Mushroom Bell Pepper Stir Fry ( Dry Curry)

In addition to the various health benefits that I mentioned here mushrooms are also said to have tons of phytochemicals, natural compounds that prevent cancer. All varieties of mushrooms are said to be healthy and are high in anti oxidants but most especially crimini and portobello varieties. Eating mushrooms is said to be associated with a strong immune system too. If these reasons are not enough to include mushrooms in our diet, mushrooms are also extremely versatile not to mention tasty and can be used in a number of dishes from various cuisines around the world.

This stir fry (dry curry ) is inspired from a recipe I saw in one of Sangeeta Khanna's books that I recently purchased.I made some changes to the recipe based on taste and availability of ingredients and loved the final result. This curry is flavored with Indian spices and makes a great side dish for an Indian meal.

Before moving on to the recipe, completely off topic, a question for you all....do you enjoy puzzles. If yes then here is a brain teaser that I came across recently....what is black when you buy it, red when you use it and grey when you discard it? Can you guess what this could be, let me know what you think .....and I will publish the answer in my next post :-)

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and Method to make mushroom green bell pepper stir fry / curry

3 1/2 cups of sliced button mushrooms

1 large green bell pepper (capsicum) cut into 1/2 inch pieces (yielded about 1 1/2 cups of cut green bell pepper)

1 very large onion or 2 small onions cut fine

2 medium tomatoes ( I used Roma tomatoes) (yielded about 1 1/2 cups of cut tomatoes)

4 tbsp oil

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 inch ginger finely grated

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

salt to taste

1 tsp dry fenugreek leaves ( kasuri methi )

To be powdered finely

1 tbsp coriander seeds (dhania)

2 dry red chillies

a pinch of fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)

Dry roast the ingredients mentioned under "to be powdered" in a heavy bottomed pan on medium to medium high heat until the aroma from the spices gets released.

Alternatively spread the spices on a microwave safe dish or plate and place in microwave and heat on high for about a minute or so (will depend on the power of your microwave)

Cool spices thoroughly and powder in a spice grinder to a fine powder and keep aside

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan and add onions to it.

Saute the onion until it turns transparent, then add minced garlic and grated ginger and stir for a minute or so.

Add tomatoes, turmeric powder and saute until the tomatoes turn soft and mushy.

Add green bell pepper and mushrooms, salt to taste, fenugreek leaves and stir the vegetables regularly for a few minutes until they are cooked but the bell pepper is still a little crisp.

(it took me about 7 to 8 minutes but that again will depend on the heat and the pan in which the vegetables are being cooked)

Add the powdered spices and stir for another minute or two.

Serve hot with roti (Indian flat bread) or as a side dish with rice and dhal

Serves approximately 2 to 3

Banana Fudge ( Halwa)

Before I go on to today's post just a quick update. I have been on a photo updating spree and have updated a lot of my old posts with newer pictures. In case you want to take a quick peek, these are some of the posts that I have updated.....

Chickpea and Oat cutlets

Sweet Sesame Rice (made with brown rice)

Barley Oat Roti

Spinach Chickpea soup

Mixed Vegetable Khichdi

Moving on....banana halwa is a quick and simple Indian sweet that is made with ripe/ overripe bananas. Halwa is a kind of a generic name given to Indian sweets made usually with sugar that has a consistency slightly softer than fudge but firmer than pudding. I have seen and tasted a variety of halwas made with grains like wheat, nuts like almond (I recently posted this one) or vegetables like carrot or fruits like banana.

Banana halwa is among the simplest of halwa's, it is quick and simple to make and other than the optional garnish requires only four ingredients with the main ones being bananas and sugar. This is also a quick and simple way to use up those ripe bananas sitting on your counter, especially for those that do not want to bake banana bread or do not have an oven. This quick stove top sweet does not fail to satisfy and if you like bananas this is one sweet you should not miss trying.

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and Method to make Banana Halwa

2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 4 large bananas)

1/2 cup sugar (or less if you want it even milder)

1/4 tsp cardamom seed powder

4 tsp clarified butter (ghee)

Optional garnish

a few slivers of almonds

Mix mashed bananas, sugar and clarified butter in a wide heavy bottomed pan and place on medium to medium high heat.

Stir frequently while the mixture bubbles and goes from creamish color to nice golden to a deep golden color.

When the mixture begins to thicken and the edges start leaving the sides, add cardamom seed powder and mix well.

