Idli Sambar- Rice cakes in Lentil Soup

Idli Sambar is one of the Universal foods that has made its impact globally. Traditionally a South Indian staple, Idli Sambar is now a known dish in all parts of India/world and no longer a madrasi( As all south India was Madras to us when we were small) Staple. While we were growing up, eating out was more coz of necessity than whim. My mom never said that I am bored to cook and I also need a break, today we will take out food from the restaurant. There were some meals that were only one pot meals, like khichadi, theplas or pithla-bhat. Pizza and Pasta and even soups were non existent, they were only introduced to us in mid-80's. There was  a time when we visited my uncle in Delhi. My cousin who was working at that time, had brought pizza's for us for dinner. That was my first time ever tasting  Pizza. Never before in my all those 8-10 yrs of life had I seen a Bread disc that big with goodies on top. How ignorant and naive were we to the cocoon my parents had woven around us. Exploring the world, food and travel came much later in our lives. We were a content middle class family of working class Bombay.

Restaurant was a HOTEL to eat in and there were some kid friendly menu's like Idli Sambar and Medu Vada dunked in Sambar. Whenever we went shopping we were bribed to behave and cooperate. If all went well, we were treated to a eat in at Hotel and mostly it was Idli Sambar for my brother and Medu Wada dunked in Sambar for me. As time went by , my mom started making them at home and we were allowed to have any number of these rice dumplings or cake or Idli. It was served with white coconut chutney also, but I am not great fan of coconut and so are my munchkins. So we kind of skip it altogether.

To make Idli;

2 cups rice or idli rava

1 cup Urad dal

2 tbspn Oil

Salt to taste

 Soak the rice and urad dal in water for 6-8 hours. If using idli rava skip soaking the rava; soak only the dal and then grind it fine into a smooth paste, use the water from the soaking if needed. remove this in a bigger vessel, then grind the idli rava or soaked rice and remove it in the same vessel as the grinded dal. Mix the grinded dal and rava with your hand. This is because the heat of your palms will help in fermenting the batter faster. Then cover this vessel and keep it in a warm place to ferment and rise up. Take  a bigger vessel and fill the batter only half way as the batter will rise and double in size. After the rising, add the oil and the salt to the batter and mix with a spoon. Grease the idli stand with some oil and steam these idli's for 10-12 minutes.

Enjoy the steamed idli's with sambar and chutney or make masala idli.

Making Sambar

For the exact recipe, you guys will need to order Pedatha's book from Pritya Books. But since I am so giving , I will post the recipe which I tweaked to suit our tastes here.

You will need;
1 Cup Toor dal, Boiled with little Turmeric and Hing and mashed well
1 small Eggplant, chopped fine
1 Onion
2-3 Cloves Garlic
1 Tomato chopped
1 Small Carrot
1 tbspn Tamarind Pulp-
**Soak a coin sized ball of tamarind in warm water for 10-15 mins and squeeze and use the pulp. Alternatively you can use the Tamarind concentrate but use about 1 Tspn a sit is really very tart.
1 tbspn MTR Sambar Powder
Salt to taste
Little Jaggery/Gur
1 tbspn Oil

Tempering;
1 Tspn Oil/Ghee
1 tspn Cumin/Jeera
Few Curry leaves

In a pot heat some oil, add the onions and the eggplant and the tomato and saute for a minute. Then add the Crushed garlic and  carrots and enough water to cover the veggies. After the veggies are fully cooked and mashed, add the Sambar Powder and salt and the Tamarind Paste. Lastly add the cooked dal and Gur and bring it to a boil. Simultaneously prepare the tempering. Heat the ghee in another pan, once hot, add the jeera and the curry leaves and then add this tempering to the dal mixture. Garnish with Cilantro and serve hot with Idli, Dosa or rice.

Garlic Pullapart rolls

 This Mothers day would always be special for me. Number one reason being that my younger munchkin has grown to be a big boy. He demands that no one call him a baby yet he will always be our sweet baby. This year he, brother and his Dad made these rolls for our dinner. They also made soup to go along with it and gave this Mom a much needed break to catch up with other activities and pending projects calling her name. Since we all know by now, Mr. Ash needs some initial help in the kitchen, I kind of made the dough and supervised the work, literally being the BOSS of the house for one day!!! We believe in equal opportunity work, so no one wears the BOSS HAT in Ashland. We all have our assigned chores, yes I am talking about the kids too. I was brought up with the belief that you start young, so cleaning the room, picking up after meals and setting the table, putting away folded laundry in its proper place are some of the chores that my Munchkins are allotted to do. If they are lazy to do it today, the work multiples; still they do it. Simple and easy and works best. So this Mothers Day made me feel good and happy that all the past years that I was judging my capabilities of being a good ma, and making my kids do their own work was really not needed. They will work better if they are used to this when its time for them to fly out this nest and build their own little nests. Their better half's will most certainly Thank Me.

