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Oatmeal Banana Whole Wheat Pancakes – Egg Less Pancake

Oatmeal Banana Whole Wheat Pancakes

Weekends are pancake or waffle days. I love trying out different pancake recipes, but my most favorite would be the classic Pancake that I make. There are days (read most of the days), that I don’t have eggs and I needed to make an egg less version. Also I love the whole grain pancake texture and so try out any recipe that everyone in my family loves. My husband is not crazy about the whole wheat pancakes and says that he prefers the classic ones. Recently I had borrowed a book from the library called the Oatrageous Oatmeals and this is the recipe I tried from that book. The Oats Dosai that I made from this book was a big hit and so I thought this recipe might do the trick with the pancake as well.

I am very happy that I succeeded in my effort and even my little one happily munched on the pancake. This pancake closely resembled the Nei appam and was very flavorful. I topped it with some fresh strawberries and maple syrup and we were filled up for the entire morning.

This is my entry for Cooking from the Cook Book Challenge for Week 2.

Ingredients to make Oatmeal Banana Whole Wheat Pancakes –

Dry Ingredients –

Rolled oats – ¾ cup (slightly ground) Whole wheat pastry flour – ¾ cup Brown sugar – 3 tbsp Baking powder – 1 ½ tsp Baking soda – ¼ tsp Cinnamon – 1 ½ tsp All spice – ½ tsp (optional)

Wet Ingredients –

Ground flax seeds – 2 tbsp dissolved in 4 tbsp warm water

Bananas – 2 ripe ones

Milk – 1 cup (more or less)

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

To serve –

Berries of your choice

Banana slices

Butter

Maple syrup

Oatmeal Banana Whole Wheat Pancakes

Procedure to make Oatmeal Banana Whole Wheat Pancakes  –

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

Oatmeal Banana Whole Wheat Pancakes

Soak the flaxseeds in warm water and leave it aside for about 10 minutes.

In another bowl mash the bananas with a fork until smooth. To this add the milk, vanilla and the flax mixture. Mix well.

Oatmeal Banana Whole Wheat Pancakes

Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet mixture into the well. Mix together until it forms a batter in the pourable consistency. If needed add a little bit more milk to bring to the right consistency.

Oatmeal Banana Whole Wheat Pancakes

Heat a griddle and pour a ladle full of batter. Cook on medium heat until it is golden brown on one side and then carefully flip it over. Cook on the other side and then remove. Repeat with the rest of the batter.

Serve hot with topping of your choice!

Oatmeal Banana Whole Wheat Pancakes

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Kerala Style Poosinikkai Kootu Curry

Finding poosinikkai (ash gourd or white pumpkin) is not very easy in many parts of US. I am very excited to have moved to where I am right now for this reason. I am able to find many Indian vegetables very easily here and have been cooking with them happily. Vellai poosinikkai or the white pumpkin is one such favorite vegetable for the whole family and we are very excited to be eating this every week.I have been out of the ‘Cooking from the cookbook challenge’ group for a while now and starting this year, I wanted to be more regular. Few of the frequently used recipes with the vellai poosinikkai are sambhar and kootu, but this week I wanted to make something a little different from the routine. When browsing through the cook books for some South Indian recipes, I saw this Kerala style kootu curry recipe in Classic Lunch recipes by Mallika Badrinath.

Since it is a Kerala special recipe, it is quite high on coconut and we just loved it. I had also made it a little spicy to be able to mix with rice and it was just perfect. The book did not have any picture of the recipe and hence I could not figure out the consistency of the dish. I made it more in the kootu consistency since I wanted to mix with rice and eat. When researching more on the internet about the dish, I learned that the consistency of the Poosinikkai Kootu is more like a curry (on the dry side). SO depending on how you want to serve it, adjust the consistency of the dish.

