Spice twist- Mango Cardamom chutney

Green cardamom is a spice that mainly grows in India and Sri Lanka, and is widely used in Indian cuisine, in most traditional desserts. The black cardamom that is slightly bigger in size, is used to add fragrance to rice dishes like Pulao and to curries.



In South Indian cuisine, cardamom is used as a flavouring agent in Payasam, Kesari, Halwa, Ladoos and many more. However, it is not used in any savoury dishes, atleast not to my knowledge. That's how after much thinking on what I must submit for Barbara's Spice is Right-II, I came to the decision of trying out this amazingly fragrant spice in a savoury, almost spicy recipe.

Spicy Mango Cardamom chutney

Spicy Cardamom Mango chutney

2 medium sized firm raw mangoes- chopped into small pieces
4 medium sized pods green cardamom-peeled and roughly powdered
2 T white vinegar
1 pod garlic-peeled and chopped
1 tsp grated fresh ginger root
1 1/2 T red chilli powder
1/2 T crushed coriander seeds
1 T demerara sugar / jaggery
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup water

Method:

Put the raw mango pieces, vinegar and water in a saucepan. Cook on low heat for 5-7 minutes until mangoes are softened. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Simmer for 10-15 minutes with constant stirring until the mixture is syrupy. Let it cool and ladle into a glass jar.

This is tangy and spicy and the cardamom pods lend to this chutney a wonderful aroma that we don't generally associate with spicy pickles.

This chutney is a good surprise for the tastebuds.

Mango cardamom chutney served on chilled curd rice

Note:

Serve as an accompaniment with parathas / curd rice / plain chapathis. This is an oil-free pickle with healthful ingredients.

The original recipe from 'best ever curry cookbook' by Mridula Baljekar is a sweet chutney that uses 2/3rd cup of muscavado sugar. In case you like a sweet and sour chutney, by all means add the sugar!

My best loved used for cardamom pods is to make an aromatic cup of masala chai.

In case you do try out this chutney, do let me know how you liked the flavours.

This is my entry for The Spice is Right II–”Sweet or Savory?” @ Tigers and strawberries

Source:
Recipe adapted from Mridula Baljekar's best ever curry cookbook
*www.culinarycafe.com
#-Mccormicks.com

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Save the coconut!

It probably is very easy to guess- but the way this one looks, I thought it would lead to some interesting guesses.

This post is going to be on Save the _______ ! Coming up soon...

LG and Lakshmi have guessed it right so far!

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Being the health conscious one, I don't use much of coconut in my daily cooking. Whether coconut is good or bad for health, that's one controversy I'm not getting into, at this point of time. However, when I want to make that coconut chutney, or 'arachu vitta sambhar' (Sambhar with freshly ground masala) or use it for a garnish, I like to have fresh grated coconut on hand.

Since I use the coconut on the odd occasion, breaking open a whole coconut and using a few slivers leads to the rest of it getting spoilt (even when refrigerated). The other option is grating the whole thing and freezing in a box. This gets problematic when i need a bit of the stuff and I have to struggle with the whole big lot- break off a little and thaw.

I find that the following solution serves me best and may be it will suit you too!

1. Break off the shell by hitting it hard around the central circumference on a big stone or a stony edge.

2. Usually, it will break off into two halves. You can keep a bowl beneath, while breaking to collect the sweet coconut water. In some occasions, the shell may break off leaving the whole coconut inside intact (the way it is in the picture). In the latter, you will have to cut open the whole nut into two halves-collecting the coconut water in a bowl.

3. Grate the flesh, or cut it into big pieces and mill in a food processor.

4.Stuff the grated coconut into an ice tray as in the picture above. Leave overnight in the freezer.

5.Extract the coconut cubes and save them in a Ziploc bag in the deep freezer. Now you can have exactly as much fresh coconut as you want and yet save the rest.

6.Whenever you need some of this for a recipe, just remove the required number of cubes into a bowl and nuke them for 1 min in the defrost mode.

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Some coconut delights~

Coconut chutney

Choco-coconut scones (Adapted from Meeta's Chunky chocolate scones )

Coffee coconut rum cake- Adapted from Susan's Spicy coconut chai cake

I've got two questions for you. Would you call this a fruit, a vegetable or a nut? What's your favourite coconut recipe? Would love to hear from you !

This is my entry for Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging

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Orange Rum Cake for the Monthly Mingle

Coming up next- is something I made for Meeta's Monthly Mingle . Well, there's nothing much happening in India on the football front with the exception of Kolkata -where the 3 chief interests are Phood, Phish and Phootball (meaning food, fish and football) Kindly note that Phood and Phish are listed separately.

I haven't decided which team to cheer. So, it's easier to just take sides with the team that wins in the end and I shall be celebrating, with the Orange Rum Cake.

This is Tarla Dalal's recipe and i have tinkered with it a little!

