Foodie Workz

Oflate, I seem to have been hooked by this wonderful spice blend called the Panch Phoran. As you can see this has been used in my Bhindi Subzi recipe as well. I had this for the first time recently at my friends place and immediately took a liking to this since then. Panch Phoran also known as panch phoron, panch puran, panchpuran, punch puram, punchpuram is a classic Bengali spice blend typically consisting of five spices in equal measure. It is more Bengali and maybe also Oriya than any other region of India. The five spices that make up this wonderful blend are Fenugreek seeds(methi) Nigella seeds(kalonji or onion seeds) Cumin Seeds(jeera) Fennel Seeds(saunf) Mustard Seeds(rai) After some googling, I learnt that this is never ground or used as a powder or paste. Dry roasted panch phoran is however ground to make a powder to be sprinkled on chutneys. In this process, I also came across this lovely appetizing image of Panch Phoran Aloo that I was tempted to try it out in my ki...

Bottle gourd is one of the earliest vegetables cultivated by man, believed to be originated in Africa. Not very familiar to the western world, it is one of the favorite vegetables in Indian Cuisine. Bottle gourd or Lauki has many beneficial properties that are valued in traditional healing. It is low in fat and cholesterol but high in fiber. It is excellent for light low calorie diets, as well as for small children, people with digestive problems and diabetics. The juice of a bottle gourd is an excellent remedy for acidity, indigestion and ulcers. I started including this in my diet only when I settled in Delhi for a while after my marriage. All I would do was make a rasdar with some onions and tomatoes. But after coming to the US, I learned that lot more was possible with this vegetable like the kheer, raita and teplas. Nowadays, I make all kinds of dishes with lauki(however yet to try the kheer). Around the time I started this food blog which is now 2 months old, I got the u...

3/4 cup boiled kidney beans 3/4 cup boiled black eyed beans 2 medium potatoes 1/2 cup chopped onions 1/2 of yellow capsicum/peppers 3-4 green chillies 3 tsp grated ginger 3 big garlic cloves 3 tsp lemon juice salt to taste chopped coriander Take oil and saute the onions lightly. Add green chilli, garlic and ginger, stir for half a minute and add the the finely chopped capsicum. Add a pinch of salt for it to cook faster. Turn off once it is done and leave it to cool. Take the beans in a food processor and run it to get a coarse mixture. Add the cooled vegetables and pulse for it to process lightly and get mixed. Transfer these to a bowl of coarsely mashed potatoes. Add the necessary salt, the lemon juice and the coriander leaves to combine well into a dough. You can always check if the salt and spices are well blended by tasting a small piece. Make big lemon sized balls and shape them into round patties. I baked half of them and cooked the rest half on the stove top with a teasp...

Young and old there is nobody who does not like  Aloo Parathas.  However, I rarely make them for me and my husband(just for health reasons) while I make it quite often for my girls when they get back after school.  They prefer to have them fresh and warm from the pan.  Today, I just wanted to try a variation by adding some zucchini, carrots and a few spring onions desperately waiting to be consumed.  The white flesh of the zucchini  allows it to blend well with the potatoes and the kids do not even realize they are eating them.   1 medium size potato boiled, peeled and mashed 1/2 of a medium zucchini grated 1small carrot grated 1 green chili grated 1big clove of garlic grated 1/2 tsp of MDH brand stuffed paratha masala or garam masala 2 tbsp of chopped spring onions few sprigs of coriander leaves chopped pinch of turmeric salt to taste Take a spoon of oil and saute the chili and the garlic.  Add the carrots and let it cook with li...

