Lemon Bars and Gardens Growing Wild

Recently, I went to visit my sister in law who has just moved to a new home. For me the highlight of the new place was not how nice the area was or how lovely the house was. I was completely fascinated by the fruit trees in her backyard. Now let me clarify. It was not that I have not seen fruit trees earlier or those that are dropping down with fruit. It was simply that these were there for our picking at any time.

Even here at home we have a guava tree that fruits very well. But usually we leave it for the squirrels or parrots to eat to their hearts content. But most times, it is all consumed and never left to fall down or rot.

But to come back to the fruit trees in sis in laws house, there was an apple, a lemon and an orange tree. Being the tail end of October, the apple season was just ending but still the tree had hundreds of apples and the lemon tree was also laden with lemons. For the first few days, I would go rushing into the garden each morning picking all the good fruit that had dropped in the night. Every morning I would pick about 20 to 30 apples and about 10 lemons. I would feel very bad to waste it thinking of all the hungry people out there. But by the end, I just could not cope. The trees were ripening fruit faster than I could pluck or we could consume. So I just gave up and would sadly look at the fruit going to waste each day. This is after giving away apples and lemons to anyone who visited or who we visited..

Luckily the oranges had not ripened yet, else that would have been another added problem altogether.

I made apple crumble ( recipe here) one day and these incredible lemon bars.

Deliciously tart and sweet at the same time, they were fabulous. The recipe is from Allrecipes.com.

Ingredients:

1 cup Butter softened ( 200 grams)

1/2 cup white sugar

2 cups all purpose flour

4 eggs

1 and 1/2 cups white sugar

2/3 cup lemon juice

4 tablespoons all purpose flour

2 tablespoons icing sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 175 deg C

Sift the 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup sugar together.

Rub in the butter into the flour sugar mixture till it resembles bread crumbs.

Gather into a dough and press into a 9X13 inch pan.

Bake for 20 mins till just getting firm and golden.

In another bowl whisk together the eggs, lemon juice, sugar and flour.

Pour over the crust and bake again for 20 minutes

The bars will firm up after they cool.

Generously sprinkle the icing sugar over and cut into squares.

ENJOY!!!!!

Basundi and my Sweet Tooth

I have this incredibly sweet sweet tooth. It just shouts out to be satisfied after every single meal. It controls me totally and just as soon as my lunch is over, it starts shrilly demanding "Give me sweet, give me sweet!!! NOW NOW NOW!!!". Whatever my good intentions and before I can even comprehend what is happening, something sweet is already down my throat. Swallowed, digested and then total regret sets in. But the damage is already done. Like someone famously said "a minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.." In my life there have been too many minutes on the lips to count. Ask my hips or my tummy. They know that fact only too well..

I have a particular affinity for Indian sweets. Lot of people feel that Indian sweets are way too sweet but in my opinion that single factor makes it so much more appealing to me. At one time, I could wake up at 6 am and have two jangris without batting an eyelid. Thank god those days are now behind me.

I have been wanting to make Basundi for the longest time. It is so yummy, served deliciously cold and sweet with a few nuts adding a crunch as you eat it.

It is simple to make but just takes forever and forever. It takes a good 2 to 3 hours for the milk to thicken down to the level required. Now here comes technology to my rescue. We have a new fangled thing called the Induction stove at home. We have it for back up just in case.. It took me all of 1 hour from start to finish to make the Basundi. That made it a lot of fun and I had to watch it only till the milk thickened somewhat. After that, it took care of itself.

Now for the ingredients and the method..

Ingredients:

2 litres full fat milk

150 grams sugar

few strands of saffron

juice of 1 lime

almonds sliced for garnish

Method:

Put the milk in the thick bottomed vessel and bring to a rolling boil.

Add the saffron strands so that it adds its flavor and color as the milk boils.

Reduce the heat and let it boil down till it becomes 1/4 in quantity.

Add the juice of the lime so that the thickened milk curdles a bit.

