Its the season for tomatoes and they are reasonably priced too. I had earlier blogged peanut tomato pachadi recipe. Today’s recipe is a variation which is a garlic-y amalgam of sorts with tart, nutty, spicy flavors making it a perfect start for the day’s first meal. One that is hard to resist with dosas and idlis.

Verusenaga Tomato Pachadi Recipe

Prep & Cooking: 20 mts

Serves 4-5 persons

Cuisine: Andhra

Ingredients:

• 3 tomatoes, sliced
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander leaves
• 1 tbsp tamarind paste (use if tomatoes are not tart)
• 1/2 cup roasted peanuts
• 1 green chilli
• 1-2 dry red chillis
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 5-6 garlic flakes
• 1/4 tsp jaggery or sugar
• salt to taste
• 1 tbsp oil

1. Heat oil in a cooking vessel, add the cumin seeds and let them brown, add the garlic, red chilli and green chilli and fry for a mt. Remove from fire and cool.
2. In the same pan, add the sliced tomatoes and saute till the moisture evaporates. Add the tamarind and turn off heat. Cool.
3. Grind the roasted peanuts and the cumin mixture. Next add the cooled tomato mixture, coriander leaves, salt and sugar and make a paste. Add few tbsps of water, if required.
4. Serve with tiffins like dosa or idli.

Mostly, the general rule of thumb in any Indian kitchen, is to respect food and use the resources without leaving too many carbon footprints. When the veggies are used, the new recipes are created to use the stems, peels & seeds. One such recipe, that my grandmother used to make is "ALuchi Dethi". Stems are called "deTH" in Marathi (to be pronounced as "they - TH"). If paatalbhaji is to be made, then those stems are chopped and used in the curry along with the leaves. But when you make pathrode or AluVadi then what will you do with the stems? Well, you chop them and make a salad just like this -

ALuchi Dethi

Colcoasia Stems Salad

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup colocasia/taro stems, chopped
• 1 cup plain yogurt
  

Grind to a coarse paste

• 1 - 2 green chilies
• 1/4 tsp roasted cumin seeds

Tempering

• 1 tsp oil or ghee
• 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
  
• 1/4 tsp asafoetida
  

Method

1. Pressure cook stems or cook till they are soft. Let them cool down.

2. Add yogurt, salt, green chili paste. Stir and set aside.

3. Add oil/ghee in a small saucepan. Add cumin seeds and asafoetida. As they start splutter, drizzle over the salad.

4. Mix well before serving.

Note
1. I used fat-free, organic yogurt

I’m a complete foodie and I usually cook food that can be prepared in a jiffy. I make sandwiches and experiment with omelettes. They are effortless, can be whipped up in no time and are healthy and tasty as well.

Whenever I have a party or have friends over, I make club sandwiches that my pals just love to dig in to.

Club Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 100 gms chicken, minced
• 4 bacon slices
• 6 Swiss cheese slices
• 50 gms butter
• 50 gms mayonnaise dressing
• 2 tomatoes
• 3 lettuce leaves
• 50 gms pickles, sliced
• 50 gms olives, sliced
• 20 gms onions
• 4 eggs
• Tabasco, to taste
• Olive oil, to taste
• Salt and pepper, to taste
  

Method:

Boil the eggs. After peeling off the shell, slice the boiled eggs. Take bread slices and apply butter on it. Toast the buttered slices and place a slice of cheese and bacon on a slice. Add slices of boiled egg to this. Season the same with salt and pepper, and put a slice of toasted bread on it. On this slice, put sliced tomatoes and lettuce. Place the third toast on it and add the minced chicken. Add a drop or two of tabasco sauce and olive oil depending on your preference. Cover the chicken with another toast followed up with a layer of bacon and cheese, to which you can add tabasco or olive oil. Seal with another toast and serve with a cherry pierced through a toothpick.

The writer is a designer

You may be a novice, but cooking is no rocket science if you put your whole heart into it. Remembering a few key points will go a long way — start with simple dishes and opt for recipes that involve few steps and ingredients. Recipes for one are great maps and should be followed precisely. Altering proportions could lead to disastrous results.

But when it comes to cooking techniques, no book can teach you that. Only practise will make you perfect. Most recipes usually have a common base and if you learn basic curry bases, you will be able to handle most recipes effortlessly.

