Jam and Fruit Tart

We bid the year 2011 a good bye today....a year that had brought mixed fortunes for many of us. While we rejoiced on occasions of weddings and welcoming new lives, we also were saddened by loss of near and dear ones. Such memories that the year leaves behind will stay etched for a long time.
This year also brought eight 'dare to experiment' bloggers together in a group. In April, Madhuri put the idea forth and we were game....new themes and 'out of the usual' ideas were experimented in our kitchens and shared in posts on bases of monthly themes. We skipped November and Mridhubashini put forward a very colourful theme for the eighth round, which also will welcome the new season in 2012.
Colourful??? very...for she chose to give us all each a colour from the VIBGYOR and White so we cook a rainbow of dishes. Few of us decided that we might make three dishes and my last two posts were in line with the theme for I got to make RED.

I baked this simple fruit tart with a jam centre for the dessert...bidding farewell 2011 with a sweet that isn't all too sweet but just right to enjoy.

My jam was home made adapted from my very respectable author S.Meenakshi ammal and the tart base was an adaption from LG microwave oven cook book.

I chose to make one tart, more like a pie base and fill with the jam, then decorate with red plums. I did not have a good pie dish too, hence I baked in a normal round tin, folding the edges inwards in a plait. The plum slices sat exactly on those folds and covered all the bad patches :)

Recipe for the jam:

350 grams ripe yet firm tomatoes
200ml level cup sugar (you can reduce the sugar to 175 ml, if you want the jam less sweet)
1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon (the recipe says cardamom, I preferred cinnamon)
1 tablespoon lime juice





Wash the tomatoes and drop them in hot water. Place the utensil on a high flame and cook for a good five minutes.
Drain the water, allow the tomatoes to cool and peel the skin off.
Blend the tomatoes in a puree. Wash the blender jar and add the little water to the puree.
Take the puree in a heavy bottom bowl. Keeping the fire medium, cook the tomato puree until it has thicken and falls off the spoon when dropped in thick chunks.
Add the sugar, cinnamon powder and the juice of lime.
The sugar will melt and later cook and thicken the syrup.
Cook until a thick jam is formed.
This can be stored in clean jars for about a week at moderate temperatures and in the refrigerator for a week longer. There are no preservatives in the recipe and the earlier it is consumed the better.




For the tart:
1 cup all purpose flour (240 ml level)/ 120 grams
60 grams cold, diced butter
2 tablespoons/ 30 grams castor sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Few drops vanilla essence
Few tablespoons ice cold water ( I needed 3 tablespoons)

For filling and decorating:
About 75 grams/ 1/4 cup tomato jam
2 red plums cut in 8 wedges



Pre heat the oven to 230 degrees Centigrade.
Sift the flour and baking powder and add the sugar to the sifted flour.
Take this in a bowl, add the vanilla essence and rub in the butter with nimble fingers. (you may choose to do it in the processor or use a dinner knife to cut in; I lost my cutting blade attached to the processor in one of the many moves, and for this small quantity the fingers were sufficient)
When the butter and flour are incorporated in a bread crumb texture, add ice cold water little at a time and form a slightly stiff dough, again handle the dough gently.
Place the ball of dough in the bowl and cover with a cling film. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes.
Roll the dough out in a 1/4" thick base, rolling gently between two sheets of baking paper or plastic.
Butter the pie plate or tin generously and dust with some flour.
Transfer the rolled out dough on to the plate.
Leaving about half an inch wide circumference spread the jam on the surface evenly.
Fold in the edges and seal the jam at the edges. The middle portion has to be left open.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.
Allow to cool well and shift the tart to wire racks to cool completely.
Transfer to a serving dish and place sliced fruit wedges to decorate the tart.

Now hop on to the fabulous recipes my freespirit blogger mates Anupama, Deepti, Dhivya, Madhuri, Mridhubashini, Nagalakshmi and Siri have posted to complete the rainbow. Be warned that they are sure to bowl you over.

Filled and Grilled Red Peppers

Having tempted you with a starter course let me add to my Free spirit bloggers' Rainbow/ VIBGYOR theme Red assigned to me by Mridhubashini, this rice dish for the main course.
We love bell peppers and will mostly have them stuffed. The stuffing varies as per mood on that particular day and the availability of ingredients. Sometimes I use up left overs to make some stuffing recipe and use that up. However, this time I must say that I cooked specially for the stuffing, taking care that the recipe also fell in line with my RED theme and used red colour peppers to grill.
The stuffing is rice cooked with spiced channa masala stewed using more tomatoes and carrots to bring out the red colour. I made this recipe for channa masala from my earlier post. That recipe does not list tomatoes. But I have used few tomatoes and 2 carrots to achieve the colour.



