Anniversary special Pav-bhaji and Fruit salad

We celebrated our wedding anniversary last week. The menu was pav-bhaji and fruit salad. 'A' is a big fan of pav-bhaji and I had not made it in a long long time. Needless to say his pick was pav-bhaji. I had two cans of evaporated milk sitting in my pantry for about a year :P and their expiration date wasn't that far. Luckily I had plenty of fruits and also a can of mango pulp, so the obvious choice for a dessert was fruit salad.

Pav-Bhaji

I generally use only six veggies - Potatoes, onions, tomatoes, cauliflower, green peas and peppers. Most of the times I use bell peppers, but I love the flavor of pablano peppers. Whenever I use pablanos, I roast them in the oven and take the skin off, and then finely chop them. I also add some tomato sauce/paste (basically some tomato puree).

To make bhaji simply follow these steps -
1. Peel potatoes and cut them into big chunks. Cut cauliflower and bell peppers. Put everything together along with green peas, cook until they become soft and then mash them.

2. In a pot add a couple of tablespoons of butter and about a teaspoon or two of regular cooking oil.

3. Add ginger-garlic paste and pav-bhaji masala (I use everest brand).

4. Add chopped onions, tomatoes and some tomato sauce, and let cook until tender. Add remaining veggies, salt, red chilli powder and mix well. Cook for another 10 minutes.

5. Top it off with finely chopped onion and cilantro. Add some fresh lemon juice if you like and serve with any bread of your choice.


I used the following ingredients to make bhaji (serves 4).
3 medium potatoes
2 cups cauliflower florets
1/2 cup green peas
2 pablano peppers (roasted, peeled and finely chopped)
2 medium onions
2 medium tomatoes
8 oz can of tomato sauce
1 Tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 Tsp red chilli powder
3 Tbsp pav-bhaji masala
We were in a mood for a chewy bread, so I served it with french bread. You can simply toast it in the oven or butter the bread and lightly toast it in a skillet until golden brown.

Fruit Salad

Fruit salad is probably the simplest dessert you can ever make. All you need to do is peel and cut fruits and drop them in the milk. I used the following ingredients.
2 cans of Nestle evaporated milk (12 oz cans)
1 cup half and half
3 cups Alphonso mango pulp
3 bananas
1 apple
2 cups grapes (each cut into half)
1 cup pomegranate arils
1 orange
1/2 cup sugar (or as needed)

Start by mixing evaporated milk, half and half, mango pulp and sugar. Then add the fruits, mix well and keep it in the fridge for about an hour. Serve cold.

Comforting Kadhi and Khichdi

It was one of those evenings after a long day of being done with the loads of pending "to do things". I was so tired after all this work, I did not have any energy left. A has a sore throat after eating super-spicy food at an Indian restaurant earlier this week, so I wanted to keep it simple. I immediately thought of Kadhi-khichdi, it's a comfort food after all. There are different versions of khichdi all over India.

Kadhi brings back some childhood memories. I still can't forget when we were on a vacation in Himachal and reached our destination pretty late. We were supposed to be there by 9pm and reached there after midnight. It was very cold and everyone was extremely hungry. Since it was an arranged tour, their cooks immediately started cooking, and served us a steamy khichdi and screaming hot kadhi. The chillies in kadhi looked just like cherries. My brother got a couple of them in his kadhi and started teasing me that he alone was going to eat all the cherries. To his horror they were extremely hot chillies :P He started screaming and I burst out laughing :)


For kadhi you need-
1 cup plain yogurt
2 Tsp besan (gram flour)
1 Tsp grated ginger
2 Tsp sugar
Salt to taste
1-1.5 cups water (or as desired - if you want your kadhi on a thicker side, add less)

For tempering-
2 Tsp Ghee (clarified butter)
1/2 Tsp cumin seeds
1/4 Tsp asafoetida
1/4 Tsp turmeric
3/4 Dry red chillies
6-8 Curry leaves
Take yogurt in a bowl. Add to it besan, ginger, sugar and salt. Add water as needed. Whisk it, making sure that there are no lumps of besan. Heat some ghee and add to it cumin, asafoetida, turmeric, chillies and curry leaves. Add the yogurt mixture and stir well. Turn the heat off when kadhi starts boiling.

Ingredients for khichdi-
1 cup rice
1/2 cup moong dal
2 medium potatoes cut into cubes or any combination of veggies you like (optional)
1/2 Tsp red chilli powder
1 Tsp masala (one that you use for daily cooking)
1 Tbsp jaggery
Salt to taste
3 cups hot water

For tempering-
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 Tsp mustard and cumin seeds
1/4 Tsp asafoetida
1/4 Tsp turmeric
6-8 curry leaves
Before you start, rinse rice and dal, drain all water. Make some tempering (heat oil and add mustard,cumin, asafoetida, turmeric, curry leaves). Add diced potatoes or other veggies and little salt. Let it cook for a while. Now add rice, lentils, hot water, salt, red chilli powder, masala and jaggery. Stir well, put the lid on and let it cook. If you like, you can add about 1/4 tsp cumin powder and 1 tbsp unsweetened coconut flakes. Top it off with a dollop of ghee and serve with hot kadhi.

Banana -Date-Walnut Bread

I got this really amazing book- The Encyclopedia of Creative Cooking from the library. It has tons of recipes from appetizers to desserts. It happens quite a lot of times that we end up with really ripe bananas. And it feels bad to just dump them in trash. So of the times I have them, nearly half the time I end up making Sheera just so that I don't have to throw them away. I always thought of making banana bread instead, but never actually made it because sometimes I did not have eggs and other times some other ingredient. Anyway... to cut the story short, while I was reading this book, I came across a recipe for banana bread and immediately thought of two ripe bananas that were sitting in the kitchen. So here is how I made it.

Ingredients:
1 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 cup chopped dates (optional)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Before your start, preheat oven to 350 F. Mix well all purpose flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. In another bowl mix butter, sugar and eggs and beat until light and frothy. Next, add mashed bananas, dates and walnuts and mix well. Add the previously mixed dry ingredients slowly and in batches so that it doesn't form lumps. Mix until you get a smooth mixture. Grease a loaf pan and pour in the mixture. Bake for about 50-60 minutes until you have a golden brown and firm bread. Take out and let it sit for about 10 mins and then cool on a cooling rack before cutting. I followed the recipe from the book, but used butter instead of shortening.

I made this for the first time and it turned out great. I just wish I had added little more dates. But anyway it tastes great. May be next time I will try using whole wheat flour and see how it turns out.

These are a few of my favorite things...

There are certain kitchen gadgets we all home cooks use extensively. I am sure everyone has a favorite gadget that is a must have in their kitchens. There are a few things I just can't do without. Here are some of my favorites.

1. Mixer-Grinder:
This one is probably the most commonly used gadget in Indian kitchens. When I came to US, I did not have one, and often felt so helpless without it. The first purchase I made in my India trip was this one. Ever since, I have been using it at least 3/4 times a week. I use it to grind dals and rice for making idli, dosa and wada batters and also use it extensively to make chutneys and milkshakes.

2. Salad spinner:
This one is my absolute favorite. It becomes so easy to dry your veggies, especially lettuce and greens. Sometimes, I also use it as a double duty sprout maker :)

3. Food processor:
Almost every household has a food processor. Though I normally use my mixer-grinder for making batters, food processor makes work a lot easier. It is such a savior when I need large quantities of dough to make purees and rotis. Of course, how can I forget shredding the carrots for carrot halwa.