A good example of a base is garlic (lassun) chutney that I love. It can be stored for as long as a month and can be used in various ways. As a sandwich spread, a starter, with stuffed paratas or for curries. Many vegetables can be cooked in this base, be it okra (bhendi) or potato curry. Here’s how to make it.

Garlic chutney

INGREDIENTS

• 5-6 green chilies
• 100 gms coriander leaves
• 10 gms garlic (6-8 fat flakes)
• 1 ½ tbsp dhania powder
• ½ tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
• 1 ½ tbsp mango powder
• Salt to taste

METHOD

Grind to a paste all the above ingredients without any water. This will require you to use a chutney grinder or use half the quantity and grind twice.

With this chutney as the base, you can make garlic potatoes. Take 3 large potatoes, boil and dice them. Heat oil in a pan and add the garlic masala and stir for a few minutes before adding the potatoes and water. This can be served hot with rice or chappatis.

You can also take 12-15 bhendis, with head and tail cut and slit on one side, lengthwise. Stuff the garlic masala inside it and cook. The same masala can be used to make a Sindhi specialty, sale maani, which is made with around 10 chappatis/bread slices, which are torn into pieces and added to the gravy and cooked till the liquid is absorbed. Likewise, if you learn how to make a tomato base, you can use it to cook all veggies.

With daals too, the same rule applies. Once you can cook one type of dal, the others come easy. I recommend moong daal as it cooks the fastest and is more nutritious than other daals.

Learn these few tricks and you will learn to experiment yourself.

Easy stir-fried chicken

INGREDIENTS

• 4 skinless chicken breast fillets, cut into strips
• 2 red (bell) peppers
• Thai basil
• 30 ml olive oil
• 5-6 cloves garlic
• Salt and ground black pepper

METHOD

Slice chicken breast portions into strips. Halve the peppers, remove the seeds, then cut each piece of pepper into strips. Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add chicken and red peppers and stir-fry over a high heat for about three minutes, until the chicken is golden and cooked. Season with salt and ground black pepper. Tear up the basil leaves, add to the chicken and peppers and toss briefly to combine. Serve immediately.

Makhani Daal (sindhi style)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup moong daal
• 2-3 green chillies
• Salt, to taste
• 3 tsp mango powder
• 1 tsp red chilly powder
• 2 tsp dhania (coriander) powder
• 2 tsp jeera (cumin) powder
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2-3 tbsp hot oil
• Coriander leaves, chopped

METHOD

Cook daal in a pressure cooker for 2 whistles. Open and mash the daal and pour into a shallow serving dish.

Sprinkle the garnishing masalas evenly over the top and pour the hot oil over it spreading so as to coat all over the garnish. Sprinkle coriander leaves. Serve hot with puris.

The writer is a culinary expert

Who said jowar can’t be a part of your diet unless you take a liking to the chewy jowar rotis? With dieticians, nutritionists and fitness enthusiasts vouching for the health benefits of the wonder grain, jowar is now available in many easy-to-use formulae, that can pack a punch into your meals in a jiffy.

The highly nutritious, non-glutinous jowar has high dietary fibre (that is missing in rice and maida) and it aids in digestion. That’s not all, it’s rich in vitamins and minerals — good news for your skin and hair! Apart from being an important source of nutrachemicals, including anti-oxidants such as cholesterol-lowering waxes, it is also a boon for diabetic patients as it digests slowly. To make the most of the nutrients available in jowar, pick up ready to use jowar products that can be added to your pasta, idlies and even cakes. Use jowar-based vermicelli for healthy breakfast treats or use jowar flakes to whip up poha and chudwa.

Another interesting pick would be the jowar-based multi-grain, where jowar is blended with wheat. So all you wheat lovers can enjoy the health benefits of jowar without cribbing about missing the taste of wheat! Ever wondered why the dosas dished out in restaurants turn so crisp, while the one you make at home looks limp? Well, their secret is jowar. Mix a little jowar to your dosa batter and watch how your dosas transform. Mixing jowar to the batter, one can whip up lip-smacking vadas, murukus, pakodas and other snacks.

Dosa

Ingredients

• 100 gms blackgram dal
• 300 gms fine rawa mixed with jowar
• 1 tsp oil
• a pinch of baking powder
• salt to taste
• water as required

Method

Soak blackgram dal overnight for eight hours, drain the water and grind into a fine batter. Add salt, baking powder and the jowar-rawa mix. Mix thoroughly. Allow it to ferment overnight. Add a teaspoon of oil on the pre-heated tawa and pour the batter on it. Spread the batter scoop into a fine round shape and fry till the dosa is crisp.