Ingredients:
For the channa rice:
1 cup Basmati rice
1/4 cup channa (white chick peas)
½ cup coriander leaves washed well and dried over a cloth
3 big red onions
4”piece of ginger
2 teaspoons redchilli powder
2 tablespoons any brand channa/chole masala powder
1 marble size ball of tamarind
2 large tomatoes
2 medium carrots
3 teaspoons powdered jaggery
Salt to taste
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon cuminseeds
4 green chillis slit lengthwise
2 tablespoons ghee/oil

For the peppers:
(the above rice will be sufficient to fill 5 numbers large bell peppers)
5 red bell peppers
3 tablespoons yoghurt (I had cashew yoghurt and used that)
1 teaspoon kasuri methi
1/8th teaspoon carom seeds
1/2 teaspoon dry mint leaves
1 teaspoon green chilli paste
1 tablespoon coriander leaves
Salt to taste



Method:
Soak the chick peas overnight. Drain the water in the morning and pressure cook the peas until they are soft.
Wash the Basmati rice thoroughly and spread on a cloth for few minutes.
Heat two teaspoons ghee in a pan and roast the drained rice. Take care not to break the rice kernels. Transfer the rice to a cooking pan and add two cups of water to the same. Allow it to stand for about 20 minutes.
Next step is to marinade the peppers.
Wash the peppers and pat them dry.
Using a sharp knife, slice a slit on the top until a small portion is still holding in place with the lower part.
Carefully scoop the seeds and membrane out.
Grind rest of the ingredients listed under the peppers in a marinade paste.
Gently coat the insides of the peppers with the marinade and let them stand for about half an hour.
If the peppers do not stand still, slice the bottom evenly so that they do not fall.

While the peppers are marinating, the rice can be prepared.
Steam the carrots until tender. Drop the tomatoes in boiling water for about 20 seconds and drain. Allow to cool and peel the skin off.
Grind the chopped onions and ginger along with the coriander leaves and the small marble size tamarind.
Grind the tomatoes and carrots to a puree.
Heat a generous tablespoon of ghee in a heavy pan.
Add cumin seeds and the green chillis. Saute' and add the ginger onion paste. Cook over a low flame until the fat separates. Now add the tomato and carrot puree, salt, the rest of the spice powders, jaggery and the cooked peas. Boil and simmer until the gravy is very thick.
Place the rice bowl on heat and bring the water to a boil. Close with a lid and lower the flame.
When the rice is half cooked, add the channa masala and cook further until they blend well and the rice is soft yet grains can be separated.
Pre - heat the grill. I set my microwave to grill 1.
Gently fill the marinated peppers with the rice. Close the tops. I did not seal them, just flapped the top back in place.
Place them in a baking dish. I used my bread trays to stand the peppers in.
Grill for about 7 minutes. The peppers will be well roasted and the skin might start peeling and in some places they may also char a bit.
Remove from grill and transfer to serving dishes.
Serve hot decorated with salad leaves and favoured vegetables.

White and kidney beans falafels and spicy hot vandikkaran chutney

There are times that you want to try something different from the usual fare and the dish is a hit with guests. Year after year, for navrathri, we make sundal recipes. I do that too; but at times I add something extra to make it more interesting, like making a chat style or adding some crisp to the regular sundals and such. However, this year while shopping for the legumes I chanced to add to my grocery the white haricot beans. They looked quite tempting and when I soaked for the sundal they soaked quickly too. I had, without thinking, soaked a bit too much that I had to reserve some for later use.
On the day I invited ladies from our compound, I decided to make use of the soaked beans. I soaked some red kidney beans/ rajma that day and made use of both beans in one dish - falafels. I made the very easy and hot 'vandikkaran chutney' variation using the locally grown fresh chillis and tomatoes. Both the falafels and chutney paired very well.
This time on the all eight of us, free spirit bloggers have made one round of dishing out various themes and for this month Mridhubashini chose a very colourful theme for the festival season. I have been asked to cook 'RED' dishes for the Rainbow. I opted to do one each of starters, main course and a dessert for the theme, as with other mates. Thus the three posts in succession will feature my "free spirit's rainbow red'.

Ingredients for Falafel:

1/2 cup white haricot beans
1/2 cup red kidney beans
1/4 teaspoon red chilli powder
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
Salt to taste
Cooking oil for deep frying

For the Chutney:
5 medium red tomatoes
1 small marble size tamarind
6 medium size and very hot red chillis
Salt to taste
2 teaspoons oil
(the regular vandikkaran chutney is a smooth blend of just salt, tamarind and dry red chillis. I tweaked a bit as I had those fresh chillis and wanted to use them)

Method:
For falafels:
Wash the legumes clean and soak them in water for about 8 hours/ overnight.
Drain the water well and pulse to a coarse dough in the blender.
Add the red chilli powder, tumeric powder, cumin seeds and the salt.
Heat cooking oil in a pan and when the oil reaches optimum heat, make small balls of the dough, flatten slightly in your palms and slide them in the oil as many as would fit in.
Deep fry well on both the sides and remove the crisply fried falafels with a slotted ladle.
Place them on absorbent tissues before transferring to a serving dish.


For the chutney:
Wash and pat the chillis and tomatoes clean and dry.
Soak the tamarind in very little water, enough to soften it up for grinding.
Chop the chillis and tomatoes in very tiny pieces.
Heat oil in a pan and toss the chillis for a few minutes.
Remove from the pan and keep aside.
In the same pan toss the chopped tomatoes until they are cooked to a pulp.
Cool the tomatoes to room temperature.
Transfer the tomatoes, soaked tamarind, saute'ed chillis and salt to the jar of a blender. Grind to a very smooth paste adding sufficient water.
Once done transfer to a serving bowl. Clean the jar with a little quantity of water and extract the adhering paste. Add this to the chutney.
This chutney is not usually tempered or garnished. But if you feel like it you may do so too.

Serve the falafels accompanied with the chutney and enjoy!
Don't thhey both have a very lovely RED?

