Steamed Couscous Sandwiches -AKA Idlis

Idlis are often referred to as steamed rice cakes - However these have assumed several variations over the  years and people (self-included) have tried my hand at making these staple south Indian delicacy with grains other than rice. Couscous is one of them.
Couscous has replaced many a rice meal in our home and I have blogged the recipe for couscous idlis before - see here - but the kids were wanting a pizza for lunch 2 sundays ago - I did not want to make or buy pizzas - FYI each slice of pizza store/restaurant bought averages 450 for minimum to a max of 750 and beyond even depending on what the toppings are. We have been on a caloric ride all summer and the start of school signifies the change of diet as well - back to healthy, yummy, low calorie meals. This was a really yummy sandwich idli - I added the toppings of a veggie pizza - onions, tomatoes, bell peppers & green chili all sauteed into a dry curry.
For this version, I dispensed with all the thadka and made it simply with 2 cups of couscous and 2.5 cups of butternilk (actually 1 cup of yogurt and 1.5 cups of buttermilk) These babies can soak up as much buttermilk as you want to put in them - so all you need to is make the batter and cook asap.

Here are some pictures: Enjoy these idlis, for lunch, brunch, tiffin, breakfast or dinner.

these are beautiful dippy plates that we use to steam the Idlis

These babies can also be served with a freshly ground Coconut chutney, another staple side from South India - recipe to follow soon
Here is a sneak peak at it :)

Fresh Fig Chutney/Preserve

Fresh Fig Chutney

I wonder how the expression, I don't give a fig ever came about - were they talking about Figs or was that a short for figure as in number?  If they were referring to Figs, then they have indeed been overly shortsighted to have been so dismissive of this delicious and rather luscious looking and tasting fruit. I have known the delights of this fruit thanks to my friend who has this massive fig tree at her home and has been sharing kindly. Today I picked about two pounds (about 20-24 figs) came back home and decided to make something with it asap. And after sifting through a bunch of recipes, I settled on a Fig Chutney with the half and a tart with the other. Today I blog the chutney which I must say myself was absolutely amazing! Here is my recipe and some lovely pictures of the fruit

Ingredients

12 Figs black mountain medium sized

1 cup of honey

1/2 cup orange juice 

1/2 cup Port Wine

1tbsp unsalted butter

2 cloves (crushed)

3 black whole peppers (crushed)

1 tsp each of

crushed cardamom

all spice

crushed saffron

lemon zest

My Fig Face :p

Method

Wash and cut the stems of the figs before cutting them into quarters

Melt the butter in a heave sauce pan

Heat the honey until it becomes syrupy. 

Add the rest of the ingredients (except the figs)

All the all to thicken into a syrup consistency (about 10 -12 mins of medium heat gas flame)

Now add the figs and swirl syrup around or gently aid with ladle until the syrup covers the figs.

All this to simmer in medium low flame for about 18 -20 minutes depending on how ripe your figs are. 

Remove from flame And cool.

Bottling the preserve

I wonder why I do this since this yielded about 1/2 of the 1/2 liter mason jar or a little less and from what I heard after the kids tasted it, they were planning to make short work of it by tomorrow - glad I got the pictures in now -lol :)

Anyway,

Wash the mason jar and lids with soap thoroughly and rinse

Boil them for about 7 minutes in water

Remove with tongs and pat dry with paper towel and place on a sterile (or clean) surface

Cool the chutney and put in the jar

Seal tight. If the jar is full and you notice air bubbles, open the jar ensure that they are teased out before resealing.

If this is to be put away, boil water again and put sealed jar in and boil for 5 more minutes for the seal to set. 

Label and put away in the pantry - It will be good for a year of these instructions are followed.

Now for some pics :) And stay tuned for my Fig pie/tart

The Perfect French Bread

The first one took less that 5 minutes to be polished off - I kid you not!

When I scoured the web for a good recipe, little did I know I was going to end up following a you tube demo of the least complicated recipe out there - The only thing you need to do if you are following him, is cut back on the salt!!!! either he made a mistake when he said 1tbsp instead of 1 tsp or he just likes his bread way too salty. Otherwise, the recipe was first rate - no fuss and most importantly NO oil - he saves the butter for the end.

Anyway, your search for a fabulous loaf of french bread end right here mes amies.

