Gajar Mooli paranthas (Carrot, radish flatbreads)

First of light lunches for Red Chilies

So paranthas, those Indian flatbreads made by shallow frying them in oil, are not what you would call a light lunch, especially if it is paired by chole or a similar kind of gravy. But in my house, we like to eat them with a light sabzi of aloo mattar (potatoes and peas) or even with some yogurt or lassi. I am sure Supriya of Red Chilies will agree that this one qualifies for a light lunch.

Now, if you are a fan of  Red Chilies you must be aware of the month long event featuring light lunches being showcased there. If you are a regular of my blog you must be aware of my blog's irregular postings. Anyways, a couple of months ago when Supriya did her first event, Dosa Month at RC, I almost smacked myself in the head. I had been thinking of an idea along similar lines to increase my involvement with DSM but never got around to execute it.

The gracious host that she is, Supriya said I could do it with her. So here I am following her lead to announce that I too will be posting light lunches this whole month. If you have a recipe for a light lunch, anything from sandwiches, salads to rice preparation and anything in between, post it and link it to Supriya's announcement. Head on over to her blog to check for rules. She will do the roundup at the end of the month. Not only that, she has a Taste of Home cookbook giveaway for one lucky winner in the US or Canada.

With mango pickle

I grew up taking these paranthas to school in my lunch box and eating them rolled up and dunked in tea for an evening snack. You can make them in a big stack, wrap in foil and they will keep in the refrigerator for a week. I made these after a long time because of a radish, carrot surplus from our local organic farm. We have started buying produce from an organic farm in our area. Every Sat morning we go up to the farm to fill our grocery bag with produce the owner has picked up that morning. We never know what we will get and this time around he went and got a whole bunch of radishes along with red kale, broccoli, carrots, onions, turnips and a big bunch of herbs.

Plucked off the ground

American radishes do not have the sharp, almost pungent taste that the Indian mooli has but it comes very close to it. However, kneaded in the dough with carrots, cilantro and green chilies, they transform the humble parantha into a delicious, almost gourmet tortilla.

Gajar Mooli Paranthas

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups grated radishes and carrots
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro (add more if you like)
3-4 green chilies, chopped fine
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp ajwain (caraway seeds)
2 tsp sesame seeds
Salt to taste
Oil for shallow frying

Method:
Grate the radishes and carrots, add a little salt and keep aside. Radishes have some water content which is released if you salt them and keep aside for some time.

Meanwhile, finely chop the green chilies and the cilantro. Heap the whole wheat flour in a large, shallow, plate. Add salt, turmeric powder, sesame seeds, ajwain and red chili powder. Mix well.

Red, Yellow, Orange, Green of the kneaded dough

Add the cilantro, green chilies and grated carrot-radish. Use the rendered water from the radishes to knead the dough. If need be, add some more water to make a stiff but pliable dough. Cover and keep aside for 10-15 minutes.

Heat a cast iron skillet. Make slightly larger than golf sized balls from the dough, flatten with your palms and dredge it in some flour. Roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness.

Slap the rolled out disc on to the hot griddle. Wait for a minute and then turn over. Spread about a teaspoon of oil on the cooked side, flip it over and spread another teaspoon on the other side. Press it down and cook till red spots appear on both sides.

Repeat with the rest of the doug and stack the paranthas like above. Once cooled, store in an airtight container or foil. They will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week and can be warmed up in the microwave or skillet as needed.

If you are not familiar with the art of making paranthas, here is a video which should give you a pretty good idea of how to make it.

Note: The videos of gajar mooli parantha I found were all for stuffed paranthas. I find stuffing and rolling out paranthas this way too tedious. I prefer to knead the flour very much the same way one makes a methi thepla. This video, which is for methi theplas, should give you an idea of what I am talking about. Just substitute the fenugreek for radishes and carrots.

A Homemade Life and a banana bread

I realize I have been absent from my favorite book club for a long time. It does not, however, mean that I haven’t been reading the books that are voted in as the club’s book of the month. I read Caliph’s house and even managed to write a few lines about it on my iPhone while sipping coffee at a McDonald’s and keeping an eye on Jr running around in the play area. This is what I wrote, if anyone doubts it:

If you pick up this book, expecting it to be along the lines of Under the Tuscan Sun, you will be sorely disappointed. While the Tuscan Sun was a loving albeit a laborious exercise in restoring a Tuscan villa, Caliph’s house is anything but. Fraught with jinns, superstitious guardians, unpredictable secretaries and a mobster for a neighbor, the project to restore a Caliph’s house, at the edge of a Casablanca slum, is destined for disaster…

I could have written more but I quickly lost interest in writing the review. Since the book never got better, how much can one write in the negative?

In contrast to TCH, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Molly Wizenberg’s A Homemade Life. Author of the blog Orangette, Molly writes with an old fashioned, homemade charm about food, family and friends. The book reads like a collection of her blog posts with one to two recipes at the end of each post. There are recipes for soups, stews, salads, cakes and pies, some perfected by her cousins, her dad, her husband and herself.

