Whipped cream cheese spread

I usually do some prep work over the weekend to make life on weekdays easier. One of the things I make is this whipped cream cheese spread.  Served with toasted bagels, this makes for a quick and tasty breakfast.

The ingredients I use vary from time to time, based on what vegetables I have on hand. The veggies that I use most commonly are onions, spring onions (the white and green parts can be used), bell peppers of different colors, and carrots.
The recipe, if you can call it that, is pretty simple. Take whipped cream cheese in a small mixing bowl. Add in the vegetables of your choice. Chop the vegetables as finely as you can to make it easy to spread. Add a dash of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix well. This stays good in the refrigerator for up to two days. It goes really well with bagels and can also be used as a sandwich spread.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM
This also goes to This is for Valli's Kid’s Delight event, guest hosted by PJ themed on Quick / Innovative Breakfast

Kanda Poha - a traditional Maharashtrian breakfast dish

One of the things I miss the most from my days of living in Mumbai is the street food. From vada paos to pani puris to idlis and dosas, everything was available on the streets and I used to absolutely love it. I was a frequent traveler on the infamous 'Mumbai local' while I lived there. The morning scene outside my destination station was always the same. A few local women with large steel dabbas would set up shop outside the station. Hot idlis with chutney and sambar, vada pao and kanda poha would be ladled out of these steel dabbas into paper plates. The taste of the poha that they used to serve is something that still lingers on in my mind. Though I make poha often, I feel that the one sold on the streets was so much better.

What you need:
Poha/aval/rice flakes - 1 cup, heaped
Oil - 1 tbsp.
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Onion - 1 medium, chopped fine
Green chilli - 2, minced
Garlic - 2 cloves, chopped (optional)
Ginger - a small piece, julienned
Peanuts - a handful
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Juice of half a lemon
Coriander - finely chopped, for garnishing
Sugar - a little (optional)
Sev - a handful (optional)

Take the poha in a colander. Run cold water over it and wash it well. Let the water drain out completely. Wash and drain again. Let it stand for five minutes.

In a pan, heat some oil. Add the mustard seeds and urad dal. When the mustard seeds pop, add green chilli, ginger and garlic. Fry well. Mix in and roast the peanuts.  Add onions and saute over a low flame until translucent. Add turmeric powder and the drained poha along with salt. Mix well. Stir in the lemon juice. Sprinkle some sugar(less than 1/4 teaspoon) over this if you would like. I feel that the sugar really adds to the taste of the final dish and that is how it is served in Maharashtra. Garnish with chopped coriander and a handful of sev.
Enjoy with a hot cup of coffee or tea.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

Kaima idli - Deep fried idli coated in a spicy veggie masala

Kaima idli, chilli idli, fried idli, idli chilli - the monikers are numerous, but what they all refer to is this delectable dish that is made by first deep frying idli pieces and then, if you can resist the temptation of polishing off the plate of fried idli,  coating them with a spicy mix of vegetables.
I first tasted this dish at Saravana Bhavan in Chennai and believe me, it was nothing short of an explosion of flavors on the tongue. Since then, I have eaten this innumerable times at different restaurants and loved all the variations that the chefs with their individuality have brought to the dish. Here is my take on this dish. I have created a collage of the various steps involved in the preparation of this dish so that it can be recreated with ease by anyone who wishes to try it out.

What you need :

Idli - 8, diced
Onion - 1/2 of a large one, sliced thin and long
Green chilli - 2
Carrot - 1/2, grated
Capsicum - 1/2, chopped fine
Ginger - a small piece, julienned
Garlic - 3 cloves, chopped fine
Tomato - 1, chopped
Oil - 3 tbsp.
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Chana dal - 1/2 tsp
Oil - for deep frying
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp (adjust to taste)

Dice the idli into pieces. It helps if you refrigerate the idli for at least an hour. Deep fry the cut pieces in hot oil until brown and crisp. Drain off excess oil an set aside.
Heat 3 tbsp. of oil in a pan. Add mustard, urad dal and chana dal. You can also throw in some curry leaves at this point. I skipped that as I didn't have any on hand. When the mustard seeds pop, add the chopped green chilli, ginger and garlic and saute. Lower the heat and add in the sliced onions. Saute until the onions turn pink. Add the grated carrot and capsicum. Stir well and cook covered for a few minutes until the capsicum starts to soften. Add in the chopped tomato, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt. Stir well and cook covered until tomatoes turn mushy. Add 1/4 cup of water and let it boil for a minute or two or until most of the water has evaporated. Now add in the fried idli pieces and mix to coat well with the vegetable masala. Remove from heat and garnish with some freshly chopped coriander leaves.
Serve hot immediately or after a while - the only difference will be that if served immediately the idli pieces will retain their crunch, while if eaten later they will be slightly softened by the moisture from the masala. Either way, it will be a treat for your taste buds.

