How to make Velvet Beet Cake| Easy Velvet Beet Cakei

I have attempted to bake a Red Velvet cake on several occasions in the past. There’s a strong temptation to get the perfectly red one with beets and no fake colouring. Alas, I failed. So, I call this one a Velvet Beet cake and not a Red Velvet cake that I would have loved to call otherwise. It’s funny because, each time I got perfectly baked cake with pleasing results and good texture, it was sans that deep red colour that would qualify it to be called as a Red Velvet cake. It always ended up brown and chocolatey, often good to be christened as a nice Chocolate cake. Even the best of the beet cake recipes have not helped me.

So it stays to be a Beet cake, till I achieve the perfect palette of colours in them and share them with you here. :)

None can ever figure out that beets are sneaked in there. Not even the husband who saw me busy puree them late night and putting them together! He says he can’t imagine a cake out of beets. But why not, when we have cakes made from carrots? And you are sure to get a thumbs up. Don’t let the folks know there’s a vegetable in there. It makes them biased. Instead, let them enjoy, allow them to take second and third helpings and let the cat out of bag later. I bet you’ll get gawked looks like I did! It’s amusing.

I say this one is extremely healthy. Because I use olive oil instead of butter, beet puree makes up for the eggs, organic vanilla powder and brown organic sugar add depth of flavors instead of the refined one. So it’s eggless, butterless and certainly healthy with vegetable sneaked it. I feel no guilt when I feed my daughter the slices of this cake as she despises beets in their true form. This way though I sneak them into her and I am a happy mother to a cheerful toddler.

Velvet Beet Cake

Recipe minimally adapted from here

INGREDIENTS

1 medium sized, beetroot (boiled until tender, then puréed)
1/3 cup oil (I used Olive-Pomace oil)
1 1/4 cup organic brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. organic vanilla powder
1 1/3 cup plain flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup milk (use any vegan milk of your choice, like soy or cashew milk for vegan option)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Grease the bundt pan with oil and dust with plain flour.

Wash thoroughly and boil the beet until its soft and tender. Using a blender/mixer, purée it to a fine paste along with milk and brown sugar. Opt for regular sugar if you don't have brown sugar. Next add in oil and vanilla powder/ extract and blend further until incorporated. Set aside. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder. Add the flour mixture to the beet milk mixture and stir gently until all is well incorporated into the batter. Bake for 40 minutes or till done. Insert a toothpick in the center of the cake and test for done. Remove and allow the cake to cool on a cooling rack. Serve as is or with dollops of cream or ice cream.

Hope you had a happy long weekend folks! And wish you a Happy Monday!

I often wish Sunday's don't go by so quickly and Monday's don't come by so soon. More often, I wake up to a thought of having yet another Sunday that is an extension of the previous day or a hope that the week passes by steadily, merrily and fruitfully, welcoming yet another weekend, and that too a happy, jolly one like the one we just had.

Last week with Eid on Friday, we had a long weekend. The week that went by, we had Independence day falling on Thursday and a quick Friday that that did not seem like a working day, so that counted for yet another lovely long weekend, or at least I like to think that we had one. :)

To make this holiday worthy, we made a day's trek to the nearby outdoors and that was such a welcome break. This Dal ki roti, whipped up from the previous night leftovers made up for our outdoor brunch, just apt as a wrap-up-take-away for any time munch.

Dal ki roti is an excellent way to use up left over dal from the previous day and translate it to a delicious snack or a breakfast dish. Being a popular dish in the North, this was one of those recipes I learnt from my mother in law, who makes it extremely well and is often accoladed for the variety of delicious parathas she makes. Since I have come to learn this, it's been a regular at my home, way too often when I have left-overs of dal from the previous day. It's versatile, easy to put together, healthy and delicious. You may use any simple dal recipe for this one, either moong, tuvar or masoor dal. The one I used is here, however you can use the ones with onions in them or heavier seasoning. A thicker one makes softer and tastier parathas, so I suggest you drain off the excess water if the dal is thin. I like to pep up the seasoning a bit here with some chopped onions, a few hot chillies, garam masala, fresh coriander leaves, but it really up to your choice and taste.

Dal ki Roti

INGREDIENTS

1 cup leftover dal
1 onion, finely chopped
2 to 3 green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp. red chilli powder
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1 chopped onion
1 tsp. garam masala
1 tbsp. fresh coriander leaves
2 cups whole wheat flour (varies depending on thickness of the dal)
Salt to taste
Oil for cooking

DIRECTIONS

Drain the dal if there's excess water and combine the dal with onion, green chillies, red chilli powder, cumin seeds, garam masala, finely chopped coriander leaves and salt. Combine the wheat flour into this and knead into a soft dough. Set aside for 20-30 mins. Pinch out the dough into equal lime sized portions and with the help of wheat flour, roll out into a circle of 6"-8" using a rolling pin. Heat an iron griddle and cook each roti, flipping each side as they cook. Brush oil on each side of the roti and cook till golden brown on both the sides. Serve hot with onion rings, fresh curd and pickles.