If you have ever wondered how to word a recipe, from ingredients to method, I highly recommend A Homemade Life. Molly has mastered the art of writing down the most complex of recipes into a simplified, you-can-do-it-style. Reading her recipes, related to the “food stories” that accompany it make you want to step in your kitchen and start making a big pot of soup or bake one of her decadent cakes.

For me, the most poignant of the posts were the ones about her father, his love of all things French that he passed on to her, and her deep connection with him. But there are moments of joy and serendipity and fortuitous connections made over food that will remind you that the common thread that binds us all is also the one that sustains us. That is the reason why so many bloggers blog about food and why there is an entire TV channel dedicated to food.

You may wonder why I have not chosen to cook anything from her book, after praising it so much. For one, after reading through the whole book all I wanted to make more than anything else was Molly’s chocolate cake that she made for her own wedding. This cake uses equal amounts of butter and chocolate, some sugar and just a tablespoon of flour. The recipe is one of those that lures you to make it right away and then consume the finished goods till there is none left.

However, when one day, towards the end of the year, you measure your waist and weight and almost swoon, it is no time to indulge in cakes made almost exclusively of butter, chocolate and sugar. Instead, you start driving towards a very hot Bikram yoga studio and sweat and stretch for 90 minutes until your body feels it has been through the wash, tumble and rinse cycle of the washing machine. After that you indulge yourself in the semi-sweet embrace of a 64% Cocoa Scharffenberger and call it a day.

Chole Palak, not an authentic Punjabi recipe

This is an old post, that almost got lost in the archives of my word documents. It was written in response to Supriya's query if I had the recipe for chole palak on the blog. The chole palak in question were the pairing for the Tibetan bread that he had made. This then, is the old write up with some new reference added in for freshness.

What kind of chole masala do you use? If it is the store bought, then what brand do you prefer? I prefer Sanjeev Kapoor’s Chole Masala. It doesn’t have too much salt and the spices smell fresh. If you make your chole masala at home by roasting and grinding spices, then please share and send it to Aqua, who is hosting this month’s B2B for me. Interested to host it, email me here.

In the past, my attempts at making authentic Punjabi chole, the kind that are immersed in thick, black gravy and the garbanzo beans so soft you could break them with the touch of your tooth, have failed miserably. Before you ask or venture, yes, I have tried Anita’s recipe and mine didn’t even come close to what hers looked like and I am pretty sure they didn’t taste like hers either. I will chalk it to my inability to follow a recipe to a T or the lack of patience with the bhunoeing of the spices.

Recently, Manisha wondered here why the chole gravy needed to be black?  I have not the faintest clue. For me, it brings back memories of lunches I have had as a teenager at Pujabi friend’s homes. The chole were almost always served with white bread and I have to admit the combination was awesome. To this day, if I am eating chole by myself, I toast two pieces of thick sourdough bread to eat with it.

But I digress. A few months ago, in an attempt to finish off a bunch of spinach leaves in danger of wilting in the fridge, I added them to the boiling chole gravy. To my delight, the pinkish/ yellowish gravy started turning black and by the time the spinach was cooked through I had the chole of my dreams or at least the color I desired. Though they did not taste like the authentic version, they looked every bit as good. And since then, I make sure I have spinach on hand before I soak garbanzo beans.

A few weeks ago, with no spinach or any other green to turn my chole black, I resorted to the original tea leaves method. Lurking in an overlooked corner of the kitchen I had found a half empty box of tea bags. I popped one in the cooker with the soaked chana and eight whistles later the beans were all black and soft and ready to eat as is.

Encouraged, I followed Anita’s tip and roasted the onions and ginger garlic paste with the chole masala (store-bought) till everything was a luscious black color. Added some fresh tomato puree which did nothing to change the color of the gravy and then added the darkened chana to it. The result was exactly what I wanted and it looked and felt like what Anita would have made, I think. We had it again with the Tibetan bread and it was good to the last bite.

Here’s my Indian pairing for his Tibetan bread.

Serves 2

Ingredients:
1 can garbanzo beans or 1/2 cup of dry beans soaked in plenty of water overnight
1 tea bag (black tea)
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 small tomato, chopped or pureed
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp chole masala/ garam masala
1/2 tsp dhana jeera powder (cumin-coriander powder)
1/2 red chili powder
1 bunch of chopped spinach (optional)

Method:
Pressure cook the garbanzo beans with the tea bag for 6-8 whistles or whatever it takes for your cooker to get them cooked through.

Heat a tablespoon of oil. Add the onions and sauté till almost brown and fragrant.

Mix in the ginger garlic paste and the dry spices (chana masala, dhana jeera and red chili powder).

Cook on medium low heat till the raw smell of ginger garlic and the dry spices turns fragrant. Continue cooking till everything starts looking dark and mysterious.

