Variety, Variety, Variety...Yummies from Blogosphere

The endless variety that one finds in Indian food never fails to amaze me...as a child growing up in India, our family lived in different parts of the country, made friends among people of different communities and of course, had the good fortune to taste and relish food from various states in India...yet even to this day, when I am blog-hopping, I visit a blog which presents a new dish which I have not yet tasted or tried to make(sometimes, have not even heard of it!)

"Muthias" belong to that "not yet tasted or tried to make' category for me...it is a savory dish from the western Indian state of Gujarat. It is a steamed dumpling(sometimes, fried too) that is vegan...extremely healthy since it requires very little fat and is made by combining some nutritious grains and lentils.

When I found recipes of this dish on the net...of course, the first stumbling block that I faced is that...there was way too much variety when it came to the recipes...each recipe called for a different mixture of grains/lentils...some required chickpea flour, while others required a combination of wheat flour, semolina and chickpea flour, some others required millet flour...the list goes on...that I essentially think, is what boggles the mind of the beginner when it comes to Indian cooking...the endless variety...BUT, variety can be a good thing...I find that the best way to  ease the confusion, is to go with recipes that call for familiar ingredients and that is what I did...of course, the recipe of one of our wonderful blogger friends came to the rescue!!!

Here, I have used a recipe for Muthias that came from the wonderful blog Simply.Food...authored by Nayna, who has a variety of wonderful and simple Gujarati recipes alongwith other cuisines in her space.

The verdict from my family was that this savory and tangy dish is a definite keeper plus it reminded us all of our own Southern Indian idlis(pancakes). Thanks, Nayna for this wonderful recipe that has appealed to me and my family in a big way...

Links: Original Recipe for Muthias as posted on Simply Indian Food

Notes/Variations: I have used bajra(millet flour) as called for in the original recipe but one could substitute that with fine semolina in the recipe...I saw quite a few recipes that used semolina...also, for the veggies, I used a mixture of fenugreek leaves and spinach leaves in place of the bottlegourd in the original recipe. Also, for the seasonings, I added some caro seeds(ajwain), some fresh cilantro leaves and lemon juice apart from the mustard, sesame seeds and dried red chillies.

I served this dish with a tangy, chutney filled with herbs and nuts, though it would taste good with any chutney/dipping sauce

Recipe for Muthias(as posted on Simply.Food by Nayna)

Serves: 3 - 4 people(I got 12 pieces)

Prep/cook time: 30 - 40 mins.

Ingredients:

8 oz wheat flour

2 oz besan flour(chickpea flour)

2 oz bajra flour(millet flour)

2 oz fresh chopped methi leaves(fenugreek leaves)

2 medium courgettes grated with skin on(bottlegourd)

1 teaspoon ginger puree

4 green chillies finely chopped

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspon turmeric powder

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

1 teaspoon eno salts

1 tablespoon oil

For tadka/seasoning:

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

2 tablespoons oil

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

2 dry red chillies

Method:

1. Add wheat flour,besan and bajra flour to grated courgettes.

2.Add the ginger, chillies,salt,turmeric and chilli powder oil and eno salts.

3.Make a dough using 1-2 tablespoons water.

4. Form small 2 inch sausage shapes (muthia shapes) and place in steamer .

5.Steam for 25-30 minutes and allow to cool

6.When cool slice the muthia into 1 cm rounds.

7. Heat the oil for tadka in a wok, when hot add the mustard seeds, red chilli and the sesame seeds.

8. Add the sliced muthia and stir fry till slightly crispy and takes colours.

9. Transfer to serving dish

Indo-Chinese Yummies from Blogosphere...

I am a glutton when it comes to Indo-Chinese food...in my opinion, this food reflects the perfect marriage of Indian spices with the distinctive Chinese food flavors. My best memories of this style of food go back to my college days in Kolkata or Calcutta as it used to be called. My college had a caterer who ran a food stall there and his specialities included many Indo-Chinese favorites like crispy Hakka Noodles and steaming hot & sour soup...sometimes there was the popular Manchurian and yet other times, there was Chop-suey Noodles...I vividly remember, rushing out of class at lunch-time and sometimes there were professors who would continue with their class even well into lunch-time which irritated me & my friends hugely, because we were afraid that the food stall would run out of our Indo-Chinese favorites. Of course, after such a heavy lunch, we invariably would walk back into post-lunch classes and struggle to stay awake :) )

Nowadays, I feel just as excited when I see delish recipes of the same kind in various food blogs. So, this week's edition of Yummies from Blogosphere features an awesome blogger who has a great collection of Indo-Chinese delicacies. She has a huggggge collection of beautiful recipes, but these Indo-Chinese recipes are very unique and they caught my eye.