Add the sugar and cook for a few minutes longer.

Garnish with sliced almonds and serve chilled.

ENJOY!!!!!

Enchiladas

This is another thing we learnt at the Mexican cooking class mentioned here. It was delicious, perfect tasting and definitely a keeper. The kids loved it, we loved, friends who ate it loved it... you get the message...

Enchiladas are corn/flour tortillas with a filling and a spicy sauce poured on top. Now when it is said so generally, you can imagine the variety that can come up in terms of fillings. It can be meat, vegetarian, beans, cheese, vegetables etc etc either individually or in combinations....

Simple to make it calls for easy ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:

20 grams Butter

1 small Onion diced

2 cloves Garlic chopped

1 cup cooked Spinach ( squeezed)

100 grams Ricotta Cheese or Paneer

50 grams Cheddar Cheese

4 Corn Tortillas (recipe below)

For the Enchilada sauce:

1 teaspoon Oil

2 tablespoons Onions finely diced

1 tablespoon finely chopped Garlic

1 teaspoon Red Chilli paste

150 grams Blanched tomato puree

How to make the red chilli paste:

Soak about 5 fresh or dry red chillies (minus the stem) in 2 tablespoons of vinegar for 24 hours and grind to a paste.

How to make the corn tortillas:

1 cup Cornmeal flour

2 cups all purpose Flour

Salt to taste

Mix the two flours and salt well. Add in water a little at a time till a stiff dough forms. Roll out like chapatis and cook for a minute on each side on a hot griddle.

METHOD:

For the sauce:

Heat the oil.

Saute onion and garlic for a few minutes

Add the chilli paste and mix for a minute. Add a few tablespoons of water every now and then to avoid it getting dry.

Add salt to taste.

Now add the tomato puree and cook for 5 more minutes

For the enchiladas:

Melt butter in the saucepan.

Add onion and garlic and cook till translucent.

Stir in spinach and cook for a couple of minutes longer

Take off the heat and add in the ricotta cheese or paneer.

Assembly:

Heat the corn tortilla for a few seconds on the pan. This makes it pliable.

Place about 3 tablepoons of spinach filling on each tortilla.

Roll up and place seam side down in a baking dish.

Pour enchilada sauce over and sprinkle with cheddar cheese.

Bake/ grill till cheese is all melty.

Mani Kozhukattai and Vinayaka Chaturthi

Vinayaka Chaturthi is a festival looked forward to eagerly by our family ( and not just because it means a holiday at home to laze and relax, oh no not at all!!! :).. ). Vinayaka is such a cute looking god. His pot belly and cheery face just make you feel so good. You know immediately that he is right there watching out for you.

Usually we have a purohit to come home and do the puja for us. This year for some reason he did not show up. Waited for a bit and then decided to go ahead ourselves. In this day and age, life is a lot simpler. I had a little book on how to conduct the puja in English ( unfortunately, never learnt the script of either my mother tongue or my domiciled home). Just went right ahead.

The point of this story is "what?" you may ask. In my opinion, doing something with the heart is more important than making sure you do it just right. I may have made a few mistakes in reciting the names or in my methods, but wouldn't you agree it has more value as it was done in total faith and devotion? I just want to know from you, my dear readers, what your opinion on this is. Hinduism, being a highly ritualistic religion, asks a lot of its followers in terms of day to day prayers and all special occasions..What is more important here? Is it ok to take a few shortcuts here or there or make mistakes, but do it wholeheartedly or is it essential to follow everything to a T?

Anyway, to come to the equally important point of what I made as Naivedyam for the god. Every festival has its own special foods that we make. For Ganesh Chaturthi, the prasadam is of a different kind. There is very little oil used in its preparation. He is offered only foods that are steamed. This is because as per Ayurveda, steamed food is easily digested and easy on the stomach. Modaks of different kinds are offered.