Mixed vegetable salad with a tangy spicy dressing

Of the three salads that I've made for Blogging Marathon #58, this one is my favourite. Loaded with colorful vegetables and crunchy toasted peanuts, this salad hits the right notes with a dressing that is tangy, spicy and mildly sweet.

What you need :
Cucumber - 1, peeled and cut into long, thin strips
Carrot - 1, cut into thin long strips
Tomato - 1, cut into thin strips
Onion - 1/2 of a small one, sliced fine
Capsicum - different colors - sliced thin and long, 1/4 cup
Corriander - a handful, chopped fine
Salt - to taste

For the dressing :  (This dressing, in my opinion, is the best part of this salad. Make sure to spoon plenty of dressing over each individual serving of salad)


Tamarind - a gooseberry sized ball soaked in water. Extract 1/3 cup of thick juice from the soaked tamarind
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1 tsp

Mix the tamarind extract, sugar and chilli powder in a large bowl. Stir till sugar dissolves.
Add all the other ingredients to this and mix well.
Toast a handful of peanuts in half a spoon of oil. Add this to the salad and toss. Serve immediately to retain the crunch of the peanuts.

Seven years of blogging and savoury muffins

This blog completed seven years of existence on June 30th. I remembered, but just didn't have the enthusiasm to sit down and type out a blog post to commemorate this milestone. Every now and then, I go through a stage where though I have a lot to say on the blog, I just don't feel like sitting and typing it all out. How I wish there was a software that would create a blog post just by listening to me speak. Now that would be truly something, wouldn't it?
I am hoping to shake off the inertia by participating in Blogging Marathon #31. The theme I have chosen is Non-Indian breakfasts and that is what you will see on the blog for the next three days. 
Breakfast, to me, has to be something filling and nutritious. No Chocos or Corn flakes for me - I cannot stand eating something sweet in the morning. These savoury muffins are nice to look at, soft and moist in texture, and taste really good. Your imagination is the limit when it comes to deciding what goes into this muffin. Here's a look at all that went into my muffins.

What you need:
All purpose flour/maida - 1.5 cups
Grated vegetables - 2 cups (I used cabbage, carrot and onion)
Curd - 3/4 cup
Olive oil - 1/3 cup
Salt - to taste
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp (or to taste)
Oregano - 1/2 tsp
Egg - 1
Baking powder - 3 tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp

Take the flour, baking powder and grated vegetables in a large bowl. To this, add cumin powder, red chilli powder, oregano and salt
In a separate bowl, beat together the egg, curd and oil. Add this mixture to the flour mixture. Mix well. Add baking soda and mix gently but thoroughly.
Preheat oven to 175 degrees centigrade. Grease a muffin pan and spoon in some of the mixture into each depression. Sprinkle some sesame seeds or rolled oats on top of the batter and bake for 15-18 minutes.
These can be baked beforehand, refrigerated and then warmed up the next day for breakfast.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#31

Onion tomato corriander thokku/chutney

The days are getting hotter and hotter. Summer, technically at least, is still a month away but the temperature where I live is already in the 40s. This means that spending time in the kitchen is something that I progressively avoid. These days I have taken to cooking late in the evening so that the sun doesn't glare at me blindingly through the kitchen window. The next day's lunch is usually made,packed and refrigerated during these relatively cooler hours. This onion-tomato-corriander thokku is something that I put together last night. It started out as the tomato thokku that I regularly make as an accompaniment for methi theplas, but then I thought why not add in some onion and corriander, both ingredients which make for awesome thokku by themselves. And as they say, the rest is history and this recipe was born.