So, here is the Chilli Tofu Recipe from Sushma Mallya's Authentic Food Delights blog.

I was so carried away looking at this recipe that (being the glutton I am) I had to follow it up with yet another yummylicious recipe for Tawa Vegetable Rice...a beautiful stir-fried rice. The stir-fried rice was extremely easy to prepare yet very flavorful and the Chilli-Tofu Recipe is unique enough to make any non-tofu eater become a convert to the other camp of enthusiastic tofu-eaters!

Notes/Variations: I did make a few additions to the tawa rice with some boiled carrots and roasted peanuts and caro seeds(ajwain) in the seasoning.

Thank you, Sushma for these awesome recipes!!!

Links: Recipe for Tofu-Chilli gravy as posted on Sushma's Authentic Food Delights

          Recipe for Tawa Vegetable Rice as posted on Sushma's Authentic Food Delights

Recipe for Tofu-Chilli gravy:(as posted on Sushma's blog)
Ingredients
For the batter
1/4 cup maida
a pinch of baking powder
1/4 cup cornflour
2 tsp gramflour
a pinch of ajinomoto(you can definitely omit this one...I leave it out in most of the recipes too)
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1/2 tsp chilli powder
salt to taste


For the gravy
10-12 cubed tofu pieces
1 capsicum cut into cubes
1/2 cup spring onion greens
1 tsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp tomato sauce
1/2 tsp white pepper powder
5-6 roughly chopped green chillies
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp chilli sauce or chilli powder
a pinch of ajinomoto
6-7 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 tsp cornflour mixed in 1/2 cup water
2 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
salt to taste
3 tsp oil + oil for deep frying


Method
Make a batter of the above mentioned ingredients under the list: batter with enough water to a semi-thick and a fine paste


Heat oil in a pan, dip the cubed tofu one by one in the batter and deep fry it till golden brown and crisp, drain on a kitchen towel and then keep aside. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan, fry capsicum cubes for 1-2 minutes or till tender yet crunchy and then keep it aside


For the gravy
Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan, add garlic, green chillies and fry till light brown


Add half of the spring onion greens,white pepper powder,sugar,ajinomoto, salt and fry for 1 minute


Switch off the gas, then add soya sauce,vinegar,tomato sauce, chilli sauce, and mix well


Switch on the gas then fry it for 3-4 minutes


Add capsicum, 1/4 cup water, cornflour mixed in water and mix well, and allow it to come to a boil, add coriander leaves and mix well


Keep it aside and allow it gravy to cool and at the time of serving, add fried tofu pieces, garnish with spring onion greens and then serve immediately with steamed rice or fried rice


Recipe for Tawa Vegetable Rice:(as posted on Sushma's blog)
Ingredients
For rice
1 tsp oil
2 green cardamom
3 cloves
1 stick cinnamon
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp melted butter
salt to taste


For the masala
200 gms fresh mushroom cut into quarter
1 capsicum cut into small cubes
1 onion finely chopped
1 tomato finely chopped
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
2 dry red chillies
1 tsp whole coriander seeds
5-6 methi seeds
1 tsp crushed kasoori methi
salt to taste
2 tbsp oil or butter


Method
Heat water in a pan, when it starts boiling, add green cardamom,cinnamon,bay leaf,cloves,salt and 1 tsp oil and rice and cook it till 3/4th done


Drain it and allow it to cool, then mix 2 tbsp melted butter and salt and then keep it aside


Soak dry red chillies in water for 10 minutes,drain it and grind it along with coriander seeds with little water to a fine paste


In a pan, add oil or butter, add methi seeds, fry it for 1 minute and then add ginger-garlic paste,chilli-coriander seeds paste and fry for 2-3 minutes till the raw smell goes off


Add onion and fry till translucent and golden brown, and then add tomato and fry till it gets mashed, remove it from the gas and then keep aside


In another pan add 2 tsp oil, add capsicum and fry for 1-2 minutes and then add mushrooms and fry for 2-3 minutes till tender and then add the tomato masala , kasoori methi,salt and fry for 1-2 minutes


Switch off the gas and allow it to cool, then add the rice and mix it well


Switch on the gas again and cook it on a low flame for 10-15 minutes till all flavours get mixed well with the rice and then serve hot .

Savory addition to Yummies from Blogosphere series...

I am constantly amazed by the creativity of recipes that I come across on blogsphere...often I find these recipes to be more original and flavorful than those featured on many professional food websites...which is why I am so extremely happy to add this very savory dish to my Yummies from Blogosphere series !