I decided to make some pooris after a very long time and wanted to try out something different.  Hence, decided to use some oats and bajra flour.  In the past, I have made some masala green pooris by adding some spinach and spice to the dough while kneading.  For the first time, I added some mint leaves(the credit for the idea would however go to my cousin) just so I could use up some of the leaves from my garden. 1 cup wheat flour 1/4 cup bajra flour 1/4 cup quick oats flour salt to taste 2 handfuls of mint leaves 1/2 tsp ajwain seeds water little more than 1/2 cup Thoroughly rinse the mint leaves.  Take all the flour, ajwain and salt in a food processor and start running it.  Add the mint leaves and the water little at a time.  Run the machine till it comes together like a ball.  The consistency of the dough should be stiff so that you are able to roll it out without any flour for dredging. I was able to get 13 pooris from the above q...

300 gms zucchini 350 gms potato 2 tomatoes 1 green chili grated 1 tsp each of ginger and garlic grated 1/8 tsp of chili powder 1/2 tsp pav bhaji powder 1 tsp of salt Cut the zucchini into big cubes.  Peel and chop the potatoes slightly smaller than the zucchinis.  Grind the tomatoes with some coriander leaves and keep it aside.  Take oil in a pan, splutter the cumin seeds, followed by ginger, green chili and garlic.  Add the zucchini, potatoes, chili powder and turmeric powder.  Stir for a minute or two and add the tomato paste and about 2 cups of water.  Add the pav bhaji powder and salt and let it almost come to a boil.  Transfer this to a vessel and pressure cook this for 2 whistles or on low for 10 minutes or until you get the cooked smell of the vegetables.  After the cooking is over, remove it from the cooker and let it come to a boil again on the stove top.  Garnish with coriander leaves.  You can increase the spice acc...

Here in the US you get something like the kuzhi paniyaram pan called the filled pancake pan....these are used to make paniyaram like pancakes with fresh fruit fillings of your choice. I came across this in a cookware catalog and fancied it so much that my friend gifted it to me for my housewarming party. Since the time I got this pan, I have not only made the stuffed pancakes but made all kinds of quick paniyarams using pancake mix, paniyarams with idli, dosa and adai batters.....and low calorie bondas and koftas. Anyway, I had to get rid of this lovely pan once it started to wear out. I now have the non stick kuzhi paniyaram pan from India. The holes in this are very much smaller than the pancake pan. Nevertheless, they still give the delicious treats that we are looking for. The quick banana paniyaram is much liked by my kids that I never hesitate to make when I have ripened bananas and some store bought multigrain pancake mix. I very much like this multigrain mix from the l...

On one hand, I never imagined that I would be cooking so many things with Barley and on the other hand never thought that I would enjoy eating them as well.  So, here I am trying these adais with barley but however added some rice to lend some crispness to the end product.  Since I had some cooked black eyed peas, I wanted to use up these as well to get some more protien in the food.  Rest of the family could not find any difference from the usual adais.  They enjoyed it as much as I did!! Here it goes.... 1.5 cups of barley 1/2 cup raw rice 1/2 cup of toor dal 1/2 cup chana dal 1 cup of cooked black eyed peas 2 long red chillies salt to taste Begin by soaking the barley first.  The barley needs to soak longer than the rice and the other dals.  Soak the barley for 6 hours and the rice and the dals combined for 3 hours.  Drain rinse and add everything along with the red chillies until you get a coarse paste.  In the meanwhile, process ...

This is a traditional dish in Tamilian households usually prepared on festive occasions. 1 measure of rice 1 measure of grated coconut 2 measures of jaggery crushed into little pieces water milk some cashew nuts roasted in ghee pinch of cardamom powder Soak the rice in water for half hour.  Drain the water and rinse it.  Take some fresh water(about 3 to 4 times the measure of rice) and begin by grinding the coconut for half a minute.  Add the washed rice and grind it so that the rice is of a very coarse texture.  Make sure not to over grind.  Take this mixture to a pan and begin cooking on the stove top, stirring the mixture constantly.  Once the rice is thoroughly cooked, add the jaggery.  As soon as the jaggery dissolves, add the milk(about 4 measures), saffron and the roasted cashew nuts....the payasam is ready to be served. You can increase or decrease the quantity of jaggery and milk according to your taste. You can also use suga...

