Pumpkin Walnut Bread - Eggless

Pumpkin is not a well liked vegetable by certain members of this house because of its sweet taste which "spoils" the taste of the dish. *ahem*.
I, on the other hand, love its orange flesh, the way it takes on the flavours of the dish it is cooked in - spicy if put into a puli kuzhambu or sambar, mustardy with potatoes in a typical Bengali dish, plumping up the volume of a soup, melding beautifully into this risotto and sweet when put into a pie.

The ones we get here are usually those huge green and white streaked ones.....simply called "kaddu" - no differentiation into varieties (I wouldn't know a kabochon if it stared me in the face!). Just ask the sabziwallah to cut a 500gm piece and you're good for a week.

Well, this time our friendly neighbourhood Mother Dairy outlet had the smaller variety. Peach coloured skin and a nice plump shape. I picked it up immediately; I would figure out what to do with it later. A couple of days later, I remembered a pumpkin loaf recipe I had seen on Elise's Simply Recipes - the recipe was adapted from Fannie Farmer and seemed fuss-free.

I laid out the pumpkin to roast in the oven while I went out and finished some chores. When I came back, the pumpkin flesh was cooked and ready. l I started removing the rest of the ingredients for the bread - and then discovered that there were no eggs at home! I hate when this happens (as if I have anyone else to blame but myself) and then my latent substitution avatar just takes over.
The prospect of going out even for the 3 minute walk to the store to buy eggs was just too much to contemplate in the heat of the afternoon. Technically, I could have waited till evening, but nope- I HAD to finish baking the bread then and there!

I remembered baking a Walnut & Ginger Bite ring sometime back which didn't have eggs, so I knew it was possible. I went to work modifying the original recipe. Eggs basically bind the ingredients or help in rising, so I put in one teaspoon of baking powder for the leavening and though the pumpkin may have been enough for the moisture, I added half a ripe banana as well.

The bread was a beautiful brown colour when it came out of the oven and the house was redolent with the aroma of cinnamon and nutmeg. It had a brown crust and a nice moist texture to it. Not too sweet so I didn't mind having it with breakfast and it makes a great tea time treat too. If you want to have it for dessert, its delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It tasted even better the next day, something I have often found with baked stuff.

I do have a theory about cinnamon though - I think it heightens the taste of salt in a dish - its happened in a restaurant once and with a carrot cake I baked a couple of years back. This time too, though not very salty, you could taste a bit of salt in the bread and I think it was because of the cinnamon in it.


Susan of Food Blogga is hosting Beautiful Bones - an Osteoporosis Food Event "to alert women to the potential risks of osteoporosis and encourage them to take steps to protect their bones at every age". This event is on the whole month of May which is National Osteporosis Awareness Month.Along with anaemia, Indian women are particularly susceptible to osteoporosis; genetics have much to do with it (Asians and Caucasian women are at greater risk) but also the fact that a high percentage of Indian women suffer a great deal from malnutrition - either due to a poor diet while growing up (many times due to a gender bias) or their own negligence of their health while taking care of the others in the family. It is estimated that 50% of healthy Indian women over 50 years of age have low bone mass.

I got concerned with this gap when I saw a direct correlation between the reduced intake of calcium in my MILs diet and her increasing joint problems and reduced bone mass. She put it down to age, but I connected to the fact that she was consistently reducing her milk, yoghurt and other calcium intake after my FIL died (culturally ingrained reactions to societal pressure are a whole another post!)

A diet rich in calcium and Vitamin D (adequate vitamin D is required for proper absorption of calcium) during childhood and adolescence goes a long way in preventing osteoporosis later.
But that doesn't mean that calcium is not as important after your teens. Women in the age group 25-50 years required 1000mg of calcium per day while women over 65 years of age require 1500 mg per day.

Don't feel like glugging a glass of milk everyday? Milk is not the only source of calcium; in fact it is difficult to digest and may not give you all the calcium you need. Think of other calcium rich sources:

1. Leafy greens like spinach (paalak), lettuce, spring onion greens and other local greens (keerai) like methi (fenugreek), suva (dill), sarson (mustard greens), khatta paalak, haak, molai keerai/arai keerai/siru keerai(all amaranth varieties), murunga keerai(drumstick leaves),agathi keerai,poonaganni keerai,pulichai keerai,manathakali keerai.

2. Vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, green beans, bhindi (okra), pumpkin/squash, radish (mooli) , cauliflower, carrots, eggplant (brinjal), brussel sprouts, asparagus and celery

3. Herbs and spices like coriander, basil, thyme, rosemary, fennel, oregano, garlic, cloves and cinnamon.

4. Nuts,seeds and beans like sesame seeds (til), mustard seeds (rai), walnut (akhrot), almond (badaam), cashewnut (kaju), kidney beans (rajma, lobia), chickpeas (kabuli chana, kadala), water chestnuts (singhada), lotus seeds (makhana), melon seeds.

5. Fruits like tomatoes, oranges, guava, banana, chikoo (sapodilla), coconut, figs (anjeer) and custard apple

6. Milk products like yoghurt, cheese and paneer and Soy products like tofu, soya beans, soy milk

Apart from calcium intake, it is important that it gets absorbed by our body:

• Vitamin D aids in absorption of calcium; sources rich in Vitamin D are
• High consumption of sodium (salt) and caffeine (whether in coffee or colas) results in increased excretion of calcium.
• Calcium through one's diet is better absorbed than through supplements.
  
• While there are factors which may prevent complete absorption of calcium from sources like spinach, beets, celery and peanuts (oxalic acid) and whole grains, nuts and beans (phytic acid) - the decrease in the available quantity of calcium for absorption is relatively low.
• Calcium interference with iron absorption or vice versa is not considered significant enough to affect normal intake when the intake of both is in typical moderate amounts.
  

Read more here on calcium, its importance, dietary sources and absorption.

While pumpkin is a moderate source of calcium (24mg per 1 cup) and cannot compare to greens and other vegetables in terms of calcium content, walnuts have about 100mg of calcium in every 100gm. What better excuse to indulge in this nutty bread!

Pumpkin Walnut Bread - Eggless

Ingredients:

Skinned and cooked pumpkin - 1 1/4 cup
(I followed the recipe instructions, cut the pumpkin into 4 parts and kept them cut side down on foil, cooked them in a pre heated oven at 200 C for 45 minutes. When it was completely cooled, I scooped the cooked flesh out of the skin, measured out what I wanted and froze the rest of it; You can also skin and chop the pumpkin and steam cook the flesh)

Flour - 2 cups (I used wheat flour 1 cup and refined flour (maida) 1 cup)
Vegetable oil - 3/4 cup (the original recipe uses olive oil)
Brown sugar - 1 cup (more if you want the bread to be sweeter)
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp (I would reduce it to 1/4 tsp next time)
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp
Grated nutmeg - 1 /2 tsp
Water - 1/2 cup
Ripe banana - 1/2 mashed
Chopped walnuts - 1/2 cup (lightly toast the walnuts for 3-4 minutes to remove the skin, cool and chop.)

Method:

1. Pre heat the oven to 180C (350F), grease a loaf tin or a ring mould and keep aside.
2. Sift the flour, salt, baking soda,baking powder, cinnamon powder and grated nutmeg together.
3. In a big bowl, mix the cooked pumpkin with the oil, mashed banana, water and sugar till well combined.
4. To this add the mixed dry ingredients a little at a time mixing just as much as needed. If you find the batter too thick, add milk a teaspoon at a time till you get the required consistency - not pouring consistency but spoon dropping type.
5. Mix in the chopped walnuts gently and spoon into the prepared loaf tin or ring mould.
6. Bake for about 45-50 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes clean. Mine took about 60 minutes but was quite moist inside and did not dry out.

Other calcium rich recipes:

Sindhi Sai Bhaji

Broccoli Soup

Green Peas Pulao - Jihva for Love

This post is a departure from my usual way of blogging - I often find it hard to cook specifically for an event.....well this time I am blogging especially for the Jihva event. This month's event is being hosted by Pratibha and Jigyasa on their spanking new blog dedicated to Pedatha.

Jihva is a food blogging event which was begun by Indira of Mahanandi and focuses every month on one ingredient. This month's ingredient is a fitting tribute to the memory of Pedatha - it's that ever so intangible thing which makes each home cooked meal a comforting one - LOVE.

When they asked us to blog about the one person whom we really love and honour in our lives - I found it so difficult to choose. My life is filled with people who have touched it in so many different ways and with so much of love that I couldn't imagine a life without them.

