Happy Makar Sankrant!

It is Makar Sankrant today. Sankrant as it is commonly called, is a harvest festival celebrated on January 14 every year. Til (sesame seeds) and gul (jaggery) are the star ingredients of this day. In Maharashtra, tilgul (sesame seeds and jaggery fudge) and gulpoli (jaggery filling stuffed inside whole wheat dough and then rolled out) are the two main preparations made on this day. We were lucky to always receive tilgul packets from India as some of our friends happened to be in India during December-January. This year there was no home delivery of Tilgul (pronounced: teel-gool) :( so I decided to make it myself.

Ingredients:
(makes about 20-25 squares of 1"x1")
1 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup coarsely ground peanuts (optional)
1 cup jaggery
2 tsp ghee (clarified butter)

Before you start, please note a couple of things. If you decide to use sesame seeds and peanuts the total mixture would be about 1 heaping cup. In this case use 1 cup flat of jaggery. You can totally skip the peanuts and use sesame seeds alone. In this case, use a heaping cup of sesame seeds and use exact one cup jaggery.

1. Toast sesame seeds in a pan and set aside.
2. Start melting the jaggery in a pan. Let it melt until it is of the consistency of thick sugar syrup.
3. Add ghee and stir well. Turn the heat off.
4. Mix in sesame seeds and peanuts.
5. Take out on a cookie sheet and roll out about a quarter to half of an inch thick.
6. Immediately cut it into squares while still hot, and then let the squares cool.


A couple more things to note: Put some ghee on the cookie sheet before pouring the mixture so that it will not stick. If you cover the mixture with a plastic wrap it will be easy to roll it out.

Happy Sankrant to everyone. "Tilgul ghya god bola" :) For those of you who celebrate Pongal... Happy Pongal!

Makai-Mutter-Palak

I had never combined spinach with peas or corn. Last month, when I visited my friend M, she made this tasty sabzi using spinach and peas. Since A doesn't like paneer, I usually don't make palak paneer. So it was a good idea to combine corn or peas with spinach. Thank you M for this wonderful dish.

Ingredients:
(Serves 4)
1 pkt spinach (10 0z pkt- chopped)
1 cup green peas
1/2 cup corn kernels
1 small tomato
1 small onion
1/2 tsp grated ginger root
1 tsp garam maasala
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chilli powder
A pinch of ground cloves (optional)
A pinch of cinnamon (optional)
2 tsp oil
Salt to taste
3-4 tbsp half & half or heavy cream (optional)


Before you start, cut tomato and onion into big chunks. Grind them into a paste. Take oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds, turmeric, ginger, tomato-onion paste, garam masala, red chilli powder, ground cloves and cinnamon . Let sear for a minute and add spinach. After spinach wilts down, add peas, corn, salt and milk/cream. Let them cook for some time. The sabzi is now ready. Top it off with some cream (optional) and serve.

Potatoes for Fasting

Fasting is such a common thing among Indians. Though fasting means voluntarily not eating food for varying lengths of time, fasting can be a feast. There are various reasons for fasting most of them being religious. In India, on a fasting day some people would not eat or drink at all, some will only drink water and some will only eat specific kind of food. For my grandmother fasting was a weekly thing and for us kids it was a weekly feast :) Foods that are typically eaten on fasting include sago, potatoes, sweet potatoes, shingada, fruits and nuts mainly peanuts. Ghee is used instead of oil in such preparations. Sabudana khichadi and shingada thalipeeth were the two dishes that my granny made often. Then there was this potato dish that we kids simply loved and always demanded. In Marathi it is called 'Upasachi Batata Bhaji'. Today I had two large boiled potatoes leftover from previous day and 'A' demanded :p this upasachi bhaji. So here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
(Serves 2)
2 large potatoes (boiled and diced)
1/4 cup coarsely ground peanuts
5-6 green chillies (cut into pieces)
2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp sugar
Salt to taste


Making these potatoes is a simple two step process. First, heat ghee and add cumin seeds and green chillies. Then add potatoes, peanuts, salt and sugar. Mix well and let it cook for about a minute or so. Top it off with cilantro and serve.

Veggie Pasta

For us pasta is a quick fix meal on any weeknight. I normally have some pasta sauce in my pantry. So whenever there is a need for a quick meal, this comes in handy. 98% of the times I make pasta using a store bought pasta sauce. Very few times I have made pasta using something other than the store bought sauces. I was watching a food show on Zee Marathi (Amhi Saare Khavayye) in which a pasta recipe was shown. It was a simple and a healthy recipe. The recipe calls for ingredients that we normally have on hand. I followed the recipe with a slight modification. This is how I made it.

Ingredients:
(Serves 2)
2 cups pasta
1 tbsp butter
2 cups veggies (chopped)
2 cloves of garlic (minced or grated)
6 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp hot sauce
Mozzarella cheese
8-10 fresh mint leaves
1-2 pinches of oregano
Salt to taste


Cook the pasta, drain it and keep it aside. In a pan take butter and add garlic to it. Add veggies of your choice. I used onions, tomatoes, bell pepper, corn, and carrots. Add some salt and let them cook for a while. Add tomato ketchup and hot sauce and let them cook some more. You can substitute hot sauce with crushed pepper flakes or red chilli powder. Now add mint, oregano (or herbs of your choice) and cooked pasta. Mix well and add some cheese on top. Put the lid on and let the cheese melt. Top it off with fresh mint leaves if you like. Serve hot.