Mushroom pulav

At home, my parents never forced us to eat anything if we refused to. Thus, the three of us grew up avoiding many vegetables, fruits and food as such without much ado. There were some that one of us might hate to eat while the rest of us were fond of. So such dishes were cooked and enjoyed by the ones who liked it; one's loss was someone's gain.
Even if my mother would have tried to force anything upon us, we stood our grounds and looked for our grandparents to support us. That is possibly the reason why my younger sister has lot many on the 'no, never to try' list! I had spent a few years with an uncle and his wife had seen to that I eat everything that was cooked and was acceptable for a child.
However, growing up in rural India in the 70s and 80s meant that we were not aware of the existence of many vegetables that are so easily available today. For instance, I came across broccoli and asparagus sometime in my late twenties. Even some of the regular vegetables were kept aside on specific days in our home and some vegetables had a 'no entry' limit.
I was introduced to mushrooms as fungi, for the wild mushrooms grew like everywhere in our back yard once the rains came down. And their health benefits were unheard of.
Then on my husband's first appointment with a shipping agency, he moved to Khor Fakkan in UAE. There the containers that carried food items were strictly subject to checking by the Ministry of Health.
As a representative of the line, my husband's job included that he facilitated such inspections.
The official and a dietician will randomly open some of the packs and take away samples for inspection before certifying them fit for consumption and clearing the consignment. Those randomly opened cartons were distributed to the dock workers by the consignee. Sometimes they might leave a pack or two with the line's office also. That way we have tasted some very good quality biscuits to some rancid crisps.
On one such occasion he was handed two tins of mushrooms. I had no clue as to how to cook them. Our neighbour, a doctor, suggested that they were acquired taste and since we were not seafood eaters, we might not like the taste. She offered to cook the same at her place and share the dish with us. Possibly, the apprehension stemmed from the mention of seafood and I did not truly like the taste.
Many years later, my sister cooked mushrooms in pulav and gravy and fed my daughter. She seemed to like them then. Thus, mushrooms gained their entry into my kitchen, but only for my daughter to eat. My husband would pick the tiny mushrooms out from his pizza wedges and I might swallow them without biting into those pieces.
I hope you have guessed where all this is leading to. Yes, our freespirit blogger pal Anupama suggested a theme for this month. She wanted us to make something that we have hated (still hate) and would avoid given the opportunity. Or, she said, if you were one of those who never refused something, try some ingredient that you have never used so far.
I am one who has more on the likes list than the counterpart. As a youngster, I avoided elephant yam, I never had even a sip of coffee until I went to work, even worse, as a youngster I would not drink anything if milk has been added to it in my presence. That was so long ago and a far away time. Today, I eat, drink, consume many things without sniffing at it.
Thinking hard and pondering on the theme, I had to decide on mushrooms only, for I had to give myself and my husband a chance to try them. I purchased a small can of sliced button mushrooms, called my sister to share the recipe, cooked it at home, conveniently on a day when I had a friend for lunch.

But, to be honest, I think I might include these once in a way for they seem to carry a 'HEALTH" label all over them.




Ingredients:
2 cups Basmati rice (brown rice or any long grain rice)
150 grams sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup coconut milk
1&1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1' piece cinnamon
5 units cloves
2 pieces maratta moggu
2 petals of star anise
1/2 teaspoon ginger paste
1 teaspoon garlic paste
1 teaspoon green chilli paste
1 teaspoon garam masala powder
1 teaspoon crushed dry mint leaves
1 teaspoon dry fenugreek leaves
2 medium onions
3 tomatoes
Salt to taste

For garnish:
1 tablespoon ginger juliennes saute'd in olive oil
1 small piece bay leaf
Few cashew nuts (fried) (optional)

Method:
Wash the basmati rice clean and spread on a cloth to drain excess moisture.
Slice half of one onion finely. The rest, chop coarsely as you may be grinding them.
Grind the coarsely chopped onions, dry mint and fenugreek leaves along with the garam masala powder to a fine paste.
Heat 1 teaspoon oil in the pressure cooker, add the drained rice and saute' for a few minutes.
Transfer the rice to another bowl and add a cup and a half of water to the same. Keep aside for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile cook the tomatoes in boiling water for a few minutes, cool and puree them.
Heat again 1/2 teaspoon oil and fry the onion slices until soft and transparent. Keep aside.
Heat the rest of the oil in the pressure cooker. Add the cinnamon, cloves, maratta moggu and star anise. Then add the ginger paste and then the green chilli paste. In a few seconds add the fine ground onion paste and then the garlic paste. Cook them in the oil on a very low flame until the raw taste subsides.

Drop the mushrooms in and add the salt. Toss until the mushrooms acquire a coat of the masala and then add the coconut milk.
While on a medium flame allow the coconut milk to warm and then add the rice along with the water and the tomato puree. Add another cup of water to the ingredients that are cooking. If the rice has been aged, you may require some more water.
Bring the above ingredients to a boil and place the lid of the pressure cooker on.
Soon as it steams, place the cooker weight and when the first whistle comes on, reduce the flame to the lowest and allow an extra minute to cook.
Switch the stove off and allow the pressure inside to subside.
Open the lid and give the cooked pulav a toss to fluff the same.
Transfer to a serving dish and add the saute'd onion slices and the ginger juliennes.
Serve hot with a curry of choice. I served mine with Lauki Koftas stewed in a gravy of ground almonds, cashews and onions.

Please stop by other Freespirit bloggers to check what ingredients were not their fancies, yet they wanted to try their hands on.

I am pleased to send this to Kavi's Healthy Lunch event, which is part of Smita's Healthy Cooking Challenge.