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter (recipe says low fat butter- but I haven't come across low fat butter in our grocery stores)
1/2 cup sugar or splenda (recipe uses 8 sacets of sugar substitute)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup buttermilk (made from 2 1/2 tsp low fat curd )
1 tsp orange rind
3 tbsp rum

Method:

Pre heat the oven at 400 F/ 200C. Grease a 5" baking tin and keep aside.
Sieve the wheat flour and baking powder together and keep aside
Cream the butter and sugar / sugar substitute together in a bowl (mix them together until soft)
Add the orange juice, buttermik, rind, rum and what flour mixture. Mix well.
Pour batter into greased tin.
Bake for 20-25 min at 400 F / 250 C until a tester comes out clean.
Cut into 6 wedges.

Serve as a dessert with a shot of rum.


Note: You can skip the rum if you wish and add 3 tbsp of milk instead.

Also, check out the SHF#18- Candy is Dandy but Liquor is quicker

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Restaurant watch- Brio, the cafe Bistro

I've given you a brief introduction to the cafe that's started near my house, in my last post. Here are some of the pics taken by good friend, Manoj !

Taking a good look at the goodies...

We started with hummus and pita bread. The warm bread quickly mopped up the delicious hummus. There we were, asking for some more moppers.




That was my lunch- Oven roasted veggies with Focassia bread. Delicious!

We had to order something from that endless array of goodies...don't remember the name of this one, but it was bitterly chocolatey to the last bite, soft and gooey and absolutely sinful !

And this was what they gave us complimentary, the Blueberry Cheesecake. It tasted like a bite of heaven. And even heaven becomes difficult to digest, after that sinfully rich chocolate pastry. So, we just had a taste of this one and parcelled it for some lucky friends !

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Weekend breakfast blogging #3 - Green omlette

Eggs, olive oil, herbs, onions, spinach, pepper, wonderful focassia bread, and not to forget, a ripe juicy papaya...Well, I'm not penning the lyrics of 'These are a few of my favourite things'-Part deux !

These were the ingredients of our Sunday morning breakfast today. I love fritattas- the way they look like a pizza when they come out of the oven- all topped with cheesy goodness. Also because one can eat them either hot or cold, and at any time of the day.

Since I have a small sized oven into which my regular saucepans can't fit, I can only make a stuffed omlette-kinda, non-baked version of the fritatta.

Update: We do get a super range of breads in Bombay nowadays-whole wheat, multigrain, focassia, ciabatta, stuffed with sun dried tomatoes and olives- you name it we get it.

There is this cafe that's opened in the new Juhu Shopper's Stop. Yes, Shoppers' is coming up with an attached cafe at many of its branches. These cafes serve a wide range of Indian and world coffees, a variety of sumptous sandwiches, thin crust pizzas, pastas,crepes, tiramisus, biscottis, must mention their blueberry cheesecake. Ooooh ! I can already feel the calorie count zooming!!

Talking about the bread, they sell freshly baked bread in all the varieties that i mentioned earlier. I do have some beautiful pictures of Cafe Brio (courtesy my friend Manoj) which I shall upload in my next post.

Getting back to my Weekend Breakfast Blogging # 3, it's Breakfast for 2- Green Omlette with Focassia bread and sliced papaya.

Ingredients for the Green Omlette:

3 eggs
1/3 cup-chopped spinach
1 medium sized onion-sliced
5-6 green pitted olives

1 jalapeno / green chilli - sliced(if you like the spicy kick)
1 tsp mixed dried herbs ( I used oregano and basil )
3-4 Fresh basil leaves-torn
3 cloves garlic-finely chopped (you can use fresh green garlic leaves instead)
freshly ground black pepper
2 T milk
salt to taste
1 T Olive oil

Method:

Heat the oil on a non-stick pan. Add the garlic, onions, spinach with a pinch of salt. Saute for 2 min, until spinach wilts and onions soften. Remove onto a plate and cool.

In a bowl, break 3 eggs. Add milk, salt, herbs, freshly ground black pepper, jalapeno, olives. Beat well. To this, add the sauted spinach-onions. Beat some more.

Keep a 9" non-stick pan on medium flame. Coat the pan with some olive oil. Pour the beaten egg mixture to the pan. Slightly move around the mixture, so that the liquidy part fills the gaps. Keep doing this until the omlette starts solidifying. Reduce the flame, and cover with a lid for 30 seconds. The omlette will fluff up considerably and the lower side would have turned golden.

Flip it over carefully and cook the other side until golden brown too. Once done, remove onto a plate immediately. Serve warm with toasted bread and fruit.

Note:

You can use any of the bell peppers, sun dried tomatoes, roasted pepper in this recipe. I would generally use only the whites but being a Sunday, i decided to give the health-freak in me, a holiday too!

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Minty cucumber raita

I love the fragrance of mint, especially fresh mint leaves. And there's nothing like having a small potted plant of mint in your kitchen garden. The evening breeze brings a lovely waft of that wonderfully fresh fragrance. The Jasmine does put up some fierce competition to that though!

