by smearing a single layer of tomato ketchup. Alternatively you could use Marinara sauce, but the ketchup does not make the bread soggy and allows whatever is placed about it to stay in place.
Scoop a big chunk of the prepared topping and flatten it over the layer of ketchup.
Add a small dash of the bhujiya and top over that with mozzarella cheese.
Pop it for just 30 seconds in the microwave and serve it to your child and enjoy the smiles and praises you get right there!!!
Mine said “Mommy, you are the best”!!!…and my day was made!!!
Anubhavati -Tastes from my kitchen 