Apple cinnamon muffins

My last post was just the one of the recipes for the Free spirit bloggers' 'Cafe Casa' theme, that Deepti chose for us. She had wanted us to make a snack that you would love to go with the drink, that is usually on the menu too. Again it was Niki's choice and I had an outline recipe to work around the same. Also I wanted to work substituting eggs. With few trials using milk and yoghurt as substitutes for the eggs that had been added, I finally had a recipe that yielded soft, slightly sweet and flavoursome muffins.
I had read and re-read many muffin recipes that were free of eggs; thanks to many baking expert bloggers, I found some recipes that I can easily work with. Ever since,I have been making muffins and cupcakes grabbing every opportunity that arose.



This recipe makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients:
1 cup All purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered quick cooking oats (replace with all purpose flour if desired or wheat flour)
100 grams sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup soft brown sugar
1 cup cored and chopped apple pieces
1/2 cup skimmed milk
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 & 1/2 teaspoon Baking powder
1/4 teaspoon Baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon powdered cinnamon (I added 1/2 teaspoon more, as I love the flavour)



To sprinkle on top:
Mix 1 tablespoon white granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon

Method:
Sieve together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
Take the flours in a bowl and add the chopped apples to the same.
Toss the apples in the flour so that the flour coats the apples well. Add the powdered cinnamon.
Whisk together in another bowl, the sugar, condensed milk, milk and oil to blend well. Add the vanilla extract to the same.
Pre - heat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade.
Line the muffin tray with the paper cups or slightly grease the moulds. (I greased them as I did not have the cups at that point)
Make a well in the centre of the flour mix. Pour the liquid mix into the well and gently fold the flour in. Use gentle strokes to mix. Even if the flour remains as such in small streaks, you may overlook that. It takes care of itself while baking.
Over mixing will result in the muffins turning out tough.
Pour the batter in the muffin tray to fill 2/3 rds level in each indention.
Bake the same for 25 minutes, until a tooth pick inserted into the muffin comes out clean.
Remove the tray from the oven. When the muffins are still warm, sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top.
Cool on wire racks and store.
Serve them slightly warmed with a favourite coffee drink. I paired these with my iced caramel machiatto.


Try the other delicious combos from my free spirit mates, Anu, Deepti, Dhivya, Madhuri, Mridhubashini, Nagalakshmi and Siri. You are assured of being treated royally to some coffee/ tea treats and eats to go with those!

Iced Caramel Machiatto

This month the free spirit bloggers take on something that every coffee lover would want to have. Deepti put us on this Cafe trail, suggesting that we try to clone one coffee shop drink as best as we could.
Well, I am not a coffee person...tea is what I would opt, given the preference. Hence, my coffee making skills are limited (for I do not want to use 'pathetic'). I started having coffee once in a while after I started working; my manager then was so addicted that he would order coffee for all his staff if he were in the mood for one!
The entire side of my father's family are coffee drinkers, to put it light! In the early years of her marriage my mother has had the privilege of her father-in-law making the morning coffee for her! They kept cows and hence he would prepare the filter just when the cowherd would milk the cow. It was that fresh!

My father, would even feed an infant few drops of coffee, and having gotten in that habit for just a little under a year, my daughter has taken after him. She can relish anything that is related to coffee!
Thus when Deepti gave us this challange, I naturally asked Niki to taste, click and ask for the recipe from wherever possible, that I can make at home!

Here's the recipe she gave me:
Source: Pulse Coffee Shop
(this coffee shop is a KU dining services brand)

Iced Caramel Machiatto

Made in a 16 oz cup:

Ingredients:

2 shots of espresso (figure out how much you put into a normal cup of coffee and scale according to the size of the cup you are using... basically just depends on how strong you want the coffee.. the caramel makes it very sweet, so do not make the coffee too light!)

2 "pumps" of vanilla syrup (1oz)

2 "pumps" of caramel syrup (1oz)

milk (boiled, and then chilled)

ice cubes

Method:

Put expresso and flavouring syrups into cup. Fill about halfway with milk. Mix them a bit so that the syrups don't sit at the base.

Add ice till the cup is about 3/4ths full. (do not add the ice before the milk, because ice will shock the plain espresso and make it bitter)

Top up the glass with milk the rest of the way.

Top up with whipped cream, and drizzle caramel on top. (for the drizzle, you will need caramel sauce, not syrup)
I used Pure ground coffee powder that I buy from an estate in Saklespur, India to make the decoction.
Now, I made sugar syrup and added vanilla for the vanilla syrup.
Just when I was wondering if I shall buy caramel sauce (Hershley's sells a bit pricey here), Deepti's post on home made caramel sauce was up and I rejoiced! I could make the caramel sauce at home too!
I bought the whipping cream to top the drink...and I had something that looked very nearly the same as what my daughter sent! I can not compare the taste though, I may admit that even I liked it.

I served this with home made eggless apple cinnamon muffins. (recipe coming up soon)
Few (read many) trials to get the near coffee shop effect has turned me into a coffee taster - tester.

Now head on to other Free Spirit Bloggers' exclusive home coffee-shop and enjoy a total coffee experience!

Potato and aubergine gratin with greens

Don't we all feel the temptation to recreate a dish that you much enjoyed eating in a restaurant, at home? No matter how delusive the list of ingredients and the procedure is, we try hard to match the taste and texture, don't we?
I opt to try something new on the menu when we dine out while my husband would tread safe grounds with familiar dishes. Once I have tried eating, the obvious next attempt is making the dish at home. I have a list of dishes that I would love to cook restaurant style at home.
I found that my fellow free spirit bloggers share such a passion too.  Siri suggested this theme for August. The response was immediate and each of us were hoping to recreate many dishes. Then we narrowed the choices to 'main course' and decided that any dish falling in other categories will have to be tried sometime later.

