VEGETABLE UPMA

Everybody is becoming very health concious. Gone are those days when people, especially Indian people load their phulkas with a dollop of ghee (clarified butter). Also gone are the days when Sunday breakfast meant - stuffed aloo, gobhi, mooli, paneer etc etc parathas, first fried in ghee and then topped with maa ka pyar (mother's love) i.e, a dollop of big butter!! and the lunches meant Chole Bhature, and the dinner meant daal chawal...... Times have changed and people are seriously moving onto healthy options for breakfast, lunch and dinner, thought all the above things that I mentioned still remain a favourite amongst homes.

Honestly I am not one of those people who counts each bite that I put into my mouth. When it comes to food, I really dont like to think about the calories. I just love to enjoy the taste irrespective of the amount of cals its adding onto my already sooooo overloaded existence !!!

But my DH sure is a person who likes to count his calories. So I have to think about various options for his breakfast. Vegetable Upma happens to be a good choice that I make which keeps both him and me happy. Quick to make and delicious too, and not to mention healthy too.)

Ingredients
1 cup - semolina / rawa / sooji
1/2 cup - chopped vegetables (carrots, beans, corn, peas)
2 tbspn - peanuts
1 tspn - mustard seeds / sarson a few sprigs - curry leaves
1 tspn - sugar
1 tspn - salt (pls adjust this to taste)
1/2 inch ginger - grated
1 green chilli - chopped fine
1 onion - chopped fine

Recipe

First and foremost roast the semolina without oil in a wok Roast till it starts giving a nice warm smell
Remove it into a dish In the same wok add about a tbspn of oil and fry the peanuts
Remove the peanuts and keep them separately
Now the oil is hot add the mustard seeds and wait till they stop spattering Pls remember that the oil should be hot
Now add the chopped ginger and fry well
Add the onions and fry till pinkish brown
Now add the curry leaves and green chillies (I avoid green chillies for my LO)
When this is done add 2 1/2 cup of water and let the water come to a boil
Meanwhile put all the veggies in a microwave safe bowl and boil them for about 5-7 minutes, or till they are cooked and tender Strain them
To the boiling water add the salt and sugar (yes I learnt to add sugar from my mom, and blv me it enhances the taste of the upma)
Now add the veggies
Slowly add the roasted semolina and keep stirring with one hand
Cook till the semolina is cooked and all the water has dried up

We used be served this with sugar sprinkled on top most of the time, and I love it, and so does my LO. My husband loves it with some sweet jam.

FRUITY SWEET BUNS

I have been longing to bake bread for ages!!! Yes thats true. Always wanted to, but have been ever so lazy. The thought of kenading the sticky dough, leaving it to rise, then punch it again, then leaving it to rise - all sounded soooooooo boooooriinnng.. But then I had to do it one day, and I sure did - and I sure enjoyed it.

What I enjoyed THE MOST is the yeasty sour smell that was around me. Yes I sooooooooo loooooovveed it. Reminding me of bakeries baking fresh bread, but more than that, it was the smell that took me back to my mom. Yes, yeast was sooo significant to my mom making velleappams in our kitchen. In all of Mayur Vihar where we lived, all our Malayali family friends came upto her and asked her to make these for their house. I proudly have to say, that hers were the best appams in town!!!

It is sad to say the least that I myself have never tried my hands on that recipe. It happens so that all these years, even after getting married, velleappams were just a "wish" away. I just had to tell her and they would be ready as soon as the fermenting aloud it to be. It was a great feeling. But now that I am miles away I miss that advantage very much. But it has been a lot to my advantage. I have learnt to cook so many things that I so easily relied on her to do for me!!!

Well getting back to the bread making. I one day decidied to bake bread, and rolled up my sleeves. Took some flour, added some salt and sugar, mixed the yeast and warm water and sugar, gave it a stir - did a little bit of this, did a little bit of that and in the end added some candied fruits I had in my refrigerator!! This was what I got in return.

Dont ask me for the recipe, coz I really dont remember the measurements and the details.  I never made a note of it, and these pics have been lying in the draft for long. So sorry about that. Not to mention that I did bake bread twice After this once, but never got a chance to click and post!!!!.

But the result was sweet soft buns. 

We all enjoyed

PANEER SHIMLA MIRCH

I cant think of a flavour that would be universally loved by ALL. No there isint!!?? Please correct me if I am wrong - chocolates "some like it, some dont", sweet "some like it, some dont", sour "some like it, some dont". Even something as lovable as a potato, I have heard some people say they dont like it, and that is to my utter amazement!!!

