Ghaarge (A Delicious Travel Snack)

OK People I am leaving on Sunday morning for India and will not be blogging for 3 whole weeks. There are a thousand things I need to do before I leave but it seems as if I just cannot let go of my blog. I am still cooking as I need to finish quite a lot of stuff in my kitchen cupboards and fridge. So when I saw this big piece of red pumpkin in the fridge I knew I had to use it, and use it in such a way that everybody in the house would finish it up before we left . I do not want any leftovers at this moment. Then I had an idea. You see my little one does not take too well to airline food and just barely manages to nibble on a piece of bread or roll or whatever the airline people have deemed as suitable to serve the economy class passengers. So its always a good idea to carry some easy to carry food alond with me just for him. So when I saw the pumpkin these Ghaarge were the first and the best thing that came to mind. They are easy to make, easy to carry,easy for a child to eat while travelling, very nutritious, and keep for at least 5 days without refrigeration

Ghaarge is such an authentic Marathi snack that calling it puris or anything else would just be so wrong. The word is pronounced ghaargay for those reading it for the first time.

Here is what you need:

About 200 gms of grated raw pumpkin (i.e about 2 cups)

1 cup fresh grated coconut,

1.5 cups grated jaggery,

1 cup rice flour,

2 cups wholewheat flour,

a pinch of salt,

apinch of turmeric powder,

1 to 2 tblspns oil,

Oil for frying

Procedure:

In a pan heat 2 tblspns oil ,mix the grated pumpkin, coconut and turmeric powder and steam them over a gentle heat until the pumpkin softens. Next add the jaggery and let it melt completely. After the jaggery has melted cover the pan and cook for a few seconds on gentle heat. Now add the rice and wholewheat flours and stir them in . There is no need of heavy kneading. Just bring all the ingredients together to form a dough. Cover and let it rest for at an hour. You can also keep it overnight.

Next make small balls from the dough and spread them out between to sheets of greased plastic to the size of a puri and fry these in hot oil .

These Ghaarge taste great when they still hot, but even better once thay have cooled down and the best when they are one or two days old. If they last that long that is.

And yes this is definitely my last post now until I come back end January. Wish you all a Very Happy Wholesome New Year

Coconut Cream Barfi (Jihva for Ingredients: Coconut)

It was my idea that my posts during Christmas would be my last ones before leaving for India on my holiday, but Ashwini's event with Coconut as the chief ingredient was too good to miss. So I had to do it. This recipe has been on my mind since I saw Coconut Burfi-Fudge made by Saffronhut. Her photos were so tempting that I knew I had to make them. When I made these I did not follow her recipe but just used whatever was available at home and in whatever quantities . The result was not as picturesque as hers but taste gorgeous.

What I used:

2 cups grated frozen coconut,

1.5 cups sugar,

1/2 cup double cream,

1 tspn cardammom powder,

1 generous pinch saffron

Procedure:

• Heat a heavy bottom pan
• Mix the first 3 ingredients in the pan and cook on a gentle flame till the mixture begins to get dry at the edges. This takes about 25 mins,
• After the mixture starts moving along with the spatula switch off the heat and add the cardammom powder and the saffron strands mixed in a small amount of warm milk.
• Stir well and immediately turn out this mixture onto a greased tray and spread it evenly.
• Mark out the barfi pieces. Let cool and then cut out the pieces.
• Decorate with slivers of almonds
  

Wish you all A Fantastic Christmas!!!!

Here's wishing all my dear dear bloggo-buddies A Very Very Happy and Grand Christmas from all my family and these two guys here!!!! Happy Holidays

Santa is just around the corner.

Corn and Mushrooms on Toast for Breakfast

Corn and Mushrooms on Toast, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

Weekend mornings you would normally see some kind of bready-eggy preparation on my breakfast table. Anything with eggs is fast to make, nutritious and well liked by all of us. In fact when I see the amount of eggs my family eats I sometimes feel it would be a good idea to open a poultry farm. So when I saw that I was out of eggs last week I knew I had to come up with something really interesting for breakfast. So instead of scrambled eggs I made scrambled mushrooms (if you can call it that) on toast. I tried it for the first time and fortunately it was a well recieved by the husband and the son. Its the simplest thing in the world to make and very very tasty.

