Banana, Pineapple and Coconut Muffins

These are delicious muffins full of flavour with a rich fruity flavour - one of those amazing treats you can find on Meeta's blog - What's for Lunch Honey!

She calls them Muffins Exotica - and exotic they are indeed, it has banana, pineapple and coconut and for good measure I added some honey as well! The kids who had come over for a playdate with my daughter wolfed them down in no time . I also replaced 1/2 a cup of flour with wheat flour (atta) and it made a good snack to take to work.

Rava Laddoo and 7 cup Barfi - Diwali is here!

The festive season started early this year and it seems like we hardly celebrated Dasera and its already Diwali. Life's been a whirlwind this past month - we had friends from Chennai staying with us during the Dasera holidays. The next weekend saw us making a quick dash to Mumbai - in the space of 2 days we caught up with my brother's family, surprised my best friend, met a dear friend who had come down from Oz for the holidays and had a reunion with my CA gang! No wonder then Diwali practically crept up on me and gave me a big surprise.

Its my third Diwali this year, in Delhi, and I am already complaining how its not "cool enough"! I have also become a veteran at shopping for gifts (something we never did in Mumbai and Chennai) at the Diwali melas. Launched an assault on the most popular one (Blind School Mela) at 10 30 in the morning when it was still empty and was done by 12.30!!


The festive mood crept in only a couple of days back - that too it had to be kick started into full gear by wearing a saree to work in the morning the day before Dhanteras! So when I came back after battling shopping traffic on the way home, I was surprised to find myself in the mood to make some sweets. So, after putting my daughter to bed and in the midst of dinner, I made my favourite first - rava laddoos. There's something about a well made rava laddoo - soft ball of sweet powdery goodness - which never fails to satisfy me. I don't like the moong dal laddoos and besan laddoos as much.

Then when they were done, my mind went back to the conversation I had with my cousin on the way back home - she told me about a sweet she was making this year. It's called 7 cup barfi apparently, because it has 7 cups of ingredients - all the same measure. I was quite intrigued by it since I hadn't heard of such a sweet before. I usually make mysore pak so I decided to try this one instead. Was too late to call her, but the measures she told me had stuck in my head so I made it on that basis. 1 cup ghee, 1 cup gram flour, 1 cup coconut, 1 cup milk and 3 cups sugar (I used 2.5 cups and it was still quite sweet).

This is a good barfi to try as a beginner - I should have started with this instead of the mysore pak I tried the first time itself....the ingredients are all supposed to be mixed together and then cooked down to the barfi stage. I decided to roast the gram flour before mixing though, just to be on the safer side.
Make sure you add the other ingredients only after you mix the gram flour with the milk completely, till well blended and smooth without any lumps. The cooking takes about 30 minutes on a medium flame stirring constantly. The mixture will come together and leave the sides of the pan and become very thick. When scooped with a spatula or spoon it will not drop easily from it. Put of the flame at this stage and stir a few secs more before pouring into a greased tray.

For those who fear the whole "mithai/bakshanam" making process - try these recipes. They are simple and took me just an hour to make both. BUT if you, like me, are a miserly user of ghee and sugar, be warned that I disconnected that part of my brain and went ahead and used a whole cup of ghee in each of these recipes. Past experience has shown that rock hard roundels and squares are not what you want on Diwali!

Wishing you a very Happy Diwali!!

Rava Laddoo

Semolina (sooji / rava) - 2 cups
Sugar - 1.5 cups
Ghee - 1.5 cups (melted)
Cardamom (elaichi) - 4-5
1/4 cup raisins and cashews

1. Add 2 tsp of the ghee to a heavy pan and lightly fry the cashews ansd raisins for about 3 minutes - the raisins will plump up and the cashews will turn light brown. Remove and keep aside.
2. Add 2 more tsp of ghee to the pan and lightly fry the rava for about 5 minutes on a low flame, constantly stirring. A light aroma of roasted rava is enough and it shouldn't turn brown.
3. Transfer the rava to a plate where it can cool.
4. Remove the cardamom seeds and mix it with the sugar and grind in a mixie till almost powdered.
5. Add the cooled rava to the mixie and grind till the sugar is completely powdered and the rava is still a little bit coarse.
6. Remove from the mixie into a separate dish.
7. Take a large plate - take about one third of the rava and add the warm, melted ghee in tablespoons to the rava - roughly a little less than half a cup should do. You can always add some more later if needed.
8. Take about 2 raisins and half a cashew for each laddoo and combine it with the rava and melted ghee and make small balls. If the mixture has too much of ghee, add a bit of the rava sugar mixture.
9. Once this is done, repeat with another one third of the rava and another measure of ghee and then again with the last portion of rava and some more ghee.