The writer is a nutritionist and scientist with National Research Centre for Sorghum

Try these royal recipes preserved and passed on by descendants of the last Mughal Emporer, Late Bahadur Shah Zafar.

Intrigued by the glorious past of India’s royalty? Well, you needn’t live in a palace to feast like a king. We bring you guarded secrets from the kitchens of the erstwhile Mughal Empire, and some exclusive recipes that were safely guarded and preserved over the years by the descendants of the last Mughal Emporer, Late Bahadur Shah Zafar. These recipes belong to the Late Y. Masihuddin Tucy, the great grandson of Emporer Bahadur Shah, who introduced the ‘Lal Qilla Cuisine’ in ITC.

Taimoori Shorba

INGREDIENTS

• 1 kg lamb jaws
• 500 gms lamb chops
• 500 gms lamb bones
• 10 gms cardamom
• 20 gms peppercorns
• 200 gms ghee
• 100 gms onions (chopped)
• 100 gms ginger garlic paste
• 1 gm saffron
• 1 bunch mint
• 1 bunch coriander
• Wate as a required
• Salt to taste

METHOD

In a handi, melt the ghee and saute the onions till transparent. Add ginger garlic paste, cardamom. Pepper corns, lamb jaws, chops and bones and saute well till it attains a brown colour. Add at least 5 liters of water and boil till the lamb chops are done. Now, remove the lamb chops and set aside. Add mint and coriander to the shorba. Also add the saffron to the same and switch to a slow flame. Now strain the shorba and season. Add chops to the strained shorba and serve hot.

Termezi Qurma

INGREDIENTS

• 1 kg lamb curry cut
• 100 gms ginger garlic paste
• 10 gms red chilli powder
• 200 gms ghee
• 10 gms garam masala powder
• 50 gms almonds
• 20 gms coconut
• 20 gms chironjee
• 20 gms khus khus
• 200 gms curd
• 100 gms sliced onions
• 5 gms shahi jeera
• 1 gm saffron
• 1 bunch chopped coriander
• 5 ml lime juice
• Water as required

METHOD

Roast almond, coconut, chironjee and khus khus, and grind the mixture into a smooth paste. Heat ghee, add sliced onions and saute till brown. Then add ginger garlic paste and saute till it is cooked. Then add powdered masalas and curd. Add lamb and cook well. Add water and let it simmer till lamb is cooked. Now add the grounded paste and cook properly till it leaves oil. Finish with saffron, chopped coriander and lemon juice.

How many times have you been disappointed when the cake you baked failed to rise and was hard as a rock? But baking a cake is not rocket science and making your cake fluffy needs just a little bit of patience. Says Mukti Bosco, director of a patisserie, “All you need to do is avoid the shortcuts and follow instructions to the T. You’ll have the perfect cake.” So here are a few tips to help your cake rise.

• Ensure that the baking powder you are using is fresh. In older stock the potency reduces, making the cake fall.
• Another reason is the uneven heating of the oven. This causes the cake to cook from the sides while it remains gooey on the inside.
• Avoid constantly opening the oven door to check the cake.
• Once the cake has been baked, switch off the power supply and let it stand in the oven for a few minutes.
• Remember not to demould the cake when it is hot.
• The thumb rule “poke a cake to check if it is done’ does not work for every cake. For cakes like vanilla sponge cake even shaking the mould will make it fall. But cakes like mud cake and banana-walnut cakes are more steardy.

Winter is already on its way out but strawberry is still the flavor of the season. They are the freshest and juiciest now and are available in plenty at all stores.

The best part about strawberries is that they can be added to any dessert, or shake without hassle, says Pastry Chef J.Amaresan, Novotel Hyderabad Convention Center. “You can puree them and add them to any dessert. You caom even make compote or jam out of it to spread it on cakes,” he elaborates adding. ”One of the simplest things you can do is mix balsamic vinegar and sugar and reduce it over a stove. Then add chopped strawberry pieces and use it to layer and garnish other desserts. And for those with a taste for the exotic, try the Strawberry Surprise, which is made of whipped cream, honey and diced strawberry. Simply add the honey to the cream and add the strawberries and chill and serve. It will taste delicious.”

