Baked Rice Chakli 'n' An Amazing Vacation.....

Baked Rice Chakli

Rice Chakli...you know sometimes the most odd coincidences happen...for quite a while my Mom was talking about making chakli at home ( we used to do it together when we were both younger, me a teen and hence quite enthu about all new & interesting cooking )....but now doing it on my own just did not appeal and I kept putting it off...

And this is where the odd coincidence comes in...

I was on vacation in US - visiting my sister-in-law To and her husband A, had an amazing time with them ( have to thank them once again..had a lot of fun.. )...met up with most of our family there especially those on the East Coast, visited Boston...had a great time with our family who live there....attended a birthday party, awesome cake, birthday girl's current favorite...'Elsa', the princess from the Disney movie "Frozen"...

.... visited New York...shows and sightseeing...Bill Cosby show, the Radio City Rockettes...Central Park one of my favourite haunts, and also took in the new sights...the newly opened World Trade Centre...and the 9/11 memorial...

Central Park

World Trade Centre

9/11 Memorial

Atlantic City Caesars Casino

..visited New Jersey, our old home, our old haunts...with some friends who stay there...Outlet malls, Atlantic City...shopping & eating out...and visited the new Swaminarayan Temple at NJ...thanks guys A&L&kids....

Swaminarayan Temple in NJ

...met up with another old friend & her family...late night movie (Happy New Year), shopping, taking her dog to the park...Minnie...such a darling....had a great time thanks to G...& her family...

all in all an awesome month of pure relaxation & enjoyment.

Have posted some pictures of New York and some of the colors of fall...have taken so many it is difficult to decide on which to post....

Fall colors in Allentown, PA

I think the month I visited was the best season out there...I love the  fall season in the East Coast of US...the colors were fantastic...could not stop clicking...

Cucumber Spinach Pancake

Cucumber and Spinach Pancake

In the good old days we used to have Sanjeev Kapoor on TV, Khana Khazana was the program which we could watch to see live cooking recipes...used to like to watch that....but many times would miss it ....whereas now we have two channels now showing us a lot of recipes full time - Food Food channel and the erstwhile Khana K....so when we are free we can browse those channels and watch some new, old, desi(local) or international recipe....

On one of those shows I came upon this one....it reminded me of one of my own rice chilla which I have already blogged...this was a simpler version and I thought let me give it a try...

It turned out pretty good and amazingly simple & quick...so guess it is something which will be part of my repertoire in future....works good for breakfast or a snack...or even if guests drop in and you would like to have something more substantial than biscuits & chai to serve them...

So without further ado...let me get on with the actual recipe..here goes...

Ingredients:

1 medium cucumber grated
1/2 cup chopped spinach
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1/2 tsp red chili powder ( can add more if you like it spicier)
1/2 cup rice flour
2 Tblspns rava
2 Tblspns yogurt(curd)
water to make a batter
oil for frying


Method:

1) Grate a cucumber - squeeze out the water and keep aside. Chop spinach leaves and add to the cucumber along with salt and red chili powder.

2)Add the rice flour, rava, yogurt and mix - then add water to make a batter - first add the cucumber water - and if required add additional water. Do not make it too thin. Keep aside for about 10 minutes. 
The flours absorb the water and the batter becomes a little thicker.
Then add some more water if required so as to have a batter which is as thick as a dosa batter.

3) Put a few drops of oil onto a non-stick pan, then take a ladle full of batter and spread onto the pan. Cover with lid and let it cook till some brown spots appear. Flip the pancake and cook the other side too. Cook on medium heat so as to cook evenly and thoroughly.

4) Serve hot with ketchup or green chutney.

Enjoy !!!

For such a simple recipe the taste was pretty awesome...and the prep. time is so little...so ahead and try it out yourself...would love to hear from you, what you think about it...