 

 For the dough,

Prep Time; 10 mins to mix the dough

2-3 hours for the dough to rise first time

1 hr approx for second rise

1.5 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup All Purpose flour

1 Tbspn dry active Yeast 

1 Tbspn Sugar and 1/2 cup warm water to bloom the yeast

Seasoning

1 Tsp Dried Rosemary

1 Tsp Garlic powder for the dough

+ 1 Tbspn dry garlic powder for dusting

1 Tsp Salt for dusting

2-3 Tbspn Olive Oil and 

water or milk as needed to make the dough

In a bowl, take the dry active yeast, sugar and warm water and mix well. Keep it aside to bloom for 10 minutes. The mixture will be frothy, if the yeast is active. If the yeast is old discard the mixture and get fresh yeast. I always prefer to check the yeast then move on to the dough.

In a mixing bowl, take the flour, add the seasonings, garlic powder, rosemary and little oil to start the mixing, as you move along making the dough, add the oil and knead into a soft dough. Cover with the plastic wrap and let it sit in  a warm place. I preheat the oven to 200 Degree F and then shut it off. Then place the bowl with the dough to rest and rise for a good 2-3 hours. I have never experienced problems with dough rising not enough. When the dough doubles in size, Punch out the air from the dough and take small balls and roll it into small rolls. Arrange them in a ring, spacing them apart and let them poof again till they kind of stick to one another. Brush some milk or water on the rolls, then dust them with dry garlic powder and salt. You can add cheese also on the rolls, But I kind of kept it out.

After they rise and look poofed up, bake them for 10-15 mins in a preheated oven at 350DegreesF.  When they are done, they will change color and the whole house will be smelling of garlic and bread. This is one of the main reason I bake this bread on Sunday, it's a kind of aromatherapy session and make the whole Monday morning seem passable. so Moms and dads what are we waiting for. Make them and let me know how it turned out for you all.

Red and Pink Paratha's- Beetroot aloo parathas/flatbread.

Today we are going to make another fast and quick lunch box item. It is very common in most Indian homes to have the kneaded dough/atta in the fridge. Roti making is not a chore, but a part of everyday activity like setting the table. I had a very hectic week at work so making the whole nine yards of dinner with roti, subji, dal and rice and salad was a bit too much so I made a combo of roti and subji in one. I made these twice and my kids enjoyed it with sour cream and ketchup. My kids call it pink and red parathas. What's in the name I ask you!!!

Hope you make them today, as I do not know any better way of making my kids enjoy and eat beets without any drama.

For the stuffing;
1 cup potato powder
1/4th cup grated boiled beetroot
2-3 leaves sage- Since I have fresh herbs I used sage.
water if needed to mix/bind the potato powder
salt to taste
1tspn Garam masala

Mix the dry potato powder and grated beetroot, garam masala and salt, then add the sage and water  from the boiled beets, if needed to make it into a soft pliable dough. Keep aside.

For cover; 1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tspn salt
1 tbspn oil
water as needed to knead into a soft dough
In a bowl, mix the oil and salt and water and knead into a soft pliable dough.


Making the parathas,
1. Make equal size balls of the cover and stuffing
2. Roll a small round of the cover and put the stuffing in it and fold from all sides and roll that in some flour, dust the rolling surface with some flour and
3. Roll into a small round roti or paratha.

Heat a pan/skillet/tawa and roast it on both sides applying little oil or ghee on it . When it gets cooked, serve with yogurt/pickle/ketchup or sour cream.

Spring Onion Paratha- Guest post for Jagruti's Cooking Odyssey

I am back again with  a quick lunch or  an easy lunch box menu.item. Also, I am asked to do a guest post for JCO. JagsBen as I call her is a dear blogger(Jagruti's Cooking Odyssey), who I came to know recently through FB. I was drawn to her b log due to its screen presence, awesome food and easy to make gujarati recipes. I was super thrilled when she asked me to do a a guest post for her. Being new in this game, I was lost, as to what I would do that she has not yet done ..so I came across this. As this is  A Moms day Week, I am posting a recipe that My dear mom always made. She made this Subji a lot.. But being a MOM today, I am always in search of extra time and less efforts recipes. I turned  the leftover bhaji/subji into parathas.

