Pomegranate peel and ridge-gourd peel chutney, Meatless Monday

Sometimes the best dishes are those that we come up with at the spur of the moment. This is one such dish, which is the result of my impulsive action. Whenever I bring home ridge-gourd and make something out of it( this time it was the ridge-gourd stir-fry0, I save the peel and make chutney out of it. No, I am not being cheap. This is a very traditional dish and is used as a dip as well as a side-dish. Not only is it a rich source of fiber, it is great for digestive health. This time when I was in the process of making this chutney, my eyes fell on some pomegranate peel that I had dried and had to put away. See, traditionally, we also make pomegranate peel chutney. In fact, my mother regularly made it by grinding together pomegranate peel with cumin seeds and pepper corn along with coconut, red chillies and tamarind. All three primary ingredients : pomegranate peel, pepper corn and cumin seeds are soothing for the GI system. So, as I was making the ridge gourd peel chutney , I threw in half of the pomegranate peel that had been dried. I also added extra cumin seeds and black pepper corns. The result was truly, utterly delicious! I would make this over and over again.

Servings: 8-10

Ingredients:

Dried Pomegranate peel: from 1/2 medium sized pomegranate.
Ghosale sheera (ridge gourd peel): from 2 ridge-gourd.
Coconut Oil/ghee: 1 tsp
Mustard: 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves: 1 sprig
Jeera ( cumin): 1 tbsp
Black pepper corns: 1 tbsp
Green chillies : 2
Tamarind : marble size ( if using pulp, use 1/4 tsp)
Asofoetida: pinch
Freshly grated coconut: 1/2 cup ( you could put upto one cup if you wish)
Salt: 1tsp ( adjust according to your taste)
Water: 1/2+1/2 cup

Method:

With your fingers, break the ridge gourd peel and check for thread like fibers. Remove and discard them. Wash and Clean the tender peel and keep aside.

In a sauté pan, heat oil/ghee, splutter  mustard seeds.

Then add curry leaves,jeera and pepper corns.Sauté for two minutes.

Now add the dried pomegranate peel and sauté for 4-5 minutes.

Then, add in the cleaned and washed ridge gourd peel and fry it for 4-5 mins on low flame.

Add 1/2 cup water and let it cook for 5-8 mins. 

Turn the flame off and let it cool down.

Now add freshly grated coconut, green chillies, asofoetida, tamarind& salt and grind in a blender to a smooth paste. Add the other 1/2 cup water while grinding as needed.

Serve with rice/ dosa/idlis or even in a sandwich.

Can be stored in an airtight container for upto 1 week in the refrigerator.

Cooking made easy:

While making the above chutney, I sometimes add the green chillies and coconut while sautéing the ridge gourd peel . Then I let it cool down and grind it with other ingredients. This increases the shelf-life of the chutney.

Keeping a chutney  handy makes breakfast and dinner easy.

Tip for healthy living:

Both Jeera ( Cumin) and pepper aid in digestion and is helpful in counteracting nausea and morning sickness.Cumin is also purported to have anti-diabetic, anti-epileptic, anti-tumor, anti-microbial and immunologic activities in the human body. Cumin is also a source of magnesium & iron.

Food for thought:

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination! Nelson Mandela

Gulla/ Vaingana Sagle ( Stuffed baby eggplant)

Eggplants are a favorite across several cuisines worldwide. In India, eggplants are cooked several different ways, one of the most popular ones being "baingan bharta", in which the eggplant is charcoal roasted , peeled, mashed and mixed with oil and spices. That is yummy. In India, we also find baby eggplants which are most commonly stuffed with various spices and cooked. Again, there are several different ways to do this. Where I am from, which is Karnataka State in Southern India, we make a paste of coconut, roasted coriander and fenugreek seeds, red chillies ,stuff the cute little eggplants with it and slow cook it on the stove-top.
The name of this stuffed eggplant varies upon which kind of eggplant has been used. If you used the green baby eggplant, it is called "Gulla Sagle"and if purple eggplant has been used, it is called "Vaingana Sagle". I like them both!:) Some saute chopped onions in before adding the eggplants in. I like it without the onions and that's how I make it.It is pretty easy to make.