I realize this when I live here in Nairobi, where someone like my household help runs miles away from chillies or pili pili as she calls it. When I am dousing a teaspoon of chillies or chopping green chillies into my curries after I take out her share, her eyes are splitting wide open sometimes i feel they will just pop out. And she asks me "how much pili pili do you eat?", "I cant do without it Aunty" I say!! There are some for whom too sweet is never too sweet, while I cringe and put back the spoon. I never liked "too sweet". What is perfectly salted for me, is sometimes too salty for DH. So no two tastes can ever match, can they??

 My next recipe is somewhat like that, or maybe it is not. Its bell peppers and cottage cheese. Some just hate the taste of bell peppers but others love it. It is only after coming here that I first tried yellow and red peppers and I found that they have a lot less strong flavour than the green ones. Since then, I have favoured them. Not just do they do add a lovely colour to the dish, but also add the flavour. Its a simple to do, yet flavourful dish. No harm trying :)

Ingredients :-

250 gms - cottage chesse or paneer (diced into cubes)
1 red bell pepper - (diced into cubes)
1 yellow bell pepper (diced into cubes)
1/2 green bell pepper (diced into cubes)
1 big onion - diced into cubes
2 medium tomatoes - pureed
4-5 pods garlic - grated
1/2 inch ginger - grated
1 tbspn - cream
1/4 tspn - turmeric / haldi powder
1/4 tspn - red chilli powder
1 tspn - corriander / dhania powder
1/2 tspn - garam masala powder

Recipe :-

In a wok add a tbspn of oil and add the onions. Fry on low heat till they get soft and pink.
Try doing it on slow heat so as not to burn it.
Add the ginger and garlic and fry well
Add the turmeric and fry well
Add the corriander and chilli and garam masala and fry well
Add the tomatoes and fry till the oil separates. Add salt to your liking.
Now add the bell peppers and mix and cover and cook for about 5 minutes
Add the cottage cheese and cream and toss everything together and cook for about 2 minutes on high. Close the flame and garnish with corriander leaves.

Serve with fluffly rotis or naans.

WHAT'S LIFE WITHOUT "CHICKEN"

Yeaahh whats life without this cock-a-doodle-doo bird.  You wouldnt have eggs, you wouldnt have butter chicken, you wouldnt have chicken pakoda, you wouldnt have ............the list is endless.  Isint it?

When I got married to a guy who is a preferred vegetarian, I out of sheer love decided I too would follow suit and discard the "meat" variety from my palate.  Rajeev never asked me to do so, but I volunteered. 

The pain started when I walked into mum's house and saw her making delicious chicken fry!! Hmmmm, "beta kha lo".  "Nahi mummy mein nahi khaoongi".  Translated into English for my friends who dont understand Hindi "daughter, please eat this" "No mom, I wont".  All this while my stomach was rumbling and grumbling.  My hands were jumping up and down to just pick up on peice and pop into my mouth.

I came home that night, sad, but still determined not to give up.  I stood upto my decision for............all for 6 months!!!! Yes, that was all that my will power could stand.  My mom's wonderful chicken dishes, I could not hold myself back!!  If that was funny.

Now I am a mom myself, and I have a 2 year old who digs into chicken like Popeye digs Spinach!!! Mamma chincken want!!! Yes that's what she says, somedays as soon as she opens her little brown eyes in the morning.

Well, so I really cant imagine what life would be without CHINCKEN

I had Methi Chicken lately at Open House and was determined to try it at home, and so I did for a gathering of friends, and it sure was delicious.

Here's my version

Ingredients :-

500 gms - boneless chicken
2 big onions - grated
6-7 pods of garlic
2 big tomatoes - pureed
1 cup - methi / fenugreek leaves
1/2 tspn - garam masala
2 tbspn - thick yoghurt (you could add cream if you dont like the sournes which is actually negligble)
2 tbspn - dhania / coriander seed powder
1 tspn - turmeric powder
2 tspn - chilli powder
2 pods - cardamom
bay leaves

Method :-

Clean, clean, clean the chicken (very important)
In a wok add about 3 tbspn oil
Add the cardamom pods and the bay leaves
After about 1/2 a minute add the grated garlic.
Then add the onions and a big pinch of salt
Fry well, till about reaching golden brown
Add the turmeric powder, mix well till the raw smell is gone
Add the dhania powder and fry well
Now add the tomato puree
Fry till the oil starts showing indicating that the masala is cooked
Now add the yoghurt and the chicken
Fry on high for about 5 minutes
Now cover and cook till the chicken is done
If want a little gravy you could either add some more beaten yoghurt or plain water
Lastly add the cleaned fenugreek leaves and cook on high for about 2-3 minutes.
Finish off with garam masala and green chillies

Enjoy!!