Add the chopped/ pureed tomato and cook for another five minutes. Do not under any duress add canned tomato puree. It is way too tomatoey and will change the color of your gravy from a dark black to a muddy pink.

Mash a couple of tablespoons of chickpeas in the cooking mix and stir. Add the cooked chana and the liquid it was cooking in to the onion-tomato mix and boil on medium till the gravy turns thick, about 20 minutes more.

If using spinach, add at this point. They will turn the gravy even darker. Serve with roti, naan, bread or rice.

Manisha made Rest of the World Chhole.

The chole palak go to Simona of Briciole who is hosting Susan's MLLA #26. 

Before I leave, here's a shout out to Sra, who is there for me via email when I need to bitch about another blogger trend I am not happy with. Check out her blog for some "humor" and some amazing fiction, if you are feeling down and low.

Another shout out to Jacqueline who has started The Food Blog Diary to chronicle the numerous events and giveaways happening in the blogosphere. She graciously put both my events on the blog within hours of receiving my email.

A Red Bird Christmas and Peter Reinhardt’s Cornbread

Confession: I had never read Fannie Flagg till Simran picked her up for our book club’s second anniversary. I had seen the movie Fried Green Tomatoes based on her book by the same name but had no idea at the time that it was based on Flagg’s book. The movie won an academy award nomination for best screenplay in 1991, so I can imagine how good the book must be.

Flagg is an accomplished writer who sets her book in the small Southern town of Lost River, population: 80. Think RK Narayan's Malgudi, except set in a small southern town along a meandering river with fabulous sunsets. Instead of the dusty roads of Malgudi, imagine pretty little bungalows with neatly tended lawns and streets lined with trees so old they form a canopy overhead. The weather is pleasant even in the peak of winter and the flora and fauna are bountiful.

The residents are friendly and welcome the arrival of an elderly bachelor, as an opportunity to get one of the seven unhitched (three single, four widows) women hitched. Oswald T Campbell, named after a can of soup he was found with on the steps of the orphanage, is a retired army man with emphysema, a limited pension and an even limited time left to live. He comes to the little town to recuperate and falls in love with the slow pace of the town, its residents and by the end of it not only gets a new lease on life but a new bride.

Flagg weaves a beautiful tapestry of friendship between Campbell, an abandoned six year old girl Patsy, a flightless redbird named Jack who lives in the town’s only store, owned by Roy. She embroiders the details of the town’s secret society that goes by the name the Mystic Order of the Royal Polka Dots Secret Society and weaves in the history of Roy’s broken love affair with his childhood sweetheart with the skill and artistry of one of Oswald’s nature paintings.

Tibetan bread in a skillet

This and the posts that will follow have been a long time coming. Call it blog fatigue or my tendency to bite more than I can chew, DSM took a back seat to other chores equally important, like going to school and trying to stay updated on my other blog, 359 Days of DSM. So, to all those who wondered and expressed concern at the absence of activity on this blog, Thank You. I appreciate the love and support of my virtual friends, which I find sometimes lacking in my real life friends.

A couple of weeks ago imprisoned in our own house by 6 inches of snow and too thin blooded to go out and play, we turned to culinary games. Fortunately for us, the day before the white flurries descended on our Tx homeland, I had scored a couple of cookbooks from our library, one of which was his favorite chef Jacques Pepin’s More Fast Food My Way. If you thought French cooks were snooty just watch Jacques in action and you will think your favorite uncle was showing you magic tricks with food. He can be found with his culinary magic tricks here or on PBS every Sunday.

As with all things, he is never happy with a first attempt and the long internment gave him ample time to
experiment till he came up with something he liked. It goes without saying that unlike me, he perfected the original recipe first, which is as simple as bread cooked in a skillet can get.
The original calls for flour, salt, baking powder, water, a few tablespoons of oil and a 12 inch skillet. It does, like all things instant, need to be consumed within a couple of hours, preferably right out of the skillet. The modified version is also easy, fast and tastes best right out of the skillet but you can use the leftovers next day. If you are watching your carb intake, this recipe is not for you. Go eat some moong dal dosas, recipe can be found here.

Unlike regular breads, this is a wait-till-the-last-minute to make a bread kind of recipe. So, plan and keep ready the rest of the meal before you make this. I made chole-palak (garbanzo beans and spinach curry) to go with it. Pair it with your choice of spicy curry.