Servings: 4-6

Ingredients:

Baby Eggplant: 1 lb
Coconut oil: 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
Curry leaves: 1 sprig
Freshly grated coconut: 1 cup
Dried red chillies: 4-6 medium sized ( depending on your spice level).
Tamarind: marble sized if using dry, 1/4 tsp if using the pulp.
Coriander seeds: 1 tbsp
Fenugreek seeds( methi seeds):  1/4 tsp
Water: 1/2-1 cup for grinding the paste.
Salt: as per taste
Jaggery/ brown sugar: 1 tsp

Method:

Roast separately the coriander seeds and fenugreek ( methi) seeds and keep aside.

In a blender/mixie/ food processor,grind together freshly grated coconut, dried red chillies, tamarind, salt and jaggery  into a fine paste, using water to grind as required. When the paste is almost done, add in the roasted and cooled coriander seeds and fenugreek seeds.

Wash the eggplants thoroughly. Take each eggplant, hold it upside down and make 4-5 slits in it without cutting through the stem.

Using a teaspoon, take little of the ground paste and stuff it into the eggplant via the slits. Keep it aside on a plate upside down. Stuff all the eggplants in this manner.

Heat coconut oil in a frying pan/ sauté pan. Add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds splutter, add curry leaves.

Now place each of the stuffed eggplant in the pan upside down. Pour in the leftover ground paste.

Cover and cook on low flame until the eggplant is cooked until tender.

Serve hot with rice/ roti/flatbread/bread.

A favorite Amchi( konkani) combination with this is rice and Dalithoy( dal). Just awesome! I am bringing this typical Amchi dish to Fiesta Friday # 51 to my friends there.This will be something new for them all to try! The very creative Jhuls@thenotsocreativecook and the wonderful cook, Juju@cookingwithauntjuju are the co-hosts this weekend. Fiesta Friday is gearing up for it's first anniversary party!
Enjoy!

Cooking made easy:

Eggplant once cut and left in air tends to get discolored ( it turns black). This can be prevented by putting the cut/sliced eggplants in salted water. Salted water is nothing but plain water to which 1/4 tsp salt has been added.

Tip for healthy living:

In Ayurvedic medicine, food plays a great role in healing. They classify different food groups based on their effects on the body upon consumption. They have food that is cooling to the body hence great to be consumed during summertime and if you have inflammation in your body; e.g: ash gourd, bottle gourd, ridge gourd etc. Then you have vegetables that produce heat in the body and are great winter foods; e.g: ginger. Now there are certain foods that impede healing and unfortunately eggplant is one if them. Therefore if an individual has inflammatory condition, surgery etc, it is recommended that they do not eat eggplant.

Food for thought:

A true lover always feels in debt to the one he loves. Ralph W. Sockman

Butternut Squash Fries; Meatless Monday

Like anybody else, I like French Fries! Well, who doesn't??? I remember when I was pregnant with my first-born, all I used to crave for was French fries! The best tasting ones were from McDonalds! God knows what they add in there to make it so tasty! Anyways, all that is in the past. Many a water has known under that bridge! Not only do I avoid fried food, I do not eat potatoes anymore! For health reasons of course! That's puts a damper on that! Even before I used to make baked French Fries! Now I do not make them at all! That does not mean that ones in a while I don't crave them.. Well, I do... But I have swapped the potatoes with sweet potatoes! And I like the taste of it. Not too long ago, at the fiesta Friday, I came across butternut Squash fries! You know I had to try them! Especially, since I have butternut squash at home all the time!They looked sooo good! I must say that I tried it and I liked it! Thanks Andrea for sharing such a wonderful recipe with all of us. This one is a keeper! Who knew making fries was this easy! You can find the original recipe here.

Servings: 4-6

Ingredients:

Butternut squash: 1 medium
Corn starch/ corn flour: 2 tbsp
Olive oil: 1-2 tbsp
Salt: to taste
Black pepper: 1/2tsp, freshly ground (optional).

Method:

Peel the butternut squash using a regular peeler, remove the seeds and then cut it into 0.75 centimeter thick sticks/strips.

Preheat the oven to 400 deg F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil and keep ready.

Place the butternut squash strips in a plastic bag/ ziplock bag. Add corn flour, close the bag and shake it well until all the butternut squash pieces are coated with it.

Place the butternut squash strips on the baking sheet in a single layer. DO NOT OVERCROWD. If you overcrowd the strips will not become crisp. You might have to use more than one baking sheet or make more than one batch. I made 2 batches using 2 big sheets.

Lightly brush the butternut squash pieces with olive oil.