It’s been far too long since I’ve put my thoughts into words and at times I think my pressures at work harass me so much that my creative side is fast dying out, a fear I live by because my blog survives a lot on this passion to write and share. And to blow that creative whistle out of me and bring my best here, I am of the sorts who needs to sit down, compose myself, cut off from all the chaos, and bring in positive verve that facilitates my artistic freedom. Least to say, I can never bring a good write up out here if my mind is stressed or has hazaar things running on it, which is how chaotic the past couple of weeks have been.

Work pressures aside, the dear husband has been away for another extended business trip. Well, his 3rd one in the past 6 months. Okay, it was meant to be a short quick one with a promise that he’ll be back soon and I bid him a happy bye. But as destined, things never get easy my way, and, to my dismay it has ended in a month long business tryst. In his absence, life as usual is never the same. I am living life of a super duper woman balancing several tasks over my shoulders. Or at least I like to think that way. Like, I dangerously tread on the 2 wheeler, zooming against time (the least I would want is not to miss my office bus and end up taking local over crowded buses at 3 stop-overs to reach my workplace) in high traffic zones and cross roads balancing the little 2 year old between my thighs to pick and drop her daily. Hardly do I realize that I could have just missed a near possible accident, a fatal one that too. The little one too thinks it’s fun to take her hands off the bike holders and wave in full swing to strangers on road or turn her head around by 120 degrees to watch a stray dog pass by! Kind of masochism yeah? Indeed.

The last week, the awry me broke a few basic rules too. The evening was pretty hectic, besides the fact that I was late from work. Adding the woes of traffic, my never ending rant on that, I was racing against time to pick my toddler. With an empty kitchen at home, a heavy headed mind, and a couple of constant calls from work, I thought skipping long queues at groceries should be okay once a while. After all living by rules isn’t always fun, right? So I crossed lines, avoided the folks ahead of me and headed straight to the billing counter. What followed was a series of heated uproar and mayhem. Worst, the embarrassment of getting annoyed looks and derogatory comments from folks around, especially if you are not the one used to it. A lesson learnt, don't break rules once a while if you've never done in the past. It makes the battered you feel battered further!

As if there was not enough on my plate already, the last week I had been pacing really fast trying to sort out things in my head and out. Every time I cleared the disarrayed state of interiors, put things back to where they belonged to, my toddler brought them back to square one from where I had started. Mayhem! Though that's an everyday story to say, when you are juggling through a hundred things, even the tiniest disruption is good to cause distress. In nutshell, for real, my frenzied current state of life seems like a fast reel action movie. For one, I am glad I wrapped up the most important to-do tasks on my list, even if that meant getting albeit a little stressed. With so many things going around, I haven’t really been able to sit down and compose or collectively bring myself to a humdrum. I missed blogging every bit. Every draft I put down ended as another draft. Next week, I’ll make a trip to the passport office, yet another ardent task I’ll cross my fingers at. Honestly, cooking has been my last priority between this commotion, since the little time or energy leaves me with hardly any gusto to bake or cook fancy. Thumbs up to those baby meals, quick fixes, one pot meals and odd indulgences in store-bought ice creams for a treat that we’ve been surviving on.

This week though I see things settling for better. The husband will be back too. Today, I made time for cleaning job, swapping bed sheet covers and paying off bills. I took my little one out to collect the laundry and do grocery shopping that didn’t seem too intimidating. This morning, I made a complete breakfast of this Onion Uttappa with Potato subzi. And more importantly, I finally got down to writing this post that will hopefully not end in another draft. Indeed that’s a good sign.

Onion Uttappa with Stir-fried Potatoes

INGREDIENTS

For the Dosa batter:

1 cup Urad dal
2 cups rice
½ tsp. Fenugreek seeds
Water, as required
Salt, to taste

For the Onion Uttappa:

2 large Onions, finely chopped
2 green chillies, chopped
Handful of coriander leaves, chopped
A sprig of curry leaves, chopped

DIRECTIONS

Soak the dal, rice and fenugreek seeds in sufficient water to ensure they are submerged for atleast 6 hours. Grind them to a fine paste with water that is sufficient to make it a thick flowing batter. Allow them to ferment for atleast 8-10 hours. For the Uttappa, mix all the said ingredients and set aside separately.

Heat a non-stick pan or a greased iron pan by smearing little oil. Drop a dollop of dosa batter in the center of the pan and swirl it in circular directions using the spatula to spread the batter uniformly. Spread the onion mixture on top of this batter. Grease the edges and cover the pan, allowing it to cook on the bottom till golden brown. Flip over and cook on the other side as well. Serve hot with potato stir-fry and chutney of your choice.