So, I wondered (being a true Gemini) how I could choose just one person. These people are difficult to separate from the person I am. They make me complete in their own unique way.

My biological mother - Amma - of whom I have very few memories; she passed away when I was five.
My mother who raised me to be an honest, responsible and caring person and broke all the stereotypes about stepmothers.
My father who is the best father ever - there is nothing I can't talk to him about, he has always stood by me - even when he didn't agree with me.
My husband who is my Rock - the one who nursed me through my illness, fought alongside me and believed that I would make it, when so many others didn't.
My daughter who has brought new meaning into my life and made us give thanks every single day for the beautiful blessing that she is.

BUT there is one other person, not part of my family, but as dear and respected to us - without whom I wouldn't be here today.

My surgeon - the most sincere and forthright person I have known. He did everything in his power to keep me alive when other doctors were just looking to add a "rare case" to their records. He experimented, researched, kept me going with some path breaking methods of nutrition and then performed a surgery that he truly believed would be best for me - not for the money, not for the "case sheet", but for me. I am here today, so I guess he succeeded!.
Tragically he died last year of cancer and I was left ranting at the unfairness of it all - one so young and so dedicated to his profession should have had more time...

This is my tribute to him through Jihva for Love. I don't know whether he would have actually liked this dish - the only thing I have made for him is coffee when he visited home (yes, he made house visits just for me!!).

But since it is one of the few things I remember my mother making (the others being a tomato raita and an egg curry) I would like to think that the one who brought me into this world and the one who gave me a second life might have similar tastes....

Peas Pulao

simple and satisfying - served with vegetable kadhi and stuffed eggplant

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice - 1 cup soaked in 3 cups water for 15 minutes
Peas - 3/4 cup
Cinnamon stick (laung) - 2 " piece
Bay leaf - 1
Cloves - 3-4
Cardamom - 2
Onions - 2 medium sliced long
Ghee - 1/2 tbsp
Oil - 1 /2 tbsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

1. Take a non stick pan and heat the ghee and oil together. Add the whole masala - cinnamon, bay leaf, cardamom and cloves and wait till they change colour.Add the cumin seeds and saute half a minute, then add onions and saute till golden brown.
2. Drain and add the rice and peas and saute 1 minute, then add the drained water and bring to boil. Add salt.
3. Lower flame to medium and cook uncovered for about 10 minutes. Stir the rice just once in one direction and check to see whether it is cooked.
4. Cook for 3-4 more minutes; the rice grains should be cooked and separate, but not mushy. Turn off flame and cover till serving time.

If the rice isn't cooked for some reason, add hot water only one fourth of a cup at a time. The rice will continue cooking when it is closed, so allow for that extra cooking time.

If using frozen peas, add them halfway through since they are already cooked.

Vanilla, Cream Cheese and Date Cake

My daughter had an end- of-term party coming up at school (I don't think we ever had such things...for that matter I don't remember going to play school, I think it was straightaway Kindergarten at 3 years) and every child was required to bring one item for the party.

Mine was to bring a snack while her friend was to bring a cake - her mother asked me whether I would bake a cake so that she didn't have to give store bought cake with all that sugar and icing. So we swapped and I came up with a delicious cake adapting this recipe from the Joy of Cooking site.

The kids enjoyed this simple fluffy cake with the childhood favourite Vanilla - the cream cheese made it that much more flavourful and soft.

I am sending this to Masterbaker's April theme - Vanilla Each month Nikki picks one ingredient and we get to bake whatever we want, then she bakes up a bunch of the entries and picks a winner - simple and fun!

Vanilla, Cream Cheese and Date Cake

Ingredients:

Refined flour (maida) - 2 cups
Butter - 1 cup
Cream Cheese - 3/4 cup (I used cream cheese spread and cut out the 1/4 tsp salt in the recipe, you can also use fresh thick hung curd)
Eggs - 3
Sugar - 1 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - 1 /4 tsp
Vanilla scrapings from one pod or 3/4 tbsp vanilla essence
Pitted and chopped dates - 1 cup

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C and lightly grease a cake pan and keep aside.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. into a bowl. Soak chopped dates in 1/4 cup of warm milk and keep aside.