During my visit to Bangalore, this time, I had tasted this "greens, aubergine and potato gratin" at the Gateway All Day restaurant. I requested the chef for the recipe and he, Mr. Dilbar, printed the recipe out for me. The recipe is vegetarian but the list shows egg yolks in it. When I asked them about that, I was told that they cook without eggs for vegetarians and that eggs were just a binding ingredient. And the original recipe calls for different cheese while in the menu they had listed parmesan and cheddar cheese. The recipe is a great chunk portion of vegetables baked with cheese toppings and is served as a main course along with a small portion of garlic bread.

Now that I am back home and falling into routine, I included the necessary vegetables and the cheese in the list of groceries. Having a printed recipe on hand helps. I will not be making wild guesses though I will most certainly stray from the procedure here and there. I have done just that; made shortcuts where I could and skipped frying, opted to steam and such. Nonetheless, the dish turned out closest to the one I had eaten.

Ingredients: (for 3 servings)
300 grams small potatoes
100 grams broccoli
100 grams eggplant
100 grams tomatoes
100 grams spinach
30 grams - 1 medium onion chopped
5 garlic cloves crushed
1 small stalk celery chopped
30 ml olive oil
150 ml low fat milk
1 teaspoon corn flour
50 grams of shredded sharp cheddar cheese

50 grams grated parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

For serving:
3 numbers garlic bread

Procedure:

Clean all the vegetables well.
Peel and slice the potatoes in round discs. Similarly, slice the tomatoes and eggplant in discs. place the eggplants in water until required.
Keep aside few of the tomato slices.
Cut broccoli in small florets. Stem and wash the spinach. Chop the spinach in small strips.
Steam the potato discs just until soft.
Blanch the greens and broccoli for two minutes, not allowing them to get too soft.Add some salt and pepper individually to these vegetables.
Marinate the eggplant discs with salt, pepper and some oil. Saute in a pan until they are grilled.
Heat the oil in a pan. Drop the chopped celery and the onions. Toss for two minutes and add the crushed garlic. Saute for about five minutes and add to this the broccoli and spinach. toss them to be coated well with the oil.
Add the tomatoes and eggplant. Adjust the seasoning. Cook very lightly for two minutes.


Pre heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit/ 190 degrees Celsius. (moderately hot oven, gas mark 5).
Beat together the milk, corn flour and a teaspoon of the cheddar cheese.
Add some salt and pepper to this also.
In a baking dish arrange the potatoes in a layer. Top this with a small portion of the milk mixture.
Spread the vegetables over this in a layer.
Top this with the grated parmesan cheese.
Repeat the same order for another layer or two more as desired.
The above is done in a ring mould. I have used a normal baking dish and spread the layers.
On the top most part spread the uncooked tomatoes and cover with the parmesan cheese.
Bake for at 375 Degrees F for 5 to 7 minutes until slightly brown on top.
If you are baking using a ring mould, transfer the baked contents to a serving plate and remove the mould. Spoon in  few tablespoons of tomato couli and serve hot.
I have baked in a baking dish and hence served from the dish. I did not make the tomato couli to garnish.
Serve this hot with garlic bread.

This is a very easy dish to make and all the vegetables can be filling.
My other free spirit mates have all cooked quite exotic dishes that may interest you. Indulge yourselves reading posts by Anu, Deepti, Dhivya, Madhuri, Mridhu, Nags and Siri.
Look out for more spirited posts in the following months.

Apple and strawberry crumble with barley flour

This month I wanted the free spirit bloggers to bring to the rest of you dessert recipes with some not so commonly used ingredients. I cannot say unusual ingredients, but some that are not commonly used. The rest of the FSBs have very interesting ingredients while I took an easier challenge - Barley / barley flour as key ingredient with fruits as favourable ingredients.
When my parents visited us in Johor, my then neighbour and good friend, SewLee had invited us for tea. She knew well that my parents do not eat eggs. So she baked eggless cakes, cookies and some vegetarian savoury treats for us. Her daughter had made apple crumble for us then. I recalled that and asked Sew to mail me the recipe. I was grateful that she sent me this and her apple pie recipe too.
Apple crumble with normal flour is very easy to bake and quick too. I just replaced the plain flour with barley flour. I had to make some adjustments with the flour measurements, otherwise I followed my friend's recipe for the rest. And I added strawberries too.
There were some ideas I picked up browsing the internet. I have copied the texts from the website I have linked to the same. These were pointers that helped. I have also tried the pie crust with a combination of powdered pearl barley and brown rice, which I will share at a later date. (I am leaving for India for a month's holiday, and hence my posts will not be regular.)


Baked goods such as cakes, cookies, pie crust, pancakes, quick breads, and muffins that use baking powder and baking soda as leaveners do not depend on gluten and yeast for rising and structure. Soft flours with less gluten, such as cake flour and whole-wheat pastry flour, and flours with little or no gluten, such as rye, barley, and oat flour, work well in these baked goods. Bread flour, with its higher gluten content, causes cakes, cookies, pie crust, pancakes, quick breads, and muffins to be less tender.

Source: http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/tools-and-techniques/baking-questions2.htm

As white flour alternative:

½ cup barley flour + ¼ cup brown rice flour + ½ TBL arrowroot powder Barley – pearled barley has the outer layer removed. Barley flour makes excellent pie crusts and cookies and mixes well with brown rice flour.