This time I chose a breakfast/snack item from the extremely creative blog penned by Swapna Sridhar. It is a very versatile...easy, breezy dosa dish(Indian savory pancake) which can be served as a breakfast, snack, brunch or even light dinner dish  - Oats Dosa.

Also, I loved this dosa/pancake because it is truly a quick-prep item...no labor-intensive soaking of rice and lentils and grinding and so on and so forth...which appeals to my multi-tasking, get-meal-ready-in-under 30 minutes-self (that is the Rachel Ray side of my personality, I think :))

Notes/Variation: In this recipe, I added a 1/4 cup of ragi flour(finger-millet flour) to the batter...hence the light pink hue on the dosa. The original recipe called for a topping of sliced onion and cilantro...I served a side of broccoli masala with the dosa instead.

My recipe  for Broccoli Masala follows...though this dish should taste great with any kind of chutney / sambhar(South Indian style soup).

Link: Original recipe  for Oats Dosa posted on Swapna's blog.

Thank you, Swapna for this awesome, creative yet healthy dish...I know I will be making it many more times for my family judging from their enthusiastic response.

Recipe for Oats Dosa(as posted on Swapna's blog):

Serves: 2 to 3

Prep/cook time: 15 - 20 mins

Ingredients :

Oats(Quick cooked) - 1 cup

Rice flour or Wheat flour - 1/4 cup

Sooji / Semolina - 1/4 cup

Red chilly powder / green chilly paste-1 tbsp

Chopped Onion -1 medium sized

Minced Coriander

Salt to taste

Water-2 1/2 to 3 cups

Method :

1.In a microwave safe bowl add oats and add enough water, put it in microwave about 1 min, cool  it for 3 mins.or soak it in warm water for 10 to 15 mins.

2.In a blender add oats and blend into smooth paste.

3.In a mixing bowl add oats paste,wheat flour,sooji,chilly powder,salt mix well.and add water...prepare the batter like dosa batter.

4.Heat the dosa pan on medium flame. Grease it,pour ladle full batter and with the help of ladle starting from the center,move the laddle in a circular motion and spread it in to circular shape.

5.On the top of dosa add onion and coriander leaves.press with spatula, spray oil, let it cook for 2 to 3 mins.Then slowly flip the dosa and let it cook for few more mins.Then remove it from the pan.

My Recipe for Side of Broccoli Masala:

Serves: 2 to 3

Prep/cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

Broccoli - 1 full head of broccoli cut into smaller pieces

Onion - 1 sliced thinly

For seasoning:

Cooking oil. salt, black pepper, cumin powder(jeera powder), cilantro chopped, lemon juice.

Method:

In a pan, add some cooking oil and when it starts to heat up, add the sliced onion.

When the onion starts to brown, add the seasonings and also the broccoli florets and let cook for a few minutes till the mixture is crisp and well-cooked(takes about 6 to 7 minutes)

Serve warm or at room temp. alongside dosa.

Comfort Food for Yummies from Blogosphere

So, it is time for another addition to the Yummies from Blogosphere series...I am really getting attached to this series and so is my family...they cant wait to see what I am going to try out next, considering there is SO MUCH VARIETY OF RECIPES on blogosphere!!!

Most of the recipes I bookmark as favorites for me to try out  later have special appeal not only because of taste and flavor and appearance but also because they have nutritional content. This week's recipe also belongs to that category...I chose an item from a blog which has been in existence for quite a while...nearly two years but this wonderful blogger still continues to post new recipes that are not only tasty but also simple and each recipe is different and unique in its own way.

So, this recipe is from our blogger friend Gita's Kitchen...and the recipe I chose is one for Palak Tofu(Spinach and Tofu Curry)...this recipe is very unique for me, because I have always made Alu Palak(Spinach with Potatoes) or Palak Paneer(Spinach with Indian Cheese) but never Palak Tofu...it was a very healthful yet completely tasty and creamy dish, that my entire family enjoyed. I wondered if the tofu would taste out-of-place in the curry but it was just wonderful...expecially because it was baked before adding to the curry to eliminate any raw smell.

Notes/Variation: I used some coriander powder and cummin powder (1 tsp each) in the curry...also seasoned the curry finally with some lemon juice(I like the combination of lemon juice with the spinach)...this is a very versatile dish that can be used as a side for rotis/bread/rice

Lovely dish...Gita! Thank you for this awesome recipe!

Links: Original Recipe for Palak Tofu as posted in Gita's Kitchen

Recipe for Palak Tofu:

Serves: 4

Pre/cook time: 25-30 mins.

INGREDIENTS:

Extra-firm tofu, 1 box.

Spinach, 1 large bunch.

