Farfalle with Lima Beans

I felt lost after posting recipes for all the blog events J What next? was the question.

To utilise a can of Lima beans, (I bought when I was searching for Fava Beans) last night I fixed us a quick pasta dinner- Farfalle with Lima Beans. BTW, Lima Beans are also called Pavta in Marathi (which I very well know). This I learned after some research on them; though what we get locally looks a bit different than the canned ones.

The buttery nutty flavour of the Lima beans complimented the soft beautiful Farfalle bows in a tangy tomato-mushroom sauce. This bean-bow combination will be often repeated in my house!  

I stumbled upon this blog just as I was to post the Farfalle with Lima beans recipe.

Regulars to my blog will already know I have become a slave to food blog events; how could I not send this recipe for the Presto Pasta Nights.Ruth this simple, quick Farfalle with Lima Beans is for your Pasta Night.

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Farfalle with Lima Beans recipe

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1 packet Farfalle (~ 3 cups uncooked farfalle)

1 Can Lima beans

3 tbsp Tomato-Mushroom Spaghetti sauce (storebought)

3 tbsp Tomato Ketchup

1 large onion chopped

3-4 garlic cloves peeled and crushed

2 tsp chili flakes/chili powder/pepper powder- whatever you like

1 tsp Mixed herbs

3-4 tsp Oil/butter

Salt as per taste

Grated Cheese (any cheese) as much as you like 

Cook the Farfalle as per instructions till ‘Al dente’ or see ‘How to Cook Pasta’ here.

Heat Oil/butter in a pan.

Add the garlic and sauté for few seconds.

Add the onion and sauté till they turn translucent.

Drain the liquid from the canned beans and add them to the onions.

Mix in the cooked Farfalle.

Stir in the sauces and mix nicely, so that the sauce coats the Beans-Farfalle.

Add little water if required to make a thick sauce.

Season with chili flakes, salt and mixed herbs.

Add cheese and cook for 1-2 minutes more.

Serve hot with Garlic bread or any other bread or as it is. 

Rakhi Poornima

 Today is Rakhi Poornima or Raksha Bandhan. More about this festival here

                       A Rakhi Thali(plate)

Some recipes on My Foodcourt for Rakhi:

              Pongal 

              Shrikhand Vadi 

              Amrakhand 

             Mango Sheera

Panaki

Panaki or Panagi is a traditional recipe originating from the Konkan region of Maharashtra. Usually it is made with a sweet stuffing of jaggery and coconut.

This is my mom’s non-sweet version of the recipe.

This savory Panaki is a Rice pancake steamed between turmeric leaves stuffed with some vegetables. (traditionally the sweet version is stuffed with coconut-jaggery)  The dominant flavour in this recipe is that of the turmeric leaves. If you can’t find turmeric leaves or if you don’t like its strong flavour you can use banana leaves.

This is entirely my mom’s recipe; in fact these photos are taken when she was actually teaching me how to make it.(the photos don’t do much justice to the recipe, since I was busy learning how to make it!) 

My Mom’s version of Panaki goes to JFI-Rice hosted by Sharmi of Neivedyam

                       

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Panaki recipe

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2 cups Rice soaked in water for~ 2 ½ hrs

3 cucumbers peeled and chopped

10-12 fresh Turmeric leaves

Salt as per taste

Oil for greasing 

For the stuffing:

2 Carrots peeled and grated

~ ¾ th cup Moong Sprouts (You can use any vegetables of your choice ) 

Blend together the Rice and Cucumber pieces to a smooth paste to the Dosa batter like consistency. Cucumber gives a really cool flavour to the Panaki; you may skip the cucumber if you don’t like it.

Add salt and keep this covered overnight for fermentation.

Wash and dry the turmeric leaves.Grease them with little oil.

Spread the Rice batter evenly on each leaf using a ladle in the shape of the leaf.

Sprinkle the grated carrots and moong beans evenly on the leaf-shaped batter and fold the leaf into half.

Steam these Panakis in a steamer.(I use a stainless steel sieve on a pan with water) 

The Turmeric leaves change colour from green to a little blackish-green.

Wait for 10 minutes after switching off the steamer and remove carefully each Panaki from its leaf and serve with Coconut chutney or Curds.

SilverOak Farm

We celebrated the Independence Day at ‘SilverOak Farm House’. About 20-25 kms from the city, this Silver Oak –Coffee plantation farm has been developed with the idea of boosting Agrotourism.