Healthy Dates & Carrot Quick Breakfast Bread

Dates & Carrot Breakfast Bread

So now I am on a health trip - trying to find ways to reduce the sugar, all-purpose flour from my recipes...did a bit of experimentation with yeast...and then found my way back to the quicker variety with baking powder & soda...

Though right now I am still continuing with the carrots & dates & banana or apple pulps combinations, this particular bread recipe had agave ( for sweetness)  which I replaced with honey...the previous recipe was a whole wheat bread which was very dense - so decided to go a bit lighter this time with a combination of flours...and since this had oats(loads of goodness)...felt I could add in a bit of AP flour...the sweetness is due to the dates and honey - both of which just barely flavours the bread - and that is good for a breakfast bread..which is where I was going with this one...
However if you would like it more like a dessert you make add more honey or dates or even sugar to the mix.

The spices in this bread brings out the flavours of dates, the slight aroma of banana...and brings to mind the Christmas plum cake...making it absolutely yummy !!!

Eggless Low-fat Chocolate Brownie....or cake...or something in middle

Now this is a sort of repeat of one of my earlier posts, but had to put it down - could have done a update - but decided that it needed it's own space :-)

How it all started...

End of last year I had discovered a low-fat brownie recipe which I liked a lot - and as I mentioned in that post - it was not a proper brownie recipe -which is supposed to have a high proportion of fat to flour ...whereas that one was more cake like - and the term low-fat brownie is sort of an oxymoron...but as I said since it was such an amazing recipe - and I added a chocolate drink powder on top to give it an icing look - and turn it into a yummy desert...I had been thrilled with the end product and with myself... :-)

Anyways so yesterday we were invited to a sort of snack fest by one of our cousins - and I was to bring brownies with me to the do...now many in my hubby's family are non egg eaters...hence the search last night for an egg less brownie...
Turned up quite a few - but none as quick and easy as the earlier mentioned "low-fat brownie recipe"....so decided to innovate and turn that into a egg less recipe...

And again am so thrilled with the recipe and the end product and myself too... that I had to put it down in a post of it's own - to celebrate the success...

Methi Dhebra / Methi Paratha / Methi Thepla

T's cousins were visiting...they had a late night flight (almost early morning ) - and I was wondering what I should make ...in case they are hungry and would like a bite...

Thought something light would be good...and hence decided on methi dhebra....traditionally dhebra is made of jowar or bajra flour....generally I stick to thepla or paratha which is made of wheat flour...

If the dhebra is made wholly of bajra - then it does not have to be rolled out - it is patted into a small circle and put on the tava to cook..

The ones I made were a mix of wheat flour, and bajra and methi leaves...so it could be rolled out into a thin circle of about 6-7 inches and then fried on the tava with oil.
It turned out real good...and this stays good for a couple of days - you could store it in the refrigerator and warm it before serving.

Rava Idli

Rava Idli

This is one dish which is so amazing, it is quite difficult to explain how such a simple thing can turn out to be an awesome meal....just paired (or is that trioed - if that is a word,should check that out ) with sambhar & chutney of course...

Surprisingly though we are a south Indian family (my folks ) and for us idli, dosas etc.....form quite a staple in our diet, and Mom had tried out quite a few varieties of  dosas - where as in case of the idli - we would stick to the traditional rice & udad dal variety.
In our native place ( S. Karnataka ) they would sometimes add "tadi"  or "kali" - got from the trees grown at home (coconut in our case, some also use the sap from palm tree ) - that was supposed to soften the idli by helping in the fermenting process and amp up the taste factor too...did not have access to that in B'bay so here we would rely on good old heat and keeping the batter overnight...

So nyways coming back to the rava idli, I have had it at restaurants and other friends/ relatives place, so decided to try my hand at making it too,
tried quite a few recipes from the net...and after a few failures and near successes...managed to zero in down on a basic recipe ( from Show me the curry ) with a few modifications taken from other sites.

Have made it many times since....and all who have had it have loved it - so here's the final version...

