Besan Laddoo !!!

My all-time favorite in Laddoos is the Besan Laddoo.

Had a great craving for it today. So decided to make it. Turned out awesome..... !!! My grandmom always had a tough time when she visited us. I always wanted her to make besan laddoos and my sister always asked for the Rava Laddoos. Both of us never even used to touch the other kind. So, just to please us, she had to make both kinds and ended up with more work than necessary.

She has had a stroke recently, and can't speak too much, slurry speech. But we can never forget her beautiful voice. She always used to sing so beautifully whether it was loris / bhajans or just some songs. We can never forget the way she used to shower her love on all us grandchildren. She does her best even now, but when she is sick, none of us are near her to even show her some affection. I feel very bad about it.....

Anyway, let's not dwell on the bad stuff. Here is a picture in memory of my (I wont say grandmother, because she is still alive), so just her voice and cooking, which I miss soooooo sooooo much !!!! Just hope she gets well soon. LOVE U MAMAMA !!!

 

Used the recipe from Manjula's kitchen. I love her recipes.

Chana Usal with Tomatoes

Did you know that chickpeas are rich in iron content ? My doc recently advised me to start eating iron-rich foods. So I started researching a bit and found that chickpeas have more iron content than cooked spinach, contrary to popular belief. Also I found this article on the internet which said most of the iron in spinach is not bio-available. Not sure how much true the article is, but here it is for your reference. Also found this amazing article on chickpeas alone and loved it. Here it is for all of you to enjoy !!! I would surely love to know what the connection is between Lord Shiva and chickpeas too.

Anyway, so I had these cans of chickpeas at home and I decided to make some Chana Usli.

"Usli" in konkani is a simple dish prepared with / without onions and garnished with shredded coconut and coriander leaves before serving. It can be prepared with any kind of whole pulses, like kabuli chana (white chickpeas), moong (green gram), chana (bengal gram - black chickpeas) etc.,

When my mom makes this dish, she always uses the black chanas. I am ONE HELL of a lazy person, and I never used to eat it, because it needed a lot of chewing work. Even though the chanas are cooked separately in a cooker, they will still be harder than the white chickpeas. "Height of laziness" do you say ??? I totally agree. I have used just a minor variation from my mom's recipe here. I have used tomatoes in my recipe. Tomatoes lend a slight tanginess to the dish.

I regret to say that I don't use accurate measurements in my recipes, because for me its a matter of taste and preferences. So all the measurements are just approximate.

Ingredients

Serves 2
Preparation Time (requires overnight soaking and around 20 mins to cook the chickpeas if you are using dried chickpeas, else this recipe is instant)
Cooking Time - 15 mins

Dried Chickpeas - 1 cup (soaked overnight) (Remember that any kind of dried beans will always double in size when soaked - so this would be approximately 2 cups of soaked chickpeas)
OR
Chickpeas, canned - 2 cans
Tomatoes, medium chopped - 1 medium sized (optional)
Onions, finely chopped - 1 small (optional)
Shredded Coconut - 1 tbsp
Coriander Leaves / Cilantro, finely chopped - 1 tbsp (for garnishing)
Salt to taste

For tempering
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Red Chillies - 3 (more if you want it spicier -- remember, spiciness varies with different kinds of chillies)
Curry Leaves (optional)
Oil

Method

Note: If you are using dried chickpeas, cook them in a pressure cooker before-hand with just as much water as required to cover them and cook them for around 10 mins or until you start to get the first whistle. Then reduce the flame and cook on sim for another 10 mins and then switch off the stove and let cool. Cooking normally in an open vessel may take anywhere between 45 mins to 1 hr.

1. Heat some oil in a pan and add mustard seeds to it. When the mustard seeds start to crackle, add the rest of the tempering ingredients and stir for 2 secs.

Note: If you are adding onions, add it to the tempering before adding the chickpeas and roast them till they turn transparent.

2. Reduce the flame to medium and add in the chickpeas. Add salt as per taste and mix well. Cook this mixture covered for 10 mins. The chickpeas should be cooked soft and should break between your fingers with a little pressure. If you are using pre-cooked chickpeas, you can just add the cooked and drained chickpeas.... Its ok to add a little bit of the water from the cooked chickpeas.