DAHI BHALLA

Election scene is high on the Kenyan turf. Of what I have heard it was pretty bad last elections with a lot of riots resulting in killing of innocent lives. It's the same in all parts of the world - isn't it? People loose lives for petty issues or even big ones. The one's in power don't give a damn because it was nobody they knew or cared for. But is it the way it is supposed to be? Definitely not!! God did not make it that way. God's biggest rule is "love one another as I have loved you". Do we did that. No we don't. We keep grudges, hold animosity, scorn, get hurt, we are unforgiving. We all do this sometime, or even most of the times.

It is very difficult to just let it go and look forward and forget the pain and hurt and embarrassment. Isiint it? But you know over the years there is one thing I have learnt. It is mostly we who are hurting ourselves. The other person concerned is past it. N and we scorn all the more as to why it doesn't affect him or her!

Long ago a when I spoke to a priest of this hurt that I kept with me for long time, he said just forgive yourself first and then forgive the person. I said that is sooooo very difficult Father. He told me something that changed my life. H said "I know. Just pray to Jesus to help you forgive. Just pray that he forgives your first and heals the pain, so that you can forgive the person. Keep on praying till you really feel the hurt go away". I have tried this sooo many times since then and believe me the hurt just vanishes. It's as if God just wipes the hurt and the pain away. It becomes very easy to move on!!!

Try it sometimes and let me know But for now try out these incredible Dahi Bhallas. Believe me, they are superbly handy in easing out worries and making you happy, coz you soooo get drowned in the lovely smooth sweet yoghurt and the soft dumplings.

Ingredients

For the Bhalla

1 cup - urad dhuli daal soaked overnight
1/4 tspn - fine asefotida
1/2 tspn - black salt a few raisins - one each for each dumpling
a fork to beat vigourously :)
oil to fry

For the yoghurt

3-4 cups - fresh yoghurt
2 tspn - powdered sugar
1 tspn - bhuna (roasted) jeera/cumin powder
1/2 tspn - black salt powder
Corriander chutney - as much as you like
Tamarind Chutney - as much as you like
Red Chilli Powder - as much as you like

Recipe For the Bhalla

Grind the soaked lentils with as little water as you could possibly used. They should be a smooth paste
Pour into a bowl and beat it with a fork. Beat them very well till fluffy.
Add rock salt and hing and beat again.
Meanwhile heat oil in a wok
Wet your hands and take small portion from the batter and with your other wet hand pat into a disk.
Once the oil is heated well, lower the flame
Put the batter into the oil and fry well on slow/medium heat till golden
Once you've fried all the batter, and if you have any left till the end of the frying, dip these fritters into very thin buttermilk.
Let them soak for about 5 mins.

For the dahi

Beat the curd well so that there are no lumps.
Add the sugar into it and mix well Taste and see.
It should be on the sweeter side
Add the rock salt and the jeera powder and mix again


For the assembling
Take a beautiful glass dish and pour in a layer of dahi into it
Squeeze the dumplings of the butter milk but do not crush them please and dip them in the dahi one by one and layer them in the dish
Pour out the rest of the dahi on top of the dumplings
Spread the corriander chutney, tamarind chutney and sprikle red chilli powder, jeera powder on top of it.


Enjoy them with rice or tandoori roti or just have them on their on own.

CHOCOLATE JAM COOKIES

Last two weeks have been pretty bad with my little one being ill.  She somehow teeths and falls ill the same time!! and it really makes it very worse for all of us.  Her coughs send me down the depression mode oh so badly :(

With lots of hard work and running around, she finally is better, though her teething isint over yet.  Before she could be fine, my MIL caught the cough and fever, and then me and then my husband :) 

I was just mentioning at home that all our illnesses would have been worth the while if only she was better.

I read at a clinic once "deciding to have a child is deciding to see a peice of your heart walk out in the open"!!!

I today realize how true it is.  Yes, I as a parent would smilingly take up all that comes her way.  Protect her, keep her away from the blazing sun, the icy cold wind (ok maybe its not that cold, but still), a bee that came through the window, a hot cup of tea...........the list is endless.  I would hate myself if even after all this something does cause her tears to flow.

You know I put her in school this January, and the school to my convenience is right across the road.  It is so close that I sitting on the chair at my table, next to the window keep my ears so sharp open to listen if she is the one who is crying!!

Initially, I used to run across whenever I heard her cry.  I dont do so anymore. Hey, its not coz I dont want to do that - its coz the teachers dont allow me to!!!!  They laughed their heads out, wanting to know if I am always sitting by the window!!