South Indian Stir-fried Potatoes

INGREDIENTS

4 large potatoes, boiled and skinned
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. mustard seeds
A sprig of curry leaves
1 large onion chopped fine
1 tsp. grated ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 green chillies finely chopped
Salt to taste
1 tsp. lemon juice, optional

DIRECTIONS

Mash the potatoes roughly between your fingers. Heat the vegetable oil in a pan /kadhi on a medium flame. Add the mustard seeds and curry leaves and fry till the seeds splutter. Next fry the ginger and onions till translucent. Add the boiled, mashed potatoes, green chillies and turmeric powder. Add salt to taste and stir well till all is combined. Cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the flame and add lemon juice to taste. Serve hot with dosa or uttappa.

To make homemade peanut powder, refer the recipe here.

Banana Ice cream, yet again?

Okay, it’s delicious, and is different from the usual, so it’s here. With my previous posts on frozen banana ice creams, this one may draw similarities, but then its healthy, super quick and delicious. Needless to say, I make this cheat whipped-frozen-bananas or so-called-banana ice cream so often that I can’t tell you how much we enjoy it. Even my little one is sold into believing that this is an ice cream she should earn and doesn’t care when I present it in different forms, at times as pops, sometimes as slices, or even assorted like this one I have today. So it’s not just bananas always you see, but a way to get the bananas into her. An attempt to be a smarter mom to a witty kid! :D

This was not really an ice cream meant for my toddler, but a dessert made for the two of us to save the over ripe bananas. My daughter did enjoy a couple of scoops though and I didn’t mind the fact that she loved the mélange of coffee, chocolate cookies and bananas, a unique one to her inquisitive taste buds.

For me though, coffee is not really a drink I enjoy much, but I simply adore it in desserts, or anything cold. Call it a day with friends and I am in for a cold coffee any time. Likewise, a coffee walnut cake makes a perfectly celebratory dessert and a coffee ice cream is utterly sinful. And coffee makes the most beautiful match when paired with chocolate, converting anything to delicious. So it does justice to this ice cream too. Coffee, chocolate cookies and frozen bananas blitzed to a delicious concoction and frozen for an hour or two will render a delicious scoop of ice cream you will crave for more. Bananas are optional and render a creamy texture to this healthy ice cream. Replace with whipped cream or custard for a more decadent treat. Crushed Oreos give a nice chocolatey twist and a dash of roasted almonds bring in an element of nutty crunch.

Coffee and Oreo Banana Ice cream

INGREDIENTS

2-3 overripe bananas, frozen
1 tsp. instant coffee powder
2 oreo biscuits, crushed roughly
1 tbsp. sugar (or as preferred to your taste)
1 tbsp. roasted almonds

DIRECTIONS

Blitz the frozen bananas, oreo biscuits along with a teaspoon of instant coffee powder in a food processor. Add sugar to taste, and a tablespoon of milk to aid churning in case the bananas are too solid. Pause for a minute or two and blitz again until everything incorporates into a smooth paste and resembles the texture of an ice cream. Transfer the ice cream into a freezer proof container, crush an oreo biscuit into the ice cream along with chopped roasted almonds and place it in the freezer until you are ready to serve. To serve, remove the ice cream from the freezer and allow it to sit on counter for 5 minutes. Scoop out a dollop and serve with topping of additional crushed oreos and roasted almonds.

Somewhere in the beginning of this year I made a silent resolution to post more savories than desserts as my collection of desserts in my content repertoire had shamefully grown than any other category. Time and again I kept reminding myself about readers being aghast about the paramount number of desserts I had on my blog, as if I had convinced them to believe that this is all we had daily. I had many mailing for basic recipes, as basic as making butter and ghee at home, more savouries for breakfast and tea time snacks, etc., while I had desserts brimming to my blog, something which was unintentional, but in course just unpremeditated.

One of my colleague recently insisted I post recipe on basics of homemade curd, ghee and paneer when it came as a surprise to her on learning that we could make them all at home. From the time I can remember, I grew up seeing my mom skim off the cream from milk and freezing them for days to churn them into a good batch of butter or make ghee, ferment liters of milk overnight to make curd every single day without fail and weigh down blocks of paneer on those odd days when the milk separated temperamentally. I never considered them to be recipes in the first place, forget the thought of even considering worth posting, since it came to me quite inherently by instincts and not something I ever learnt to make. I mean, did someone give you lessons on how to boil milk? It was as synonymous to that.