Preparation time – 10 minutes Cooking time – 40 minutes Difficulty level – easy

Ingredients to make Poosinikkai Kootu – Serves 4

White pumpkin – about 3 cups (diced)

Channa dal / Bengal gram dal – ½ cup

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Grated fresh coconut – 3 tbsp

Jaggery – about 1 tbsp

Salt – to taste

Coconut oil – 1 tbsp

Grind together –

Red chilies – 5

Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

Grated fresh coconut – ¼ cup

Oil – 1 tsp

For seasoning –

Coconut oil – 1 ½ tsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Ullutham paruppu / urad dal – 2 tsp

Curry leaves – few

Procedure to make Poosinikkai Kootu –

In a small pan, fry the red chilies and cumin seeds (mentioned under grind together) until aromatic and then add the coconut. Mix well and turn off the flame. Once it cools down a bit, grind it into a smooth paste and keep aside.

Boil the channa dal in enough water until it half cooked.

To this add the chopped poosinikkai and cook until the vegetable and the dal is completely cooked.

Add turmeric powder, salt and jaggery and cook for 3-4 more minutes.

Add the ground paste and cook for another 5 minutes.

In the meantime, heat about a tbsp of coconut oil and fry the grated fresh coconut (3 tbsp) in it until golden brown.

Add this to the simmering kootu curry.

Heat a little bit of coconut oil and add all the seasoning ingredients. Fry until aromatic and then add it to the kootu curry.

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Mullangi Pachadi / Mooli Raita – Spiced Yogurt with Radish

16th Feb, 2014

I found some fresh radish (mullangi) in my local Indian store. The radish was very tender with fresh greens attached to it. I usually remove the greens and just buy the radish, but this time I bought back the greens as well. I remember seeing a recipe in the Mallika Badrinath book for mullangi raita, but she had used raw radish. I wanted to jazz it up a bit and make the recipe.

The recipe paired very well with the Tomato Biriyani that I had made for lunch. My boy’s love radish and I often have to add a lot of it in the sambhar. I also make mullangi subzi to pair with roti’s.

My other recipes with radish –

Mooli Paratha – flatbread with radish Mullangi subzi – Radish curry

  Preparation time – 5 mins Cooking time – 10 mins Difficulty level – easy

Ingredients – (serves 4)

White Radish – about 1 cup (greens separated and finely chopped)

Yogurt – 2 cups (whisked)

Oil – 1 tsp

Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

Chili powder – ½ tsp

Roasted cumin powder – ½ tsp

Salt – to taste

Cilantro – 2 tbsp (finely chopped)

Procedure –

In a small pan, heat the oil and sputter the cumin seeds. Now add the finely chopped radish and sauté it in medium flame for about 5-7 mins, until they are half way cooked and loses it raw smell.

Now add the chopped greens and sauté for 2 more minutes. Then add the chili powder, cumin powder and salt and mix well. Fry further for a minute and then let it cool down a bit.

In the meantime, whisk yogurt and keep it ready. Add the cooked radish to the yogurt and mix well. Also add the cilantro and mix well.

Keep it chilled if using later, since the yogurt could turn sour if left outside.

Serve as side with Biriyani or Pulao!

Linking this to ‘Fabulous Feast Friday# 2‘ — being hosted by this week by Valli & Prachi.

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Naan – Garlic Naan (Oven baked Flatbread)

Garlic Naan is a flattened flatbread that is very famous in many parts of Asia. The Naan is from the Persian origin and is usually cooked in a Tandoor. Also what differentiates the naan from the rest of the Indian flatbreads like roti or chapatti is the fact that it contains yeast or similar leavening agent. I have seen making Naan in several TV shows and read through it in several cook books. With a little tweaking based on my liking, this is a recipe that works great for me.

For me making naan was always the Ah-Ah thing. I usually take the easier way out and make roti’s or phulkas or parathas, but there is nothing like making naans at home and eating them right out of the oven. I made the garlic naan recently, because my older son just loves garlic. If you want to make just plain naan, follow the recipe exactly except for, brush the dough with plain ghee instead of garlic flavored ghee.