3 Beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar a little at a time and beat until creamy and smooth.

4. Beat in the eggs, one at time and mix well. Add vanilla bean extract or vanilla essence and beat well.

5. Fold in the flour mixture gently until just mixed, drain and add the dates and pour the cake batter into the greased pan.

6. Bake for 1 hour at 180C or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 15 -20 minutes, before removing out of the pan and cooling again.

Kataachi Aamti - Spiced Lentil Stock Soup

Growing up in Mumbai and spending a lot of time in my neighbour's house meant that I was eating more of poli thup, varan bhath, usal and shikran more than idli and sambar! And though I resolutely refused to have rasam at home (didn't take a liking to it till much later in life) I used to love the aamti Patankar Aunty used to make.

Aamti is a staple of Maharashtrian cuisine and while it can also refer to other gravy dishes, it usually describes a lentil preparation with a wonderful mixture of spicy, sweet and sour notes. I loved the consistency - not as thick as sambar and not as thin as rasam - just perfect to be eaten with steamed rice or chapattis.

The tempering, the dals used, the spice mix, the proportion of jaggery and kokum or tamarind - all this produced a lot of variations of aamti. Different regions and different families have different recipes just like we have different types of sambar all over South India. Read more on Nupur's wonderful A-Z series

I of course didn't know much about the different kinds of aamti at that age. It was only much later when I started cooking, that I naturally tried making many of these recipes which were a big part of my childhood memories (and which of course you didn't get in restaurants unless you were sitting in one of those small eateries in B.B Dadar or Parel!).

One of the recipes I came across was Kataachi Aamti - a dish made from the lentil stock in which the chana dal, used in filling Puran Polis, was cooked. Puran Polis are another much loved Maharashtrian delicacy - deliciously sweet flaky stuffed flat breads - see one yummy version complete with pictorial here

My first Tamil New Year in Chennai after marriage saw me really homesick for Mumbai and since we anyway make "sweet bolis" as a festival dish I decided to make it the Maharashtrian way. The difference being that we use maida for the "bolis" and a coconut and jaggery filling while puran polis use wheat flour and a much drier chana dal and jaggery/sugar filling.That was the first time I made Kataachi Aamti, using a recipe I found in Femina.

I have made it many times after that, but without the puran poli bit....
This light soupy dish is perfect for the summer and you don't have to make puran poli to make the aamti! Just use the chana dal for some other preparation like a kootu or a tempered dal.

I am sending this dish to the April edition of Think Spice. This wonderful series which was begun by Sunita of Sunita's World has covered spices like mustard, ginger, saffron and star anise over the past six months and introduced us to a veritable feast of recipes showcasing the star spice of the month and its unique properties.
Sunita has now graciously extended this series to the rest of the food blogging world and from this month onwards Think Spice will be guest hosted by other food blogs. Gretchen of Canela & Comino hosts Think Spice - Cloves this month all the way from Peru!

My earliest memories of clove are not from food but seeing my Dad sucking on some clove after a rich meal to freshen up his mouth and my brother being asked to suck on a clove to tide over a toothache till he could get to the dentist the next day.

This aromatic spice (among others like pepper, cardamom and cinnamon) has been a precious commodity since time immemorial - wars have been fought, countries annexed and monopolies created for this spice which was worth its weight in gold! It has penetrated different global cuisines today and is easily available - but what you may not know is that besides its culinary uses it has so many other properties - antiseptic, analgesic, antispasmodic and even anaesthetic!

Clove imparts a very distinctive flavour to this dish and is a perfect example at the way it makes itself at home in almost all cuisines across India.

Kataachi Amti

Ingredients:

5-6 cups (1.2 litres) of chana dal stock
(cook about 2 cups of chana dal in 8-10 cups of water till it is soft, drain water and use for this recipe; the cooked chana dal is usually used to make the filling for puran polis but you can also temper it to make a dal accompaniment or add vegetables like cabbage, chow chow or bottle gourd (ghiya/sorakai/dudhi) to make a more substantial accompaniment.

Tamarind (imli) - lemon size ball soaked in 1 cup water
Sprouts - 1/2 cup (the original recipe called for 2 drumsticks cut into 1 " pieces)
Crushed jaggery (gur/vellam) - 2 tbsp
Dry coconut sliced (copra) - 1/4 cup
Cumin seeds (jeera)- 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Goda masala - 1 tsp ( a Maharashtrian spice mix)
Salt to taste

Tempering:
Oil - 2 tsp
Cloves (lavang) - 5
Cinnamon - 1 " piece
Cumin seeds (jeera) - 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds (rai) - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 6-7


Method:

1. Extract tamarind juice and add to the dal water. Heat the dal water in a kadai(wok) and bring to a boil. Add sprouts and boil for 3-4 minutes till half cooked.