Peeth perun bhaji  was posted last week. Today's post is an innovation that I did when I had some leftover subji and needed some stuffing for kids lunch parathas. I have seen most kids make faces, wiggle noses when you ask them to eat roti-subji, but give them parathas with the same subji stuffed in the roti with KETCHUP and down their throats the food slides. The reason for making ketchup go bold is that all kids love ketchup, I have seen eat kids ketchup with rice too. I know weird kids, maybe they all in my family alone. But we as kdis loved varan-bhat tup mith limbu and ketchup. it was like the salt on our plate.  Must have kind of go to food.


You will need;

For the stuffing/Subji

2 bunches spring onions, after you clean them and chop them, they should fill approx 2 cups.
We get 3-4 spring onions in one bunch.
2-3 tbspn besan/chickpea flour
Again this will depend on how much water the onions give out.

Tempering;
2 tbspn Oil
1 tspn mustard/rai seeds
1/2 tspn Cumin/jeera
1/2 tspn carrom/ajwain seeds
1tspn Turmeric
1 pinch hing/aesofodita
Salt to taste
Sugar a pinch, Optional

In a wok, heat the oil till hot, then add the mustard seeds, let them splutter then add the jeera, ajwain and let that sizzle for one second, then add the turmeric, hing and the chopped onion springs, cover and let it wilt and sweat the water out, reduce the heat to low. Add in the salt, sugar and let it sweat a bit. You will need to add a bit more salt than regular as we will be adding besan. Once the salt is incorporated and the onions are wilted well, add in the besan spoon by spoon. The quantity of the besan will depend on how much water the onions have given out. Adding spoon by spoon helps in judging how much flour would be needed. Once the mixture looks wet and the onions get covered with the flour, stir it well and cover and let cook for 5 minutes, on low heat. After 5 mins, stir once and see if the flour is cooked, if not let it cook covered for anr 2 minutes. The subji will stick to the pan, use more oil if needed, or use non stick pan to cook. I like the burnt scrapping so I let it stick before scrapping it into a serving bowl. The peeth perun bhaji is ready for your loved ones.

 For cover;
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tspn salt
1 tbspn oil
water as needed to knead into a soft dough

For cover;
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tspn salt
1 tbspn oil
water as needed to knead into a soft dough

In a bowl, mix the oil and salt and water and knead into a soft pliable dough.

Make equal size balls of the dough and stuffing. Roll a small ball/poori and stuff the stuffing and close the ends, dust some flour and roll into  a roti/paratha of about 5-7 inches in diameter.

Heat  a skillet/tawa and roast it while applying some oil/ghee/butter on both sides. Enjoy with some ketchup/yogourt/pickle or chutney of your choice.

Sending this to Gayathris WTML event hosted by Sizzlingveggie

Chocolate Covered Strawberries--Mothers Day Special.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!
Every Mothers day is special for me. Last 8 years, Mr. Ash ha been pampering me on this special day. Y day started with Some Tea and toast made by Mr. Ash and my younger munchkin. The elder was busy in bed, as it is Sunday is his day of sleeping late. So I was in the garden planting my gift of an Hibiscus plant and doing some garden cleaning work. When I came in the kitchen I found the T and toast waiting for me. I felt so blessed with the love and care showered on me. After the routine India calls to our moms and wishing them a Happy Muddles(mothers) day, we started our plans for the day.

They had the entire day planned, which was again a Huge bonus for me. We went for lunch at my favorite Mexican joint and they even had plans of making soup and garlic bread for dinner. Since Mr. Ash's culinary skills are limited; I kind of offered help and promised to keep it at minimum. We made the Sweet Corn soup and Garlic pull apart rolls, (Recipe following soon), and for dessert we made these strawberries.

We made them only as my elder munchkin was feeling left out of all the excitement and planning. By the time he was ready to face the day, My younger one in all his enthusiasm spilled the beans to my elder son making him cross with his dad. So to make him happy, I offered to help him to make the dessert. He made the whole thing. I just helped him by melting the chocolate as he is not yet allowed to handle the stove and fire alone.

There is not much of the recipe for these. I hope the pictures are clear enough of how we went about making them.


1. Melting chocolate in double boiler.

2. Prepping the Strawberries

3. Dipping each one in the melted chocolate. We put a plastic peel and stick on a plastic plate to make a easy job of cleaning it up.

 

Then set the plastic plate with the chocolate strawberries in the fridge for a good 2-3 hours. After that pack them individually in plastic bags to make  an easy and quick gift.