Serves 2
Ingredients:
1 ½ Cup All Purpose Flour
1/3 Tsp salt
1 Tsp baking powder
1 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
1 cup water, plus about 2 tbsp more for steaming the bread

His additions: (also see note)
1 Tsp ajwain/ carom seeds
1/4 cups finely chopped cilantro

Method:
Whisk all the dry ingredients together and add water to make a thick, gooey batter. It should be thinner than a dosa batter but thicker than buttermilk.
Spread the oil in a 12 inch skillet, preferably non-stick and add a swirl of olive oil to it. Pour the batter in the skillet and spread it evenly on the floor of the skillet with the back of a spatula.
Add some water along the edges and cover with a tight fitting lid and get the bread cooking. Place on medium-high heat for about 10 minutes. The water steams the bread and helps it cook. At the end of 10 minutes the water should be gone and the dough frying.
Reduce the heat and, using a fork, flip the bread. Cook the other side, covered, for another five minutes. Turn off the heat, uncover and cool a little in the skillet before cutting it into wedges. Serve with chole palak or curry of your choice.

Note: We have tried this with a 1:2 combination of APF and whole wheat flour too. I liked it, he didn’t. So try the original version first and then experiment with the flour combination.

You can use any combination or assortment of herbs to make the batter.

Indori Kanda Poha and battle of the sexes

Indori: Born and bought up in Indore, MP, India; a foodie to the core; has aloo kachori, bhutte ka keese, garadu and kanda poha in the blood; one with a laid back attitude; easy going; likes to eat namkeen and laung sev with everything.

I have been late for my own event. But if you are an Indori (ref above) like me you would know it is nothing personal. We are a laid back lot, who do nothing in a hurry and take their time getting things done. (Just read the repetitious sentence to know what I mean!).
Which is a problem if you are married to a go getter, “hate lounging in bed”, up at the crack of dawn kind of fellow. There is no clause that makes it mandatory to disclose ‘sleeping in’ preferences before couples get hitched in an arranged marriage.
As a result, the first few months of our marriage were tumultuous, with me struggling to get used to the “leave in half an hour” to mean “leave in half an hour” concept of time. Him on the other hand had to get used to my, shall we say, easy as it goes attitude, in which half an hour could mean anything between 45 minutes to an hour and a half.

On a normal weekend morning I like nothing better than to get up at a godly hour (around 9 AM), make a nice cup of ginger tea and talk about the plans for the day, which may or may not get done by the end of the day. In my world it is perfectly acceptable as long as the meal that you planned on eating turned out right. He, on the other hand will be up at 6.30 AM (an ungodly hour, according to me), paying bills, catching up on emails and exercising. For him, the taste of food is secondary to the act of consuming it.
Nine years later, I still like my weekend breakfast to be poha, Indori style, with lots of onions, fennel seeds, peas and potatoes (the only thing missing are hot jalebis from the neighborhood halwai). He, who has grown up on upma and idli sambhar for breakfast, thought adding veggies to poha was tantamount to sacrilege. “That’s not poha, that’s vegetables cooked with poha!”
But what he didn’t bargain for was the “persistent foodie” that is inherent in every Indori. We may be laidback but we know our food and eventually we will convert you. By the end of our first year, T was making better poha than I and adding the ‘vegetables’ to them with restrained relish.

So here’s our recipe for Indori Kanda Poha that I first posted here, sans any photos. Another Indori Kanda Poha recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:
2 cups thick poha (flattened rice)
1 cup onion, chopped 
1 small potato, chopped in thin, bite size pieces
¼ cup peas, frozen or fresh

For Tadka:
1 tsp Rai/ black mustard seeds
1 tsp Haldi/ turmeric
2-3 green chilies, sliced in small pieces
4-5 curry leaves/ kari patta
1 tsp fennel seeds/ saunf (necessary)
1/2 tsp sugar (necessary)

For Garnish:
When the list of garnish ingredients is as long as that of the main ingredients you know it is an Indori recipe. The following are optional but recomended (either one or two or all) to enjoy the Indori experience.

Cilantro
Fresh pomegranate seeds
Grated, dry or fresh coconut
Chopped onion
Lemon wedges
Grapes (you better believe it)
Namkeen/ sev/ chavana
Jeeravan powder (like a chat masala but made just for sprinkling on poha)

Method:
Wash the poha twice in water, drain and keep it aside. The poha should be wet like a sponge but not soaking in water.
Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start spluttering, add curry leaves and chopped green chilli, fennel seeds and onion. Let the onions sweat on medium heat till they turn pink.
Add haldi and cook till the smell of raw haldi goes away.
Add the chopped potatoes and the peas and salt them. Cover and cook till the potatoes are fully cooked.
Add the poha and mix the onion-potato-peas together. Add salt and a pinch of sugar. Cover the poha with a lid and let it steam on low for 5 minutes.
Turn the heat off and garnish with chopped coriander and the above mentioned toppings of your choice.

And after that delectable feast of Indori poha and chai, I leave you with not one but two like minded fellow Indoris. Because we like nothing better than to talk about food before, during and after a meal.