Don't panic if the laddoos are not formed well, just add a wee bit of warm ghee and it should come together.

7 Cup Barfi

Chickpea flour (besan) - 1 cup
Freshly grated coconut - 1 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Ghee - 1 cup
Sugar -3 cups ( I used 2.5 cups)

1. Roast the gram flour in a tsp of ghee for 3-4 minutes and cool. Mix into the milk till well blended and without lumps.
2. Mix the rest of the ingredients with the milk and besan, transfer to a heavy bottomed pan and cook on a medium flame.
3. After approximately 20 minutes, the mixture will start leaving the sides and become quite porous and semi solid. When scooped up with the spatula, it will not drop easily - at this stage when it starts coming together, remove from flame and pour into a greased tray and flatten with the back of a greased cup.
4. Cut into diamond or square shapes after a few minutes and let cool completely.

A quick search on the net told me that this is quite a popular sweet with many variations for the ingredients of the 7 cups! Take your pick and sweeten up your Diwali celebrations!

Handvo - Spiced Savoury Lentil Cake

,I love to cook from scratch - there I said it. In this world of convenience food and TV dinners, it may seem like a complete waste of time to do things from scratch, but I have to admit I like the whole process of shopping for the ingredients, getting them together and then creating something out of it.

I would be the first one to protest against spending a minute more than necessary in the kitchen on a daily basis. But as someone who loves cooking, there are times when you are in the kitchen by choice rather than by compulsion. Those are the times when I love to experiment and try new things, sample new flavours and play around with textures and tastes.

So, though I have made this "instant" handvo a lot of times and love the fact that it's so easy to rustle up a tasty breakfast, I always wanted to make the handvo from the traditional mix of whole grain flours. Well, thanks to my dear friend Arch, who has the delightful blog The Yum Factor, I got a goodish amount of the flour used to make handvo - straight from Ahmedabad. Her poor hubby was made to cart the flour along with drumsticks and fresh sweetcorn - the things we foodies do!! Hopefully the evening spent with us made up for the courier service :)

The handvo made this way is markedly different from the instant version, not to mention that it is that much more healthy because of the whole grain flour used. I added grated bottlegourd (dudhi/ghiya) and carrots as well as some of the fabulous sweet corn. I baked some of the batter (without the green chilli paste) in muffin tins, to send in my daughter's lunch box and she loved it! And the fact that it is baked makes it a must-have on my list atleast!

I followed the recipe from Arch and it turned out beautifully! Cut into squares and served with green chutney.

Cheesy Pasta Bake

Mac & Cheese has somehow not held me in thrall though this largely American dish seems to be a sure fire crowd pleaser. I used to be mystified about the various recipes that peppered the foreign magazines my circulating library in Chennai delivered. There was “classic Mac n Cheese”, “Mac n Cheese with a twist”, “Mom’s secret recipes” – I couldn’t imagine the to-do over what is essential cooked macaroni baked with a rich cheese sauce. Apparently, this dish became even more popular when Kraft introduced its instant version, packaged as a “meal in a box”, where the cheese sauce was made from powder base – this idea got a big boost with the World War II rationing and working women which meant that meat, dairy products and time were all in short supply.

Now, I’m no food snob and actively encourage the “to each his own” attitude; I suspect that the blandness of this dish is what makes me stay away. We usually like a nice pesto pasta and an Arrabiata sauce is also a great favourite with us. My daughter who dotes on pasta usually gets a version which has lots of veggies in it, a mild tomato sauce which is finished with a dash of milk and gratings of cheese.

But there are those days when you crave carbs and lots of cheese – okay, okay, not you, It’s just me! But I do. This cheesy bake was made on one such day. I did put in veggies though, since I couldn’t imagine eating just pasta and cheese and also added a couple of tablespoons of pureed tomatoes to give it some more flavour. It's a modified version of Mac & Cheese I guess....

It was deliciously satisfying to cut into that cheesy white sauce covered bake…..so tell me, what do you do when the craving for carb strikes? What is the dish that acts as an immediate remedy? – is it rice and sambar? Or khichdi? Or aloo paratha?

Cheesy Pasta Bake

Whole Wheat Crust Pizza

I'm getting progressively better at making pizza from scratch - it's such a joy to bite into a lovely thin crust pizza, choc-a-bloc with toppings of our choice. As much or as little cheese as we want - no rationing of olives....as you can see I'm not too much of a fan of store bought pizzas!