2. In another pan, roast cumin seeds and dry coconut for about 4-5 minutes on a low flame, cool and grind to a fine paste.

3. Add chilli powder, salt and jaggery to the dal water and boil for 3 more minutes. Add the cumin coconut paste and goda masala and simmer for another 4-5 minutes.

4. Heat oil for tempering in a small pan and add the mustard seeds, when they pop season with cloves, cinnamon, cumin seeds and curry leaves. Pour the seasoning over the simmering aamti and turn off heat.

5. Serve hot with steamed rice , chappatis or puran polis. The consistency is very watery as compared to most other lentil dishes and is very conducive to slurping right from the wati (bowl) in which it is served!!

Mushroom, Red Pepper and Broccoli Roasted Salad

Summer makes me crave for foods which are light on the stomach - thin soups, cold pasta tossed with herbs, gourd vegetables, rasam and rice with bhindi sabzi (okra stir fry), koshambir (tempered salads with grated veggies), watermelon juice, buttermilk by the gallon, papaya and musk melon cubes, cold aamras (mango pulp) with chapatis....

.....AND raw mango - to me raw mangoes are inextricably linked with summer. Must be something to do with growing up in a "colony" in Mumbai which had about 5 mango trees -with atleast three of them bearing fruit every summer. So a gang of girls and boys would spend every afternoon of our summer holidays plucking fruit with the help of a contraption of long bamboo sticks tied together with rope, a knife tied to the end and a bag hanging under it. Then we would have a "kairi party" - salt, red chilli powder and a dash of lime juice (all stealthily taken from someone's kitchen) would be sprinkled over the cut pieces of mango and devoured. One particular summer when I was about 13 or 14, I ate so much raw mango that I had a severe stomach upset and was almost dehydrated! That spelled the end of mangoes that year for me....

So, tell me what are your favourite foods to eat during the summer - now and in your childhood?

The recipe I am going to post is not one I had during the summers of my childhood - I didn't even taste broccoli and mushrooms till much later. But it has become a favourite of mine - vegetables roasted in a little bit of oil and flavoured with herbs, spices and vinegar or lime juice. Infinite variations are possible and each one tastes a little bit different from the others - let your imagination flow!

I am sending this to Easycrafts Fun 'n' Sun event being hosted all this month at Simple Indian Food.

Mushroom, Pepper and Broccoli Roasted Salad

Ingredients:

Button mushrooms - 8-10 washed and cut lengthwise
Broccoli - 1 cup florets
Red Pepper - 1 (can be yellow, red or green) deseeded and cut into 1 " squares
Tomatoes - pulp removed and cut into 1 " squares OR cherry tomatoes halved
Spring onions - white part sliced OR Onions - separated into layers and cut into squares
Garlic cloves - 2-3 crushed

Olive oil - 1 1/2 tbsp
salt to taste
Freshly crushed pepper - 1 tsp
Mixed dried herbs - 1 tbsp
Freshly chopped mint or coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
Lime juice - 2 tbsp
Red wine vinegar - 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Take a roasting pan or a shallow oven proof dish and mix all the chopped vegetables.
2. Drizzle 1 tbsp olive oil over the vegetables, season with salt, pepper and the dried herbs
3. Roast the vegetables for 8 to 10 minutes and then check whether it is a little tender but still a bit crunchy. If it needs a little more roasting, drizzle the half tablespoon of olive oil and roaste for 4-5 minutes more.
4. Remove from oven and drizzle the remaining olive oil if not already used on top of the vegetables and transfer to a serving dish.
5. Mix the lemon juice, vinegar, chopped coriander or mint and toss the salad briefly. Cool and serve.

Note: You can use almost any other vegetable in this salad - carrots, babycorn, peas and french beans go well - but root vegetables like sweet potatoes and potatoes will take longer to cook.

I am sending this luscious salad to the monthly event - No Croutons Required - hosted alternatively by Lisa and Holler. This month's edition is being hosted by Lisa and the theme is a salad or soup centred around mushrooms.