I have found it easier to make it in two stages - first is the preparation of the rava. I find that roasting rava with the dry ingredients and keeping it ready either much prior to making the dish ( or even the day before ) helps, as it needs to be cooled for the final mix before steaming.
I generally make double the quantity of the roast rava mix - and use half in my idli mix and keep the other half for another day - to be used either for rava upma or rava idli again.

Ingredients:
1) For rava roast:
     Rava - 2 cups
     Oil    - 2 Tblspns
     Chopped Cashews - 1 Tblspn
     Udad dal - 1 tspn
     Chana dal or Dalia - 1 tspn
     Dry Red Chilli  - 1 split in half
     Mustard - 1 tspn
     Pinch of asafoetida

2) For making idli mix:
     Take half of the above rava roast mix.
      Yogurt - 1/2 cup
      Water - 1/2 cup + 1/4 cup
      Green Chilli - 1
      Ginger grated - 1/2 tspn
      Salt - 1/2 tspn
      Eno Fruit salt - 1 tspn
      Grated Fresh Coconut  - 1 Tblspn
      Carrot grated - 1 medium
     


Method:

1) For rava roast :

• Take a non-stick pan, heat the oil, add mustard - wait till it splutters, then add  red chilli split, udad dal, chana dal, cashew, and fry till it changes  color a bit - then add rava and roast till it just start to change  color ( do not allow it to become brown/red ).
• Take out the rava in another dish and allow it to cool completely
• Now divide the rava into 2 portions - store one portion subsequent use - this can be refrigerated or even frozen for longer time.
• One half portion to be used for the second step - i.e making of the idlis, this makes approx 15-16 medium sized idlis...enough for 3-4 people for breakfast/snack...in case of lunch it is sufficient for 2-3 people.

2)    For the idli mix and steaming :

• Take a large mixing bowl - mix the yogurt and 1/2 cup of water thoroughly - add the grated carrot, ginger, coconut, chilli, salt and mix well.
• Then add the half portion of the rava roast mixture which was prepared and cooled earlier.
• Mix the entire batter so that there are no lumps.
• At this stage if the batter appears to be too thick add the remaining 1/4 cup of water bit by bit - the batter should be thicker than dosa batter.
• Keep the mix for about 20 minutes. The rava absorbs the water and the batter becomes a bit thicker - adjust water if required.

• Prepare the idli stand by greasing it with oil or butter.
• Prepare the idli cooker with requisite water and cover and keep on gas for heating.
• Put 1 tspn of Eno in the batter - and mix - it will froth a bit.

• Pour the idli batter into the idli trays and keep it in the idli cooker for steaming for about 15 minutes.

 

Serve hot with coconut chutney and sambhar.

 

Note : The carrot and coconut are optional - but the taste and color and texture that it imparts makes it so special and so out of this world.
You could also add some curry leaves and coriander leaves to the mix in Stage 2.

Enjoy !!!

Whole wheat Coconut Banana Mini Muffins

Mini Muffins

What again ??? This cause I was making my upmteen banana muffin or bread and also my third almost in a row coconut baked something....also have been using coconut quite a bit in other stuff, the most recent being the papad with coconut kosambari ( happala kosambari )....though according me to that does not count - it was a savoury ( spicy ) dish and not to be put in the same mould as a sweet one....

But as I said recently I had made a carrot cake ( which had been given a no. 1 star by my sister's work friends ), a coconut marbled cake / bread ( both recipes still to be posted ) and now this banana mini muffins with coconut...
well what do you do .....when you find a gem of a recipe you have to try it out ...right :-)

Well so here I am making this simple, very healthy ( whole wheat, no butter ), with some of my favourite ( banana, coconut ) ingredients...and very little sugar...so yes I am really thrilled...the occasion ...did not really need any...but had one handy...our friend was to pay us a visit ...it was not a sure thing...but I had to be ready  for him ???