What you need:

10 to 12 mushrooms (wiped or washed clean and chopped )

1 medium onion,

3/4 cup sweet corn,

1 green chilly deseeded and chopped fine,

1/4 cup finely chopped spring onion,

oil for cooking,

a few drops of lemon juice,

1/2 tspn pav bhaji masala

salt to taste,

cheese as garnish.

What to do:

• Heat the oil in a pan and saute the onion and chilly till onion is nice golden brown,
• Add the mushrooms and saute till mushrooms lose all their moisture and are completely dry,
• Add now the corn, pav-bhaji masala, salt, and stir thoroughly,
• Cook this for a couple of minutes. Just before switching off the heat sprinkle the spring onions and add the lemon juice.For serving toast a couple of slices of bread and butter the toast. I cut the slices into round shapes.
• For a christmas breakfast you could cut out the bread into christmassy shapes with different cookie cutters. Top the toast with the mushrooms and garnish with grated cheese.
• Serve hot and crispy.
• This is my second entry to Nandita's WBB8 Christmas Breakfast Special. I hope you like it Nandita.

Spicy Christmassy Carrot Muffins

Spicy Carrot Muffins, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

Hey people!! I am really getting into the Christmas mood. After the Brownies here's my next christmassy creation.

Here's how it goes:

225gms self-raising flour, 2tspn baking powder, 150 gms muscovado sugar, 50 gms walnuts, 100gms carrots grated, 2 eggs, 1tsp cinnammon powder, 1/2 tspn clove powder,150ml sunflower oil

Preheat the oven to 180degC and place paper cups in a muffin tray,alternatively if you do not have paper cups just grease and dust the muffin tray.

Procedure:

Sift the flour and baking powder twice . Beat the eggs . Then mix all the ingredients in a large bowl . The mixture should look lumpy. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tray. Fill each muffin mould upto 2/3rds. Bake for 15 to 20 mins.

Let cool a little and then unmould the muffins by just inverting the tray and gently tapping on it. Dust with icing sugar.

This is my Christmas Offering to Nandita's WBB8 Christmas Special

Chocolate Brownies with Caramel Icecream

Chocolate Brownies with Caramel Icecream, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

Well people, Christmas is just around the corner and my neighbourhood is a riot of colourful twinkling fairy lights and beautifully decorated Christmas trees peeping out of people's homes. It almost makes me glad that it gets dark so soon these days. Because come sunset and the entire neighbourhood comes to life with the festive spirit. Its my son's first Christmas in a UK school and he is so excited ,what with the christmas songs he has learnt in school and the rehearsals for the nativity play.

Although we do not really celebrate Christmas at home it is impossible to stay immune to all the gaiety around. And these brownies are a sure proof of my involvement in this festival. I have tried these for the first time ever and they really turned out well. I had read the recipe quite some time back and the only thing that stopped me from making them before was the amount of butter in it,which is quite a lot. So I waited for a really good reason to make them. And what better reason than Christmas. I have made them quite in advance . They freeze beautifully and can be microwaved just before serving.

I have followed this recipe from the book "Simple Cakes" by Mary Berry who you could say is my Guru in Baking.

Chocolate Brownies, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

You need:

250gms butter softened,

100 gms self-raising flour (if you are using plain flour just add a tspn of baking powder to it.)

375 gms caster sugar,

4 eggs,

75 gms cocoa powder,

100 gms plain chocolate chips (optional)

Procedure:

Grease a rectangular tray (about 12x9x1.5 inches).

Preheat ovento 180 deg C.

Measure all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Preferably with a hand-held mixer. But it can be done with a wooden spoon.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and spread it out evenly .