I don’t think I can come to a phase soon where I can post such basics here. Instead I would love to bring some of my favorite dishes on this table, those much appreciated recipes that are hearty and simple, and are regular in my kitchen. One such being this Lasooni Dal aka Garlic Dal that’s been my long time favorite. I keep it simple because it reminds me of my collage days when I lived single in a rented accommodation and cooked basic meals with simple ingredients and modest flavors for my sustenance. I managed to pull it through quite easily. A simple garlic dal, a quick stir fry of veggies made an utmost delicious Sunday meal along with the humble rice.

An east Indian twist to the dal here is with the tadka or tempering of Bengali spices. Paanch phoran is a blend of five (paanch) spices that is a unique Bengali spice mix made by mixing equal quantities of mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, nigella seeds and fenugreek seeds and storing it in an air tight container. I generally keep a ready mix of these spices in a container for my use on demand. Its used to season many dishes and lends a lovely aroma to a dish when tempered. Do hope you love it too.

Lasooni Dal with Paanch Phoran

INGREDIENTS

1 cup masoor dal
1 tbsp. channa dal
1 tsp. turmeric powder
2 tomatoes, chopped

For Paanch Phoran tadka:

1 tsp. oil
5-6 garlic cloves, crushed using mortar pestle
1 tsp. paanch phoran (a tsp. each of mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, nigella seeds and fenugreek seeds)
1 tsp. asafoetida / hing
1 tsp. red chilli powder
2-3 whole red chillies

DIRECTIONS

Wash one cup of masoor dal along with the channa dal with couple of changes of water. Pressure cook the washed dal along with turmeric powder, chopped tomatoes and 2 ½ cups of water. Cook on 3-4 whistles till the dal is mushy and soft. Transfer the cooked dal to a wide mouthed utensil and add sufficient water to bring it to a soupy consistency. The consistency depends on how thick or thin you prefer. Keep it thick if you want to pair it with rotis and breads, and thinner if served with rice. Add salt to taste and bring the dal to a rolling boil. Turn off the flame and prepare the tempering.

To temper, heat a wok with a spoonful of oil. As the oil heats up, add the crushed garlic and fry for a couple of seconds. As they turn translucent and fragrant, add in the paanch phoran mix and allow it to splutter briefly. Quickly add in the whole red chillies and fry for seconds. Turn off the flame and add in the red chilli powder, followed by asafoetida to the tempering. Add this to prepare dal and cover. Serve hot with rice or rotis.

Notes:

* I’ve used masoor dal with channa dal here. Channa dal gives texture while masoor dal gives volume to this dish.
* You may use the same recipe with tuvar dal or moong dal instead.
* Skip the red chilli powder to reduce the heat.
* Asafoetida / hing aids in digestion and has a unique heady flavor, hence highly recommended.

The western world has been calling that the spring has sprung in, oh though finally. But for us here in Bangalore, even calling the beckoning summer as summertime is nothing short of an understatement. With the mercury touching an all high of 38-40 degrees C by the day, and not getting any better by the nights, adding the woes of humidity in air, our sweat glands at their mechanical best, what feels like is an hour’s workout at gym even in our fan-sped, well ventilated, curtain drawn indoors. The whirling fans do no good, neither the chill of cold icy water and ice creams right out of the fridge. The much esteemed task of domestic grind has taken a swift backseat and I rather enjoy the lethargy of laying lazily like a couch potato, gazing endlessly at the spinning fan, as and when time and my toddler permit. Honestly, I’ve never known what Bangalore summers are like, because of all those glorious 14 years spent here, Bangalore never had a summer, or the real scorching Indian summers that I am talking about. But finally, they come.

Heck this summer, the rising temperatures and its woes that creeps in several uncanny thoughts in fists of laziness.

Pleasant as the weathers used to be, once upon a time, the drastic weather change, the tangential increase in vehicular pollution, the infiltrating population, depleting water tables, the perpetually increasing carbon footprint and the reducing green covers that we’ve always been famous for (well, some day that may remain just a history) have been a few direct promoters to the current state of weather affairs. I am cynical to the educated crowd in craze of the luring mall culture, the fast food takeaways amounting to corpus non degradable wastes, the lazy bums who need a car for singles and the little consideration they care for the exhausting fossil fuels, those loosers who fail to carry a bag along because they can do away with the plastic ones at dirt cheap price of few rupees, all at the cost of our environment. Equally pathetic have been our rainwater harvesting and waste management techniques, a rare to find garbage segregation, or may I say none at all. I am not against these odd commons, but urge being responsibly mindful.