I keep looking for opportunities to use mint in my daily cooking, despite the rumours of 'you know what' that surround it! On the other hand, mint has been a part of age old remedies for relieving bad breath, stomach cramps, flatulence, nausea and many more.

Mint tea, mint rice, mint parathas, mint on salads, mint in gravies- I just love it in everything.

Here's a quickie cuke raita flavoured with fresh mint leaves.

Raita is a yogurt accompaniment to rice or is eaten as a salad. This one has cucumbers, fresh mint leaves and the garnish is a delicate sprinkling of fresh grated coconut.


What you will need:

1 1/2 cups fresh yogurt ( should be fairly thick-use homemade or Greek yogurt for more flavour)

2 medium sized cucumbers- peeled and grated
1 T chiffonade mint leaves ( proud to say that these were from my little balcony garden )
Some freshly ground black pepper
Rock salt (regular salt if you don't have rock salt)
1 big green chilli-finely chopped
Whole mint leaves-for garnish
1 T fresh grated coconut-for garnish


Method:

Beat the yogurt with the salt into a smooth consistency. Add the grated cucumbers.
Mix in the 1 T mint leaves, green chillies, salt and ground pepper.
Garnish with the whole mint leaves and coconut.
That is all there is to it.

Serve chilled.


Note:

This recipe will serve 2-3 people.

If you use hung curd for this recipe, you can very well use this, as a dip for crudites or a spread for sandwiches.

Serve it as a side with biryani / pulao

This is my entry for Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging.

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Ginger Sesame Hakka Noodles and the love for Indian-Chinese

We all love Chinese food don't we? Especially when it is Indo-chinese, which means spicier than authentic chinese, and nothing like authentic chinese.

This is was one of the flavours I missed the most when I was in the US. The problem could be easily solved by making the trip to the local Indian store and buying bottles of Ching's Secret Dark Soy Sauce and Green Chilli Sauce. Some green chillies, red chillies, fresh ginger, fat garlic cloves and an Indo-Chinese meal was just an arm's length away!

However in Bombay, one doesn't even need to take that much effort. Every Udipi, every college canteen and every road side food vendor is familiar with "Chinese" and will dish out "Chinese" at some speed !

For those of you who aren't in India- I must update you on the Indo-Chinese fusion foods availables at our friendly-neighbourhood Udipi:

Idli Chilly Fry: Stale Idlis cut into wedges, deep fried till crunchy and rolled in Chinese soysauce gravy

Gobi Manchurian ( You must pronounce this as GoPi Manchurian- this almost seems like the name of a propah South Indian boy with a surname that rhymes with Subramanian )

Chinese Bhel- Substitute the puffed rice with fried noodles, the green and sweet chutney with soy and chilli sauce, the potatoes-onions-tomatoes by shredded carrots-cabbage-spring onions and voila you have Chinese Bhel

Spring Dosa- Our very own Sada dosa smothered with Chinese sauces- filled with cabbage, carrots, onions, coriander, coconut (yes, you heard me right), rolled up, and cut into bite sized pieces. This can fit into a bite only if you open your jaws as wide as you've opened for the root canal of your farthest molar tooth ! This Spring dosa is served with sambhar and coconut chutney alright!

Want to know more about the Indianization of a Chinese Meal? Look at the menu card below esp. the spellings- after all laughter is the best medicine !

Though all the above tastes good and all of that, I'm never too sure of the quality of ingredients, esp. the oils and vegetables used. I love to prepare Chinese food on a weeknight, as its fast to cook and good to eat ( Sorry 'bout the borrowed line ! ). Besides I love the robust flavours of ginger-garlic and sesame seeds. This when mixed with loads of vegetables and delicate noodles, is sure a meal that will make each one, a member of the Clean Plate Club !

Ginger-sesame Hakka Noodles

Ingredients:

1 Packet Hakka noodles-cooked to instructions- and removed onto a plate ( I used Ching's Secret brand)
2 cups of mixed vegetables cut into thin strips (Carrots, Cabbage, Babycorn, Onions)
1 T Fresh ginger root cut into thin sticks
1 T sesame seeds
½ T sliced garlic
2 green chillies-julienned
2 red chillies-crushed
1 ½ T dark soy sauce ( I used Ching’s secret)
1 T vinegar
Salt to taste (adjust according to saltiness of soysauce )
1 T sesame oil / vegetable oil
1 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder (Optional )
1 T finely chopped fresh coriander

Method:

Put a clean, big wok on high flame. Heat the oil in the wok. Once heated, add the sesame seeds, ginger, garlic and chillies. Saute for 30 seconds.

Add the vegetables and salt- stir around on high flame for 3-4 minutes.

Add the soy sauce, vinegar, 5-spice powder, cooked noodles, toss with a light hand.

Once thoroughly mixed, remove into a big bowl and garnish with chopped coriander.

Make a pot of jasmine tea and you are all set to enjoy an aromatic experience !

Note:

You may choose peppers, mushrooms, sweet peas for this recipe. This recipe will serve 2 people with BIG appetites or 3 with medium ones. We were in the former category !

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