Lush green fields, ultra pure air with the drizzling monsoon and some spicy Maharashtrian Food (typical rural specialties like Pithla, Bhakri, Thecha etc..) – can it get any better?

Some photos from the farm:

Alternate SilverOak and Coffee plantations- these are total 1000 Silver Oak and 1000 coffee plantations

 

                                                       Coffee fruits

                                                        Grapefruits

                           My Little-one with the ‘Policeman’

                              Neighbouring Vegetable farm

                                   Lush Green Grass to relax

 

                                      Recycled Water 

Eat like..an Egyptian

This month I have been Globe Trotting not physically but Cuisinewise! Some days ago we were in Thailand, then this week in Orissa.

My kitchen has been witnessing a lot of experiments these days thanks to some challenging events going in the blogosphere. (I have become a slave to these  Blog -events now!)

This time I am traveling all the way to the Middle East to Egypt–All thanks to Glenna of A Fridge Full of Foods. We are in search of ‘Ethnic Dishes’ and she has asked us ‘to make a dish from a culture, country, or ethnicity other than our own’.

So this Columbus/i on her culinary expedition has landed in Egypt– the ancient, mystic land of Pharaohs and Pyramids.

Here I discovered a National favourite –‘Ful Medames’ (Ful –Egyptian word for beans usually fava beans, and medames meaning buried -hinting at the original cooking method, which involved burying a sealed pot of water and beans under hot coals.)

Traditionally this recipe, consists of Fava beans slow-cooked in a copper pot that have been partially or completely mashed.

This is the first time I have ventured into Egyptian cuisine or cuisine of the Middle East for that Matter.

I turned my city upside down in search of Fava Beans – no one even knows what they are! It is something like ‘Wal beans’ we get here, which also I did not get at this time of the year.I  took a printout of some photos of Fava beans so that at least I would find some canned beans in the local Malls. But I couldn’t find them. L  

I had already made up my mind to make  Ful Medames, so I settled for some Red Beans. (I also bought a can of green Lima beans in the bargain, with which I have no clue what to do..maybe I will team it up with some pasta!)

I referred mainly to this recipe and browsed through many other recipes for Ful Medames and ended up making some adjustments to suit our taste and ingredients.

I have twisted the original Ful Madames recipe due to the lack of availability of ingredients –it might not be the same as it is made on the streets of Egypt but the end result was very good

I will repost the recipe once I get hold of Fava Beans!

I made my own Whole wheat Pita Bread, which is normally eaten with Ful Medames (here again I had no choice since Pita bread is not readily available) This recipe I have borrowed from the Masterchefs-Bee and Jai of Jugalbandi . Thank you Master bakers for this wonderful recipe with Wheat flour. 

Thank you Glenna, I gained an insight into various other cuisines while searching for some really traditional breakfast recipes around the world! 

Ful Medames with Pita Bread, eggs, onions and lemon wedges for this month’s WBB # 14 ‘Ethnic dishes with a twist’ hosted by Glenna

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Ful Medames recipe

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 ~ 2 cups Red Beans (actually Fava beans) soaked overnight

1 onion chopped

6-7 pods garlic peeled and crushed

2 tsp cumene powder roasted and crushed

7-8 peppercorns roasted and crushed

2 tsp lemon juice

2-3 tbsp Olive oil

few fresh coriander leaves chopped (you can use mint leaves if you have)

Salt to taste 

For serving:

1 onion sliced

1 egg boiled and sliced

1-2 Limes wedges

Pita Bread  

Cook the beans till they become soft . (They are actually cooked in a pan for~45-50 minutes.) I pressure cooked them for about 30 minutes. 

Sauté the garlic and chopped onion in a little oil for few seconds (this is for people who don’t like raw onion/garlic like me)  

Mash the cooked beans with the back of a wooden spatula.

Add the sautéed onion-garlic.

Add the crushed cumene seeds and crushed peppercorns.

Add the lemon juice, salt and olive oil. Mix nicely.  

Serve on a platter with sliced onion, sliced egg, lime wedges and Pita Bread 

Note: I also added chili flakes and blanched tomatoes to a portion of the above version of Ful Medames. Chili lovers will prefer this version.

Alu Posta and Khajur Khatta

RCI is a fantastic event started by Lakshmik of Veggie Cuisine– ‘Celebrating the Regional Cuisines of India‘ . It gives us an opportunity to explore the varied cuisines of India.

This month Swapna of Swad is hosting RCI: Oriya.