My husband and I have been making constant attempts to create an awareness, more often being ridiculed to be annoying than anything. Like, we plunge into awkward situations when a guest visits us and looks around for a waste bin to discard rubbish. We persuade them to hand it over to us, so we can discard them appropriately. We don’t blurt out why, but will be more than glad if they handed it over to us for disposal. Then there are some smart chaps who insist they’ll throw, because they’ve been taught to be mannered. So we accompany them, fingering them to the right bin. Amused to a point we don’t get it, they often burst into fits of laughter on learning we do effective 'waste management'. Many can’t see why, because they assert that in the end all goes to a single landfill, which isn’t entirely true. It gets hard on us to explain, but we try. We’ve come to a point where we’ve stopped giving answers to many, because they deliberately argue. So we silently follow the practice between ourselves.

Then on another anecdote, we were on an overnight train along with big group of families travelling collectively, our co-passengers for this journey. The head of that group, a physics professor to a college picked up casual conversations with us as we exchanged smiles, little talks and shared food with him and his family. And like it usually happens with most Indian families on a train journey, exchange of home cooked food become the pot-boilers to fuel conversations and controversies, this journey wasn’t any different. What although was nastily upsetting was that all through the course of this journey, this learned gentleman, his wife and their grown up teens, callously flung stuffs off the train window; the food, peels, plastics and all that at regular intervals. In midst of our talks, deliberating them to refrain from doing so, and giving them a dose of science behind the whys in idioms that the professor’s nasty brain could understand, couple of more garbage flew out in seconds! At the heights of it, well at the end of our meal, we pulled out our home-brought reusable polythene covers to pump in the wastes and dispose off sensibly later. As we were about to shove them into our bags, this smart gentleman in his wrecked wits grabbed our wastes and flung them off the windows, leaving us painfully distressed! Between his naughty grins, the supposedly science professor told us bluntly that all we had spoken were noble to preach and not to follow in reality. So we were in loss of words.

Awareness is elementary. But then, that’s not where the issue is. Most of us know consciously the value of nature and the repercussions we may face if we continue to exploit the resources this way. My uneducated house help is equally aware that wasting water is sinful since she purchases tankers of them for her survival. I wonder if she’s cautious at her place to care for every little drop that she pays for. Yet, when at work, it seems easier to let the tap flowing while cleaning vessels, because it saves her time and energy, and it costs no penny. Likewise, despite our several attempts to convey waste segregation messages within our apartment association, we’ve been least successful in getting most of the cultured folks in our vicinity to even make a beginning.

I second the fact that the reckless rate at which we are speeding up technologically is alarming. I feel like a perpetrator myself on several occasions. The cell phone era that we can’t do without, every ring, every call I make alarms me of their signal posts towering sky high at couple of foot steps and their carcinogenic radiations that we have to live with. Those Bluetooth, wireless, infra-reds and microwaves have become an indispensable part of our lives that we’ll be severely hampered without. The humongous bore wells being dug every single day, the failing rains and battling water problems in city that have made the bare essentials a commodity of sale, a free right the nature gave us, but with a responsibility that we’ve failed severely at.

The truth is I feel so unprepared for the future I see for my daughter. I see myself swinging on odd ends of balances. Blame it on motherhood, aging or the PMS, but I’ve been thinking a lot for a long time, of the ugly carbon footprint, my daughter, her future and all of that. I am left with cold nerves and numb feet of what holds in couple of decades from now. And if our Hindu discourses said we are in the kali yuga, I can’t help but reflect how right they were in their predictions. They did foresee what devastation human intelligence and greed could do. It’s only a hope we came together collectively and did our bit. For the environment. To save the future. And to let the future generation live. For our children and for theirs to come. And for our own old age.

All said with heavy thoughts, I wouldn’t want to leave you without a recipe of this salad that's apt for this summer, a recipe that’s simple and least complicated as my contemplations are. I leave you with a hope that you’ll ponder. And be the one who’ll resort to a positive change that will prolong the deleterious impact, hopefully. Hope you have a great weekend!

Baby Spinach, Apple & Walnut Salad with Raw Mango Dressing

INGREDIENTS

A bunch of baby spinach (from our home garden)
1 cucumber, cut to thin slices
1 Apple sliced to thin wedges
Couple of walnuts

For the Raw Mango Dressing:

1/2 cup grated raw mango
1 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1 tsp. turmeric powder
1 tsp. red chilli powder
Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

Layer the cucumbers, followed by the apple slices and the baby spinach. Strew a couple of walnuts.

In a pan, heat the vegetable oil along with the mustard seeds. As the seeds begin to splutter, add the grated raw mango along with turmeric powder and sauté till it wilts and cooks through. This will take a couple of minutes. Add the red chilli powder and salt to taste. If you plan to store this dressing for a couple of days, then use more oil to cook mangoes. The oil needs to coat and cover them well. This simple mango chutney goes very well with rice and rotis.

Toss the salad with this prepared mango dressing or serve as a side along with this relish.