With just a little planning in the morning, one could make the naan for lunch and also enjoy a few for dinner on a weekend. I have tried making these on griddle/pan but was not too happy with the texture. I like the texture when cooked under the broiler. If you don’t have an oven, cook it in a pan, covered on one side and then flip it to the other side until evenly browned and puffed up. I served it with my kid’s favorite subzi, honey toasted tofu with sesame. Do try the naan with any of your favorite gravy and enjoy!

Preparation time – 20 mins plus 1 ½ hrs of resting time Cooking time – about 3 mins per batch of Naan Difficulty level – Medium

Ingredients to make Garlic Naan – Makes 14 medium Naans

To make the Naan –

All purpose flour – 4 cups plus more for dusting

Water (Luke warm) – 1 1/3 cup

Active dry yeast – 1 tbsp

Sugar – 2 tsp

Salt – 1 tsp

Yogurt – ¼ cup

Ghee /Clarified butter or oil – 3 tbsp

To make the Garlic topping –

Ghee or oil + Ghee – 4 tbsp

Garlic – 4 cloves (finely minced)

Cilantro – 4 tbsp (finely chopped)

Procedure to make Garlic Naan –

To make the dough –

Add the yeast to the warm water and also add the sugar to it. Mix it well and leave it to proof for 5-10 minutes.

In the meantime, add the flour to a large bowl or in the bowl of the mixer. Add the salt, yogurt and ghee or oil to the flour and mix it.

Now add the proofed yeast mixture to the flour and mix well. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it is soft, smooth and pliable. The dough will be a little on the stickier side but not too sticky. If the dough appears too wet, add a bit more of flour. If the dough appears dry add a little bit more of warm water.

Leave the kneaded dough in a greased bowl and let it rise for about an hour or until it is doubled in size.

In the meantime let us make the garlic topping.

Make the garlic topping –

Heat the ghee or oil and ghee mixture in low flame. When it heats up add the finely minced garlic and fry for about 30 seconds. Now add the chopped cilantro and give it a good mix. Turn off the heat and let it sit until ready to use. If using ghee make sure to keep it in a warm place, otherwise it might solidify upon cooling (especially in cold places).

Making the Naan –

Take the rested dough out and punch it down. Now divide it into 14 equal pieces and roll them to make a ball.

Lay the rolled balls onto a baking tray and let it rest for 10-15 more minutes.

Now take one ball at a time and dust it with a little flour. Roll it out into a tear drop shape naan.

Lay the shaped dough on a greased, foil lined tray. I usually keep two naans per tray.

Brush the top of the dough with the garlic butter/oil and cook it under the broiler for 2 minutes. Keep an eye starting from 1 minute and 30 seconds.

Now flip the naan and let it cook for a minute more on this side.

Remove from the broiler and keep it warm in a foil covered container. Repeat the same with the rest of the dough. I make whatever is needed for lunch and then leave the remaining dough balls, covered in the refrigerator until I make them again. Take them out couple of hours before making.

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Baked Vegetable Pasta

27th Jan, 2014

When browsing through few cooking magazines during one of my very often long waits in the Haircut place (I have two boys and this is one of my most frequently visited places), I came across the vegetarian baked penne recipe with roasted vegetables. I adapted few hints from the recipe and modified it to my liking and what I created was one of my kid’s favorite lunch box recipes.

I now bake a whole batch of it and refrigerate to pack for his school lunch. I added couple of his favorite vegetables and he is in love with it. Wish my little one also loves this as much as his brother, but as a mother I can’t win all the time. I used basic marinara sauce for the recipe, which I often can or freeze during the summers (store bought marinara works great as well). The sauce also has a creamy element to it apart from the regular cheese that goes on top and that is the Cream cheese. Adding a little bit of cream cheese adds a very creamy texture to the sauce.

I am sending this recipe to the love2bake event, which happens every Monday and also this goes as a part of my weekly Cooking from a cookbook challenge.