Bake for 40 to 45 mins till it gets a crusty top and a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool and then store in an airtight container. Freeze them if you want to eat them at a later date.

Sesame Snaps (Tilgul)

Tilgul: A sweet which is prepared in all Marathi households on the 14th of January which is Sakranti. As with most Indian festivals which are in one way or the other associated with the seasons of the year , Sakranti too has an association with the winter season. Sesame and jaggery the 2 main ingredients here both produce heat in the body and so this sweet is particularly made on this day. This is one festival when the colour black is also celebrated and people particularly buy and wear black clothes on Sankranti. There is so much to share about this festival thatI will need another entire post to go into all the details.

But if Sankranti is still a month away why have I posted this Tilgul recipe now instead of in January. Well there are 4 reasons: 1. I made these yesterday as a practice session before the actual festival. My mother does this when she is not too sure about how a particular sweet will turn out.(which in her case is not often). 2. I will be taking a break from blogging in January as I am going to India for a 3 week holiday. 3. i wanted to share a tilgul recipe before the festival, so even you can try your hand at it a little in advance. 4. The sesame snaps turned out so well that I am as usual very impatient to share them with you.

Some of you might wonder why I call them Sesame Snaps. Well I discovered this name when I came to the UK. I saw these Sesame Snaps in a store. They are very similar and do satisfy my cravings for tilgul.

I have to admit that I have not used Jaggery in these. I substituted it with Demerara Sugar which is a delicious replacement for Jaggery. The recipe is one of the quickest. By quick I mean you have to be really quick while following some of the steps.

What you need:

1 cup Roasted Sesame seeds,

1.5 cups Brown Sugar,(or jaggery)

1/4 teaspoon Ghee (clarified butter)

3 to 4 drops Lemon Juice

Procedure:

Before you actually start with the cooking part, you need to grease a a small round area (about 10 cm in diametre) of your kitchen platform with a little calrified butter. Also grease a rolling pin with some ghee. This prevents the hot mixture from sticking to the surface and the pin.

Now in a heavy bottom pan melt the ghee and add to that the sugar and the lemon juice.Keep the heat low.

Once the sugar has completely melted, add the sesame seeds and quickly mix it with the sugar. Do this as fast as you can.

Now pour out this mixture onto the greased are on your kitchen paltform and immediately begin rolling it out with the greased pin . Roll it as thin as you can. IMP: Do not touch the hot mixture with your hands as it will stick to your hand and will burn the skin. Just as a precaution grease your palms with ghee too.)

Now take a sharp knife or a pizza cutter and mark out the diamond shapes (the shape can be any of your choice). This has to be done before the mixture hardens completely. Once the mixture hardens break out the individual pieces.

Store these in an airtight container. They keep for weeks

You will make about 30 to 35 pieces

Meals from Leftovers :3 Idli Upma

Idli Upma, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

Continuing with my Meals from Leftovers series this is one of my favourites. Idlis are a firm favourite in my house, so it is very rare that they are leftover. Normally there is a tussle between the three of us as to who will get the last idli. So I was particularly thriled yesterday when I saw that 6 idlis were left untouched .I always make this deliciously spicy upma from the leftover idlis. To make this I used :

6 idlis crumbled coursely (one day old), 1tspn mustard seeds, 1 pinch asafoetida, 2 dry red chillies, 2 tspn urad dal, 3 to 4 fresh curry leaves, 3 tspn oil, 1/2 tspn sugar, salt to taste, 1 tspn lemon juice (optional), corainder to garnish.

• Heat the oil in a pan add the mustard seeds. When they begin to splutter, add the asafoetida, the urad dal, the curry leaves and the red chillies. Fry all this for a few seconds tiil the urad dal turns golden. Add to this the crumbled idlis, salt, sugar and lemon juice. Toss it all well. Garnish with plenty of fresh chopped coriander. This upma goes very well with any leftover sambar that you might have or curds. Optional items that you can add are peanuts or green peas. Both of which I did not have yesterday.
• Serve very hot immediately. Another very good lefover idli recipe is here