How to make Mum’s Cheat Vegetable Huli | Easy Vegetable Huli

In the small town where I grew up majorly, life was simple, time had a hold and things were slow. I had a blissful childhood in safe shelter of love, care and freedom. It was indeed the small town charm that made life simple and modest in a community replete of love and affection from all in the neighbourhood. Life there had an advantage and as kids, we enjoyed the proximity of our school to home, which brought us the perks of walking down home during the lunch time. As the clock stuck 12:30 PM, the school bells would ring for lunch break that spanned over an hour, which meant we had ample time to walk home, relish hot, home cooked meal, watch our favourite comedy series that we were hooked to (oh yes, we were hooked to Hum Paanch back then, to an extent that I could have given exams on it and topped them!) and get back to school on time for the noon classes.

Every afternoon as the school bell rang for lunch hour, we would walk back home midst the humid summer heat, soaking sweat in the navy blue pinafores that we wore for our uniform. Plonking ourselves under the comfort of fans and beating the blazing heat with tall glasses of chilled water, mum in all ears would serve us steaming hot rice, topped with either tove, saaru or huli and dollops of ghee on some days or tamblis with stir fried vegetables on other days. Happalas (paapads) and salivating homemade uppinakais (pickles) were a ritualistic part of our menu and always stayed on the table. I cannot ignore the joy of biting into crisp, fried, spicy sandiges served on days when tamblis showed up on the table. Mum was a strict believer in healthy, nutritious food and she ensured that the food she cooked with love balanced in taste, health and nutrition very well.

Our meals always ended with fruits for desserts. She would coax us to eat lots of vegetables and fruits as she does even today. She had a reasoning for what was cooked and she believed in them firmly. Like when greens were cooked, she would top them with freshly squeezed lime, because the vitamin C in lime aids in the digestion of iron in greens. Similarly, if a gravy was cooked with red chillies for the heat, the stir fry would then be cooked with green chillies, or vice versa to kill the monotony of flavours. Fresh vegetables and greens were a part of our daily diet, either in form of stir fries, or in huli, else in tamblis. And her love for organic food ran in her genes. Rustic vegetables like banana stems and flowers, drumsticks, raw jackfruits, gujje, basale soppu and doddapatre (brahmi) leaves that grow abundantly in wild during monsoons, produces that do not require intensive care, manure or added pesticides made up her favourites. On several other days, she broke the regime of traditional South Indian cooking with her delightful North Indian delicacies. On odd occasions, dessert during mid-week was in treat for us too. I was fortunate to have enjoyed the liberty of coming home to relish fresh home cooked meals for my lunches. It meant a lot – fresh, healthy, clean and nutritious. That was probably why I enjoyed food thoroughly even as a child, because it was simple, fresh and tasty.

With time as I grew up to being a mother myself, I realized that care and affection towards healthy food comes by instinct for your family. It means nurturing the tradition of cooking healthy, wholesome meals that can balance in taste and nutrition. Someone reading this blog may probably think that the recipes, mainly desserts shared here are all what we eat. But truth to be told, we do not eat banana breads every day, nor do we have tea cakes every evening. There’s a lot more healthier we eat than I can share here. But I don’t feature them here, least I dread this space would become tad boring.

Like I said, we grew up eating huli, that is quite traditional to our cuisine. I don’t make huli often because I never attempted to make a good one that tastes like what my mum or grandmom make. While in my teens, my mum would often chuckle saying “A good Havyaka bride is known by the Huli she makes!” If I had to go by that saying, I would never fit that bill! One of the reasons why I featured this recipe here is because the version I share today is much simpler, the cheat kinds as taught by my mum.

Huli is a traditional Havyaka dish from the famed Mangalore-Udupi region, made from lentils, cooked often with vegetables, roasted spices and ground liberally with coconut and tamarind, balancing off the tang with a hint of jaggery. It’s the balance of spices, coconut and tamarind that make up a good huli, an art that takes years to master. While there are several names (also called Kodhel) and different versions of it, this particular version of huli tastes so close to the traditional one I've grown up eating, that my dad, an avid huli lover and a good cook by himself, believed that I went through the laborious task of roasting and grinding all the spices, while mum and I chuckle on sheepishly. Devoid of all that hassle, hence quicker and easier too, it’s flavoursome and delicious served fresh with steaming hot rice.