For a fresh salad without roasting vegetables, try this Babycorn, Cherry tomatoes and Sprouts Salad with Feta Cheese

Roasted Pepper and Tomato sandwich - with Bread and Dosai!

I have loved sandwiches ever since I can remember. As a child I was known to ask for a "bread and butter" sandwich when we ate out. I got to taste the amazingly delicious chutney sandwiches made by Subhash sitting on the "katta' outside our college in Mumbai - those squares of bread slathered with Amul butter and green chutney and stuffed with onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, beet and potatoes - what a filling meal for just 5 bucks! Club sandwiches in Gazebo were next, followed by Subway which arrived in India much later. And have you tasted cheese sandwiches made in a "Club" - well they really know how to make one - thick slices of cheddar cheese between soft white bread - none of that wimpy stuff you get on airplanes and in theatres with wafer thin shavings of cheese on dry bread!

Sometimes there is just nothing to beat the taste of a freshly made sandwich for breakfast - it really is a power breakfast! And of course, you can pretty much put whatever you want to into it - which is what really entices me.

This morning I had a loaf of multi grain bread and though it would be perfect for a sandwich for everyone. Boiled two eggs, roasted a capsicum , sliced a tomato and some olives and shredded some cheese and I was all set to go.
The bread sandwiches were moist and juicy and dripping with the flavour of the roasted peppers and mustard. The eggs made for a good protein boost in the morning.

But after making the sandwiches for my husband and my daughter, I decided that so much of fibre wouldn't go down well with my stomach (I don't digest fibre easily). So I mixed up some instant rava dosa batter for myself and stuffed it with the same fillings! Yummy!
I am sending this dosa to Srivalli's Dosa Mela - glad I could make something unique for this Srivalli - your list for your target of 101 dosa varieties is quite inspiring!

You can pretty much use whatever you want - if you don't want the egg replace them with cucumber or sliced boiled potatoes. Put in some green chutney or pesto instead of the mustard and onions if you are upto eating them in the morning.

Roasted Pepper and Tomato Sandwich

Ingredients:

Multigrain Bread - 1 loaf
Filling:
Tomato - 1 big sliced
Eggs - 2 hard boiled, yolks and white sliced separately
Capsicum/Green Pepper - 1 (Roast the pepper on a low flame or under the grill till the skin blackens all over, wrap tightly in a foil paper and leave aside to cool for 10 minutes, unwrap, peel skin, deseed and slice)
Black olives - sliced 5-6
Mustard - 4-5 tbsp
Butter - 1-2 tbsp
Hung Curd - 2 tbsp
Pepper powder - to taste


Low Fat Multi -Grain Bread Sandwich:

1. Cut a 6 " piece of the bread and slice horizontally, leaving the back still attached so that it opens like a book.
2. Spread the hung curd on both sides and fill with 3-4 tomato slices, olive slices, roasted capsicum slices and boiled egg white slices.
3. Drizzle mustard on top and sprinkle pepper powder to taste.
4. Grill for 2 minutes or serve just like that.

Multi Grain Bread Sandwich for kids:

Cut sandwich as above, spread butter or cheese spread on both sides. Fill with tomato slices, roasted capsicum slices and whole egg slices. Shred cheddar cheese all over and drizzle tomato sauce on top. Grill or serve soft.

Instant Rava Dosa Sandwich

Dosa Batter:
1/3 cup - Semolina (sooji/ rava)
1/3 cup - Refined flour (Maida)
1/3 cup - Rice flour
Yoghurt - 1/2 cup whipped with 1 1/2 cups water
Green chillies - 2 chopped fine
Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp chopped
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

1. Mix all ingredients of the dosa batter and keep aside for 5 minutes.
2. Heat a tava and pour the dosa batter (should be thinner than usual dosa batter) from a small cup and let it spread outwards. Do not spread with the back of a ladle as far as possible instead tilting the tava a bit if needed.
3. Drizzle a tsp of oil all around and cook on a medium flame till the edges are brown and lift on their own. Quickly flip with a spatula and cook the other side for a minute on a low flame.
4. Remove onto a plate, browned side down. Fill a strip of the dosa a little away from the edge with tomato slices chopped fine, olive slices, capsicum slices and egg slices and drizzle mustard or green chutney over it.
5. Start rolling the dosa from the filled side to the other side and press together. Slice into rolls with a sharp knife and serve warm.