What you need:
Onion - 2, medium sized, cut into large chunks
Tomato - 9, medium sized, cut into large pieces
Coriander - 1/3 cup, chopped
Garlic - 6 cloves
Green/red chilli - 2 (adjust to taste - I made mine only mildly spicy)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - 4 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Split urad dal - 1 tsp
Bengal gram dal - 1 tsp

Grind to a smooth paste onions, tomato, corriander, garlic and chilli. Heat the oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds, urad and bengal gram dal. When the mustard seeds pop, reduce the heat and add the ground mixture to the pan. Add turmeric powder and salt. Mix well, cover and let it cook, stirring every now and then to avoid burning, until all the moisture evaporates and the mixture becomes thick.

Serve with methi theplas/roti/puri/idli/dosa.....well, it goes well with just about anything. Makes for a flavourful sandwich spread too.

Onion capsicum pakoda

There was an era when "I will send you off to a hostel" was used by parents as a threat to make unruly children toe the line. Anybody who has lived in a hostel, though, will laugh and tell you that it is a totally baseless threat. The two years that I lived in a hostel are the years that I look back on with fond memories and a smile on my face. The independence that comes with living away from your folks is something that I feel every person must experience. One of the things that me and my hostel mates loved is the day that we would all come back to the hostel after a vacation. Each one of us carried back to the hostel something special from home - pickles, sweets, snacks, podis and chutneys - food in quantities that would last months in a small household would vanish within days in our room.
There are a lot of things that amma would pack for me and my friends in the two years that I lived away from home and I will catalog some of them in this Blogging Marathon where the theme I have chosen is Kids' Delight - Back to Hostel food.
These crisp, hot pakodas which are made without adding any water to the batter last for 2-3 days at room temperature. However, if you do pack them off to your kids' hostel, I guarantee that the kids will finish it off long before tea-time.

What you need:
Onion - 1, chopped very fine
Capsicum - a small one, sliced very thin and small
Besan/gram flour - 3/4 cup
Rice flour - 3/4 cup(Use 1 cup if you want the pakodas to be very crisp)
Red chilli powder - 1.5 tsp
Hot oil/vegetable shortening/vanaspati/ghee - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - for deep frying( I used Fortune Rice Bran Health oil which I have reviewed here)

Take the chopped onion and capsicum in a bowl. Add 1/2 tsp of salt to it and rub well with your fingers. Cover and keep this aside for ten minutes. Rubbing salt on to the chopped veggies helps them release water.
 
Add the flours, red chilli powder and more salt if needed. Mix well. Add the hot oil and mix again.

 At this stage if the mixture still seems a little dry to you, it is fine. Let it rest covered for at least 30 minutes. 
You will see that sufficient moisture has been released by the vegetables and that you will be able to knead the flour to a thick dough.
 
 Pinch out small marble sized portions of this dough and deep fry in hot oil until it is crisp and well browned. Drain out excess oil.

When it is completely cool, pack in an air tight container and send it to your kids' hostel where it will become a huge hit and you will get requests for it the next time your child is back home.

Note: This can be made with onion alone or by adding any vegetable of your choice to the onion. Cabbage, ladies finger and cashew nut are some of the ingredients that can be added. 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#26
This post is a part of Healthy & Tasty Recipe Contest with Fortune Rice Bran Health Oil & BlogAdda.com 
This goes to Kamalika who is hosting Kids' Delight, brain child of Srivalli, themed on Back to Hostel Food.

Onion chutney with a twist

I hate mixing up flavours that are best enjoyed separately. I know there are umpteen people who go gaga over hot gulab jamuns served with a scoop of vanilla ichttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife cream. I am not one of them. I enjoy both, but give them to me in different bowls, please. The same goes for gajar ka halwa and ice cream. I cannot stomach the two together, though my stomach has ample space to accommodate the two separately.
By now I am sure you are wondering where on earth I am going with this argument. Well, it so happens that Kalyani sent me a mail about a month back asking if I would be interested in participating in Magic Mingle - a challenge where we have to use two given ingredients to create a dish. The combo chosen for the first mingle is Cinnamon and Chillies. Ever since she revealed the first two magic ingredients, I've been racking my brain - trying to think of a way in which I can use these two together. I had to get out of my comfort zone to even think of using cinnamon in a spicy dish. I definitely knew that I did not want to make a pulao/biriyani as this is the one dish which I like and usually make where this combo rules the roost. It definitely had to be something new.
I came up with this recipe as I was peeling some sambar onions with the intention of using it for a chutney to go with rotis. The thought of adding cinnamon to it is something that only a fellow blogger wanting to create something new for an event will understand.
What you need:
Shallots/pearl onion/sambar onion - 1 cup, peeled
Red chilli - 3 (adjust to taste
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Jaggery - a small piece
Oil - 3 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Grind the onions and red chilli to a smooth paste. Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. When they pop, reduce the heat and add the ground paste, salt, cinnamon and jaggery. Stir well. Cook until the raw smell of the mixture goes away, stirring every now and then.
Enjoy!!!
Note : None of the photos that I have of this chutney look very appetising. Hence, they are not shared here.