The following was found here:
I think, Indore is one of the few places in the world where u can set up a small ’’thela’ serving poha -jalebi (Poha is a local dish, jalebi is a sweet dish) and if the taste is approved by the Indoriens, be assured u can earn enough for generations to come. When it comes to food, Indori chatoras stand a class apart. Poha, jalebi, garadu, sabudani ke kichrhi, somose-kachori, patis, khaman, pani puri - u name it and u have it. U come here with a new product and if its passed by the ’chotori jubaan’ of Indorians, don’t b surprised if u become a lakhpati in no time, a crorepati too is very much on cards - it happens only in Indore :-)

Excerpt from Rajat Jain's blog Useless Ramblings:
The other side-effects include missing the delicious Indian food. Being a foodie (and hence, a "bit" overweight) that I am, I obviously miss it. Especially when you order for a Daal Tadka, and get a layer of water above some half cooked and non-spicy cereals. Or when you have to contend with "maide ki roti."
Nah, whom am I kidding? An obsessed Indoree that I am, there was no chance on earth (or in heaven. I don't like hell.) that I could forget carrying Poha—Indoree Poha—with me. Two kilograms of Poha would be enough for 2 months. Or will they? Probably depending on how well I'd control my staple diet!


The poha with all the garnishes is off to Anita's Kitchen and to Sir's Corner who is hosting JFI: Fennel this month, started by Indira.

On the fringe and back

November was a tortoise/ rabbit month for me. I had my final papers due in college, a group presentation, a PP talk at my writer’s meet besides taking care of a friend’s kid for a few days and carting him and my son to school. Of course, other regular chores like cooking, cleaning and entertaining go on as usual. At the end of the day, what little energy I had left I chose to spend on catching up on missed episodes of Fringe instead of blogging. After all, I reminded myself, a wise man once said about blogging “blog only if it is fun”.

It was hard not to blog though. In the eight months that I have started blogging, it has become an extension of me. In the few weeks I have been absent from my blog, I was constantly taking pictures to post and mulling over my text to write. But at the end of the day, sitting in front of my laptop, my hands would pause, the mind would turn blank. I would hit the shut down button and go back to watching Fringe.

If you are into sci-fi/ paranormal genre, you can understand how addicting it is to watch Fringe. It airs every Thursday on Fox but clashes with my other favorite genre, comedy. At the moment, there is nothing more hilarious on TV than NBC’s Thurs nights with The Office and 30 Rock. Thank the technology for Hulu, where I can watch my other favorites the next day, especially if I missed the first season but can catch up with the click of a button.

Did I just digress from blogging to TV talk? Well, that is what happens when you take a break and come back after a few weeks. Hopefully, I am back for good, at least for a while. My college doesn’t start till middle of Jan and even though my next three weekends are busy, my weekdays are relatively free. So, brace yourselves for a barrage of posts (fingers crossed).

Before I leave, here’s a bunch of photos I clicked on my brief hiatus. More details and recipes coming soon.

Methi Theplas with potato cauliflower sabzi and carrot, tomato, onion koshimbeer (salsa).
 

Found this simple but yummy recipe for Eggplant Talasani at Manisha's Indian Food Rocks.
 

Eggless Banana Walnut Bread made with semolina (rava). Recipe on Supriya's Red Chillis.
 

Jammy Biscuits baked from Curry Leaf's Experiments, Emotions, Experiences with Food .
 

"I'll eat the jam first, cookie later."
 All those concerned parents out, don't worry. He didn't get to eat the whole plate of cookies. I took away the plate after he polished off two. So don't send me any concerned, anonymous comments like this one.

Watching Weight: Day Nine and a tag

Eating as usual
I have been eating a little piece of dark chocolate nowadays when snack attack or a sugar craving hits me. It is not as bad as you think. Half a bar is about 250 cal but cal from fat is about 140. It takes me about five days to eat it. At about 30 cal a piece I think it is ok. Here's the food log:
Breakfast: A cup of tea, a hardboiled egg and a glass of 1% milk.
Lunch: A toasted potato sandwich with a bowl of yogurt. A piece of dark chocolate and some toasted, unsalted pistachios.
Afternoon: A cup of tea
Dinner: Matki beans usal with two rotis and a few slices of cucumber.
Dessert: A nectarine.

Exercise: Brisk 30 minutes walking and 10 minutes of stretching at home.

When I used to work at Indian Express, Screen, every year we would have the Screen Awards Show, which was similar to Filmfare awards. We used to talk to the judges and meet the nominees and interview the winners. It was a fun month although hectic month. This month has been similar, what with writing my food log posts everyday and award distribution in the blogosphere, except I am on the receiving end this time. As if in appreciation of my food logging efforts, PJ of Seduce Your Tast Buds passed on the following awards to me. Thank you PJ.

Here are the tags to accept the awards:
1. What is your current obsession? Losing a few lbs, my blog and finishing off The Golden Compass trilogy.
2. What are you wearing today? A tank top and shorts. Its hot here!
3. What’s for dinner today? Matki beans usual with rotis.
4. What’s the last thing you bought? A toy fire truck for my son and some glass containers for storing leftover food.
5. What are you watching right now? Cailou on PBS. I am not actually watching it but it is playing in front of me.