Place the baking tray on the middle rack. Bake for 15 mins, after which rotate the tray and bake for 15 more minutes or until the fries are crispy enough for your taste. Don't let them get burnt.

Take the tray out, sprinkle salt and black pepper, toss the fries with it.

The fries will be crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. They shrink significantly upon baking, so you might end up with a much smaller quantity than what you started with.

Serve hot, straight out of the oven with some ketchup.

Enjoy!

Cooking made easy:

Cutting and peeling gourds/ squashes can be challenging.The easiest and best  way to do it is to peel it first using a regular peeler and then slice/cut it any way you wish.

You can also place it for a few minutes in the oven/ microwave and then cut it. This method however does not work for fries!

Tip for healthy living:

Butternut squash  is a very nutrient-rich  food. It is one of the first vegetables that my children stared eating.

Food for thought:

Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king. Mark Van Doren

Kuvale Sasam ( Ash Gourd/Wintermelon cooked in mustard flavored coconut sauce)

Kuvale ( Ash Gourd or Winter Melon) is one of my favorite vegetables. It is not only delicious, it is good for the body. It soothes the digestive system. Apart from Kuvale puli koddel, another common and popular dish made by konkani GSBs with this vegetable  is kuvale sasam. It is a very simple and humble dish made by adding cooked ash gourd pieces to a sauce made by grinding together coconut, red chillies, tamarind and a few mustard seeds. The sauce should not be spicy.It is absolutely delicious. You can also eat it like a stew.

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

Ash gourd/Wintermelon/ kuvale: 1 lb slice.
Water: 1/2 cup + 1/2 cup for grinding.
Freshly grated coconut: 1 cup
Dried red chillies: 3 medium sized ones.
Tamarind: marble sized if dry; 1/8 tsp if using the pulp.
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp+ 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves : 1 sprig
Coconut oil: 1 tsp

Method:

Cut the ash gourd/Wintermelon/kuvale into medium sized pieces.  Add the pieces to a pot, add 1/2 cup water, 1/2 tsp salt and let it cook until tender ( usually takes around 10-15 mins).

In a blender/food processor/mixie, grind together freshly grated coconut, tamarind, dried red chillies to a fine paste. When the paste is almost done, add 1/2 tsp mustard seeds and pulse twice.

Add the ground paste to the cooked ash gourd/Wintermelon/kuvale. Mix well and bring it to a boil. Turn off the flame.

Tempering:

In a small frying pan, heat 1 tsp coconut oil. Add mustard seeds. When the seeds splutter, add curry leaves. Turn off the flame. Add this to the above pot.

Serve hot with rice/roti.

Enjoy!

Cooking made easy:

Whenever you cook vegetables that have a high water content, make sure that you do not add too much water. Just add enough water so as to help the cooking process. Otherwise, the additional water given off by the vegetable will make your sauce too thin, watery and tasteless.

In case you do end up with a lot of water after cooking the Wintermelon , remove some of the liquid and keep aside before adding the ground paste. You can always add the reserved liquid to the pot depending on the preferred consistency of the sauce.

Tip for healthy living:

If you have a upset tummy, trying mixing a pinch of salt and hing ( asofoetida) into a cup of buttermilk and drinking it. This helps settle the tummy. ( This is not for people who are lactose intolerant)!

Food for thought:

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Eggless Tutti-Frutti cookies ( Short bread cookies with dried fruit pieces)

Wishing all my followers,readers, blogger friends a very Happy, peaceful and prosperous 2015!

Most Indians are vegetarian and then there are people like us who enjoy fish and chicken once in a while. Many, for religious reasons, observe certain days of the week when they don't consume anything that is not vegetarian. Vegetarian in India means that they do not consume any kind of meat or poultry including eggs or products that contain egg in them.Milk however is not considered non-vegetarian and is acceptable. One of the delightful snack/dessert that I came across was this tutti-frutti cookies. These are perfect for such days!These are like shortbread cookies with fruit pieces in them. These however would be a rare indulgence as they are rather high in calories owing to the fact that it is made with butter. But it is perfect for kids like mine, who are picky eaters and you are looking to feed them high-calorie snack. It is rather easy to make and does not take a whole lot of time. Problem arises when you try to skimp on butter like I did and the whole dough fails to come together and falls apart! It definitely does not shape into cookie pieces! So, word of caution: DO NOT try to cut down on the butter. Next time, I would however try to use coconut oil and try to make it.