1 Onion 1 big Tomato 1.5 lbs of okra 1 tsp Coriander powder 1/4 tsp chilli powder pinch of turmeric 1/2 tsp cumin seeds 1/4 tsp panch phoran(Bengali 5 spice blend) 2-3 tbsp oil Take half of the oil and splutter the cumin and panch phoran ingredients when oil is hot.  Add the onions and saute till they become nice brown in color.  Add little salt while the onion is cooking.  Follow it with the tomatoes and add more salt just needed for the tomatoes and also some chili powder and turmeric.  In the meanwhile, in a separate pan start cooking the bhindi and fry them until they become soft and done.  Now mix the fried onions and tomatoes to the Okra and stir further on high for a minute and turn it off. Serve this with rice or chappatis.

Whenever I come across any cooking events in the food blog sites, I begin to think as to how I can come up with recipes or variations of recipes that will be apt for the event. So when I heard about the Herbs and Flowers in my platter event, I was very excited and without any hesitation immediately sent in my Coriander Pulao and Coriander Mint Paste entries. However, I wanted to cook up something different and decided to try out the very famous Dhokla with lot of coriander leaves. To add more interest, I also decided to use some capsicum/bell peppers - the green variety. In the past, I have substituted these peppers for the regular green chilies to get the similar flavors without the heat with the intention to avoid spicy foods. However, today I was using them partially for the above reason and also to get the benefits of this vegetable....each 100 gm of these peppers contain 80 mg of Vitamin C which is 134 % of the daily value......compared to green peppers, red peppers have mor...

Yesterday being Rama Navami, I decided to make some Medhu Vadas....however they ended up being Bondas as I got little extra water in the batter.. along with Neer Mor and Paanagam... the traditional offering to Lord Rama.  I was not too keen on making any sweets as I am the only one gulping it down. Anyway, having decided that, I wanted to get in some veggies into the bondas and decided to use the zucchinis for a change and lot of chopped coriander.  Eventhough the traditional bondas have only urad dal(black gram lentil), I decided to add some toor dal for color and rice for crispness.  They were indeed nice and crispy!! 3/4 cup urad dal (split or whole) 3 tbsp toor dal 1 tbsp rice 2 green chillies(increase it for more spice) 1 inch ginger piece handful of coriander leaves chopped 1 medium zucchini grated with skin salt to taste oil for frying Soak the first three ingredients for 3-4 hours.  Drain and rinse and grind this into a smooth fluffy paste....

To me muffins are a versatile food in that it can be had for breakfast, as a snack or as a dessert.  I enjoy making them as much as my kids enjoy eating them.  I got hooked to this muffin recipe on  Zesty South Indian Kitchen as it has very less oil and used a combination of wheat flour and oats. Having tried this, I decided to send this to Priya's Bookmarked Recipes - Every Tuesday .  But I made a few changes like replacing the egg with milk and oil and some pecans instead of walnuts. Here is what I did: 1/2 cup wheat flour 1/4 cup all purpose flour 1/2 cup quick oats(powder it coarse) 2 ripe bananas 1/3 cup packed brown sugar 1/8 cup oil 1/4 cup milk(can use fat free) 1 tbsp milk plus 3 tbsp oil(instead of 1 egg) 1/4 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp cinnamon powder 1/8 tsp ginger powder 1/8 tsp clove powder 1/4 cup chopped pecans 1/4 tsp salt Pre heat the oven to 375 degrees.  Combine all the dry ingredients well...

 Who does not love the yummy aloo bondas from the south or the very popular batata vada....I decided to recreate this fried treat with as little oil as possible and came up this version.   It is no wonder that I am tempted to send this entry to Fast Food NOT Fat Food 2011 (March 1 - April 15) run by Priya of Now Serving 1 big potato 1" piece ginger grated 2 green chillies(increase it if you want it more spicy) 2-3 garlic cloves(for batata vada) lemon juice to taste salt to taste pinch of hing and turmeric powder 1/2 tsp garam masala powder(for batata vada)(optional)  2 tbsp chopped coriander 4 bread slices 2 tbsp corn flour salt to taste 1/2 tsp paprika powder little water Boil the potato, peel and mash it coarsely.  Season some mustard seeds, the green chillies and ginger and cook the mashed potatoes on the stove top for a while with some salt, hing and turmeric and add the lemon juice in the end.  I was in a hurry to get this thing done f...