Note: If you are adding tomatoes, add them now, mix well and cook until the tomatoes start oozing out water and blend into the mixture well.

4. Switch off the flame and add coconut and coriander leaves and mix.

Note: If you are adding frozen shredded coconut, then cook for 2 more mins, just to remove the raw flavor and then switch of the flame and add coriander leaves. Same procedure if you are adding (unsweetened) coconut powder available in Indian stores in the US. This is to ensure the coconut powder cooks and softens.

Serve hot as a side-dish with any main course. Can be eaten with rice or breads. It also serves as a snack at all times.

Potatoes and Carrots Curry

Carrots, the only vegetable that I hate probably, especially when it comes to eating it raw. Neither am I a fan of any carrot dishes, except maybe carrot halwa, which I like only because I am a die-hard fan of sweets.

People munch on carrots all the time, but somehow, not my cup of tea, or rather not my bowl of carrots :) My mom always used to get us to eat carrots somehow, but I never fell in the trap. A few days back however, we went to this potluck dinner and me and my friends got together and made Carrot Halwa. There were a load of carrots remaining from that shopping round. So I decided to finish them before they went bad.

Got me thinking though as to what dish I can make from carrots, which did not turn out to be sweet, because, carrots have an inherent sweet flavor. Then I suddenly remembered that my mom used to make this beans and potatoes combination, whenever she didn't cook onions in the house, due to some religious reasons, but it was nevertheless awesome. My sister's favorite dish. I just adapted the same recipe to potatoes and carrots. Its a dry curry, which just a little tempering and a sprinkling of coconut on the top before serving. Makes an awesome side dish with sambar, rasam or daal, or even plain yogurt rice.

Moreover carrots are very healthy, good for your eyes and all the rest of the healthy advice, which I don't wanna give, because I don't want to be called a hypocrite. But even if you don't like carrots, you should definitely try out this dish. Who knows, you might just end up liking it. This recipe is specially for my friend who asked for a onion-less side dish. So here goes.

I regret to say that I don't use accurate measurements in my recipes, because for me its a matter of taste and preferences. So all the measurements are just approximate.

Ingredients

Serves 2
Preparation Time - 10 mins
Cooking Time - 20 mins

Carrots, chopped into small cubes - 1 1/2 cups
Potatoes, chopped into small cubes - 1 1/2 cups
Onions, finely chopped - 1 small (optional --- I did not use it, but you can)
Shredded Coconut - 1 tbsp
Coriander Leaves / Cilantro, finely chopped - 1 tbsp (for garnishing)
Salt to taste

For tempering
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Red Chillies - 3 (more if you want it spicier -- remember, spiciness varies with different kinds of chillies)
Curry Leaves (optional)
Oil

Method

1. Heat some oil in a pan and add mustard seeds to it. When the mustard seeds start to crackle, add the rest of the tempering ingredients and stir for 2 secs.

Note: If you are adding onions, add it to the tempering before adding the vegetables and roast them till they turn transparent.

2. Reduce the flame to medium and add in all the vegetables (potatoes and carrots). Add salt as per taste and mix well. Cook this mixture covered for 10-15 mins or until the vegetables are cooked and become tender.

3. Switch off the flame and add coconut and coriander leaves and mix.

Note: If you are adding frozen shredded coconut, then cook for 2 more mins, just to remove the raw flavor and then switch of the flame and add coriander leaves. Same procedure if you are adding (unsweetened) coconut powder available in Indian stores in the US. This is to ensure the coconut powder cooks and softens.

Aloo and Carrot Curry is ready to serve. You can eat it as a side dish with rice or with chapathis and rotis. I made this with Tomato & Daal Rasam and I received a lot of praises. Adding the potatoes was a good decision, because they managed to reduce the sweetness of the carrots somehow and the curry ended up being subtly spicy to my surprise.

Keep reading guys... for more recipes and adventures !!!

Peanut Garlic Chutney

This was my most favorite chutney (after coriander chutney that is) when I was a kid. My mom used to make it for us all the time. Peanuts and Garlic both tend to have overwhelming flavors, but when they come together in this awesome chutney, they tend to form a mouth-watering dish / dip. Here's the recipe.