Source: http://www.lifestyleforhealth.com/white-flour-alternatives.html

Now to the recipe:
Ingredients:
5 apples Cored and sliced
10 strawberries pitted
1 tsp cinnamon,
1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar,
125 grams (1/2 cup heaped) butter
1 cup barley flour
1 tablespoon all purpose flour



Cook together, apples, cinnamon powder and the sugar until well combined.
It is also okay that you do not cook the apples until soft. Just cook them to absorb the sweet of the sugar and the flavours of the cinnamon. I microwave cooked them for about 5 minutes. The apples were holding the crunch even then.
Mix flour and brown sugar. Cut butter into the mixture. Gradually work on this mixture with tips of fingers or with a fork.The mix will be of the texture of bread crumbs that are sticking well together.
After a while they may be slightly gathered and well incorporated.
Pre heat the oven to 230 degrees C.
Spread the cooked apples on a greased pan and pour the flour mixture over it.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.





The final product will not be something that you can slice as a cake . It will be crumbly, which is why the name.
Serve as warm dessert with some fruits.

You are about to read some great treats in Anu 's, Deep 's, Dhivi 's, Mads', Mridhu 's, Nags' and Siri 's blogs. Stay tuned. I bet my last penny that they are bringing in mind blowing dessert recipes.

Xacuti with home made vegetarian 'mutton'

The free spirit mates, having tried egg substitutions in baking and bringing you party starter ideas earlier, bring you jaw dropping dishes that are deceptively non-vegetarian in looks and may be as nearly in taste, this month, though most of us would not know, how close!
It was Dhivya's brainwave that we recreate classic non-vegetarian recipes, making them totally vegetarian or better vegan, if possible. Her conditions were that we make them look as close as possibly non vegetarian, but we were not allowed to use store bought mock meats and such stuff.

Few days prior to that, I had watched on Khana Kazana show, Sanjeev Kapoor cooking the famous Xacuti with chicken. That was a 'Goa special' episode and this dish, captured my attention with the long, complex list of spices used. I was curious to try a vegetarian counterpart using all of those spices listed there.

Later few of my friends on Facebook were discussing another Goan dish, where one of them wanted to know if she can make it vegetarian. The reply was, obviously yes! They suggested the vegetables that can be used too. Also there was a cottage cheese option for the dish, which makes the taste closest to chicken dishes.

Now all this got me into working on the Xacuti. There is also a vegetarian mutton kurma listed under Mangalore dishes in the Preett cookbook. The recipe to make a mutton look-alike was given there. Also there was a comment that vegetarians usually take it for a mutton dish. These gave me sufficient pointers to cook my Vegetarian Mutton Xacuti and I am here sharing the recipe.
Do not be discouraged with the long list of ingredients. The final product is way too good to be intimidated.
The Xacuti gravy recipe has been adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor's website. You may find the recipe here, just a click away.
The vegetarian mutton has been adapted from Preett way to cook - 101 recipes from India and elsewhere. That calls for deep frying the pieces which I have opted to shallow fry. Also I have used whole wheat flour while they suggest all purpose flour.
Hence I discuss the recipe in two parts, one making the veg mutton and then the gravy.
Have this with hot steamed rice or opt to have with rotis, it makes a lip smacking side dish!

Preparation time: about 5 hours
Cooking time : about 2 hours

Ingredients:
For the vegetarian mutton:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder
1/8th teaspoon sodium-bi-carbonate (cooking soda)
1/4 teaspoon olive oil (for vegan version or ghee for vegetarian)
2 teaspoons oil for shallow frying

How to prepare the vegetarian mutton:
Add salt, soda-bi-carb, olive oil, chilli powder to the flour. Knead to a slightly loose and soft dough adding sufficient water. I use vegetable stock to knead the dough. You may also use whey from making paneer if available.
Keep this in a bowl covered with a damp cloth for 4 to 5 hours.
Make cylindrical rolls of the dough and steam them for about 15 minutes.
Remove, allow them to cool and cut in small size cubes.




Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry these cubes until they are golden. Mine appear red from the stock I have used and the chilli powder.
Keep them reserve until the gravy is ready.
This yields roughly 220 grams of the pieces. (I rounded the spices to 250 grams equivalent)

For the gravy:
(the list was for 1 kilogram of mutton. I have reduced to proportion.)
250 grams of vegetarian mutton pieces
1/2" piece ginger
3 cloves of garlic
1 green chilli
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh grated coconut
2 green cardamoms
1/2" stick cinnamon
2 cloves
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 small petal of the star aniseed
2/3 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon carom seeds
1/4 teaspoon sesame seeds
1 thin blade of mace
1/4 teaspoon cooking poppy seeds
1/8th teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1/8th teaspoon mustard seeds
4 black peppercorns
2 dry red chillis
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 medium onion chopped
1 tomato chopped
1/2 tablespoon tamarind pulp
Salt as required

For garnish:
1/2 tablespoon Fresh grated coconut
1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves

Grind the ginger, garlic and green chilli with the juice of lime to a paste. Apply this to the prepared mutton pieces and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
Roast the coconut to a nice golden brown and aromatic with 1 teaspoon of the olive oil.
Dry roast all the spices on a low fire. If you are cooking for a bigger quantity, dry roast each of these separately. I had very little and hence chose to do it in the same pan, taking care to drop the heavier ones first and adding gradually the rest.
Cool the spices and grind along with coconut and turmeric powder to a very smooth paste. Wash the jar of the blender and retrieve the adhering paste too.
Heat the oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add the onions and saute' until they are pink.
Add the prepared pieces. Saute' until the oil separates.
Add the ground masala and on a low fire cook this well until any raw taste subsides. You may not have to do this long as you have already roasted the spices.
Sprinkle water to the cooking mass to avoid burning.
Add the tomatoes and cook until they turn to a pulp.
Add the tamarind pulp and sufficient water. Bring to a boil and then allow to simmer for about 10 to 12 minutes until the pieces absorb the flavours.



