Mango Salsa/salad

I had read that a mango salsa tastes really good with grilled fish. However, whenever I make grilled fish...my kids eat it as it is ....or with some rice or furikake. So, usually I make it plain and at last minute. This time I made effort to plan and make this salad ahead...so that we could enjoy with our grilled salmon.

Bharvan bhindi / Stuffed okra

Bhindi or lady's finger as it is popularly known in India, is my favorite vegetable. It makes a very tasty stir fried dry vegetable(side) in an Indian meal. A few weeks ago, I had seen a very tasty picture on this blog, and I wanted to make this recipe. However, it took me a long time to find the picture again. When I read the recipe, I realised I use the same stuffing for brinjals(eggplants). So, I knew that the recipe would be a success.....:) 

Torcettini De St. Vincent (Sugar Crusted Twisted Cookies from Valle de Aosta)

It's that time of the month again....WE KNEAD TO BAKE TIME... :) and this time I made it to the deadline. This month's baking challenge is about Italian yeasted cookies. I had never heard of them, till +Aparna Balasubramanian announced the challenge at the beginning of this month. The recipe is quite simple and low on added sugar. The cookies are flavorful, somewhat like pretzels...crispy on the outside, and bready on the inside....

From Aparna's description:

""Torcettini are smaller versions of Torcetti (meaning small twists), and these pear/ teardrop shaped twists are made of a dough of flour, yeast and butter which are shaped and then rolled in sugar before being baked. These biscuits/ cookies are synonymous with the town of Saint Vincent in Valle d'Aosta, a small mountainous region in North-Western Italy, even though they’re well known throughout the Piedmont region as well.

This recipe is adapted from the one in Nick Malgieri’s “A Baker’s Tour”. Traditionally these biscuits/ cookies are shaped by rolling out bits of dough into “ropes” and then pinching the ends together to form a “teardrop” shape. These are shaped by crossing the rope of dough near the ends to pretty looking twists.""

I made them chocolate flavored, and covered them with orange zest flavored sugar and sprinkles. 

Summery cool and fun recipes with watermelon and kids

Yep, it's summer season in India and it will be soon in rest of the world. Singapore has tropical summer kind of weather all throughout the year, so we can enjoy this season and all the activities associated like swimming, water parks, hiking, adventure sports, etc anytime. Summer has 2-3 month long vacations too. So,  how do you keep your kids busy....?? I have some easy fun recipes that you can do with your kids. (With your supervision/help). So starting a new category of recipes, which the kids might like, or which you can cook with them.

This post is about some fun  recipes with WATERMELON.

Watermelon "cake"  

Watermelon and fruit kababs

Watermelon-orange juice

Did you like them.....?? 

Very simple to make, even your kids can make them with little supervision.

Let's start...... :)

Tindora (gherkin) stir fry

Last week, I was invited to a friend's house....and she treated us to homemade Andra feast. (regional cuisine from the state of Andhra Pradesh). One of the vegetables, she made was gherkins. It is known by various other names like tendli/tondli/tindora/ivy gourds, etc. I think, my mom used to make this vegetable, and I didn't like it so much, when I was younger. I have lived abroad, most of my  married life and in Japan, where we do not get this vegetable at all. In Singapore, you get it, in certain shops in Indian market, but as I thought I didn't like this vegetable, I never bought it ....until I ate it at my friend's house. 

Indian Vegetarian cuisine, will have many dry "subjis" (or vegetables). Vegetables are stir fried on high heat in a pan, with mustard/cumin seasoning with curry leaves and then cooked on low heat with the pan covered after adding the powdered masalas(spices). You  can use the same method, same spices and different vegetables and get a different taste/recipe every time. When I bought the gherkins, I wondered how would I cook them, google searched and I liked this recipe....made it with the spices and ingredients, I had in my kitchen.

Salmon fish cakes

Salmon is an all time favorite in my house. My kids love it grilled, pan-fried, baked, with spicy thai sauce like this, or well...any form. Usually, I salt it and bake it in a foil and that is it......A meal with some rice /salad. I wanted to try a new recipe with salmon, so I tried something similar to this recipe with the ingredients, I had in my kitchen.

A very yummy recipe for an impressive appetizer/starter, again as my other recipes quite simple and quick to make. This is how I made it....:)

Panch-mel dal ( A dal/soup made with 5 different legumes)

Panchmel dal, as the name suggests it is made with 5 different legumes. Toovar(pigeon peas)/Chana(split chickpeas) and split moong dals are used in equal quantities, though some recipes use red lentils too. I didn't have chana dal, so I used masoor dal(split red lentils) for this recipe. In Rajasthan, this dal is poured over baatis ( a preparation made of baked balls of dough), I have posted the recipe for "baati" here.