We made quite a few for us to enjoy and distribute to my younger munchkins teachers as  a Sweet Thank you gift. This is how My mothers day went by. I would love to hear how was yours and what all fun things you moms out there did for your self and your moms.

Sending this over to Kids Delight event hosted by Smitha of smithasspicyflavours

Strawberry Banana Pear smoothie

The whole clan in Ashland was down with viral fever and seasonal cough. DR advised GO easy on diary and milk. I was in a mix, my munchkins needed the energy to fight the bug, they had somehow give up on solids when they are feeling low. Suddenly everything around me was filled with worry. My only wish was that they would be jumping and fighting and kicking around. like normal kids. They were the best behaved sick kids I had ever known. I do not know why this would happen, but when they are jumping and yelling and shouting you as an adult want them to be quiet and slow down, be responsible and when they are quiet and calm, you want the storm to begin. Being a Parent is the toughest job if you can tell!.

After a week or so of  not so feeling better days, we celebrated a little with these smoothies. They cut their own fruit and Ms. Ash simply helped them with the mixie part of it. They were happy with their efforts and I was happy with their choice of fruits for the day. These can be frozen in Popsicle cups and enjoyed on hot sunny days. We are still not there yet, with the sun playing hide and seek and winds blowing its gust out, Popsicles will have to wait till June, I guess.

You will need;
2 Big Strawberries
1/2 ripe Banana
1 ripe Pear
1/2 cup yogurt-Plain or flavored.-- We used a small cup Activia yogurt( For the pro biotic)

Chop the fruits and blend in a mixer with the yogurt till smooth. You can add ice if you like it, since I was making it for my under the weather kids, we opted to keep them out. Enjoy this smoothie. Add in oats to make  a breakfast smoothie or enjoy as is.

Kuch khatta kuch mitha kuch tikha instant Amla Achaar

Catchy Title..what say!! But today's post is all about this sweet,salty and spicy pickle made with frozen amla/gooseberries. Few Days back, I was joined into a foodie group on Facebook by Samta of Mera kitchen fame. I read this pickle posted by Vidya Tai. This was so easy and it did bring back tons of memories from my childhood. My Mom stayed in an apt building in  a suburb in Mumbai. IF you have ever visited Mumbai, you would know what I am saying. The house are so small and cramped and except for the walls dividing the apartments, we practically live together with our neighbors. Just that we have doors and locks to keep us separated. But any major discussion in anyone home can be heard by the next wall neighbor, The same can be said with any fights debates going on. One of my lovely neighbors was a manglorean lady who made south Indian food at her home. we thought anyone one who made idli/dosa and sambar regularly was a South Indian. Our food knowledge was limited to that. I blame the lack of science and technology for my ignorance. Anyways, this maushi as we called her, made this pickle almost all times she heard me yell or cry or have a food fight with my mom. Within minutes she was there with a small bowl of this for me. They say when your family is far, your neighbors become your family. Her sons were teenagers then, and she was also much older than my mom. Like a angel guardian, she used to take over me and relive my mom from the fights. Sitting on her lap hearing stories about her village, I ate my food with this pickle. This is one pickle that I cannot forget and thanks to Vidya Tai, I made it again after many many years.

You will need;
1 packet frozen amlas/gooseberries-- approx 10-12 pieces. I quartered them into 4 pieces and removed the seed.
Thawed them and dried them on  a cotton washcloth for 3-4 hours.

Tempering;
3-4 tbspn Oil
2 tspn mustard/rai seeds
1 tspn Jeera/cumin seeds
1 tspn Fenugreek/Methi seeds
2 tspn Red Cayenne powder--This medium heat, increase if you like it hot
1 tspn Turmeric/Haldi
3 tbspn jaggery or brown sugar
Salt if needed

In a wok, heat the oil on medium, add in the mustard seeds, let it splutter. Then add the jeera, and methi seeds, Then  reduce the heat to low, add the red cayenne powder, haldi and jaggery. Let the jaggery melt and then add the amla pieces. Stir well and heat for 5-6 minutes. Once cooled, Store in an airtight glass bottle. Refrigerate and use as needed. Since this is an instant pickle made from Frozen gooseberries, it is best saved in a Fridge and care should be taken that you never put wet spoons in the bottle.


This pickle tastes good with dal-rice, dos/parathas or as is.



Sending this to  Kirthi's serve-it preserved event hosted by ohtastenseeblog

Also sending it to Sangees Show me your hits Event guest hosted bu Julie of EP fame

Kandyachi Peeth-Perun Bhaji- Spring Onion with Chickpea flour Subji and my 200th post and an award

Yes Lovelies its 200th post for Indulge-ashscorner. Hence this long title and what better way to celebrate it with than an traditional maharashtrian subji. Ideally it should have been a sweet, but savory is the way to go for me now. Ever since cutting down on sweets, I am finding ways to curb my sweet and salt cravings. Replacing papads and pickles with such side dishes has helped me make the transition better.