Onion, medium, 1.

Tomato, 1.

Green chili, 1.

Garlic, 2 cloves.

Ginger, 1 small piece.

Red chili, 2.

Coriander seeds, 2 teaspoons.

Cloves, 2.

Cinnamon stick, 1 small piece.

Fennel seeds, ¼ teaspoon.

Salt as per taste.

PREPARATION:

Cut the tofu into small pieces. Spray a baking dish with any nonstick cooking spray and arrange the tofu pieces side by side. There should be sufficient space between each piece. Bake them at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until the tofu pieces turn brown. Set them aside. If needed the tofu pieces can also be sautéed in a pan with a teaspoon of oil until they turn brown.

Chop the onion and tomato into small pieces and slit the green chili into 2. Clean the spinach leaves and drain the excess water from the leaves. They need not be chopped as everything will be blended.

Heat a pan with some oil. When the oil is hot enough, add red chilies, coriander seeds, cloves, cinnamon stick, fennel seeds and fry them for a minute and remove them from the pan and let them cool. Now add the chopped onions, tomatoes, and green chili and sauté them for a few minutes. Then add garlic and ginger and keep sautéing until everything is well blended.

Add the spinach leaves and let them wilt along with the sautéed onion and tomato and let it cool. When the spice mixture and spinach mixture are cooled, blend them together into a smooth paste.

Put the blended mixture in the pan again, add salt and let it simmer under medium flame for few minutes until the gravy thickens. Then add the baked tofu pieces and stir everything well.

Serve hot with rotis.

Eye-catching addition to Yummies from Blogosphere!!!

I love the colorfulness of this week's dish for the Yummies from Blogosphere series...one of my biggest inspirations, which propelled me towards active blogging was the immense beauty of all the foods portrayed in simple digital images all over blogosphere...it totally made my mind boggle to see Indian food and of course, other foods too(that we cook and eat everyday) presented with such elegance...and it was not just the complex, difficult-to-make dishes but also simple recipes that looked almost ethereal when captured so tastefully on film.

This week's dish was very simple to prepare, but so extremely beautiful to look at, you would think it took hours...I love almost all the dishes presented by this blogger, Tina of kaipunyam.com...in fact she is just awesome at baking up the most beautiful yummies I have ever seen. But I chose this dish because of its traditional nature and immense ease of preparation. Also, I feel the more I can add beets to our diet, packed as it is with nutrients, the better it would be.

It is a wonderful yoghurt-based beetroot side-dish wonderful with rice and curry as well as with chappathis/bread as a spread/dip. I know a lot of people who dont use beets as much as they should, just because they are afraid its deep colors are going to stain their work surfaces and require a lot of clean-up!!!! I hope these kind of dishes wil inspire more people out there to try this awesome veggie more often!

Notes/Variation: In this dish, I did very little in terms of modification, because its flavor lies in the minimal number of ingredients...the only thing was, that I added some channa dal(split yellow gram) and some grounduts to the seasoning items. Also, since I dont add much coconut nowadays to my dishes, I reduced the quantity of coconut to 1/4cup. Suggested garnish: Yoghurt topping

Thank you for this simply elegant dish, Tina!!

Link: Original Recipe for Beetroot Pachadi at kaipunyam.com

Recipe for Beetroot Pachadi

Serves: 4

Prep/cook time: 15-20 mins.

Ingredients:

Beetroot 1 big

Onion 1 med

Chilly 5 to 7

Yoghurt 1/2 to 3/4 cup

Coconut 1 cup grated

Ginger 1 small piece

Shallots 1 to 2

Curryleaves

Fenugreek

Mustard

Water

Salt

Oil

Method

Clean the beetroot. Finely grate it and cook it (in little oil) with chopped onion, ginger, chilly, salt and little water.

Grind together coconut, onion, chilly and little mustard seeds. Add this paste into cooked beetroot.

After cooling down, add yoghurt into this and mix well. Season it with shallots, fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds and curry leaves.

Yummies from Blogosphere: A sweet start to a new series!

As I mentioned in my post last week to my readers, here is my new series: Yummies from Blogosphere - where I am delighted to showcase beautiful recipes from Bloggerworld which I have tried and relished with my family and friends. I feel that this is the best way that I could show appreciation for all the inspiration that I get from my fellow bloggers.

I have bookmarked wonderful food creations from almost every food blog I read regularly...so, naturally I had a humongous variety of dishes to choose from, to try out last weekend...I did not know which one to choose because they are all foods to die for!  I wanted to start this new series with something sweet... I could not believe that I had bookmarked so many recipes!