Servings:

Ingredients:

Unsalted Butter: 2 cups
All purpose Flour/ Maida: 2 1/4 cups
Powdered sugar: 1 cup
Vanilla essence: 2 tsp
Tutti Frutti: 1 tbsp

Method:

Seive flour and keep aside.

Mix together butter and powdered sugar until smooth and creamy. Do not overbeat!

Add vanilla essence and the tutti frutti and mix well.

Slowly add the flour and mix until together until well-combined. Do not over mix.

Divide the mixture to make 2 big balls.Using your hands shape each ball into a log.

This is the tricky part and fails if there is not enough butter in the dough to hold it together.

Wrap the log in a cling film and keep it in the fridge overnight ( I am sure 2-3 hours may work as well, but overnight was how long I kept for convinience) or in the freezer for an hour.

Preheat the oven at 350 deg F or 180 deg C.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and keep ready.

Take the log out of the fridge. Using a serrated knife, slice the log into 1.5 to 2 cms thick slices.

Place the slices 2 cms apart on the baking sheet.

Place the baking sheet on the middle rack and bake for 18-20 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. The cookie might be soft in the center which is ok as it will harden upon cooling.

Take the baking sheet out and let the cookies cool down completely on a baking sheet before eating /transferring them to a container.

This is my own makeshift cooling rack!;)

Store in an airtight container. Stays fresh for 8-10 days at room temperature.

Enjoy these melt-in-the-mouth cookies with a cup of tea/ coffee. I am bringing in these treats for my friends at Fiesta Friday.If you haven't been there yet, I would recommend that you do! It is a great place of learning and sharing and most importantly the people there are absolutely wonderful! This week's co-hosts are two of my favorite people Selma@selmastable, whose recipes I absolutely love and my namesake Sue@Burgerbird. What fun!

Cooking made easy:

These cookies tend to spread upon baking and therefore it is best that they are sliced thick.

If you have kept the dough in the freezer, it is best to thaw it a little before slicing so as to get smooth slices.

Tip for healthy living:

People often balk at the thought of consuming butter. Butter in it's true natural state is much better than the various butter substitutes and butter-like products available in the market. They might tout themselves to be low in calories but have many deleterious effects on one's health.

Food for thought:

Gossip is when you hear something you like about someone you don't. Earl Wilson

Cake pops & bonbons; New Year Special!

Happy New Year to all my followers, readers and fellow bloggers! Hope 2015 will prove to be an even better year than 2014!

Holidays means kids are out of school, at home all day! That means they want interesting snacks all the time. Also it is only fair that we celebrate the holidays with sweet treats. Here is one of those treats that is easy to make ,perfect for a multitude of occasions and appeals to people of all ages. It is also a great way to use all the cake scraps that are left cut off after leveling a cake or after carving a cake into any particular shape. Often, these shavings and scraps end up in the garbage. Not in my home! I save them and make cake pops or bon bons out of them. I find that these disappear faster than the cake slices! Kids just love it! It also makes for perfect use of leftover frosting. You know how you have a little bit of this color and a little bit of that, not to mention the small amounts leftover in the piping bags! I use them all!

The first time I made them was for my daughter's 5 th birthday. I decided that since everyone seems to be making them and it sounds sooo easy to make, it must be a breeze! After all, all you have to do is crumple the cake crumbs, add some frosting into it, mix it together, make small balls, put it in the fridge for sometime, then take it out, insert a lollipop stick into it, dip it into molten chocolate, put it back in the fridge until you are ready to serve! How hard can that be??? Let me tell you something.... When I started out making the cake balls, it was all nice and dandy.. No problems! Put the cake balls in the fridge, no problem. Now came the part when I had to dip the lollipop stick into the molten chocolate and insert it into the cake balls! Hmmm what can I tell you! The cake balls groaned and rebelled and half of them just fell apart! I was happy that I had atleast 50 % success rate! I kept the balls with the lollipop sticks in them back in the fridge to set. After sometime, I took them out to dip it in chocolate. Sounds super simple: hold the stick, dip it in melted chocolate, swirl, shake off the excess and keep it upright in a cup/container. When I dipped my lollipop stick with the cake ball on top, into the chocolate, it fell apart!! I could have cried! With tenacity I kept going until I had dipped all of them in chocolate. I had lost another 1/4 of them. I dipped the surviving ones into the bowl containing sprinkles and stuck into the foam inside an ornamental container. A few of the balls groaned under the weight of the chocolate and sprinkles and fell right off the stick. Well, I still had a few that tenaciously held onto the stick and I was able to display them on the table. Throughout the event though, they kept dropping off and a little kid would come to me and tell me , " aunty , the cake Popsicle fell off!"All this happened inspite of me paying attention to all the tips that the nice lady in this blog wrote!