Peeth perun bhaji is a type of preparation that can make any maharahstrian go weak in his knees. The peak of the ultimate comfort food, is what it is for me. This is a way of making any green leafy vegetable most common used  are spring onions, or radish leaves with chickpea flour or besan. Capsicum is also used for some added variation. Peeth perun is a technique where the flour is incorporated into the vegetable after it sweats a bit.This is ready in very few minutes and take no time. So if you have less time and need to use up those radish leaves, make this today,. But there is one caveat. The amount you start with and the amount you end with will be very dicey. This is ideal when you just need to add one more side to your platter or better when you simply need to supplement the veggie of the day, make this. This is  a dry preparation and goes well with dal rice and bhakri or roti or any flatbread.

I was very picky eater and choosy when it came to food. I was not very willing to try new foods, new ways of cooking and always liked food at my friends place better than what my Mom made. I am amazed at how good my boys are who do not ever say that my friends mom cooks better than you ma. I was not the case for sure. For me the grass was always greener on my friends lawn. I am sorry for the pesky kid I was Mom. Some things however I did enjoy at my home was this bhaji/subji. I try to get the taste my mom gets, but am not there yet. I use her recipe to the T but still its  a miss at times. My mom always made this peeth eprun bahji using spring onions, radish leaves and capsicum to name  a few, when we were traveling in trains on long journeys and as this made meals a less messy. She made wraps form pooris or phulkas and stuffed them with dry subji's most times it was this subji. Only if she knew that what she called as poli-folds was today's kathi rolls, she would have been a famous chef. The next post will be the innovation I did with this subji, But for now, lets see how to go about making this.

You will need;
2 bunches spring onions, after you clean them and chop them, they should fill approx 2 cups.
We get 3-4 spring onions in one bunch.
2-3 tbspn besan/chickpea flour
Again this will depend on how much water the onions give out.

Tempering;
2 tbspn OIl
1 tspn mustard/rai seeds
1/2 tspn Cumin/jeera
1/2 tspn carrom/ajwain seeds
1tspn Turmeric
1 pinch hing/aesofodita
Salt to taste
Sugar a pinch, Optional

In a wok, heat the oil till hot, then add the mustard seeds, let them splutter then add the jeera, ajwain and let that sizzle for one second, then add the turmeric, hing and the chopped onion springs, cover and let it wilt and sweat the water out, reduce the heat to low. Add in the salt, sugar and let it sweat a bit. You will need to add a bit more salt than regular as we will be adding besan. Once the salt is incorporated and the onions are wilted well, add in the besan spoon by spoon. The quantity of the besan will depend on how much water the onions have given out. Adding spoon by spoon helps in judging how much flour would be needed. Once the mixture looks wet and the onions get covered with the flour, stir it well and cover and let cook for 5 minutes, on low heat. After 5 mins, stir once and see if the flour is cooked, if not let it cook covered for anr 2 minutes. The subji will stick to the pan, use more oil if needed, or use non stick pan to cook. I like the burnt scrapping so I let it stick before scrapping it into a serving bowl. The peeth perun bhaji is ready for your loved ones.

Now time for some drum roll please. Aparna from Square Meals has again gracefully shared an award with me. This time it's  a little fun fact game along with this award.

Here are the rules for the award
Thank the person who nominated you for this Award and link them back
Then state some 5 random facts about you.
Spread the joy by nominating fellow bloggers, as a way of appreciation.
Finally inform the bloggers about the awards.

5 Random Facts About Ms. Ash

I am a MOM-24/7. meaning you will always find me nagging my kids with Do's and Dont's
I am a Survivor, I do not quit easily.
I am a Gardener..OK new found hobby, will share the pics when my garden is in full bloom
I am a Blogger, yes I heart white plates, blogware in stores and first thing I say is This will look great on my blog.
I am a very positive human. I try to find good things in all people even those who have been bad with me, hurt me and ditched me when I needed them. Trying to see only good and negate the bad helps me sleeping well at night.

Now time to share the joy, Feel free to collect this award from me to you as a return gift for reading 200 posts, supporting me when life was not going great and for just being there for me.Reaching 200 posts would not have been easy if not for your love and wishes and good vibes. I appreciate all that has been showered on me.


Linking this entry to Srav's CC event Moms Recipe