I just could not fix on one recipe to try out. Finally, I ended up making a serially numbered list of favorite sweet recipes (one from each of the blogs that I regularly read) and had my daughter give me a random number and tried out the recipe corresponding to that number. It just goes to show what amazing talent we have in Blogosphere, I think.

Without further ado, let me go on to the recipe that I tried last weekend...

It was a wonderfully sweet recipe for Microwave Cashewnut (Kaju)Peda originally posted by Priya of  Priya's Easy n Tasty Recipes. I will provide a link to the original recipe below. It was posted almost a year back by Priya. She has provided some great info on cashewnuts - their nutritional benefits and method of storage and so on...what attracted me to this recipe was the fact that it is probably one of the quickest and fastest sweet/dessert recipes that I have made in a while, not to mention the fact that is also extremely healthy... I started making it with 10 minutes to spare for dinner time and it was still ready, well in time to have as a tasty, bite-size dessert. The pedas were easy to shape into round discs(actually my 9 year old daughter helped me with this step...it was easy enough to shape for her!)

NOTES AND POSSIBLE VARIATIONS:  I followed the original recipe as much as possible. The only change I made to the original recipe is that, I ended up using 4 tbsp of water in place of the original recipe (which required 2 tsp water) That was mainly because I used totally non-fat milk powder which was very crumbly and needed some extra water for the cashew and milk powder mixture to come together. I also used some raisins as well as pistachios for the garnish. Plus, I was thinking it might be good to use some saffron strands the next time I make this for an extra touch of flavor...talk about icing on an already beautiful cake!

The taste of course, was unbelievable inspite of the fact that it is almost totally devoid of butter/oil. Needless to say, my family loved it  - even my toddler!

Links: Original Post for Microwave Kaju Peda at Priya's Easy n Tasty Recipes

Thanks, Priya for this fabulous recipe!

 I so love this series...I(and of course, my family!!!) cant wait to try the next Yummy from Blogosphere!

Recipe for Microwave Kaju Peda(as posted on Priya's Easy n Tasty Recipes):
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1cup Cashew powder
1/2cup Milk powder
2tsp Water
3/4cup Sugar
Few pistachios (garnishing)


Take a wide microwave bowl...add the cashew powder, milk powder, water and sugar together and mix with a spatula, microwave for 2 minutes in high, stir in between..Keep aside and let it cool..


Now it will look like soft chappathi dough, roll or shape them as u desire..Garnish the pistachio..

More Awards + Announcing Yummies from Blogosphere Series

I have been thinking of this series: Yummies from Blogosphere ever since I recently received some more beautiful awards from our fellow blogger Swapna Sridhar who has an awesome blog , where she posts creative recipes and crafts...do check it out if you have not done so already. Thanks a million, Swapna!

But I have been embarrassed about accepting these beautiful awards because I am such a newbie blogger. Then I thought that the best way to celebrate these awards would be by showcasing the awesome talents of my fellow bloggers whose inspiration and encouragement, is the main reason behind my passion for blogging.

For the last several months, I have been browsing different blogs where I drool over all the goodies created by our blogger friends...I think "Ooh, I would love to try that" or "I have never seen that recipe before" and I bookmark and I bookmark...you get the idea...sometimes I try these beautiful recipes but lots of times, I am so busy trying out my own kitchen experiments, that I dont get a chance to appreciate the efforts of my fellow bloggers enough. Oh...I should note here that I have not blown up my kitchen from my recipe creation experiments that I mentioned earlier(yet!!!) 

Anyways, as a blogger and passionate cook, I would love to hear somebody else's experiences with my dishes, and I am assuming most bloggers would love to hear others' experience and thoughts with their recipes too...so here goes... I am planning to do a new series: Yummies from Blogosphere -  where I will try out one of my favorite recipes from those already posted by my fellow bloggers every weekend and blog about my experiences with that dish and also my degree of success with it every Monday going forward.

By this series, I am hoping that my family will get a chance to definitely taste some of the truly tried and tested recipes and also my audience will get a chance to browse glorious recipes that they may have missed seeing from the original blogger. Of course, I will be providing a link to the original blogger's fabulous post.

I also would like to reach out to my fellow bloggers and ask for their tips if I am about to try one of their wonderful recipes...

I know I am taking on a challenge here, because I may not be able to achieve the same degree of success that the original blogger had with the recipe and I may not be able to capture the images of that dish, as beautifully either...but I would definitely like to try!!!

Have I bitten off more than I can chew - with this series???

Here are my awards and now I would like to share them with all my awesome blogger buddies...hope you will accept them and I hope to do justice to your fabulous dishes...that you have taken so much time and effort  to prepare, take pictures and post...