Searching for Oriya recipes made me realize how little I know about the cuisine from this costal state of India!Swapna was kind enough to provide links to some sites featuring authentic Oriya recipes, which were a great help.

Thank you, Swapna for hosting RCI:Oriya .I have learnt a lot about Oriya Cuisine!

Today I made Alu Posta (Potato in poppy seed curry) and Khajur Khatta– chutney like side dish with Tomato and Dates. 

I followed the recipes for both from here and here.

For the Alu Posta, I did not deep fry the potatoes as required in the original recipe. (I have been indulging in a lot of deep fried eats for the past week and my stomach can’t take it anymore.)

I loved Alu Posta with the potatoes soaked in the poppy flavour.

The Khajur Khatta was an instant hit with my little one, who otherwise is not very fond of sweet taste!

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Alu Posta recipe

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 2 medium sized potato peeled and cubed

2 tbsp spoon of poppy seeds (Khuskhus) soaked in warm water for 15-20 minutes

½ tsp mustard seeds

½ tsp Cumene seeds

3 Green Chillies chopped

~ 4 tsp Oil

Salt to taste 

Grind the poppy seeds to a smooth paste using some water.

Heat oil in a Kadai/wok.

Add the mustard seeds and cumene seeds.

Add the potatoes.

Cook covered till the potatoes become soft.

Add the green chillies and fry for a few seconds.

Now add the poppy paste and salt.

Add a little water and mixed nicely.

Serve hot with Roti.   

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Khajur Khatta recipe

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7-8 Dates (Khajur) deseeded

2 medium sized tomato cut into small pieces

2 green chillies chopped into pieces

½  tsp punch-phutana (½ tsp each mustard, cumene, fenugreek,fennel and ajowain/carom seeds)

1 lemon sized ball jaggery

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp of oil

Salt to taste

Heat oil in a pan.

Add the punch-phutana and let them  splutter

Add  green chillies.

Add tomato, turmeric powder, salt, dates, jaggery  and mix it properly

Add a little water and cook till tomatoes and Dates become soft. Cook to a thick gravy .

Serve as a side dish with Roti and Alu Posta.  

Surprise from Sweden!

Zlamushka (What a lovely name!) has sent these awards all the way from Sweden:

                           

The ‘Power of Schmooze Award’ is for bloggers who “effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello – all the while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship”.

                       

“The Rocking Girl Blogger Award” is for bloggers ,who are girls or women, who blog and who Rock”

I was really surprised and ecstatic. I have seen these awards floating around the blogosphere, but never thought I would get one!

Thank you dear Zlamushka. You know you rock!

Check out some really interesting and spicy recipes on Zlamushka’s Spicy Kitchen!

I am not sure about the etiquettes as far as the awards are concerned. But I have seen that they are passed on to your favourite blogger/s after you get one. 

I am passing these awards to (in random order):

1. My all time favourite Indira – Mahanandi ; Girls do I need to say why? Indira you are the Best J and long live Mahanandi.

2. Shilpa of Aayis recipes– for all her authentic recipes. Shilpa, I love all your recipes and keep them coming.

3. Sailu of Indian Food and Andhra Recipes- for her versatile recipes (Sailu you have made Mexican cuisine so easy for me!) Sailu you truly Rock.

4. Nupur of One Hot Stove– Nupur I know you have got these awards already (from Zlamushka) but You Rock! And so I am passing them again to you. 🙂

All of you Rock!

Dear Anita

Dear Anita, 

You have no idea how your little provocation has unsettled my taste buds for the past week. I have been craving each day for those hot, oily floating balloons from the day you posted them at the Mad Tea party!

Clicking on any random blog on the Food Blog Desam made matters worse. I found myself drooling and ogling at all those sinful puris.

I decided to end my suffering, got up early (inspite of this being a weekend). I did not want anything to come between me and my puris (read my little one). I got up with this ‘Duniya ki koi takat muzhe puri banana se rok nahi sakti’ attitude. (too lengthy to translate in english)

At once I knew, that the sagoo (my mother-in-law’s recipe) would be the right companion to my Puris.

When I inserted the first rolled out round disc into the hot oil my happiness knew no bounds! I felt like a child who was given a bunch of balloons-when the first reddish- brown oily balloon started floating on the oil- gleaming at me, urging me to be eaten!

Thanks to that one provocation, I have managed to over-oil (as in lubricating a vehicle) my mind, body and the camera. Why the camera? – Just to prove that these are actually puris and not Cluris.