Onion tomato sandwich

The good thing about a sandwich is that it is so easy to put together....it gets done within a matter of minutes, and you can be as creative as you want to be with the filling. Most kids don't seem to mind eating veggies as long as they are sandwiched between two slices of bread, slathered with butter and drizzled with ketchup.
This is a very simple sandwich that makes use of ingredients which are commonly available in an Indian kitchen.

What you need:
Bread - 12 slices
Onion - 2, finely chopped
Tomato - 3 large juicy ones, chopped fine
Ginger - a small piece, julienned
Garlic - 4 cloves, chopped fine
Salt
Sugar - a little
Red chilli powder/sambar powder - to taste
Corriander leaves - chopped, a handful
Oil/butter - 3 tsp
Butter - for spreading on bread
Heat oil in a pan. Add the onion and cook on low heat, stirring occasionally until they start to brown. Add ginger, garlic and tomatoes. Add salt, sugar, chilli/sambar powder. Mix well. Cover and let it cook until the tomatoes are soft and mushy. Remove the lid and heat till all the moisture evaporates.
To prepare the sandwich:
Spread butter on the bread slices. Spread some filling between two slices of bread and toast it in a sandwich maker.
Serve with ketchup on the side.
Do take a look at my fellow marathoners' kitchens....Srivalli,
Azeema, Bhagi, Champa, Gayathri Anand, Gayathri Kumar, Harini, Kamalika, Meena, Mina, Padma,  Pavani,PJ, Priya Mahadevan, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu, Rujuta, Santosh, Saraswathi, Savitha, Shanavi, Smitha, Sowmya, Suma, Usha, Veena

The making of an Onion Kulcha

Flat breads in the form of rotis and parathas make an appearance in my home quite often. However,making naan is something I have shied away from after a disastrous trial a few years back. So whenever the craving for naan or any of its variants hits me, I take the easy way out and either eat out or get take-away...
A few days back, though,I decided to try my hand at making onion kulchas.....the results were encouraging enough to make me want to try out other versions of this very adaptable bread.

What you need:

For the dough:
All purpose flour/maida - 1 cup
Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
Active dry yeast - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Warm water - enough to knead the flour into a smooth dough

To make dough:
Soak yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water for 10 minutes or until it is completely dissolved. Mix the flours and salt together. Add the yeast mixture to this and then add warm water a little at a time and knead into a smooth pliable dough. Cover and let it stand for a few hours. The volume of the dough will double in about 4-6 hours. Punch it well and knead again and set aside until you are ready to make kulchas.

For the filling :
Large red onions - 2, chopped very fine
Tomato sauce - 1tsp
Chilli sauce - 1 tsp
Salt - a little
Oil - 3 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp

To make filling:
Heat oil. Add onions and saute until brown. Stir in all the other ingredients...stir well and remove from heat. Set aside.

To make kulchas:
Take a medium sized ball of dough. Using a rolling pin, flatten it into a small circle. Spoon some of the filling into this circle and close it and shape into a ball again with your hands. Roll out into a thick circle. Fold this in half so you get a semi-circle and spread it slightly with the rolling pin. Now fold it into a triangle and spread again with the rolling pin to make a thick kulcha.
Heat a tawa/griddle. Transfer the rolled out kulcha onto that. Cook until you see a few bubbles form on the top of the kulcha. By this time, the bottom should have turned golden brown. Turn over and cook for a minute or two.
Serve hot with any curry of your choice.

Kulcha with baby potatoes - Njoy!!!

This is my entry to Srivalli's Roti Mela.