Mum’s Cheat Vegetable Huli

Recipe adapted by mum

INGREDIENTS

1 cup mixed vegetables (raw bananas, brinjals, pumpkin, mangalore cucumber)
½ cup split pigeon peas / tuvar dal ( togari bele as in kannada)
1 tsp. turmeric powder
Salt to taste

For the Huli arpa, grind to paste:

½ cup grated fresh coconut
½ cup tamarind pulp / lime sized tamarind ball
3 tbsp. sāmbhar powder (preferably Karnataka styled)
1 tbsp. jaggery

To temper:

1 tsp. mustard seeds
2-3 whole red chillies
1 tsp. asafoetida
1 sprig of curry leaves
1 tsp. coconut oil

DIRECTIONS

Wash thoroughly and pressure cook the split pigeon peas / togari bele along with turmeric and 2 cups of water on 4-5 whistles. For 1 measure of the dal I use approximately 3 measures of water. In a separate pan, cook the vegetables with 1 cup of water and salt to taste till they are cooked and just tender. While the vegetables are getting cooked and the pressure cooker is cooling down, prepare the masala paste (called as huli arpa in kannada) by grinding fresh grated coconut with tamarind pulp (lime sized tamarind kernel cleaned and soaked in ½ cup warm water for 10-15 minutes), sāmbhar powder and jaggery, adding water little by little, if required, till its smooth and comes to chutney consistency.

Using a wooden ladle, mash the cooked split pigeon peas / togari bele to a paste. To this add the ground masala paste / huli arpa along with vegetables, and their broth and bring it to a rolling boil. Add sufficient water to bring it to a consistency of your preference. Adjust salt to taste.

Temper by heating some oil in a small wok. As it heats up, add mustard seeds, followed by whole red chillies, torn curry leaves and asafoetida / hing. Fry for a minute, turn off the flame and quickly add it to the prepare huli while hot. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Notes:

Tempering with coconut oil is optional, but highly recommended as it gives an authentic and traditional taste to this dish. You may use vegetable oil instead of coconut oil. Alternatively, use clarified butter / ghee for a richer taste.

I’ve used mixed vegetables here. However you may use these vegetables individually. Traditionally, for weddings and festive meals, Mangalore cucumber is the most common vegetable used in this kind of kai huli.

Vegetables that go well with huli are raw bananas, brinjals, pumpkin, mangalore cucumber, yam, bottle gourd.

The color of this dish hugely depends on the kind of chillies being used in the sāmbhar powder. Typically, byaadgi chillies will give you deep reddish brown hints while guntur chillies render more spice and less colour.

While we call this as huli in Havyaka cuisine, it is also popular by the name of kodhel in some of the sects/communities of coastal Karnataka, especially among the Tulu speaking Brahmins.

Pesto, need I say what it means to me? Having been a lover for Italian food, I'm sure there should be no second thought that I love pesto. But strangely that wasn't how it started a few years ago when we first tasted it. Well, it was a love hate relationship that we started with. We did not really give into liking it till recently we acquired a taste for the famed pesto.

For a while we despised pesto or even the word of it. Probably, because I never made it the authentic way. My experiments with dill, coriander and other greens, except basil were not received well. I gave up for a while, feeling incredibly guilty about not tackling it and getting such a simple straight forward recipe right. So I stuck by other pasta recipes that were appealing our palate. Then recently we had it at our coveted Italian restaurant, Toscano and that's really when we took liking to it. The pesto sauce served with an assortment of breads had us a convert. It's chunky texture, mild flavour, fresh and oh-so-delicious when we smeared it on bread and even paired them with spaghetti had us love it thoroughly.

The core ingredients that make up a good pesto sauce are basil, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil. These days, getting basil in a supermarket here is not a worry, but then they are not always fresh. Hence the basil I used here are home grown in a pot, so that makes this recipe fresh and all the more appealing. Pine nuts are something I have never seen or tasted. A quick google search said walnuts or almonds make an equally good substitute. Far from fetching pine nuts here, I settled for almonds as an alternative, something that I always have a stock of. So, these were made, we relished it with simple garlic spaghetti and they tasted close to the original stuff we had the week earlier.

Basil Almond Pesto

Inspired by BBC GoodFood Magazine

INGREDIENTS

50g roasted almonds
A large bunch of basil
50g Parmesan (I used mozarella instead)
150 ml olive oil, plus extra if storing
2 garlic cloves

METHOD

Put all the above mentioned ingredients into a food processor and process until slightly chunky. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Pour the pesto into a jar and cover with a little extra oil, then seal and store in the fridge. It's known that the pesto will keep well in fridge for up to two weeks, although I recommend using them fresh.


Vegan version:

To make the recipe vegan, use vegan cheese or skip cheese altogether.

So we've stepped into the new year. Welcome 2013! With Newer hopes. Brighter dreams. Best of health & prosperity aplenty like never before, here’s Vegbowl giving a warm welcome to 2013 with hopes of bright future, a year full of good luck, surprises, love and prosperity. And I turned a year older as I celebrated my birthday yesterday in a discreet way. Wishes poured in, friends whom I don’t get to interact too often took time to wish, many messages on Facebook tipped in and all that made me smile. Yet somewhere deep within, there was nothing that made me feels fancy about celebrating as it reminded me that I was growing old. Yeah, I probably did enjoy all that stardom of congratulatory messages and gifts while in my teens or even early twenties. Not any more. As I cross a milestone, it feels deeply reflective and provokes thoughts about several things, which I simply wish to put aside.

