My Foodcourt

The traditional Betel Nut all dressed up for Click: December 2007 (Nuts)

I am back after a long hiatus (the longest since I started blogging). A short trip to Coorg and then some unavoidable reasons kept me away from the blogoshpere. But now things are under control and I hope I am able to post regularly.

Here’s a very simple and quick Cauliflower curry to make a spicy comeback on My Foodcourt!

The addition of spices like cinnamon and pepper dominate the strong Cauliflower smell. This is one of my favourite ways to cook cauliflower hope you like it too.

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Cauliflower Curry recipe

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3 cups cauliflower florets

2 large onions sliced

2 medium sized tomatoes blanched and pureed

2 tsp grated dried coconut

1“cinnamon stick

4-5 peppercorns

4-5 dry red chillies

1 tsp cumene seeds

Salt as per taste

4-5 tsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds 

Dry roast the Cinnamon, peppercorns, red chillies and cumene. Cool and powder the spices.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and sauté the sliced onions till golden brown.

Add the dried coconut and fry for 2-3 minutes more.Cool and grind to a smooth paste. Add water if necessary.

Add the ground spices to the onion paste and spin one more time. 

Heat remaining oil in a pan.

Add mustard seeds.

Add the onion-spice paste once the mustard seeds splutter.

Fry the onion paste nicely till all the moisture evaporates.

Add the cauliflower florets ,add salt, mix nicely. Add a little water to bring it to a sauce like consistency, cover and cook till the florets become just tender.

Add the tomato puree and cook for some more time.

Serve hot with Chapati. 

I saw the recipe for ‘Crunchy Cookies’ on a TV cookery show. I liked the recipe since it looked quite simple, very few ingredients which I had at home, it needed only Wheat Flour and the cookies were baked for just 10 mins, in the microwave of course! So it gave me a chance to utilize my microwave for something other than just reheating.

I made them and sent them to my sweet little nieces (aged 2 and 4) in Mumbai; it’s a fantastic ‘Khau’(snack) for small kids.

These ‘Crunchy Cookies’ are also my Christmas present to Zuzana of Zlamushka’s spicy Kitchen. I know Christmas is still far away but I am sending them for her blog event ‘ A Spoonful of Christmas’!

Zuzana please accept my Christmas present!

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Crunchy Cookies recipe

makes ~ 12-14 cookies

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1 Cup Wheat Flour, sieved

¾ Cup Powdered sugar, sieved (The original recipe asked for 1 cup sugar)

½ cup Butter (cold)

1 cup crunchy Cornflakes

1 egg

Cold water if required for kneading.

Mix the Wheat flour and sugar.

Add cold butter. I used Amul butter. If you are using unsalted butter add a pinch of salt to it.

Rub in the butter with the Flour-sugar mixture. The mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the egg and mix nicely.

Add a little cold water if the mixture is too dry.

Add the cornflakes and mix nicely. The mixture should be cold. If it is not cold refrigerate it for 10-15 minutes.

Grease a microwave proof dish/tray.

Drop spoonfuls of the cookie mixture onto it .

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Bake in the combi (convection/microwave) mode for 7-8 minutes or till the cookies become crisp.

Alternatively bake them at 180^oC.

Allow cookies to cool on baking tray for 5 minutes and then remove them on the  wire rack to cool completely.  

Variation:I made 1 lot with the above recipe. To the next lot I added 2 tbsp drinking chocolate and they tasted yummy. 

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Wish you all A very Happy and Safe Diwali!

Some Diwali Treats on My Foodcourt:

Anarsa

Besan Ladoo

Coconut Barfi

Chivda

See you all on 16^th November.       

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I never thought someone would like to steal my photos too till TBC informed me about this. J Thanks a lot TBC for informing me. Lots of hugs to you!

This is a screenshot of the Paneer Pakoda photo on My Food court:

And this is a screen shot of the stolen photo on this site:

This intelligent person does not have the comments section open; so that no one should complain about the plagiarized photos, nor did I find an Email ID through which I can ask this person to remove my stolen photo from the site.

So this is a notice to Sathy (whoever you are) to

‘Please remove the photo of Paneer pakodas from your blog immediately’.

I hope you know, you cannot steal anyone’s photos/content without that person’s permission or without giving due credits to the blog.

If you like my photo so much at least put a link back to My Foodcourt!

This Dassera we had a delicious South Indian menu for lunch. In my house whenever we have a South Indian menu I am the one who enjoys it the most! And I just love Tamarind rice (Pulliogre) – sour and spicy.

Pongal, Sagoo, Puliogre, Engai (Brinjal curry) for the Dassera Lunch

This is my Mother-in-law’s recipe and I like it so much that I don’t make any variations to this every time I make it! The Pulli Gojju (tamarind paste), that is made for the Tamarind Rice can be made in bulk and kept in the refrigerator to make instant tamarind rice whenever you want. 