On an average, we order pizzas about once every 4 months; we almost never go out and eat pizza - though after coming to Delhi we have found a couple of Italian restaurants which serve some great thin crust pizza - Vera Pizza at Tonino's is one of them, though for some reason the M.G Road outlet is better than the Greater Kailash one.
Aming the delivered Pizzas, loved Smokin' Joes when I was in Mumbai and when they started out Pizza Express in Chennai was very good. Slice of Italy in Delhi is also a good bet on most days.

The first time I ate one of the international "chain" pizzas was the day I got married. I was determined we wouldn't starve at our reception while seeing people all around us stuff their faces, so we ordered up a pizza to our hotel room from a brand new outlet downstairs and had it while I was getting my make up and hair done! The pizza was thick and doughy and I hated it. It was a long, long time before I had another one.


Its a pleasure then, to sink your teeth into one of these babies. Here it is before it went into the oven - this was the second one and since I had already one baking in the oven in my one and only metal pan, I put the second half of the dough into a shallow oven proof glass pan. But I won't be repeating it because the glass doesn't seem to be a great idea. The pizza took longer to cook and the glass was hot when I brought it out that I burnt my arm in two places! OUCH!!!

I stuck to the recipe I have been using from Jugalbandi with just a few adjustments.

Closer to perfection each time I make it, this time was very satisfying especially since the yeast did not give me any problem. I used olives, sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers and onions. The sauce was store bought this time since I didn't have the time to make this delicious roasted pepper sauce. But it was good nevertheless! Try it out and you will be a convert in no time!

Spring Cleaning - Travel cleanses the mind!

Been doing a bit of cleaning up on my blog - first to be attacked was the tags. Though I take a lot of care while posting itself to make sure that I stick to a limited number of tags, turns out there were many which were quite superfluous and had only one entry under them, while there were some categories which weren't tagged at all - one pot meals (thanks A!) and Tamil cuisine for e.g - both of which I have quite a few recipes posted. So, I added a few and deleted a lot - some of the categories which have only one post under them are because of my aspirations to post more on the same - like stir fries, couscous and Mexican.

I also made sure my list of recipes has been updated - so just one click on the Recipe Index (you can find it on the right side of the blog) takes you to the recipes arranged according to different categories - Soups, Salads, Main Course, Rice, Breads, Chicken, Meat & Fish, Cakes, Desserts, Indian Sweets etc

There's lots more to be done; starting with changing the look of the blog to considering moving to wordpress. Just don't have the time or the bandwidth to do any of that right now - a full time job and home have me stretched out as it is.

Do let me know if you have any suggestions or comments or would like to see more of a certain kind of cuisine/recipe.

In the meanwhile, in case you are wondering what these photographs are about, I'm sharing some pics of our recent trip to Bhimtal Lake. This is a picturesque place about 300km from Delhi very close to the more famous Nainital Lake. We stayed at a beautiful place called Fishermen's Lodge - being the off season, we were the only guests there apart from one other couple. The service was warm and personalised, the food was excellent and the views of the lake were
spectacular! The weather was just right, there were no crowds and even when we went boating we had the entire lake to ourselves! My 4 year old daughter was thrilled - she wasn't being told to keep her voice down or to sit still at the table or not jump on the wooden deck. We walked, curled up in a corner with books, packed picnic lunches which we ate on the banks of neighbouring Naukuchiyatal and Sattal lakes. Spring cleaning for the mind - we came back all relaxed and refreshed! :)

Pasta tossed with Roasted Vegetables

As far as this dish is concerned - what you see is what you get. I don't even think you need a recipe for this one - its that simple! As I have mentioned many times before, I love oven roasted vegetables.....and of course I simply adore pasta. So, putting them together was the easiest thing to do.
I used broccoli, babycorn, cherry tomatoes, onions and bell peppers. Feel free to substitute with any other combination that you would prefer, including zucchini, yellow or red peppers and courgettes. Toss the chopped vegetables (1 " pieces) in a tablespoon of oil mixed with dried herbs and salt and roast in a pre heated oven for about 15-20 minutes. The vegetables will still be crunchy but have a nice sweet flavour from the roasting.

Once the vegetables have been roasted, heat up olive oil in a pan, saute some garlic and then toss some cooked pasta (already cooked, drained and tossed with a tsp of oil) and vegetables together in the pan for a few minutes. Since I already add herbs while roasting vegetables, I just mixed in some paprika powder and basil leaves additionally. A generous sprinkling of grated parmesan and you have a delicious, light meal ready!