This year too, Modaks featured on the menu. But I tried out something new which I had seen in a book. It is called Mani Kozhukattai. Why it is called that I have no idea and my grasp of Tamil does not extend that far. Instead of placing the stuffing inside, each is made separately and put then together. One good thing about this is that it comes out perfectly and there is not much expertise required. On the other hand, to make a stuffed Kozhukattai with a nice thin outer covering requires a lot of experience.

This turned out very well. I am sure Vinayaka was quite happy with my offering this year.

PS : This can be served as a tiffin also. Makes for a nice filling low in fat snack when you need to fill the empty pockets in your tummy.

Ingredients:

1 cup Rice flour ( sifted well)

2 cups hot water

1 teaspoon ghee

salt to taste

1/2 cup urad dal soaked for 4-6 hours

Salt to taste

1 inch piece ginger diced finely

2 green chillis diced finely

4-5 curry leaves

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/4 teaspoon asafoetida

1 teaspoon oil

Method:

For the rice flour balls:

Heat water till it comes to a rolling boil.

Add the salt and ghee to it.

Add the rice flour to the boiling water taking care that no lumps are formed.

Cook till it comes together as a ball.

Leave aside till cool enough to handle.

Form little marble sized balls ( for this you need to apply some ghee on the palms before rolling them out)

Steam lightly for about 10 minutes. You know when it is done as the balls start looking little glossy and translucent.

For the Urad dal:

Coarsely grind the soaked urad dal along with the salt using very little water.

Put the paste in a plate and steam till done.

Crumble till it becomes fine crumbs and looks , well..., crumbly.

Heat oil. When hot add the mustard seeds and let it crackle.

Then add the curry leaves, ginger and green chilli to the oil and fry well.

Add the asafoetida.

Last, add the crumbled urad dal and fry for about 2-4 minutes.

Add in the steamed rice balls and mix gently till well mixed. Be careful, as you do not want to break the balls

Serve hot.

ENJOY!!!!!

Chilli Rellenos and A Cooking Class

Eating food from different cultures is now so common all over the world. It is so easy nowadays to procure ingredients to cook anything. Just check out the shelves of any grocery store in the larger cities.

They say that the Indian palate is so used to its own tastes that it is very hard to introduce new tastes. That I am not so sure is true. You find people trying out all types of food. But the thing is that it is always comforting to eat that which is already familiar to the palate.

Though from two ends of the world, isn't it strange to see the striking resemblance between the two cuisines in both the ingredients used and the methods of cooking. I guess the main reason Mexican food has an edge over the other cuisines of the world (in India) is because it is close in taste to Indian food. The use of tomatoes, kidney beans (rajma), onions, chilli, cumin, coriander (cilantro)... they are all the common factors in both cuisines. The tortiallas are very similar to our chapatis.. I think the only difference is in the use of cheese in Mexican food.

Mexican is one of my favorite cuisines and I can eat Mexican for all meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner and all other meals in between. Though I was almost 22 years old before I tasted Mexican food for the very first time, I took to it like a duck to water. Delicious is the only word that comes to mind.

Very recently, I went for a cooking class on Mexican food. It was quite a nice experience.. They taught us a few things which I came home and promptly replicated. Turned out well.

One of my all time favorites is the Chilli Rellano. Sounds foreign? Well it is simply our yummy Mirchi bajji with a different stuffing..

Ingredients:

6 Long chillis ( Bajji Mirchi)

100 grams cottage cheese

100 grams cooking cheese (or cheddar)

1/2 teaspoon Oregano

salt and pepper to taste.

100 grams toasted Bread crumbs

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

Oil to deep fry

Method:

Make a slit along the length of the chilli

Take out the seeds and the long white string inside.

Make a mixture of the stuffing.

Stuff the green chilli with the cottage cheese mixture.

Heat oil to a medium ( not smoking).

Make a paste with the flour and a little water. Put the bread crumbs on another flat plate.

Dip the stuffed chillis into the flour paste and then into the bread crumbs.

Deep fry till golden brown.

Serve hot with salsa and sour cream.

ENJOY!!!!!