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Tamarind Rice recipe

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2 cups cooked rice

¼   cup tamarind pulp

1 tsp jaggery (adjust tamarind and jaggery to your taste) 2-3 tsp Rasam powder2 tbsp sesame seeds roasted and powdered1 tbsp peanuts½ tbsp chana dalFew curry leaves¼ tsp mustard seeds¼ tsp hing3-4 tsp oilSalt to taste 

Cook rice with salt and 1 tsp oil and cool. The grains should separate nicely.

Heat oil in a pan.

Add the mustard seeds, hing ,peanuts, chana dal, curry leaves. Fry for a few minutes.

Add the tamarind pulp, jaggery, Rasam powder and boil nicely.

Boil till the raw tamarind smell goes away (10-12 minutes), the paste becomes thick and oil separates out.Add this tamarind pulp to the rice.

Add the powdered sesame mix nicely, so that the mixture coats the rice nicely.

Serve hot or cold with Curd/yoghurt or as it is. 

Note: When you have the precooked tamarind pulp, just add the pulp to cooked rice and add some tempering to it with mustard seeds, hing ,peanuts, chana dal, curry leaves and then serve.

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Raffle Results: FAHC~Subscribe to Smiles: 

To see the winners of the FAHC Raffle draw Check out the results at Mahanandi.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Thank you everyone for all your generous donations. 109 donors have helped us to collect $ 4,735.

Thank you to each one who supported FAHC campaign. 

Sreelu of Sreelus Tasty Travels has won the The Red Chilli subscription at www.sanjeevkapoor.com from My Foodcourt.

Sreelu checkout your mail to see your prize! You are only a few clicks away from the Red Chilli subscription!

Boondi Raita is one of the most popular Raitas (Yoghurt based salad) in Northern parts of India. Also a very popular dish in the ‘salad section’ in many wedding feasts.

This Raita is very easy to make when you have readymade Khara (salted) Boondi available at hand and it teams up very well with Parathas.

I made this quick Boondi Raita, flavoured with Mint and some other spices, over the weekend when we had some guests for dinner. 

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Boondi Raita recipe

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1 cup fresh Khari (salted) Boondi

2 cups curd/yoghurt whisked nicely, chilled.

¼ -½ cup pomegranate seeds

8-10 fresh mint leaves torn

½ tsp cumene powder

½ tsp sugar

½ tsp Red chilli powder

Salt to taste  

Whisk the curd well.

Add cumene powder, sugar, Red Chilli powder, salt, mint leaves and mix nicely.

Just before serving add the Boondi, pomegranate seeds, and mix well.

Serve immediately with parathas.                                                   

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A host of bloggers are offering some exciting prizes for a raffle draw as part of the FAHC fund drive.  

For details about these Raffle prizes please visit Mahanandi. 

I am glad to add one more raffle prize;  

One Year Subscription to www.sanjeevkapoor.com (The Red Chlli subscription) 

Sanjeev Kapoor is one of the most celebrated faces of Indian cuisine. Chef Extraordinaire, TV show host, author of best selling cookbooks, restaurant consultant and winner of several culinary awards! The Red Chilli Subscription grants you access to more than 1000 recipes besides many other sections, which will be a rare culinary treat to any food lover.

Any contribution of 25 USD or above is eligible for the raffle draw.                                   

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                                           List of raffle prizes  

1. Grains, Greens and Grated Coconuts book (from Indira of Mahanandi.)
2. A Gift Box of Spice Extracts (From Anjali Damerla of Supreme Spice)
3. Complete Digital Photography book(From Bee and Jai of Jugalbandi.)
4. American Masala ~ by Suvir Saran
5.  Indian Home Cooking ~ by Suvir Saran
6. Dinner for Two, at Elegant “Dévi” Restaurant, New York City
7. Two ready-to-wear children’s sarees with matching blouses (From Manisha of Indian Food Rocks)
8. Two Fair-Trade Goodies Bags from UK (From Padmaja of Spicy Andhra)
9. Mountain Valley - Oil on Canvas Painting (16 X 20) (From Shilpa of Aayi’s Recipes)
10. A Personalized Ceramic “Vindu” Plate (From Mythili of Vindu)
11. 30-Minute Meals ~ by Rachel Ray (From Siri of Siri’s Corner)
12. Dark Chocolate Made With Icewine (From Richa of As Dear As Salt)
13. Cooking at Home with Pedatha by Jigyasa Giri, Pratibha Jain(From Shruthi)
14. Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India by Chandra Padmanabhan (From Shruthi)
15. Essential Andhra Cookbook with Hyderbadi & Telangana Specialities (From Shruthi)
16. Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian (From Shruthi)
17. Indian Cooking ~ by Madhur Jaffrey (From Maria)
18. The Red Chilli subscription to www.sanjeevkapoor.com (from me)

“There are genuinely sufficient resources in the world to ensure that no one, nowhere, at no time, should go hungry.”
– Ed Asner

This is a food related post; yes food for the hungry Children.

Feed A Hungry Child (FAHC) is a non-profit charitable organization; initiated by Vijay.K.Narayanan from My Dhaba.

FAHC aims to replace the empty plates of the underprivileged children and replace them with ones of food.  While FAHC addresses the holistic needs of each children it supports, it believes illiteracy, malnutrition, and other concerns can only be addressed when hunger is appeased. For more details please see here.