Allow to heat for a few more minutes. To know if done, pour a drop on a plate allow to cool and roll between fingers if it is fine then the halwa is done (while testing remember to lower the heat on the stove to low so that the rest of the mixture does not overcook )

Then remove from heat and pour into a plate/ tray. Cool thoroughly, roll into small marble sized or lime sized balls and garnish with a sliver of almond placed on top of each ball.

Store in an air tight container and keep in a cool place.

This sweet does not require refrigeration for about 3 to 4 days.

Yield will depend on the size of the balls.

Notes

With these proportions the sweet was mildly sweet not very, so you could increase or decrease the sugar depending on your taste

If you want to veganize this sweet you can easily use oil instead of clarified butter/ ghee (I used ghee just for the flavor)

This festive sweet is off to the DLC food festival Global Ganesha being hosted by DidoDivya

Watermelon Curry

I know what most of you are thinking......... watermelon in a curry? even saying it seems somehow funny. Mostly I have, in the past always associated watermelon with being one of the most awesome summer fruits and something that I like to have in plenty, on hot days. But when I say watermelon I am not talking about the sweet red fruit portion of the melon, I am talking about the white part of the melon. Have you ever thought about the white part of melon, the one just below the red fruit portion that we normally discard along with the skin and wondered if you can use it in cooking. I have never even spared a thought to that part of the watermelon until I came across this post on Nithya's site.Once I saw that post I was instantly intrigued and I could not resist trying out that part of the melon in my cooking. Cautiously at first I tried a small quantity of it, and when I was sure it tasted nice in savory dishes, I decided to experiment with it and make a curry with it.

I wanted to create a curry that would work well with roti's ( Indian flat bread) but this one would have worked just as well with plain steamed rice too. The curry was both mildly spicy and subtly sweet and the peanut and almond powders gave this curry some texture and a very slight creaminess. A surprising fact about this melon was that it managed to hold its shape even after being cooked, somehow I thought that cooking the melon would turn it into mush. It did not and the curry was really well liked. If you regularly buy this fruit and are in the mood for experimenting try this simple, unique and low fat curry, you may be pleasantly surprised by this one :-)

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and Method to make watermelon curry

1 large onion cut fine

2 medium tomatoes cut fine ( I used roma variety of tomatoes)

4 cups of white part of watermelon (skinned and cut into 1/2 inch pieces and the fruit part removed) (see notes)

1/8 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp red chilli powder (or according to taste)

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp jaggery powder (or sugar) (optional)

2 tsp oil

3/4 tsp cumin seeds

3 tsp tomato ketchup

2 tbsp dry roasted unsalted peanuts (without skin)

1 tbsp almonds

Handful of cilantro (coriander leaves )cut fine (optional)

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan. When hot add cumin seeds to it . When the cumin seeds start to splutter and onions and saute until onions are transparent.

Then add tomatoes and saute until tomatoes become soft and mushy.

Add turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and cumin powder and stir for a few seconds.

Add the cut white part of the melon, salt to taste, sugar (if using) and a little water (about 1/4 cup) and on medium heat let the melon cook.

In the meanwhile powder the roasted unsalted peanuts and almonds in a spice grinder and keep aside.

When the melon is cooked, add powdered peanuts + almond mixture and ketchup to it and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.

Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with rice or roti (Indian flat bread)

Serves approximately 3 to 4

Barley and Vegetable Herb Soup

You know how so many health and nutrition article suggests that all of us should eat all colors of fruits and vegetables each day. Well this is easier said than done, it is definitely not easy to include veggies and fruits of all colors each day....each week maybe... but each day......not so much. Having said that, just knowing that we need to get all colors of vegetables in our diet motivates me to at the very least try and get a good variety of vegetables and fruits in my diet each day. Soups play an important role in my kitchen as a means to getting in as many veggies as possible in one serving.

This barley and vegetable soup of mine is something I came up with in an attempt to try and create a soup that was balanced in the sense that it included veggies, some protein and at least one grain. Since I was looking to give the soup some unusual flavors (at least they are unusual for me ) I went with dried herbs like mint and fenugreek leaves for flavoring. I also spiced it with a mixture of freshly roasted and ground coriander and cumin seeds and added a touch of tartness with some dry mango powder. Since I gave this soup flavors from Indian cuisine , I also served it with oat pav (a healthier variation of rustic Indian bread ) to complete the meal.

