Orange Marmalade

We had a wedding in the family recently. It was so much fun. For a wedding which supposed to be short and sweet, it ended up being  a loooooong wedding going over almost three months. Yes. You did read that right. Three months. Each month had a different function. But the good part of that was that  we thoroughly enjoyed each and every ceremony and function. When the ceremonies run continuously over a period of 3-4 days, then you get so tired after the first cocktail party, that  the remaining  events just go off in a blur. You don't remember the food, the decor, anything.

But the point of bringing up the wedding was that when a brides family came home for the first time, it is customary to bring some fruit and sweets. But this family brought these vast quantities of fruit. Enough to feed an army for a month. Really.
In that lot of fruit, were these two bags of little oranges. When I say little I mean little. They were really cute as a button. But not sure what to do with them, we decided to make marmalade with it.

This was my first foray into the world of jam making. It came out quite well but it does not last too long. As there are no preservatives, you have to be extremely careful in sterilising the jars and in using dry spoons to serve.

Very easy to make and not too many ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:

1 kilogram Clementine Oranges ( you can use tangerines too)
1 kilogram Sugar
Juice of two Limes


METHOD:

Wash the clementines well. Cut them into quarters.

Take out the seeds and pith (the white part of the peel).

Tie the seeds and the pith in a little muslin bag.

Put the quartered clementines into the blender and blend till the skin is into small bits. Be careful not to make it a paste. It has to have a bite as we are not cutting the peel into slivers.

Put it into a thick saucepan along with 3 cups of water and the juice of the limes.


Add the sugar and bring to a rolling boil. Keep cooking stirring at regular intervals till it starts thickening and reaching a setting point.

Check if it is reached that point by putting a couple of drops on a plate and pushing it when cool. If it starts wrinkling, then the marmalade is ready.

Cool till it is room temperature, then pour into the sterilised bottles and seal.

Serve on toast or use in cakes...

ENJOY!!!!!!!!

Granola - The Health Revolution

Whichever side you turn these days the conversation only revolves around weight loss, health, fitness, exercise... Agree? It seems to have become an obsession with almost everyone. Each one is trying to outdo the other in losing weight and becoming fit.

Now in all this madness, my personal opinion is that moderation is the key. Moderation in eating, exercising. I really think that one needs to stop obsessing on each morsel that crossed one's lips, each gram lifted and each step run. It is a lot easier to make healthy choices than it is being made out to be.

Now don't get me wrong. I am not saying that I am the epitome of healthy eating because that is a great untruth. But I for sure do not go crazy about my weight or the food I eat. I try to eat healthy and make the right choices. I try to exercise everyday. But if I feel like eating something sinful, well I go ahead and do it. And I refuse to feel guilty about it. Size zero is not everything...

But at home, in our quest to eat healthy, we introduced granola in the mornings for breakfast. For the first month we bought it from a friend. It turned out to be so expensive. Then I remembered my mother in law making it many years ago. Now with my interest in food, I could not resist the urge to try it out for myself.

Granola is a breakfast or a snack food. It consists essentially of oats, nuts and dried fruit. It is high in calories but very filling and satisfying.

I went through many recipes on the internet and then went off to the market to see what was available for me to put into the granola. The good thing with granola is that you can add anything that catches your fancy. You don't like this ingredient? Just drop it. You like nuts? apples? dried fruit? lot of sugar? more healthy? more tasty? Just add them in. The choice is completely up to you. It is very easy to tweak it to suit you and also to the availability of ingredients.

This is my recipe but feel free to add or subtract as you feel like it....Fair word of warning here. This makes plenty and by that I mean PLENTY. Scale down the recipe to suit your needs.

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups Oats

200 grams Barley Flakes

100 grams Sunflower Seeds

100 grams Flax Seeds

200 grams Wheat Flakes

1 cup Almonds chopped

1 cup Walnuts chopped

1 cup Dates chopped

1/2 cup Raisins

1/2 cup Sultanas

1/2 cup Figs chopped

1/2 cup Honey

3 tablespoons Brown Sugar

1 teaspoon Cinnamon powder

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

1/2 teaspoon Salt

2 tablespoons Oil

3 tablespoons Water

METHOD:

Mix oats, wheat flakes, barley flakes, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, almonds and walnuts.

Mix all the liquids (honey, water, vanilla essence and oil) in a bowl along with the brown sugar and salt.

Stir in the liquids into the oats mixture and mix well.

Bake for 15 minutes at 120 deg C. Stir well and bake again for 15 more minutes.

Add in the dried fruit and bake for another 10 minutes till it starts turning a light brown.

Let it cool down and store in an airtight container.

Serve with milk or over yogurt and fruit.

ENJOY!!!!!!!