As per a request from my friend, here is the recipe for peanut, garlic chutney. I made it a few days back and since she had asked for instructions. I took some photos too.

I regret to say that I don't use accurate measurements in my recipes, because for me its a matter of taste and preferences. So all the measurements are just approximate.

Ingredients

Serves 5
Preparation Time - 15 mins

Peanuts - 2 cups
Garlic - 1 whole garlic pod medium sized(8-10 cloves)
Red Chillies - 10 (more if you want it spicy -- remember, spiciness varies with different kinds of chillies)
Shredded Coconut - 2 tbsps
Oil to roast ingredients
Salt to taste
Water to grind

Method

1. Cut the garlic into small pieces or crush them with a back of a ladle, knife or spoon. This is optional, because it is just to facilitate nice roasting of the garlic and to give out the flavor without giving out a raw taste. Keep aside.

2. Heat some oil in a pan, about 3 tsps. Add peanuts and roast them for 3-4 mins on medium flame until they are golden roasted, as in picture. Keep stirring often to avoid over-roasting on one side only. After the peanuts are roasted, keep them aside.

3. If there is no oil left in the pan, add about one more tsp of oil and add the garlic pieces. Stir and roast until golden roasted. They should look crisped and brown. Keep aside.

4. Add red chillies to the same pan (not much oil is required for this stage -- no oil will also work -- red chillies will roast even with little heat). Roast the red chillies until they turn a darker red. Keep aside. The picture doesn't do justice to the chillies :P

5. Add all the roasted ingredients along with the coconut into a blender or a mixer along with around a cup of water and grind to a "not so smooth", "not so coarse" paste, with the consistency of a dip / chutney. It should neither be too thick or too thin.

6. Pour the paste into a serving bowl, and add the required amount of salt as per your taste. Mix well.

Peanut Garlic Chutney is ready to be served.

The dosa in the picture is panpolo (neer dosa) -- recipe will be put up soon.

FOOD FOOD and more FOOD ............... !!!

So, I have been on this whole cooking spree the last few days, mainly because I did not have many vegetables at home (ironic huh !!) and I dint have the time to go grocery shopping.... So, I had to make do with other stuff, like daal, dosas and stuff which you buy at some point of life :) but have almost not used in a long long time (peanuts etc.,)

So, I made the following dishes in the past week or 2 (recipes coming soon....... just click on the food titles for the recipe links).

Panpolo, Peanut Garlic Chutney, Aloo Carrot Curry, Chickpeas Usal with Tomatoes, Benda Sagle, Kyala Koddel

Panpolo -- This is a konkani delicacy, also called Neer Dosa in kannada, which literally means Water Dosa (mainly because its batter is of the consistency of water). Anyway, as I said earlier recipes will follow soon...

Peanut Garlic Chutney -- The bestest (I know double superlative, but still) chutney after of-course coriander chutney.

Benda Sagle, another konkani delicacy with coconut based gravy (Lady's finger / Okra -- had some frozen ones from god knows how long ago - just kidding). This was probably the only vegetable I had that you can call a proper vegetable.

Kyala Koddel (raw banana with a coconut based gravy) --- this I prepared at my friend's place -- she asked me what's the best dish using raw bananas w/o making it feel sweet and this is it.....

Aloo Carrot Curry (Dry) -- A couple of days ago, I had few potatoes and loads of carrots, which I wanted to finish off --- had bought it the last time I made Carrot Halwa.


Chickpeas Usal with Tomatoes -- Today is the last day that I can cook anything at all, because I had just 4 small tomatoes, which I used up in this dish. I absolutely need to go grocery shopping tomorrow. Anyway, this was a very easy and simple dish with a subtle coconut flavor to it.

So the whole point of this post is that, I am amazed to know that if you love cooking and experimenting, you can manage to go a whole year without repeating the same dish. I soon plan to do that ONE DAY :) Also, you can always manage with any small items at home too. You dont always need fresh veggies in your refrigerator to cook something. This is like a week's worth of dishes. There are 6 dishes here, and the one left out day I think I managed with simple daalithoy (konkani style of making daal).

So long guys !!! Keep reading for more recipes.