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredient and Method to make Barley and Vegetable Herb soup

3 stalks celery cut into 1/4 inch slices (Yielded about 1 1/2 cups cut celery)

3 carrots cut into 1/4 pieces (yielded about 1 1/2 cup carrots)

1 cup frozen or fresh green peas

1/2 cup whole moong bean soaked for about 6 to 8 hours

1/2 cup fine barley

1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)

1 tsp dried mint leaves

a handful fresh cilantro cut fine

1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds (dhania)

1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

3 dry whole red chillies (or according to taste)

salt according to taste

optional spices

1/2 tsp dry mango powder (amchur powder) (see notes)

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

Soak whole moong beans for at least 6 hours or overnight.

Dry roast coriander seeds, cumin seeds and dry whole red chillies in a heavy bottomed pan until the mixture starts giving out a pleasant aroma. Alternatively place all the spices in a microwave safe plate and place in a microwave. On a lower power level, heat for a minute or a minute and a half until the spices are slightly warm and give out a fragrance.

Cool to room temperature and grind in a spice grinder until the mixture turns to a fine powder.

In a heavy bottomed pan place the soaked and drained moong beans, fine barley and sufficient water and place pan on high heat. When the water begins to boil,lower heat and allow the beans and barley to simmer for about 15 to 20 mins.

When the beans and barley are softer, add dried fenugreek leaves, dried mint leaves and all the vegetables. Let this mixture simmer for a little while on a medium to medium high heat.

When the vegetables are nearly cooked, add the ground spice mixture, salt to taste and adjust water to achieve required consistency.Let this mixture simmer for another 5 to 10 mins for the flavors to assimilate.

Garnish with cilantro (coriander leaves)

Serve hot with bread of choice. ( I served mine with some rustic Indian Oat Pav)

Serves approximately 3-4

Notes

I used dry mango powder (amchur) to give the soup a slight tartness. You can skip this if you wish and use lemon juice instead, use lemon juice according to taste just before serving.

Do not add salt to the water while moong beans and barley are just beginning to cook, it delays the process of cooking for moong beans. Add salt after the beans are fully cooked.

This soup is off to the No Croutons Required monthly event being hosted by Lisa

Mysore Pak or should I say Chickpea fudge.....

I think chick pea fudge seems like the best description for this delightful sweet from south Indian cuisine. Before moving on to the recipe I would like to share a little anecdote. On my recent visit to India, I traveled via New York. While at the airport there I found myself looking at this delicious huge carrot muffin displayed at a coffee shop. I was tempted to order that muffin and since it was my vacation I told myself it was fine to indulge a little and relax my no butter, no sugar stance. This relaxation of mine lasted.... all of half a minute....when my eye fell on the total calories of the muffin mentioned under it. Boy, what a deterrent that was....once I saw the muffin contained more than a third of my daily calorie requirement, I was not able to make myself order it...vacation or no vacation. Sigh !! :-( ..... Anyway this was thanks to the new policy in New York that all food items sold, should display their total calories. Not sure if this helps other people avoid fatty or high calorie food but it sure worked for me at least on that one occasion.

Anyway this incident got me thinking about this policy and I have to admit that I am a little on the fence on this one. On the one hand I like the idea of being informed and making smart choices, on the other hand I feel that occasionally when we are in the mood for relaxing and indulging, these calorie numbers are sure to be a complete turnoff and I for one may not be able to ignore those numbers and go ahead and indulge. I am sure this is why they say ....ignorance is bliss. Speaking of bliss, here is a fudge made with only three ingredients but one that tastes like pure bliss. Mysore pak or chick pea fudge definitely qualifies for the category of occasional indulgence without looking at calories with the emphasis on occasional.

This one's tricky in the sense that if you get the consistency wrong or cut down on the clarified butter too much it turns out hard. I have seen recipes for this that ask for sugar and clarified butter quantities that are double what I used here, but I believe that this works best for us. It is sweet without feeling too sweet and it is soft enough to bite into without crumbling under my fingers. I have made this numerous times and have worked on the technique to get to the point where I feel it gives me the best results. Try this for an authentic and traditional sweet and indulge a little.........

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and Method to make Mysore Pak

2 cups chick pea flour (besan)

1 1 /2 cups warm and liquid clarified butter (ghee)

2 cups sugar

1/4 to 1/2 cup water.

one or two additional drops of clarified butter to grease a tray

Place the chick pea in a large bowl. Use freshest flour to give best results. See that there are no lumps in them, if there is then you could sift it and then place in a bowl.