Parwal Masala (Wax Gourd Stir Fry)

Parwal(potol/wax gourd) is one of those vegetables which don't even have a local name in certain regions where they are not traditionally grown while in other regions you can find them in every kind of preparation. So while tendli or kovakai is quite popular in the South and in Maharashtra, it isn't in the North. On the other hand, parwal is not a local vegetable in Maharashtra and the South, but the North and North East use a lot of it in their cooking (its is even made into a mithai in Bihar and UP!).

Parwal (Trichosanthes dioica) is basically a mini gourd - one of the family of bottlegourds (lauki/sorakai/ghiya), snake gourds (padwal/podalangai) and ivy gourds(tendli/kovakai/kundru). I love this vegetable - the crunchiness of the seeds when they are cooked and the sharpness of the edges when they are fried to a crisp.

But there are many who consider this and the other members of its family, including the tinda and the petha (ash gourd/pushnikai) to be poor summer substitutes for the rich winter fare of cauliflowers, carrot, peas and beans.

Dubbed as "patient food" by some and "peasant food" by others, its precisely their lightness on the stomach which makes them so perfect for the summer! Its low calorie and high water content makes them easy to digest and even easier to prepare. Rich in Vitamin C, dietary fiber, riboflavin and zinc and low in cholestrol and saturated fats, this vegetable is recommended by traditional healers in Chattisgarh for women who have just delivered a child, for its unique healing properties and tonic effect.

Pick green vegetables which are not very big or too soft which might mean they are mature and the seeds will be hard. The younger vegetables will be a tad lighter green, firm to touch and when you cut them open vertically, you will find creamy yellow flesh inside with tender seeds half buried. For some perfect photos of this vegetable see Indira's pictorial here.

I remember my mother making this as a spicy preparation all crisp and crunchy - so many years back in Mumbai. So I picked this up on the weekend (probably the first arrival in the market this summer) and decided that I would cook something special for myself (hubby doesn't like the crunchiness!). I had asked my best friend who was coming to Delhi on work to bring some Goda masala and when she gave it to me I knew that it was going into the parwal!

Goda masala is another childhood memory - eating half my daily meals at our neighbours house when I was a child means that the smell of this mix of spices is hard wired into my memory. What gives it its distinctive taste is dagad phool - an aromatic spice which is actually a lichen. Some recipes also call for nagkeshar - but then its like our sambar powder recipes I guess - as many recipes as the families who make them! Read more about Goda Masala and its preparation here and here.

Alu parwal is a favourite in the North while it is given pride of place in Bengal in a simple tarkari preparation called potoler dalna. Other versions I have seen is to make it with a saunf and onion tadka or a a gravy with onions and tomatoes.


What I did was to include some garlic, onions, spice powders including Goda masala,curry leaves and simply stir fry till it was nice and crispy, its edges curling up and the seeds getting all crunchy. Served with chana dal and ghiya and hot phulkas, it was simply heaven on a plate!




I am sending this dish on to Weekend Herb Blogging which is being hosted at Jugalbandi this week. This event which shines the spotlight on any herb, vegetable, fruit or flower and is the brainchild of Kalyn .

Parwal Masala

Ingredients:

Parwal (wax gourd/potol) - 1/2 kg
Onion - 1 chopped
Garlic crished - 4-5 cloves

Oil - 1 tbsp
Cumin seeds (jeera) - 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds (rai) - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 5-6
hing - pinch

Turmeric powder (haldi) - pinch
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Goda masala - 3/4 tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil in a non stick pan or kadai, add the mustard and wait for it to splutter. Put in the cumin seeds and then the curry leaves and the hing.
2. Add the garlic, give it a stir for half a minute and then put in the chopped onions and saute till transluscent.
3. Meanwhile, wash and chop the parwal into half vertically and then again into halves. Some people like to lightly scrape the skin, I leave it as it is.
4. When the onions are done, add the parwal and the spice powders including turmeric.
5. Fry for about 5-8 minutes, then cook covered for another 5 minutes till the parwal is cooked, stirring in between. Uncover and cook on low flame till the parwal turns crisp and its edges start curling.
6. Serve hot with dal and phulkas or rice.