6. What do you think about the person who tagged you? I don’t know PJ much but I like her blog and love her events and roundup page.
7. If you could have a fully furnished house, totally furnished, anywhere in the world, where would you want it? I would probably like a travelling house that I could take to different countries for a couple of years. Of course Tushar and my son have to be there with me.
8. What are your must have pieces for summer? Shorts, tank tops, my suunglasses and my razor. Can’t have stubby legs sticking out of the shorts!
9. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour where would it be? Back home to Indore cause it is my mom’s B’day today.
10. Which language do you want to learn? Spanish and Konkani.
11. Who do you want to meet right now? My sister in Pune, India.
12. What is your favorite color? Black cause it hides all the bulges and is slimming.
13. What is your favorite piece of clothing in your closet? My yellow wedding saree that I don’t get to wear often.
14. What is yor favorite magazine? Parents and Babytalk magazine.

15. What is your dream job? A food and travel writer. I’ll settle for an editor at a publishing house.
16. If you had a $100 what would you spend it on? My husband and kid.
17. What inspires you? Books, nature, wanderings of my daydreaming mind, my 3 year old and my 39 year old hubby.
18. Three styling tips that work for you? Comfortable clothing, no body odor and no makeup except lipstick once in a while.
19. Coffee or tea? Unquestionably, TEA.
20. What do you do when you feel depressed? Read, take a walk, have a talk with Tushar.
21. What is meaning of your name? I think it means victory – Jay(a).
22. Which other blogs do you love visiting? It is like asking which child do you love more.
23. Favorite Dessert? My mom’s whole wheat sheera and any chocolate dessert.
24. What do you consider unethical in blogging? Plagiarism, rude comments, anonymous rude comments, insistence on following a blog to enter an event.
Here’s my question?
25. What makes a blog stand apart from other blogs? Or what is it that makes you follow a blog?
I have to tag 10 bloggers for this award and since I have already tagged some of my favorite ones and others already have these I would like to pass on the tags to all the wonderful people who have been following me for the past few months. If you haven’t already got these awards, please feel free to carry these over to your wonderful blogs. I would love to know you more trough these questions.

Weight Watching: Day Eight

Guacamole
Yesterday being a day of not so healthy eating, I decided to eat as healthy as possible. Here’s the food log:
Breakfast: A bowl of bread upma and a cup of tea.
Lunch: Left over pav bhaji with a bun toasted in olive oil and a small bowl of yogurt with a teaspoon of sugar.
Late afternoon: A cup of tea.
Dinner: Shredded rotisserie chicken on a toasted bun with guacamole and a few cassava chips.
Dessert: A pear.
Exercise: Brisk 30 minute walk and 10 minutes of stretching.
Ingredients:
2 avocados
1/2 onion, chopped fine
1 small tomato, deseeded and chopped fine (optional)
1 green chilli, chopped fine
1 tbsp of cilantro, chopped fine
Half a juice of lemon
Salt and generous black pepper

Method:
Scoop out the avocado pulp into a bowl. Add the chopped onions, tomatoes and green chili. Sprinkle salt and fresh black pepper. Mix and mash with a spoon. Add cilantro and lemon juice, smear on sandwiches or eat with corn chips.

Weight Watching: Day Four

Click here for Day Three

I was never much for reading calorie information on labels but it is a well known fact that writing down the calorie intake also helps reduce calorie intake. So from now on i'll try to write down as much information as I can about the total calories I am consuming. Or at least do a calorie watch like this:
1 tbsp of tomato ketchup = 60 cal

Breakfast: 1/4 cup of raisin bran (50 cal) and 1/2 cup (50 cal) of cheerios with a cup of 1% milk(100 cal). Total cal: 210 cal.
Lunch: Grilled potato sandwich (300 cal) with half a cucumber cup up in slices. Just a small dollop of ketchup. Couple of pieces of watermelon for dessert.
Tea: One cup of tea with two small pieces of cranberry artisan bread smeared with peanut butter. (approx 50 cal)
Dinner: Two rotis with left over potato broccoli sabzi and a bowl of yogurt with a teaspoon of sugar. (approx 350 - 400 cal)
Exercise: 20 minute brisk walk around the neighborhood (about 150 cal burnt).
Total Calorie Consumed: 960 - 150 = 810 cal.

Grilled Potato Sandwich

I was going to eat the left overs from previous night for lunch. But making this sandwich for my 3 year old made me realize how long the potato sabzi had been in the fridge (6 days) and if I didn’t use it up, I would have to throw it in a day or two. This is same sabzi I use for stuffing Aloo Paranthas.
I used two slices of sourdough bread and two slices of pepperjack cheese. It also tastes good with green chutney either spread on the slice or as a side or both.
With the crusts cut off the bread slices are about 100 cal each. The two slices of pepperjack cheese are about 80 cal and the potato sabzi about 20 cal. I figured a 300 cal lunch was pretty healthy. Not to mention the fiber provided by the cucumber slices. Normally, I would have eaten the sandwich with store bought potato chips. Additional calories not consumed – 140 calories.