This is a recipe which is always prepared by my aunt and I have always loved it. When mixed with rice this is so delicious with some Mor Kuzhambu or Mor Kadi or with just some plain curd. My kids love them too!! I usually make a plentiful whenever the coriander comes cheap and use them as and when needed. 3 medium size bunches of coriander 1 cup of trimmed mint leaves tightly packed(optional - I harvested this from my garden) 3 green chillies salt to taste 2-3 teaspoon tamarind paste two pinches of hing small piece of jaggery Trim the coriander and mint leaves and wash them thoroughly. Let all the water drain completely. Transfer the leaves with the rest of the ingredients to the mixer and grind it into a coarse paste without adding water. You can check if salt, spice and tamarind is all well blended. Heat up generous amount of oil in a pan (about 5 table spoons) and season a tsp of mustard and 2 teaspoons of urad dal. Add the paste and cook until you get a nice ar...

 Yet another attempt by me to use the quinoa....this time in a very refreshing and nutrititive all time favorite in our household -Salads...Many of us must be knowing about the Mediterranean dish called the "tabbouleh" made of bulgur wheat, finely chopped mint and parsely, tomato and spring onion and seasoned with lemon juice and olive oil.  I have made this tabbouleh before using couscous and since this quinoa resembled more like couscous, I decided to toss this with a few ingredients on hand and also use some romaine lettuce which is always in stock in my refrigerator..... 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa 1/4 cup of cooked black eyed peas  half of a big tomato chopped 1 small carrot grated 2 big leaves of a romaine lettuce trimmed and torn into pieces 1/4 cup of toasted peanuts 2 tsp olive oil 1 tsp lemon juice salt to taste pepper to taste Whisk the last four ingredients together in a small bowl.  Throw  the rest of the ingredients in a big bowl. Toss t...

This dish is based on Tarla Dalals Green Pulao which has been featured in one of her books called the "Pleasures of Vegetarian Cooking".  This is meant to be a very hot and spicy rice with lots of coriander.  But since I like my flavors to be mild,  I have always altered the paste ingredients to my needs and also used  the vegetables which are available.   The original recipe calls for  2onions, (275 gms or 10 oz)cauliflower, (175 gms or 6 oz)peas and (225 gms or 8 oz)small potatoes for a cup of basmati rice and 1 bunch of coriander leaves, 10 cloves of garlic, 1inch ginger piece and 6 green chillies.  Here is how I did this pulao today which I am sending to Kirthi's   Herbs and Flowers in my platter- Coriander    event originally announced at PJ's   seduce your Tastebuds . 1 cup of Basmati rice 50 gms each of chopped carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, beans, peas 1" cinnamon stick 2 cloves 2 cardamom 1 bay leaf 1/2 cup of oni...

With the leftover dosa batter after making the masala dosas, I wanted to do something different.   Adding any vegetables to a dosa batter and preparing them becomes an Uthappam.  However, I wanted to try it out differently. I remembered that Kanjeevaram Idlis are done using the seasonings given below which are sauteed with some cashew nuts and then added to the batter or they are just simply added to the batter without sauteing.  I decided to use all those ingredients excepting the cashews and also some vegetables sauteed and then use it in the batter. Here is what I did: 3 cups of dosa batter 3 stalks of celery trimmed 1 small carrot peeled few sprigs or coriander leaves with the stems 3 spring onion stems - just use only the green part 1 green chili chopped finely 1 small piece of ginger chopped 1/2 tsp of pepper cumin powder coarse 2 tsp of chana dal soaked and drained Process the celery stalk coarsely and also the carrot and the coriander leaves.  C...