Preparation time – 20 mins Cooking time – 45 mins Difficulty level – medium

Ingredients – (serves 6)

Whole wheat Penne pasta (or any large pasta variety) – 1 lb

Marinara sauce (homemade or store bought) – 3 cups

Bell pepper – 1 small (diced)

Onion – 1 (diced)

Garlic – 2 cloves (minced finely)

Broccoli – 2 cups (florets only)

Cream cheese – 4 oz

Mozzarella cheese (or any blend of your choice) – ¾ cup

Parmesan cheese – ¼ cup

Crushed red pepper – 1 tbsp

Olive oil – 2 tbsp

Salt – to taste

Procedure –

In a large pot, boil enough water and cook the penne according to the package directions. Drain the cooked pasta and keep it aside. I would reserve about a cup of pasta water to use later.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

In a large pan, heat the olive oil and sauté the onions until translucent. Now add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds more. Add the bell pepper, broccoli and crushed red peppers and cook until the vegetables are softened.

Now add the marinara sauce and let it heat up. Also add about ½ cup of reserved pasta water and let it come to a simmer. Break the cream cheese into small pieces and add it to the simmering sauce. Let it dissolve and then simmer the sauce for about 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the cooked pasta to the sauce mixture and stir well to coat. At this point if the sauce appears too thick, add a little bit more of the reserved pasta water.

Transfer the pasta to a greased 9 x 13 pan and spread it evenly. Top with the grated mozzarella and parmesan cheese. 

Bake for about 20-25 minutes until the pasta is bubbly and the cheese has melted. 

Serve hot!

This post is for the CC Challenge of the month

  Sending this recipe to Love2Bake event!

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Bulgur Salad – A recipe from North Africa

For the third and last day of my African cuisine series, I made this simple yet very flavorful salad made with Bulgur and few vegetables. Doing series like these gives me a chance to do lot of research and the local library helps a lot with this. I found this bulgur salad recipe from the book North African cooking by Hilaire Walden that I bought from my local library. I had a good read about the eating habits and lifestyles of people in the countries located in the Northern part of the Africa.

This book features several recipes from three major countries, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, that border the Southern Mediterranean Sea. The cuisine of this region is very famous worldwide and is known to be a very colorful and sophisticated cuisine. These three countries share several similarities in the style of cooking, but yet have their own favorite spice or flavor.

There are several North African Salads (or so called salads) that are necessarily not salad, but dips or pastes. Few other salads are made of vegetables or combination of vegetables and grains and they could either be cooked or raw. During the meal, the salads are served as the first course and then are left through the meal in the table. These salads could also make a very good snack when served with hearty bread.

I have become a very big fan of the texture of Bulgur and I have been using it quite a bit in my kitchen. The bulgur burger has been a much loved dish in my family. I am not a big fan of feta, but it was a very wonderful addition in this salad as a salty component.

The book mentioned to leave the bulgur soaking in boiling water for about half an hour, but that did not work with the kid if bulgur I had (even though the package said quick cooking bulgur). So I cooked it boiling water until it was just beginning to soften and then drained it. I also added some black olives to the salad. If adding olives, please do balance the salt in the salad.

Preparation time – 10 minutes Plus 2 hrs chilling time Cooking time – 10 mins Difficulty level – easy

Ingredients – Serves 4 as a side

Bulgur – ¾ cup

Cucumber – ½ of a large one (chopped into ½ inch piece)

Bell pepper (red or green) – ½ (chopped into ½ inch piece)

Scallions – 4 tbsp (finely chopped)

Cilantro – 2 tbsp (finely chopped)

Feta cheese – ½ cup

Black olives – few (optional)

For the dressing –

Olive oil – 2 tbsp

Lemon juice – 2 tbsp

Garlic – 1 or 2 cloves (finely minced)

Salt – to taste

Black pepper – ½ tsp

  Procedure –

Place the bulgur in a large bowl and add about ¾ cup of boiling hot water to it. Let it soak of 30 minutes or until all the water has been absorbed by the bulgur. If your bulgur is still tough, I would suggest simmering it in boiling water until it softens a bit and then drain it. Make sure the bulgur still has a crunch to it.

In a small bowl, combine all the dressing ingredients and whisk it well.

In another bowl add all the chopped vegetables and mix well.

To the cooked and slightly cooled bulgur, add the dressing and mix well. Now add the rest of the ingredients and mix well again.