Ingredients:
2 slices of sourdough or any white bread
2 tablespoon of potato sabzi
2 slices of pepperjack cheese or cheese of your choice
Olive oil to drizzle

Method:
Plug in the sandwich grill. Spread the potato sabzi evenly on one bread slice. Add the cheese slices on top. Cover with the other bread slice. Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil. Put it OO side down on the grill and drizzle some more on the top side. Close the grill and cook till the sandwich is crispy and golden. Serve with ketchup or for a healthier version with green chutney.

The sandwich is so easy to make, especially if you have the sabzi ready and in my family this is eaten not only for lunch but also for breakfast, brunch and dinner, depending on what the mood strikes. For this reason the sandwich is going to EC's WYF:Breakfast. This sandwich also goes to Cooking for Kids: Evening Snacks event started by Sharmi of Neiyedyam and hosted this month by Diyva of Dil Se.

This also goes to Priy'a Sunday Snacks:Snacks with Bread event.

Whole Wheat Herb Triangles

I reached the TPSG meeting place and found plenty of parking. I had reached a week early. The meetings are held on last Wednesday of the month and not on third as I had thought. I felt a bit stupid but hey, that is not the most stupid thing I have done in my life.
On my way back, I decided to tackle Madhuram’s Whole Wheat Eggless Baking challenge on reaching home. The recipe for these whole wheat Herb triangles is from The Low Fat Cook’s Companion, a Hermes House publication.

The measurement of the ingredients is simple enough to be halved, which is what I did.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
½ cup flour
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp chili powder (I used 1 tsp)
1/8 cup of soft low fat margarine (I used butter)
2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (I used mint, rosemary, and cilantro)
½ cup skim or 1 % milk
½ tbsp of sesame seeds

Method:

Put the whole wheat flour in a mixing bowl and sift the remaining dry ingredients.
Rub in the soft butter and add the herbs and milk. Mix quickly to a soft dough and transfer to a lightly floured surface.
Knead briefly or the dough will become tough.
Roll out to a 6-in round and place on a lightly greased baking sheet.
Brush lightly with water and sprinkle evenly with the sesame seeds.
Carefully cut the dough round into 8 wedges, separate and bake in a 425 degrees preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.
Transfer to a wire rack to cook. Eat fresh out of the oven with butter or cold with some soup.

Dislike bananas; Love banana chips

Banana Walnut Bread

Very few people dislike bananas and I am one of them. So why would I make a bread out of ripe, old bananas? Well, I wanted to see if I would like them in bread the way I love snacking on banana chips. Also, it was another opportunity to entre Mena’s Banana bread recipe on Tried and Tested being hosted by Kitschow . I love Meena’s Hooked on Heat blog and though she has not written since Dec of 2008, being busy with writing a cookbook, it is an adventure to try her different recipes.

I have not modified the recipe in any way but have substituted pecans instead of almonds and also added ¼ cup of semi sweet chocolate chips*.

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup butter
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup dry shredded coconut
1/2 cup pecans or almonds
¼ cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a loaf pan on all sides.
Melt the butter in the microwave and add flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Stir to mix.
Add the mashed bananas and mix to make a smooth batter.
Stir in vanilla extract, pecans, coconut and chocolate chips.
Pour in the pan and bake for 30 minutes or depending on your oven, till a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.

Serve with tea or as an after dinner dessert. The bread is not too sweet, loaded with banana flavor and tastes yummy. Yes, I liked the banana flavor in the bread.

This banana bread also goes to Madhuram's Low Fat Eggless Baking event.

*Note: If you add chocolate chips, the toothpick may come out coated with melted chocolate. In that case insert in another part of the cake.

Going (a)round memory lane

They say everything comes back full circle and it has never been so clear to me since the birth of my son three and a half years ago. He has the exact sleep pattern as mine, the same picky eating habits of my childhood and the same obsessive and stubborn nature. My son did not let go of his beloved baby bottle till he turned three and just like me he got hooked on Aloo Paranthas at the age of two. His picky eating habit doesn’t give me a lot of options to feed him. So, once a week, I boil some potatoes and keep the sabzi ready to make his favorite aloo parantha at a moment’s notice.


Potato (Aloo) Parantha

This recipe goes to my darling son and to Tried and Tested: Hooked on Heat event guest hosted by Kits Chow. My recipe is very similar to Meena’s (of HoH ) Potato Parantha recipe, except I use fennel seeds and ginger-garlic paste instead of cilantro, green chilies and onions. I am also sending this to BSI:Potatos hosted by Chez What? .