Ingredients
4 cups of flour (I used Pillsbury bread flour) AFP Or half and half of AFP and whole wheat - I guess you can play around with this :)
1 tbsp fast acting yeast
1 cup + warm water
1tsp of salt

Preparation
Mix dry ingredients flour and salt together in a bowl.
Mix the yeast in about 1/2 cup of warm water stir it in and pour into the flour
Add 1/2 more cup of warm water and nix until the dough is coming off the sides of the bowl
Transfer on to floured counter surface
Knead for a couple of minutes until you can make a smooth ball
Place back in  bowl and put a plastic grocery bag over it (or saran wrap) and allow it to rise for 2 hours
Dust the works surface with flour
After which,  take the dough, knead a couple of time and cut into 2 equal halves
Roll them out long, flatten with a few karate chops creating a dent down the middle
Bring the corners together by pinching
Repeat a couple of times, it is kinda fun to do :)
At this time, preheat oven to 400
The pinched side becomes the bottom as you roll it over
Be sure you have the surface is lightly floured so that the balls are not sticking to them
Now take a sharp regular knife and slash a few times down the middle to give it "the look" besides other scientific reasons.
Repeat with the other ball -
Now allow them to sit for another hour or 2 depending on when you need to have it ready
It will rise again, giving that fuller look to the loaf
Turn the temp of the oven to 350
Before placing in the oven, throw about 1/2 cup of water to create a moisture in the oven.
Cook for 35 minutes or until the top is brown

Remove and serve hot with olive oil, freshly grated romano or parmesan and a hint garlic. Or just put a tsp of butter and watch it melt into the loaf as you take your first bite :)

This bread is incredibly soft on the inside and has an interesting and desired crusty outer shell -

Enjoy folks - the process is really simple albeit long as are the explanations just so you can get a perfect picture of it -

I back this up with a pictorial now and another Stuffed bread recipe of which there is a sneak peak on my FB page :)

First look

good ole grocery bag - a new trick I learnt :)

Doubled in size

Shaped and Risen

check out the steam 

A Freshly cut piece :) the room was filled with the wonderful smell of warm bread

Not much kneading required to get these fab layers inside

See the butter melting yo!

My happy smile depicted in the cut :)

The back of the bread

Lavender Blueberries Muffins

This was a second treat I made in anticipation of my Zumba miss - Another no show,  I guess she had her reasons and her commitment to me did not figure at all in her list of priorities but the disappointment nor the slight irritation at being stood for the 4th time cannot be trivialized. However, my wonderful family was as always quite welcoming of this treat.
But they filled up the room with the most pleasing aromas and I was happy for a chance to use my lavender buds.
 I got the general idea for the recipe from a website called Wiki - I like the fact they'd used small amounts of oil as opposed to butter, because this gave me the option of using olive oil.


Here is the recipe


Ingredients as given in the Wiki but with some key modifications

• ¾ cup Sugar
• 3 cups unbleached Whole wheat flour
• 2 tbsp.baking powder
• ½ tsp.salt
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 ¼ cups milk
• 1 tbsp. Freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. Finely grated lemon zest
• 2 tsp. dried cooking lavender buds (1 tbsp. Fresh)
• 3 large eggs beaten
• 2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

For Lavender Sugar

1tsp of lavender buds

3 tbsp of sugar

grind in a coffee grinder together and set aside for sprinkling on top of the muffin, if desired.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Combine first four dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the lemon juice with milk and let stand for 5 mins. Add the rest of the wet ingredients including the lemon zest, lavender and blueberries to the milk and lemon juice mixture. Gradually stir wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until all dry ingredients are moistened. Bake 25–30 minutes. Cool completely before removing from pan.


Serve warn with tea!

Papineberry Juice

This is an adaptation of a recipe that was presented in the Dr. Oz Show last week which gives a great kickstart to the day. It contains all the goodness of papaya, pineapple, blueberries, kiwi, flaxseed meal, a dash of ginger powder and a little sage to make it aromatic, this drink will have you hit the ground running.

Ingredients
1 cup papaya
1 cup pineapple
1/2 cup blueberries
1kiwi
2tbsp flaxseed meal
3leaves of sage
2tsp of ginger powder
1tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup of ice cubes
1cup of water

Grind them into a flowing shake and drink up and let me know what you think :)

Paneer-yarams with Creamy Fennel dip

Just when I thought I'd exhausted all my ideas for leftover idli atta, of course, kuzhi paniyarams struck me. When I posted on Facebook for ideas with Fennel greens, I had a wonderful list of things I could do with it from a bunch of friends, each one of them gems which i plan to make-
But the easy and delicious one which was immediately executable was Priya's suggestion of a dip - Then I decided I would also chop the greens and the bulb and use for the kuzhi paniyarams - had a block of paneer sitting around and decided to grate that into the kuzhi paniyarams making for delicious paneeryarams :)) Nothing like a little twist to tradition, what say?

I used
1/2 a bulb of fennel,
2 stalks of fennel greens,
1/4 red onion, 1 green chili,
1/2 tsp of turmeric
3/4 cup of grated paneer,
1/4 cup of grated cheddar.
I lightly sauteed the fennel, greens, onions. turmeric and chili in 1 tsp of olive oil.

Batch 1

First batch I made, I tried to do a sandwich with the cheeses. It tasted great but made for messy pouring - so I simply incorporated the paneer & cheddar into the batter and poured the second batch like that - result = awesomeness!

Batch 2

Fennel Dip
3 short stems of fennel greens chopped fine
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1tbsp low fat yogurt
1tsp of Tzatziki herb mix
1tsp salad spice mix (this is like paprika)
mix in and serve with hot Paneeryarams.

Showcasing dip and my peeling nail polish :)