Matar pulav (green peas pilaf)

Most of the recipes, I cook at home everyday, can be cooked within 30 minutes. I have a busy day with my gym schedule, kids schools and activities, shopping, cleaning and my blog.... :) Though, I love photographing, desserts and baking, my everyday meals have to be made in a short time, while supervising a kid at a homework or arranging blocks to a building with other...or multitasking with some other job. This is one of such recipes, which can be made fast and a hot meal is ready in about 30 minutes. 

Baati recipe for dal baati

This recipe can be made on the days, you do not have many vegetables. I had one tomato,  some onions/ginger/garlic and frozen peas and I had my dry ingredients like rice/flour,etc. You can make a complete meal out of these ingredients. I chose to make the delicious and popular Rajasthani "Daal Baati" (balls of wheat dough, boiled and baked to be eaten with panchmel dal--a lentil soup made with 5 different varieties of lentils). I also made matar pulav (peas pilaf/rice) to make a complete meal. I am writing the recipes in separate posts, but "dal" and "baati" are served together, though "dal" can be eaten with just plain rice or flat-breads, etc.

I went through the internet recipes, and baatis are either deep-fried, or baked, or boiled and baked. I have tried the baked version before, so I wanted to try the boiled and baked version. Out of both methods, the boiled baati turns out softer like a bread roll with a firm crust and the baked baati is like a biscuit. However, the baked baati requires more fat(oil/ghee) than the boiled one. Both versions are tasty, but here I will post the low-fat recipe. It is adapted from the popular youtube videos of Showmethecurry series of Hetal and Anuja. 

Black masoor daal with mint paratha

Dals (or lentils) are a very important source of protein for a vegetarian meal. Most Indian vegetarian menus, will have a lentil curry of some sort. I keep different dals in my pantry and make them alternatively. A picture of some of the dals, I usually have ...(from left to right , chole/chickpeas....soaking in water for dinner, whole green moong, whole black masoor,black eyed peas, whole black urad dal, split moong dal, split masoor dal, rajma/kidney beans, whole urad dal skin removed-- usually use this for dosas/idlis/vadas, matki and ahar dal/pigeon peas...the last one is the most common and used often almost daily. There are few more which I need to re-stock. A few of dals can be sprouted, which increases the nutritional value of the beans. You soak them in water for day, drain out the water, leave the dal in a closed container in a warm place for a day to sprout.

This post is about whole masoor dal. My older son loves non-veg and when he was four, one of my friends +gautami fed him sprouted dal, and he really liked it.......and I wonder how did he like it so much....when he was so fussy at home to eat ....my friend told me....she told him, that it's a mashed prawn dal ...see the tails... and I tricked my kid to eat the same mashed prawn dal for years... :) and it was this whole masoor dal. It is also my son's favorite amongst all dals.

A plain paratha is a perfect accompaniment to this dal with some pickles or yogurt, but I had some mint leaves lying in the fridge which were 3 days old. Brought them to make this mint chutney, but chutney tastes best, if made with fresh leaves, so I thought of adding them to the paratha dough.

Easy Prawn Curry

Saturdays are lazy mornings, I can't wake up early....or fairly late ....I wake up very late....usually almost noon....and then...the breakfast is pushed to lunch time and lunch is pushed ahead and so on.... Nowadays, I force myself to get up as my gym has an interesting class at noon...yet, after that I feel so hungry and tired....that making a hot meal is out of question....you feel like eating at many delicious restaurants that seem to surround popular gyms..... :) Well, this is one such recipe which is very tasty, yet not so calorific and can be made very fast .... I make it before I leave for the gym, so I have a hot meal ready when I come back. 

Broccoli stir-fry noodles

How do u decide what to cook everyday ? I usually do grocery/vegetable shopping every week... maybe 5 days or so... and pack my refrigerator with many vegetables and then I try to use those in the fridge with different recipes. For example, spinach --- can be cooked with lentils(dal) , chicken, parathas(flat-breads), as a salad or as a vegetable side by itself. I had bought 3 broccoli heads thinking I would make a soup out of it, but it is too hot to eat soup....so made a simple stir-fry recipe with noodles ....:)

It was a after-school meal for my kid, I had some boiled brown rice, so I made some Stir-fried rice for myself for dinner with the same combination.