Ingredients:

2 cups wheat flour
5-6 potatoes, boiled and mashed
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste (optional)
1 tsp carom seeds (ajwain)
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp chili powder
Salt to taste

Sprinkle the wheat flour with carom seeds, add a tsp of oil and with some water knead into soft dough. Divide dough into golf sized balls and keep aside.
Mix salt and chili powder in the mashed potatoes.
Heat a tbsp of oil in the karahi and add turmeric and fennel seeds. As they start to crackle, add the ginger garlic paste. Let it cook for a few minutes. Add the mashed potatoes and mix well. Cook for a few minutes and turn off the heat.
Roll out each dough ball into a small circle and place 1 tbsp of potato mix in the centre. Bring up the edges and press together to form a ball. Make sure the edges are sealed tight.
Flatten the ball with your hands, dredge it in some dry flour and roll out to desired thickness. In the world of paranthas THICK = SOFT and THIN = CRISP.On a hot gridle or tava, fry the rolled out paranthas with oil or ghee or both. Serve hot with pickle and a heaping bowl of yogurt.

An ode to artisan bread

This picture is my entry to Jugalbandi's Click Event

Long time ago, we found a German bakery called Bread Haus, about 40 minutes away from our home. I still remember the first time I walked into their little shop, lined with wooden shelves and filled with golden, brown loaves of bread. A delicious smell of fresh baked bread hung in the air. To the side and in the back you could see a huge oven and stainless steel tables on which more bread was being shaped by hand and left to rise for next day.
This week Tushar got some freshly made bread and I couldn’t help but take a picture of this loaf of garlic Gilroy and post it. If you have always eaten the pre packaged, retail store bread, you have to try a local bakery made bread. We have been customers of Hous for 6 years now and I know friends who have been regulars since the last 13 years. We eat the bread with chicken salad , with some pepper jack cheese melted on top or just plain with some butter smeared on it.

Here’s a little information about ‘Bread Hous’ and a link to their website.
The owners, Petra and Mark Lively, make artisan breads out of organic flours, grains and seeds. Their hearty breads do not contain any added sugar, fat, dairy and egg. We buy two or three loaves every two weeks but have to reserve our favorite kind (Multigrain and Garlic Gilroy) early in the morning or they sell out of almost all of their bread by 4 PM every day.

Bread Haus , a retail bakery, owned and operated by Petra and Mark Lively.

Chicken Salad Sandwich with salad greens and blueberries

In India, I had read about chicken salad sandwich in books and seen people order it on American sitcoms. But I had no idea how it was made or what its taste was like. Eight years ago when I came to the US, a newbie bride eager to taste all that this wonderful country had to offer, guess what, chicken salad sandwich was one of the first things I ordered in a diner. It was shredded chicken drowned in mayonnaise and mustard, slopped on two pieces of untoasted bread. I did not care for the taste or the texture and so did not eat it again for the next 6 years. Then one day I went with my friend Erin to the Celebrity Cafe. She recommended the Chicken Salas Sandwich (from henceforth to be referred as CSS) on the menu. I was skeptical but Erin’s recommendation, be they about food or movies, has never steered me wrong. So I ordered the CSS and loved it. It was not gooey like I remembered it. You could hardly taste the mayo and the mustard and it had bits of pecans and apples in it for crunch. The whole wheat bread was lightly toasted and there was a crunchy lettuce leaf under the salad to soak up the liquid and prevent the bread from getting soggy. A fan of CSS now, I wanted to replicate the Celebrity Café sandwich in my kitchen. After two years of trials and errors I have finally hit the jackpot. I just eyeball my ingredients for this recipe and so the following is an approximation of my recipe. You can adjust the ingredients according to your liking.

Craneberry Walnut bread from Bread Hause

Ingredients:

¼ cup Rotisserie chicken, shredded
½ tbs Mayo
1 tsp mustard of your choice
1tbsp pecan/ walnuts
2 tbsp chopped onion and or apple
A dash of salsa
Salt and pepper to taste

Run the shredded chicken and pecans through the food processor for a few minutes. Chicken salad is ready.
I pile it on two slices of hearty bread we get from a local German bakery. This time I had some cranberry walnut bread in the house. Yum!
Some store bought salad greens and blueberries and lunch is ready.

Veggie Burger Sandwich

When I am pressed for time and need to fix some thing fast I turn to frozen veggie burgers. The only other ingredients you need are bread (i prefer sour dough), cheese, lettuce and some pesto or chutney in your fridge.

I don't own a toaster because I like to toast my bread on a skillet with some olive oil drizzled on top. Add pepper jack cheese to one toasted slice and garlic basil pesto to the other. Heat (in the microwave) and toast (on the skillet) the veggie burger.

Position salad greens and the burger between the two slices. Today, I had some lettuce my neighbor gave me from her vegetable garden.

Cut off the edges (optional) from the sandwich.

Plate it with some tomato ketchup and fruit. I had strawberries and blackberries in the fridge today.

Wash it down with a tall glass of lassi (yogurt smoothie) or the beverage of your choice.