So next time you head to the market on a look out for seasonal fruits, give those traditional oranges and apples a miss and try strawberries instead. Here is a sponge cake recipe for you to try.

Strawberry Sponge Cake

INGREDIENTS

• 7 eggs
• 200 gms sugar
• 200 gms flour
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 500 gms whipped cream
• 200 gms strawberries
• 150 gms sugar syrup
• 50 gms strawberry puree

METHOD

Whip eggs with sugar till fluffy. When the egg froths, add essence and fold in the sieved flour. Bake it in a 9-inch greased cake mould at 200^oC for 20 minutes. Once it is cool, slice it horizontally into 3 sections and set aside.

Mix sugar syrup and puree together and soak cake in it. Whip cream and layer 100 gms of it in each section. Put chopped strawberries on the cream and repeat the process for all the layers. On the top layer smear extra cream and garnish with fresh strawberries.

Method:
Tried every trick in the book to make soft rotis, only to fail again and again? The problem could lie in the dough you’ve kneaded. Here are a few tips by Amar Thapa, executive chef at Ohris to get rotis right.

When kneading dough for rotis ensures that you get the rotis ensure that you get the proportion right. For 2 cups of flour, use 2 tsp oil or dalda and 250-300ml water. Ensure that the water is hot so that your rotis turn out softer. Often, they turn out hard because cold or warm water is used for kneading the dough.

Remember, the more you knead the dough, the softer your rotis will turn out. Once you’ve kneaded it, cover with a muslin cloth and leave for 20 minutes. For flavoring you cloud add 1 tsp salt or chilli powder. Ajwain too can give it a great flavor.

When toasting the rotis ensure that the tawa is well heated. Turn it as soon as it forms tiny bubbles. Too much heat will make the rotis crisp.

While rolling out pooris and parathas, use a little oil. This gives it a softer texture.

I'm finding it hard to drag myself to the farmers market this Winter. It's cold, it's wet, it's sometimes muddy, and let's face it, it's not like I'm going to find luscious peaches, cherries or tomatoes. My haul last weekend consisted of baby cauliflower, Tuscan kale, French radishes, baby carrots, broccolini and sauerkraut. Healthy and delicious, but hardly anything to get excited over. Of course everything I bought was fresher and possibly a bit tastier than what I could have found in the supermarket. The baby carrots I bought were real baby carrots, and not those fake machine rounded carrot nubs you find in little bags. Not quite as sweet as strawberries, but pretty darn tasty when roasted.

When I was shopping a dish started to come together in my mind, and the centerpiece was farro. Farro is often mistaken for spelt, it's actually "emmer wheat" and is rich in fiber, protein, and magnesium. Farro is just the Italian name for emmer wheat. The only time I ate farro in Italy was in Cetara along the Amalfi coast. It was served in a soup. Online I see lots of recipes for farro salad served cold, but I prefer it hot. It has a nice chewy texture that's very satisfying, but it's a little bland. The way to overcome that is to add lots of great flavors, colors and other textures to make a hearty and exciting main dish. I layer the flavors, adding a base of greens to the farro and then I top it with roasted vegetables. Farro is very easy to cook and very forgiving, just don't overcook it.

The first time I made this dish I used loads of mushrooms. It was good, but somehow using mushrooms feels a bit like cheating when you're making a vegan meal. This version uses a mixture of "melted" kale cooked with onions, garlic and wine to add flavor to the farro. The toasted walnuts are really important, they add a crisp crunch and some great nutritional benefits as well. This dish is vegan and yet I promise you won't miss the meat one bit. Or the cheese. Or even the mushrooms!

This recipe is as flexible as can be. Change things up to suit your taste and the ingredients you have on hand. When it comes to the roasted vegetables you could swap out the broccolini and carrots for roasted baby turnips, brussels sprouts, parsnips or even baby leeks. Using two different vegetables adds nice variety and contrast, but you could use 3 or 4 vegetables too if you prefer. In place of the kale you could use any green you like such as spinach, savoy cabbage or chard. If you don't want to use wine, I think you could use a lesser amount of red wine or balsamic vinegar instead, or even lemon juice. Since vegetables are the main event, just be sure to use the tastiest, freshest ones you can find.

Note: if you can't find baby carrots just cut regular carrots into thin strips no more than 1/3 inch thick.