Remove from the heat. Transfer to a serving dish. Garnish with some fresh grated coconut and coriander leaves.


Serve hot with steamed rice. Traditionally, this is served with rice in Goa. However, it does taste good with rotis, naan and phulkas too.
When we discussed this, Deepti googled to find that Xacuti has been derived from Sa-go-thi which is the name for mutton as used by the Marathas. As read on wiki it is known as chacuti in Portuguese too.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this recipe. Now head over to my fellow free spirits' pages to check what they have brought for you. Be warned that you are in for tremendous ideas.

Baked and filled khakhra cups

The theme chosen for the Free Spirit Bloggers this month is "Savoury party starters"! I know, that all of you are very interested now, to check out mine as well as the rest of the team members' sites for super cool ideas.
Suggestions from baked to pan fried, simple to complex cooking were coming forth in torrents. Mini samosas, baked potatoes, bite size burgers and many more were discussed. I had wanted to go with kababs, but never initiated any move in that direction. Then one morning, I decided, I will do canapes. My papadam canapes have been often repeated snacks at home and I wanted to try something similar.
Why not mini khakhras and make canapes then? I decided and quickly set out with the preparations to mix the dough and such.
Just then, while chatting, Madhuri said that she had been to a product launch and they had served something bite size with cheese and stuff. I had a flash of brainwave then, to make the khakhras in cup shapes and fill, instead of the usual canapes.
A small change in the plan....result: wonderful cup shapes khakhras!

I was very happy about the final product and now started wondering about the fillings.
Again it was Niki who put in many ideas and so did my husband. And I was surprising myself with the different ideas I could think of (which is rare, I shall confess).

Having raved so much, I think it is time to switch to the recipe.
It was also decided that we post something that we can make ahead of the actual party day, it shall be something that we can serve a good number of guests and we can show just a few in pictures while the recipe will be multiples of the servings shown in the picture.

I have made them using my muffin tray, while I feel that if I had baked them in mini muffin moulds, that would have been a great idea. Just the right size for starters and you can have much more for the same quantity of prepared dough.
However, feel free not to bake in muffin moulds but roll and cut in desired shapes before baking, and make canapes. Or roll them as with usual khakhras and cook on stove top too.
You may use your own filling ideas which incidentally, can be innumerable. For kids' parties you may make them sweet, cheesy and much more. Serve a dip in these cups with finger cuts of salad veggies and later eat the cup too!

I have made with four different fillings here.

Ingredients for Khakhra cups:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
(or use 2 cups whole wheat flour)
2 table spoons Kasuri methi
2 table spoons caraway seeds (ajwain/omam)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon cooking oil
Water to knead the dough to soft yet stiff consistency
Oil to grease the muffin tray

Method:
Sift the flours and the salt together. Add the kasuri methi and the ajwain and mix well. Rub the oil in.
Gradually add sufficient water and knead well to form a slightly stiff but pliable dough.
Cover the dough and rest it for about 20 minutes. Knead again and pinch out very tiny marble size balls of the dough. (Alternately, pinch out enough dough to roll into big rounds and then cut out small circles that can fit in the muffin trays.)
Grease the moulds of the muffin tray and keep ready.
Roll the pinched out marbles into very thin circular discs, taking care not to tear them. Dust some flour to achieve the thin discs.
Pre heat the oven to 200 Degrees Centigrade.
Fill the muffin moulds in the tray with the rolled discs to form cup shapes. They need not be perfectly fitting or evenly filled too.
Bake at 200 degrees Centigrade for just 6 minutes.
Proceed with the rest of the dough. Keep the dough covered with a damp cloth so it does not dry.
The khakhras have to be made crisp. You may prick the surface with the edge of a safety pin or tooth pick and bake them.
Remove from the oven and spread them on place mats or trays to cool.
Store them in airtight containers.
Khakhras usually keep fresh for long many days. So, when you are planning these for a party you may prepare them much ahead and store them.




This quantity will give you about 72 cups in the normal muffin size. With the mini moulds you may have plenty more.

The most interesting part was the filling. I thought really hard to make some attractive and delectable ones which can also be made a day or two ahead and refrigerated, allowing you respite from this chore and enough time to concentrate on the other dishes.

Hummus was one filling I used with the olives to top it. Just before serving, place a spoonful of hummus in the cup and top it with pitted olives.

My daughter suggested Pico de Gallo, when I was going for Salsa. In this case, I assembled the rest of the ingredients and refrigerated them. Only the tomatoes were added on the actual day.
I have used the recipe from Dhivya's Chef in you where she has a very valuable tip for this. Check that out!


Again Niki's suggestion was the crumbled feta cheese and peppers filling, in which I replaced the feta cheese with paneer.