A little help from each one of us will help to improve the lives of FAHC-supported children one by one 

Click here to donate smiles.

We had some guests last night for dinner; one of our family friend’s daughter is getting married. We celebrated her engagement earlier with Chaats.Now for the pre-wedding dinner (this is called ‘Kelvan’ in Marathi) I wanted to make something substantial yet different. Also there were two grandmothers coming, so I had to plan something accordingly.

This was the time I felt the need for a ‘Menu Planner’ website! You feed what you need;

Prewedding dinner+substantial+Something different+2 grandmothers and press Search!

And then automatically you get the planned Menu:

Veggie stuffed spinach parathas

Boondi Raita

Tricolored Penne pasta

Mushroom fried rice

Fruit Salad with Raspberyy Jelly and Custard

(Anytakers for such a website??)  

Yes that’s the spread that I cooked finally. It’s really a spread since it spans cuisines from many countries! Indian to Italian to Chinese. As you can see I did not follow any theme! But they loved it!J

I will post the recipes one–by-one as and when I can. __________________________________________________________ 

Veggie stuffed Spinach parathas recipe

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(You have to excuse the poor photos. I had to click them before the guests arrived and after slogging in the kitchen for the whole evening I was too tired to take extra efforts!)

For the cover:

1 bunch Spinach/Palak

~  2 ½ cups Wheat Flour

1 tsp green chilly paste

1 tsp cumene powder

1 tsp coriander powder

Salt to taste 

For the stuffing:

3/4^th  cup cauliflower florets

3/4^th  cup finely grated Carrots

3/4^th  cup French beand finely chopped

3 Potatoes boiled, peeled and mashed

½ cup Paneer (cottage cheese) grated

Handful of fresh green coriander leaves finely chopped

2 tsp ginger-green chilly paste

Salt to taste 

Oil/butter for frying the parathas 

†For the cover:

† Clean and Wash the Spinach leaves thoroughly. Keep the stems as much as possible. Blanch the Spinach leaves; Bring about 2 cups of water to a boil. Add a pinch of sugar and little salt. Add the spinach leaves and cook uncovered for ~5-8 minutes. Strain the water (don’t discard the water) and immediately add the cooked spinach to cold water. This helps to retain the green color of the spinach. Alternatively you can blanch the spinach in the Microwave.Puree the blanched spinach.

†In a wide bowl add the wheat flour, spinach puree and all the ingredients for the cover.

†Knead into a soft lovely green dough ball. Add water if necessary.

†Divide the dough into lemon sized balls. Keep aside covered for ½ an hour. 

For the stuffing:

†I used Nupur’s tip for cooking potatoes in the microwave with excellent results! Specially if you want no moisture in the potatoes for parathas follow this simple method: Wash the potatoes and prick them all over with a fork.Microwave on the turn table for 3 minutes. Turn them and microwave for another 2-3 minutes.(The time required may vary) That’s it. Peel and mash the cooked potatoes.

†Cut the cauliflower florets finely or as I did spin them in the Food processor once to have really fine florets!

†I did the same with the French beans.

†In a non stick pan dry cook the cauliflower and beans. Try and remove moisture as far as possible.

†Add the carrots and cook for a few more minutes.

†Cook till the veggies become a little tender.

†Mix all the ingredients for the stuffing.

†Flatten the dough ball into small thin circle.Stuff with as much stuffing as you can.

†Bring together the cover from all the sides to the center, seal tightly and roll out into thin round discs, using wheat flour for dusting.

†Cook on a hot griddle/tava, using a little oil/butter, until both sides are golden brown.

†Repeat with the remaining dough and stuffing.

†Serve hot with Raita, Pickle or Chutney.

Gavar-Cluster Beans is a popular vegetable in Maharashtra. They are available all year round here for a very modest price.

The only hitch in buying these beans is the time taken to cut them- remove the ends and string them along, pulling the edged fibre. Pluck into small pieces (with hand) at the nodes of the pods.

Tender Green Cluster bean pods spiced up with some Kala/ Goda Masala dish up a delectable curry that can be served with Roti or Rice.

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Gavarichi Bhaji recipe

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2 cups cut Gavar/Cluster beans (cut as mentioned above)

1 onion chopped (optional)

2 tbsp freshly grated coconut

2 tbsp roasted Peanut powder

2 tsp Kala/Goda Masala

2 tsp Red chilly powder

½ tsp sugar

Salt to taste

½  tsp mustard seeds

½ tsp cumene seeds

½ tsp turmeric powder

3 tsp oil 

Boil the cut beans in little water with salt till just done. Strain the water. Don’t discard the water.

Heat oil in a pan.

Do the tempering. Mustard seeds-cumene seeds-turmeric powder.

Add the chopped onion and fry till it becomes translucent.

Add the gavar beans and fry for a few minutes more.

Add the Masala and red chilly powder. Mix nicely.

Add the peanut powder, coconut mix nicely.

Add a little water (the leftover from cooking the beans).

Cook covered for a few minutes. Serve hot with Chapati or Rice.