Farro & Winter Vegetables
serves 4
Ingredients
1 cup semi-pearled farro
1 bunch Tuscan kale chopped (stems trimmed off)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup red wine
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
16 broccolini stems
12 baby carrots (real baby carrots not bags of rounded nubs)

Method
Olive oil for drizzling

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Simmer farro in 2 cups water in an partially covered medium saucepan over medium heat until cooked through but still al dente, about 20 minutes. Don't worry if there is a little water left in the pan when it's cooked.

Slice the carrots in half lengthwise. Place carrots and broccolini evenly on a baking sheet (I line mine with parchment). Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt and roast until beginning to brown, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile heat a large skillet over medium heat, add oil then the onions and garlic, sprinkle with kosher salt and cook until beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the chopped kale and 1/2 cup water, cover and cook for 5 minutes or until wilted. Remove lid and add the red wine and cook without the cover until almost, but not quite dry. Combine kale with farro and stir in the walnuts, season to taste with salt and pepper, and top with roasted vegetables.

Enjoy!

My grandmother used to make this delicious curry from ALu/Taro leaves/Colocasia leaves. Every spring, I throw some taro roots in a pot of soil and in no time, beautiful taro leaves come out ready for ALu vadi, paatra, pathrode, paataL bhaaji/phatphatay, ghasshi and aLwati.

This curry has a beautifully refreshing flavor due to the addition of ginger.

ALwati
Taro leaves-Ginger curry

Ingredients
20-25 taro leaves, shredded along with stems, approx = 3 cups
1 tbsp peeled & minced fresh ginger
1-2 green chilies, slit

Grind to a smooth paste
1/3 cup fresh coconut
4-5 byadgi chilies, roasted in few drops of coconut oil
1 tsp tamarind pulp

Tempering
1 tsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp asafoetida
1 sprig curry leaves

Method
1. Pressure cook leaves and stems adding ginger, chilies and 3/4 cup water. Set aside.
2. Grind masala to a fine paste.
3. Mix ground masala and cooked leaves. Adding water to get curry like consistency, bring to boil
4. Add salt to taste. Switch the gas to low. Let it simmer.
5. Meanwhile, heat oil in a small saucepan. Add mustard seeds, asafoetida and curry leaves.
6. Pour sizzling oil over the simmering curry. Cover immediately with a lid. Switch off the gas.


Note -
1. I have substantially reduced the amount of coconut and coconut oil.
2. These were the homegrown leaves. I needed 20-25 leaves to get 3 cups of shredded leaves.
3. There are two types of taro leaves available in market. The ones with light green color with smaller size are used for curries. The bigger darker green with dark stems are used to make paatra and ALuwadi.
4. You need to add some sour agent in any dish made with taro leaves. Sometimes , after consuming, they give an itchy feeling to the throat. Souring agent like tamarind, kokum, yogurt etc. removes that itchy characteristic of the taro leaves.

My sister, Lorna experimented a lot of bibingka recipes so I will present a few of these recipes that she experimented. One of these was Mimi Alvarez bibingkas. Lorna says ” I had never attended any of Tita Mimi’s cooking classes but before she immigrated to the United States.

During one of my trips to National Book Store in the Philippines, I saw Tita Mimi’s cookbook for sale. I just had to grab it! Here’s her version of the Bibingka recipes. It’s a good idea to check the proportions of the ingredients that are used in the several versions that I’m presenting here so we can come up with our own unique signature Bibingka recipe.”

Ingredients

4 eggs, well-beaten

1 cup sugar

2 cups rice flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups coconut milk (2nd or more presses; see separate recipe)

1/4 cup melted margarine

2 tbsps. baking powder

1/4 cup coco cream (first press)

1/4 cup sugar for topping

Preparation

1. Add sugar to beaten eggs.

2. Combine salt and rice flour; add to egg mixture.

3. Add melted margarine and baking powder.

4. Pour into banana-leaf lined mold.

My sister’s note: Tita Mimi assumes we know that the banana leaves have to be wilted, that is, passed over an open flame on the stove top.

5. Bake in 375 degree Fahrenheit oven.

6. Brush top with coco cream and sugar; bake until golden crust is formed.

Note: Tita Mimi doesn’t say when to take out the bibingka to brush the top with the coco cream and sugar. I would assume that this is done when the bibingka is 3/4’s done (so the batter doesn’t flop). We would have to experiment on time frames.

7. Makes 3 large bibingkas.