Pour half a cup of warm liquid clarified butter(ghee) on the flour and mix well making sure there are no lumps in the mixture. The mixture will resemble cookie dough at this point.

Pour the balance of the clarified butter on this mixture and mix well and let it sit for about 15 to 20 mins.

Grease a slightly deep tray or plate with clarified butter and keep aside

After 15 mins or so after mixing the chick pea flour with the clarified butter, place sugar in a heavy bottomed pan, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup water and place on medium to medium high heat.

Once the sugar starts to boil keep stirring it. Once the sugar achieves single string consistency lower heat slightly and pour the clarified butter + chick pea flour mixture into it slowly stirring continuously.

Keep stirring this mixture until it starts to thicken and the mixture starts leaving the sides of the pan.

Pour this mixture on the greased plate.

It will solidify quickly so within a minute or two after pouring into a tray/ plate when it is kind of solid, cut them into diamond shapes or square shapes in the sizes that you choose.

Notes

To test if done, just pour a small drop of the mixture on a plate, if it solidifies immediately it means it is done.

You can easily half this recipe to make a smaller quantity.

It is better to use warm clarified butter NOT hot, so do keep that in mind when you make this sweet

I find that letting the chick pea flour (besan) sit in warm clarified butter (ghee) for a little while allows the final fudge to become softer.

Beaten Rice and Tomato crepes ( Tomato Aval Dosai)

In the past I have written about the large quantities of sugar that just one can of soda contains, but if you thought this would not matter because you would easily replace regular soda with diet soda than you may want to read on....... One of the side effects of diet soda seems to be weight gain, why ?? because studies show that artificial sweeteners added to diet soda actually cause us to gain weight rather than lose weight. Ironic isn't it that something that is called "diet soda" actually causes weight gain instead of loss. Here is one such study featured on the abc news site on this topic if you want to read more about this.

Moving on to the other purpose of this post....the recipe ! I was in a bit of a funk because I had not experimented in a long while in my kitchen and wanted to do something "different". My need for something different but something that was quick to make and good enough for a light dinner resulted in this recipe. Just soak, grind and make, simple ! The tomatoes I added lend a certain tartness to the dish making the process of fermentation of batter as is normally done for traditional rice+ lentil crepe (dosai) unnecessary. The idea behind adding barley simply is that I haven't used barley in a long while and I thought this may be a good dish to sneak it in and it was :-) The beaten rice lends a softness and texture to the crepe (dosai) that made me feel I need to use it more often in my crepes :-)

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and Method to make Aval dosai

1 cup beaten rice (aval / jada poha)

1 cup white rice

1 cup brown rice

1/4 cup fine barley

1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)

2 medium tomatoes ( I used roma tomatoes)

3 green chillies (small Thai or Indian variety ) (or according to taste)

2 dry red chillies (or according to taste)

salt according to taste

a few drops of sesame oil to shallow fry the crepes

Mix together, white rice , brown rice, barley and fenugreek seeds in a large container. Wash all these grains and drain water. Fill container with plenty of water and allow grains to soak for at least 3 hours.

Grind together tomatoes, green chillies and red chillies to a smooth paste and keep aside.

Place beaten rice in a bowl, wash it in water, drain water and keep aside for at least 15 mins.

Grind the rice+ barley+ fenugreek seeds mixture in a blender/ mixer in batches until soft and smooth.Add a little of the beaten rice to this and grind again. Keep this ground mixture aside and continue to process until all grains and beaten rice are ground. The batter should be thickish a little like cake batter.

Add ground tomatoes+ chillies mixture to the batter, salt to taste and mix well.

Adjust water as required to achieve pouring consistency to the batter.

Heat a tawa/ griddle/ flat pan on medium to medium high heat. Pour a little batter in the center and quickly spread it out into a thin circle.

Pour a few drops of sesame oil on the top of the crepe. Turn crepe when the lower side is a little brownish.

Flip over and cook the other side.

Serve hot with chutney/ spice powder (molaga podi )/ spiced coconut powder

Yield will depend on size of crepes.

Notes

If you like a softer dosai make it thicker and more like a pancake.

If you like a crisper dosai spread the batter more to make a thinner and crisper dosai.

This crepe is off to Padma's Dosa Corner event