The recipe for Paneer and peppers crumble:

250 grams paneer crumbled
2 large red bell peppers deseeded and cut in tiny cubes
2 large green bell peppers deseeded and cut in tiny cubes
5 green chillis slit, seeds removed and chopped very fine
1 medium onion sliced very fine
Juice from 2 lemons
2 teaspoons oil
Salt to taste
If desired some chat masala/ roasted and ground cumin
Olive oil to drizzle




Before cutting the bell peppers, chop the top off, scoop the seeds out and stand them in boiling water for just a minute. Remove from the water and cut them in uniform cubes.
Heat oil in a pan and add the green chillis, toss for a minute and add the onions. Saute for a few minutes and then add the cubed peppers and salt. Mix them thoroughly, and just before removing from the heat, add the crumbled paneer.
Take it off the stove and blend the lemon juice in it.
While assembling this in the khakhra cups, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle the chat masala.
This is a colourful and delicious filling.



The next filling is spiced hung yoghurt with a cherry tomato topping garnished with small quantity of dukkah.

1 litre home set yoghurt
Salt to taste
A fist full of mint leaves
1 teaspoon roasted and powdered caraway seeds
Cherry tomatoes
Dukkah as required

Transfer the yoghurt on a cheese cloth. Tie it up and hang in a hook with a bowl below it for several hours.
When the whey in the yoghurt has drained into the bowl, remove the solid content from the cheese cloth.
Transfer this hung yoghurt on a large flat dish.
Run the mint leaves and salt in a mixer to a coarse texture.
Add the mint, caraway seeds powder and dukkah to the yoghurt and incorporate the spices in the yoghurt.





This filling can be refrigerated for a four days.
While assembling, drop a spoonful of the spiced yoghurt into the khakhra cups. Place a cherry tomato on the yoghurt and sprinkle some dukkah on the top.

One more topping was the spicy corn. I store some frozen corn in the freezer and boil it to have as snack. Also there I grind a coarse paste of ginger, green chilli and garlic and add to the corn. Toss them and salt until they blend and eat it for a spicy snack.
That can be used as filling for the cups too.



Hope you enjoyed my party starter. Just use your resources and imagination to bring about more fillings or toppings, in case you are making canapes.

Do not just stop here, head over to Anu's, Deepti's, Dhivya's, Mads', Mridhu's, Nags' and Siri's spaces to check what they may indulge you with, when you are invited to party with them.

Eggless Chocolate Pound Cake with condensed milk

When Madhuri came up with the idea that some of us get together and do something fun in our own kitchens working around a central theme, she had me on a bait. The 'some of us' who now call ourselves Free Spirit Bloggers, (yes the 'says it all badge' is for the group), include me along with some very talented, super smart girls who are passionate about whatever they do, viz. their respective jobs, managing their homes, cooking (and baking) amazing stuff and blogging about that.

Madhuri has posted an introductory post in Cook-curry Nook today. Please welcome the group and cheer us to bring interesting stuff month after month. Towards the end of this post You will find who else is with me in this fun filled experiment.

This month we worked on a theme Baking labs by baking Pound cake (that usually makes good use of eggs), substituting for the eggs. We chose to work on one chosen egg replacement each (we had 17 such workable substitutes). I chose the condensed milk to substitute the 4 eggs that are used in the original recipe.

Now, though there is a basic recipe to work on, we could choose to alter to some extent lest the whole experiment fails. We have been careful as we are sharing the recipe with all of you and hope it works like a breeze if anybody chooses to try it from our blogs.

The recipe I have tried is given here and in brackets the original measures.
Also I have mentioned where I made any changes in the procedure, though I did not have much to do with this substitute.

If I may, let me add a disclaimer. Please do not expect the cake will be as light as it would with eggs. And since the sweetened condensed milk tastes delightfully sweet, the cake is bound to be sweet too.





Ingredients:
240 grams All purpose flour (250 grams in the original) (I adjusted in proportion with the weight of my condensed milk contents)
50 grams cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (1/2 teaspoon if using eggs)
1/2 teaspoon salt
180 grams unsalted butter (250 grams butter) (I have reduced butter because of the condensed milk)
1 tin condensed milk/385 grams nett (4 eggs in the original recipe. 100 ml of condensed milk replaces 1 egg) (If your tin of condensed milk has 400 grams nett contents, use 250 grams of flour)
No sugar (250 grams granulated sugar)
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
150 ml water (milk as required to get the batter to a dropping consistency)

Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees Centigrade.
Prepare the desired cake tin greasing and dusting it and lining with baking sheet. I used a 7" and1/2" square tin.
Bring the butter to room temperature and allow it to soften.
Sieve the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt together thrice. This exercise incorporates air to the flour.
In the mixing bowl, cream the butter and the condensed milk until it is creamy.Add the vanilla essence and beat to a light mixture.
(If eggs are used, beat them until they fluff. Cream the butter and the sugar well and add the vanilla essence. Then add the beaten eggs and beat well until they have been well incorporated.)
The next step is to gently incorporate the flour mix to the creamed mixture.
Mix the flour and the water alternating between the two, mixing gently into the creamed mixture.
This mixture is slightly thinner than the usual batter, but the cake turned out well.
Pour this batter into the prepared tin.
Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for 45 minutes. Check by inserting a skewer in.
Remove from oven and cool on wire racks. Allow to completely cool before slicing.




My cake had a slightly crumbling texture yet very moist. It tasted absolutely delicious.

I could just improve on the techniques or adjust the ingredients next time to get a spongy cake. Until then, you may all enjoy this cake.

Anu, Deepti, Dhivya, Madhuri, Mridhu and Nagalaksmi have all worked on different substitutes to feast you all with egg less chocolate pound cakes. Siri has been otherwise busy and had not been able to participate this time. Head to their blogs and enjoy an array of cakes. You will sure be spoiled for choices!

And please come back again for more excitement by the end of next month and the next and the next and so on.