Waffles - Very Versatile

The first time I ate a waffle was when I was in college in Bombay. As a treat one night, a few of us from the hostel went across to the Taj (of the 26/11 infamy) to have dinner. We went to the coffee shop then called Shamiana. We had a blast that evening. Got dressed to the hilt. It was an evening to remember after all. Here we were, college students splurging on a dinner in one of the fanciest hotels in town. I simply cannot remember what I ate for dinner that night. But for dessert I ordered waffles with fruit, honey and icecream. It was DELICIOUS!!!!. I can even today remember the aromas wafting from it. It tasted divine and the combination of the hot waffle, cold icecream, smooth honey and flavorful fruit was superb.

Waffles are one thing that look so hard to make but in reality are the easiest. It is something which can be rustled up in a jiffy. Waffles are very versatile and can be served as breakfast, dessert or even as a main course. There are any number of toppings that you can put on a waffle. One can also make it healthier by using whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour.

I bought a waffle maker many years ago and it has been on our Sunday/holiday breakfast menu off and on ( I can hear my son pipe up at this point and say "more off than on").

This recipe is now being posted for my sister who just got her waffle maker. May their family have many waffles filled days ahead!!!!.

Ingredients:

2 Eggs

2 cups Milk

6 tablespoons or 90 grams Melted Butter

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

4 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Salt

2 tablespoon Sugar

Mix all the liquid ingredients (eggs, milk, butter and extract) in a bowl.

Sift the dry ingredients till well mixed.

Add the dry ingredients to the liquid and mix well till it is a smooth batter.

Heat the waffle maker and pour in required batter.

Close and cook till browned.

Serve with maple syrup, honey, fruit... The list goes on.

Enjoy!!!!!!

Adai

One of the few things I really enjoyed discovering after moving to Chennai was this concept of TIFFIN.
Tiffin usually refers to the small meal eaten in between major meals. Or any hot light snack taken at any time during the day. In Tamil Nadu, often the main meal i.e lunch is eaten first thing in the morning. So at about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, when the tummy starts making demands for food, then a light snack is called for. This snack could be a variety of dosas, idly, sandwiches, upma, khichadi, pongal, vada etc. Adai features as a major dish in the tiffin listing.
Adai is a thickish dosa made of different dals ground together. Adai is traditionally served with a little blob of white freshly churned butter, jaggery and a chutney.
It is normally a dense and not too crispy styled dosa. It can be really filling.
On the nutrition front, it is a dish which is rich in proteins because of its high dal/lentil content.




Recipe:

Ingredients

1/2 cup moong dal
1/2 cup toor dal
1/2 cup chana dal
1/4 urad dal
2 cups raw rice
4 red chillies

4 green chillies chopped finely
2 onions chopped finely
handful of Coriander leaves chopped finely
3 sprigs of curry leaves chopped finely
1/2 inch piece of ginger chopped finely
a pinch of asafoetida
salt to taste

Soak the dals, rice and red chillies for about 4 hours.
Grind to a coarse paste. Add the remaining ingredients.
Heat the dosa tava ( griddle) till medium hot. Put a tablespoon of oil on the tava. Spread a spoonful of the batter on the tava till flat and like a pancake.
Pour a little oil on the sides and on top of the dosa. When the bottom turns golden brown, turn over and fry the other side too. Serve hot with jaggery, butter and a chutney of choice.

Banana Bread

Tho I learnt how to bake and cook in my catering college, I never really tried it out at home. It was always something associated with studies and college :(.

Once I had my first kid, I got quite domesticated and felt as a mom I had to bake something for my 3 year old. I had lost touch completely with baking as it had been a few years since I traversed that road.Took out a recipe book and said not only tasty, it must be healthy as well. So fished out a recipe for a honey oatmeal cake. With all the enthusiasm of a born again baker I embarked on an exciting task. Sifted, sieved, mixed, creamed did everything with real gusto.... Out of the oven came this "appalam". It looked like a cake, tasted like a cake, but looked absolutely flat like a pita round. To this day I dont know what I did wrong. But my son enjoyed every morsel and kept telling me" Amma, how nice how nice!!. You are the best cook in the world" It was such a pleasure to hear. Kids can really make your day. After that it was a learning curve. Tried many recipes. Different things. Learnt a lot along the way.

When I started baking, one of the first things I wanted to try out was banana bread. My first taste of it was totally different from what I had expected. When you say bread, the image that comes up in your mind is very different - Sliced bread, brown bread.... Banana bread is just a yummy yummy cake. The walnuts give a nice crunch in every bite. And the taste of banana??? Just pure heaven...

Now for the recipe:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup mashed very ripe banana
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour sifted
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Cream butter sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well. Stir in banana and vanilla. Add sifted dry ingredients.Add walnuts at this stage. Pour into a greased loaf pan ( 4" x 9").

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Cool and cut into pieces.