Thank you Anita, I had almost forgotten how these soft, hot, homemade puris tasted.. pure bliss – I can’t even remember the last time I made them.

Thank you. 

With lots of Puris and Sagoo

Madhuli

 Puri, Sagoo and Punjabi,Red Chili Pickle for the Puri-Bhaji party 

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Sagoo recipe

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For the gravy:

½ Coconut scrapped

6-7 green chillies chopped

½ bunch fresh coriander leaves

2 tsp poppy seeds (khus khus) soaked in warm water for 15 minutes

1” piece Cinnamon

½ “piece ginger chopped

1 onion sliced 

For the Sagoo

1 Onion sliced

2 potatoes cubed

1 cup cauliflower florets

1 cup French beans chopped 

For the tadka:

2 tsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumene seeds

½ tsp turmeric powder 

Blend all the ingredients for the gravy to a smooth creamy paste.

Heat oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds.Then the cumene seeds and the turmeric powder.

Add the onion and sauté for 1-2 minutes.

Add the vegetables and cook covered till they become tender.

Add the gravy, salt and adjust the water to the required consistency.

Mix nicely, cook for a few minutes more and serve hot with Puris. 

 

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Puri recipe

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Go to A Mad Tea Party on 20^th August and you will get not one but many recipes for Puris.

I made them like this: 

In a bowl take 2 cups of Wheat Flour. Add salt as per taste. Add ½ tsp Turmeric powder. Add 1 tsp Red chilli powder. This type of puri is called Tikhat Mithachi Puri in Marathi. (Tikhat here refers to Red Chili powder and Mith is salt)

Add 1 tbsp hot oil to the Wheat Flour. Knead to a tight dough using water as required.

Make small balls from the dough. Roll out into small round discs.

Heat Oil in a Kadai/Wok. Deep fry the rolled out round disc till they puff up.

 

Turn and fry on the other side till it turns a reddish-brown colour. 

Serve hot with Sagoo

Note: If you want to have Tikhat Mithachi Puri without any accompaniments- Add a tsp of cumene seeds and 1 tsp carom seeds to the Wheat flour before kneading the dough. Follow the rest of the procedure for puris. Roll and Insert these spicy Puris in hot Chai(tea) and eat it immediately..Hmmm..Yummy 

Monsoon Magic- Butterfly Sandwich

The only butterfly in this sandwich is the shape J

A hot grilled sandwich is an all time favourite in our house. I usually dress up some left over stir fries with white sauce- stuff it in between two slices of bread and grill it till crisp and you get Irresistible, yummy crisp sandwiches.

The stir fries which get this L look in the morning (usually for lunch) suddenly get this J look with the grilled sandwich.

Enjoy this hot grilled Butterfly sandwich with a cup of tea in the wet cozy rainy weather!

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Butterfly Sandwich recipe

For 4 sandwiches

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 8 Slices of sandwich bread

2-3 tsp Butter for the sandwich 

For the White Sauce:

2 tsp butter

1 tbsp all purpose flour (Maida)

2 cups milk

1 tsp freshly ground mustard powder

½ tsp white pepper powder

1 -2 tbsp Grated cheese (optional)

Salt to taste 

For the filling:

White sauce

1 ½ cups chopped sautéed mix vegetables (I have used Sweet corn, Purple cabbage, French beans, tomatoes) 

Mix the maida with the milk and remove lumps if any.

Heat butter in a pan.

Add the milk-maida to it. Let it boil for a few minutes and it starts thickening.

Add the other ingredients-mustard powder, pepper powder, cheese and salt. Mustard powder adds a nice zing to the sauce.

Cook for a few more minutes. (Adjust the proportion of maida depending on the consistency of the sauce required. I made this semiliquid-not too thick nor too thin.)

You can also first cook the Maida directly in the butter without blending it with the milk and then add the milk. I usually end up with lumps in my sauce that way so I prefer the first blending and then cooking method!

Add cooked/ sautéed vegetables to the white sauce. (Add some green chillies to the veggies while cooking to make it spicer.) Mix nicely till the white sauce coats the veggies.

Cool and divide into four portions

Spread some butter on one side on each bread slice.

Spread one portion of the filling on one slice of bread and top with another slice

Brush a little butter on the outer surface of the sandwich and Grill in a sandwich toaster till golden brown.

Repeat with remaining bread slices.

Cut as shown in the photo to make a butterfly sandwich J

Little Patriot

                                 The Little Patriot 🙂