Refrigerate the bulgur salad until ready to serve. The bulgur salad salad tastes good when eaten chilled, so I would suggest that you refrigerate it at least for couple of hours before serving.

    Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 36

This post is for the CC Challenge of the month!

  Linking this recipe to African Diaspora Recipes

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Parangikkai Vathal Kuzhambu / Pumpkin Vathal Kuzhambu

I come from South India and for someone from Southern part of India; this should have been one of those very first recipes that should have been written in the blog. Unfortunately that did not happen in my case. I make vathal kuzhambu very so often in my house. Every time I make it, I think of taking pictures and then I don’t. It is because either it does not match the vathal kuzhambu my mother makes or the family is starving. Because I make it very often, I always end up saying, it is alright, and I will take the pictures next time. Finally, this week when I made the vathal kuzhambu, I was determined to get the pictures and post it in the blog.

My mother makes the best vathal kuzhambu. This recipe is her version of the kuzhambu that I have written in my recipe book which came to US with me when I came here. By now I know how to make the kuzhambu very well, but still it gives me a pleasure to just open the book and read through it, just to get my mother’s touch in it. When I go back to India for vacation, my first request to my mother would be to make vathal kuzhambu and manga (mango) pachadi. These are my favorite recipes and so are my kid’s favorite.

I am posting this recipe for the first week of Cooking from a cook book challenge. I am so glad to be a part of this group, since I get to blog about all my hand written recipes from my recipe book which were passed on to me from my family.

This is a very simple kuzhambu which has thick tamarind extract along with some vegetable. There is no cooked dal (paruppu) in this recipe. I have used parangikkai (Yellow Pumpkin) for this kuzhambu, but any vegetable could be used. The most common ones used are, onion, drumstick, egg plant, radish, okra or any kind of dried vegetable (vathal). If using vathal, be careful when adding salt since the vathal has quite a bit of salt in it.

  Also check out the Vengaya Vathal Kuzhambu recipe here.

Preparation time – 15 mins plus 30 mins to soak the tamarind Cooking time – 30 mins Difficulty level – easy Ingredients – (serves 4-6)

Tamarind – a size of large lemon

Yellow pumpkin – 2 cups (chopped into 1 inch pieces)

Sambhar powder – 3 tbsp

Salt – to taste

To season –

Gingelly oil/ Nallennai – 4 tbsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Thuvaram paruppu/red gram dal – 1 tbsp

Red chili – 2

Fenugreek seeds/vendhayam – 1 tsp

Asafetida – ¼ tsp

Curry leaves – few

Procedure –

Soak the tamarind in about 4 cups of hot water for 30 mins. Squeeze the tamarind well and extract all the juice. Keep it aside.

In a heavy bottom, heat the oil. Then add all the seasoning ingredients and let it fry for a minute.

Now add the chopped pumpkin and sauté for about 5 minutes.

Add the sambhar powder and fry for a minute more.

Add the extracted tamarind juice and the salt required. Mix it well and let it come to a boil.

Reduce the heat to medium and let the kuzhambu boil for 20- 25 minutes until the kuzhambu reaches a thick consistency.

Turn off the flame and serve hot with rice and ghee! I served it with some seppangkizhangu roast (recipe coming soon).

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Palak ka Raita – Spinach in spiced Yogurt

22nd Dec, 2013

This recipe is from the same book, Cuisines of India, from which I made the Tamatari Kasoori Pulao. The author, Smita Chandra has captured all the festive flavors used in the ancient India’s cooking. I would have never tried palak (spinach) in raita if my husband did not force me to try this recipe. I am so glad that I tried this recipe because I simply loved it. The raita was so flavorful and it paired great with the pulao.The author recommends using fresh spinach, but since I did not have any fresh spinach in hand, I used frozen ones and I have no complains. I have used ginger powder in the recipe and if you don’t have any in hand, substitute it with a ¼ inch piece of grated fresh ginger.

Preparation time – 10 mins Cooking time – 20 mins Difficulty level – easy