Well, well, what can I say.  Dont all mothers do that??

Hmm let me come down to business now.  I made some chocolate jam cookies for my little one's school.  She did love them

Ingredients

1 cup - wheatflour / atta
1 cup - refined flour / maida
1/2 cup - quick cooking oats
1/4 cup - drinking chocolate powder
1 cup - sugar
3/4 cup - refined oil or butter
1 teaspn - coffee powder
1 egg
1/4 teaspn - baking powder
1 teaspn - vanilla essence

Jam Filling
Ingredients
1/2 cup - any jam of your choice but the mixed fruit goes best
1 tspn - water

Recipe
Mix the flours and oats with the baking powder well enough
Add the chocolate powder and the coffee and mix again
In another bowl beat the butter, sugar till creamy
Add the egg and beat well
Now add the vanilla essence
Mix both
It should turn into a thick paste consistency
If its very runny add some flour
If its dry add some milk
It actually shouldnt be both of the above, if the measurements are correct, but the ingredients texture may vary at places, hence this suggestion :)
Pat into small balls right onto a greased cookie sheet

Now to make the jam filling just heat the jam and add that wee bit of water to get it a little diluted.  This is so that when baked the jam doesnt get so jammed (thick) that its difficult to eat.

Into the balls makes small indents using either a oiled thumb or the back of a spoon and drop in spoons of the jam.
Your oven should be preheated to 180 deg cel
Just pop the cookie sheet in and take it out in about 10 mins.
Let them cool.

Enjoy

ORANGE RASPBERRY CAKE

Life is strange, and so are we. Things happen to us which we never ever thought would be part of our lives. Never in our lives did we think that we would have to shift to a new town, let alone having moved to a new country altogether!! But somehow the shift came calmly and without much fuss. We are now more or less settled in the town of Nairobi, and I am so totally liking it out here. The weather is lovely. I can sit by the window and experience cooooool (extremely cool, but not cold) breeze touching my face, at the same time, I can experience the lovely warmth of the sun caressing me. It is such a beautiful feeling. You know just having the pleasure of this phenomenon gives me the consolation and confirmation that God is nearby. He couldnt be too far off. Every evening as I sit by my window, there is a lovely sight I behold and that is of very tall trees outside being touched by the rays of the sun only on the top, while the rest of them is shadowed. It is as if they are reaching out to catch the fading sun, and dont wanna let go. In capturing all of this beauty of the city, I am also indulging myself in extensive cooking. My daughter has begun to go to a playschool very near to my home, and that gives me a lot of spare time during the mornings. Last week I had oranges aplenty, and fortunately for me they were quite sweet, and I also a handful of raspberries. So this is what I ended up baking - AN ORANGE RASPBERRY CREAM CAKE

Ingredients - For the cake
1-1/2 cup - refined flour
1 cup - wheatflour
1/2 tspn - baking powder
1/4 tspn - baking soda
2 eggs
3/4 cup - butter
1 cup - sugar
1 tspn - vanilla essence
1/2 cp - orange juice

Now preheat the oven to about 180 deg cel
Beat the butter and eggs (add them one by one)
Add the sugar and beat till creamy
Add the vanilla essence and beat again
Seive the flours and the baking powder and soda
Now slowly mix the wet into the dry till no lumps are left
Prepare a baking dish by greasing it and dusting it with flour, which I always do
Add the batter to the dish and put in the oven for about 35-40 mins
Pls check using a toothpick or whatever that the cake has been done
Let it cool Use a serrated knife to cut the cake into two
Sprinkle the orange juice liberally onto the cake parts and keep them in the fridge

For the frosting
1 cup full cream
2 tbspn orange rind
3/4 cup caster sugar (i had to use 1 cup since sugar in Nairobi is less sweet, God knows why!!!!)
1 tspn vanilla essence

Chill the beater and the utensil for beating the cream in the freezer for about 20 mins
Beat the cream till soft peaks
Add the sugar, orange rind and vanilla essence and beat till stiff peaks

Now to arrange
Take out the two cake slices
Use the bottom of the original cake upside down on the topmost layer of the final cake.
This way the top of the frosted cake is smooth and even.
Use the upper portion first.
Place it on the cake tray or serving platter and spread a thick layer of cream on top of it.
Sprinkle it with chopped orange and rasperies.  Be liberal
Now place the other portion upside down, so that the brown and flat side is on top
Now you can cover the whole cake with cream using a spreading spatula
Decorate the top with orange slices and raspberry

This was a refreshingly cool cake. The tangy sweet orange and the sweetness of the cake blended very well and it didnt take too much to finish it. Take care till next time.