While highs and lows are a part and parcel of everyone’s life, I wish to thank each and every one who directly or indirectly became a part of my life. For many who brought smile on my face, happiness in my life, for the ones who filled my life with countless moments of joy, fun and laughter making it memorable and worth living every minute, others who motivated and inspired me, who stood by rough waves, giving me strength, at all times. Thank you all for all making me feel so special and good about myself. I feel blissed and blessed!

After all that think-thanking done that I've been itching to type, I've been pondering over what recipe should be ideal as the first post for the year. The net has been hovering over with innumerable desserts and after the week long festivities and celebrations gone by, followed by New Year partying, I am sure you've had enough of food indulgence or more than what you had asked for. This perhaps is the right time to settle for this simple heart warming Khichdi that is basic, one-pot and delicious! It’s quick, light on tummy, healthy and delightful comfort food. With lentils, rice, vegetables and spices, it’s gluten-free, healthy and a complete meal in itself. The below recipe is one of my favourite where I like to use our traditional sambhar powder, however you can replace it with garam masala instead. Use ghee instead of oil for an extra flavour. A dash of lime will bring in that added kick to this Khichdi.

Moong Dal Khichdi

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup rice
1 cup Moong dal
1 tbsp. ghee/vegetable oil
1 tsp. mustard seeds
6-8 cashewnuts
4-5 Garlic cloves
1 tsp. Grated ginger
1 large Onion, chopped
2 Tomatoes, chopped
1-2 Red chilli powder
1 tsp. sambhar powder
2-3 red chillies (optional)
1 cup Mixed vegetables (chopped beans, carrots, fresh peas)
Sprigs of Coriander leaves and dash of lime to garnish(optional)

DIRECTIONS

Wash rice and lentils together in couple of changes of water. Drain the water and set aside for 10 mins.

Meanwhile, in a pressure cooker, heat a tbsp. of oil. Fry the mustard seeds till they splutter. Follow it by adding crushed garlic cloves, grated ginger and onion. Fry them on medium high heat till the onions brown. Add whole red chillies if using. Next add the cashew nuts and fry for a couple of minutes. Then add the chopped tomatoes followed by vegetables, beans, carrots, fresh peas and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the rice and lentils and fry for a minute more. Season with salt, red chilli powder and sambhar powder. Add double the quantity of water and pressure cook for 3 whistles. For a mushy khichdi, add more water before pressure cooking the khichdi. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot. Top with a dash of lime before serving.

If you thought why there were no updates here or if I went missing, let me tell you I was in my hometown recently. A nice long weekend spilling over Monday ensured another trip down to Mangalore. Long weekend spent in Mangalore during the Independence day followed by Eid gave us a well deserved break and good respite from daily chores of work and home. Adding to it, the fantastic coastal weather in Monsoons added a feather in the cap. If you've been down South visiting the coastal parts of Kerala and Karnataka during the monsoon you'll be smitten by the beauty of nature and vast greenery the rains bring in.

While in Mangalore, we often binge on dishes made with coconuts. Coconuts form an integral part of coastal cuisine since they grow in plenty in this region. With no doubts you can be assured that the juiciest and sweetest coconuts can be fetched from these coastal regions of our country. I have often shared my love and immense fondness for Tamblis in the past on my blog. I don't think I need to even stress saying that this particular soup / Tambli does list as one of my favorites. Pair it with a generous helping of rice, a papad or pickle to go with and you have the most humble meal for a warm afternoon.

Tambli: Fire Roasted Tomato and Fenugreek South Indian Soup

INGREDIENTS

1 large tomato
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp fresh/frozen coconut
1 cup yogurt
3 red chillies
Salt to taste

For Tempering:

1 tsp. Oil
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1-2 whole red chillies
1 sprig of curry leaves

DIRECTIONS

Lightly oil the tomato and fire roast it on an open flame till the skin turns brown. Allow it to cool down. The skin will wilt as it cools, hence you should be able to peel them easily. Lightly roast the fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds and red chillies till you get the roasted aroma from them. Don't let them brown a lot as they will turn bitter and lose the taste. It takes about a min or two. Cool and grind them along with the roasted tomatoes and coconut. Lightly beat the yogurt and this paste to it. Tamblis are usually thin and a little runny in consistency. So adjust by adding extra water if required to bring it to thinner consistency. Add salt to taste.

Temper the Tambli by seasoning it well. Heat a tsp of oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds. As they begin to pop, add in the red chillies and curry leaves. Let the curry leaves fry for half a minute or less. Pour this seasoning over the Tambli. Serve it cold over steaming hot rice.