My first cake pops

Well, so why am I writing about cake pops if it was such a "huge" failure? Well, obviously since people make them all the time, and nobody complains about it , it must be definitely doable! As you see for yourself, I have now been able to successfully make cake pops & they have NOT fallen off the stick! Well.. just a couple! :( The first time I made them, I made them from eggless cakes and thought maybe that could have been the reason. Next time I made them for my friend's dauhhter's birthday, I made them both from eggless cakes and cakes with eggs. Some fell off and some held on. This time around, I had also increased the amount of frosting that I had added into the cake while mixing. I realized that the most difficult and crucial part was the dipping into the chocolate. That is when it tends to fall apart. It is also easier to dip it into ganache than melted chocolate. It holds better. Molten chocolate is highly temperamental and can seize and harden on you in no time! Ganache is more forgiving and can be heated and melted again, inspite of some added impurities( read cake crumbs) in it. I also realized that the size of the cake ball before dipping is essential . It cannot be too big or too small. If you make it too big, it is going to be too heavy for the stick and will fall right off once it is dipped into chocolate and wrapped in sprinkles. If it is too small, the stick might tear it apart upon insertion!;) So, what should the right size be? I use a melon scooper to scoop the dough and make sure they are all the same size.

Last , but not the least, if they still fall off the stick or you find the process too tedious, just make bonbons! Sounds fancy??? In lay man's terms it would be called "cake balls". I have my good friend Sonal to thank for introducing me to bonbons! What a nice exit route bonbons give desperate people like me!

Here is the recipe:

Servings: 40 medium sized cake pops/ bon bons

Ingredients:

Leftover cake: 4 cups, (any kind crumbled)
( you can also use any 9 inch cake)
Buttercream frosting: 1/2 can( if using ready made).
Semi-sweet chocolate chips: 1 cup
Lollipop sticks or skewers :  one pack of 50
Sprinkles: 1 cup ( any kind will do).

Method:

Cake pops

Crumble the leftover cake  with your hand until all the cake has been crumbled. Add buttercream frosting to the cake crumbles and mix well using your hands until it is well-combined. 

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Now using a melon-scooper make medium sized balls. Keep them in the fridge for 2-3 hours to firm up.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper and keep aside.



Melt the chocolate chips either using the double boiler method or in the microwave 1 minute initially and then 30 seconds at a time, stirring in-between. It is ok if you see a few chocolate chips. It will melt with the heat of the rest of the molten chocolate. Don't overheat the chocolate chips as it will harden. Most chocolate chip bags come with instructions regarding how to melt it.

Now dip the tip of each lollipop stick into the chocolate and insert it into each cake ball. This little bit of  chocolate on the stick will act as glue to keep the stick in the ball. Put it back in the fridge for 20-30 minutes so that the chocolate hardens.

Now take them out of the fridge. You might have to melt the chocolate a little too at this point in time as it would have hardened.

Keep the sprinkles ready in another cup/plate.

Dip each cake ball on the stick into the molten chocolate, swirling it slightly while bringing it out. If you have trouble doing that, just use a spoon to pour the chocolate over the cake ball while holding slightly above the cup.

Immediately dip it in sprinkles as required and then stick it upright in some styrofoam or keep it in a large mug/glass.

Put the cake pops in the fridge for 20-30 mins so that the chocolate can harden.

Delicious cake pops are ready!

Now you see why I persist in making them! They are sooo cute! Nobody can resist them.

So what are bon bons?

To make bon bons, skip the lollipop stick part and just dip the balls in molten chocolate, add a few sprinkles or nuts, place them on parchment paper lined baking sheet  in the fridge for 20-30 mins so that the chocolate can harden. Serve them prettily in mini-cupcake liners.

Enjoy!

Cooking made easy:

Use a narrow cup to melt and dip the chocolate. It is much easier.
Also, for beginners I would strongly recommend using candy melts to dip the cake balls in. The chances of failure are much lower( even though it is a little more expensive than chocolate chips).

Tip for healthy living:

A little bit of dark chocolate daily has shown to have health benefits.

Food for thought:

Always seek out the seed of triumph in every adversity. Og Mandino