Onion & Peanut Chutney

A simple quick and fabulous chutney to accompany dosa, (lentil crepes) Idlis (savory cakes) or even mix in with rice. Having the kids home demands that you be quick and creative - it is always a pleasure to have them home, but the problem usually is coming up with an idea for  a meal more than making it - I am sure all you experienced chefs out there would agree - Rava Idlis and Chutney seemed like a perfect light and simple lunch to make- So we did and it was enjoyable - And what was best is although it is frigid outside, the sun shines even brighter making for good pics - Lately I have made food that I wish to blog in the evening and Jan evenings are usually gloomy and dark even by 5, making for not so great pics of really good food - Will strive to be more efficient with the daylight hours for blogging.

Here is the recipe
Ingredients
1 big red onion
1 handful of roasted peanuts (husk free)
3-4 of your spicy dried red chilies
1tsp of sesame oil

For tempering
a pinch of asafetida
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
fresh curry leaves
1tsp of sesame oil

Method
In a wok/kadai/frying pan heat the oil and add the ingredients and cook until onion is translucent
Cool and grind
Temper with the suggested ingredients

Serve with Idlis, dosas, rice or chapatis - See here with hot and delicious Rava Idlis

Enjoy

Roasted Garlic & Cherry Tomatoes

September 7, 2012 | Filed under: Curries and Veggies, Entree, Entrees, Recipes, Uncategorized, Vegetarian and tagged with: Baked,Cherry tomato recipe, Entrees, Italian, Low Fat recipes, recipes, Salad, Sun Gold Tomatoes, Vegan, vegetarian | Edit

They are small, beautiful, and perfectly round. They are sun kissed, thin-skinned and utterly juicy. They can be eaten like grapes and are a perfect addition to a green salad. So those were pretty much the two ways in which we were eating these beautiful tomatoes, a bumper crop in my friend’s veggie garden. She and I have bartered veggies from each other’s gardens, although hers is twice as big as mine – I got figs, sun-gold tomatoes, delicious cucumbers, basil and now spicy chilies (yes!) and I gave her some of my okra eggplant and earlier on some cilantro, lettuce.

The last time she gave me some of these, I had them unused in my fridge and she suggested this preparation to me. Thanks Fla! It was amazing!

Now this is a post for a special blogger friend, Radhika who is celebrating her birthday today. She has been appreciating recipes from my garden all through the summer and I thought it would be befitting to post something fresh for her.

I also take this opportunity to announce that I am joining Radhika and the stellar bunch of bloggers on their Avant Garde Cookies, Epicurean Voyage. I am thrilled and excited to be doing this with Radhika, a versatile and energetic woman who constantly organizes wonderful new ways of enhancing our culinary creativity and her own. Priya Sreeram, whom I’ve considered a soul sister from the get-go who writes from her heart and cooks that way too. Kavitha, a young lady who has impressed me as an enterprising “cookie” juggling a blog where she is so active and university, hats off to her! I am looking forward to getting to know my other cookies over the course of this voyage; Jay, Veena, Roshni & Anusha  – First impressions however…

When I visited Anusha’s Blog, the picture of her Vegetable Fried Rice bowled me over – I would have liked that bowl all to myself!

The Tamarind Ginger Pickle that I saw when I visited Roshni’s blog had my tongue in a tickle for a lick of that delish pickle

The Eggless Double chocolate cookies on Veena’s blog seem like the perfect post dinner munch for me as I write this

Jayanthy’s blog is a visual treat with amazing pictures…

My voyage with the group begins soon…

Back to the recipe with homegrown deliciousness – but for the garlic all else was grown in my garden – The tomatoes are of course courtesy my pal.

Ingredients

• 1 lbs of Sun Gold Tomatoes washed
• A Handful of  Red & Purple Cherry Tomatoes
• 3 small-medium red onions
• 2 pods of garlic
• Spices
• Rosemary & Oregano
• Ground Pepper
• Sea Salt
• Olive Oil Spray

Angel Hair pasta (as much as needed)

Method

1. Set the Oven at 350 degrees F
2. Spray a baking pan with olive oil
3. Layer with tomatoes
4. Place garlic pods in the pan
5. Chop the onions and find room for them as well on the pan
6. Add fresh oregano & rosemary
7. Bake for 45 minutes
8. In the mean time, boil your pasta, drain over cold water.
9. Drizzle a small quantity of olive oil along with some salt and toss
10. Remove veggies from oven and serve over the pasta.
11. Eat with gusto.
    

This is a perfect post for my blog event FAST FOOD not FAT FOOD guest-hosted this time by my sweet friend, Archana of The Mad Scientist's Kitchen - Do send you entries to her if you have a healthy recipe you've made - 

Other ladies wishing Radhika a happy birthday with a virtual treat are Priya, Roshni, Kavi

A couple of links to visit
Priya: http://eq-myblog.blogspot.in/2012/09/chilled-nutty-choco-bites-virtual.html
Roshni: http://arusuvai-kurippu.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/baingan-bharta.html
Kavitha:http://foodomania.com/quick-birthday-chocolate-cake/comment-page-1/#comment-1431

Home Garden Veggie Tian

This is an adaptation of the French dish Tian, which mainly consists of vegetables, cut in circles and baked. By adaptation, I mean my version has sambar podi to liven things up for the Indian palate. What is special about this dish? It was made with homegrown, organic zucchinis, squash and tomatoes, the only outsider being potatoes. It is a very easy recipe to put together. The only suggestion I have after making it once, is to half boil your potatoes if you're adding them, since they take much longer to cook than the other vegetables. It's a colorful and extremely visually appealing dish and I hope you will attempt it in your kitchens. You can be sure to elicit the "wow"s from whomever you're serving it to.

Ingredients
Serves 10-12

2 large red tomatoes
2 large pink potatoes (peeled)
2 large zucchinis
3-4 medium/large squashes (very large squashes get too seedy)
2 Tbs sambar powder
1 cup of grated cheese (I used mozzarella and cheddar)
Garnish with herb of your choice (I used thyme and rosemary for this one)
Finely chopped spring onion chives
Oil spray
Salt to taste

Preparation

Peel potatoes.
Cut every vegetable (and fruit) in 1/4 inch thick circles.
Cook the potatoes in the microwave for about 5-6 minutes.
Prepare your baking pan by spraying it with olive oil.
Set the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Separate the circles by vegetable and keep them apart.
Mix sambar podi with salt and sprinkle it over each of the veggie discs.
Arrange them in the pan in the order of your preference, alternating colors.
Bake this for 25-30 minutes.
Reduce the heat of the oven to 350 degrees.
Now pull the dish out.
Add the herbs and chives first and top it with the cheese.
Cook at 350 for 20 minutes, or until the cheese is golden brown.

Enjoy by itself, or with freshly baked French bread.
Until next time,
Au Revoir!

Raagi Idlis and Dosais

So after all the navarathri sweets and murrukku binging, we are back to eating healthy, minding what goes in the mouth ... Since I started this blog, I have started looking at more recipe sites and I came across a recipe for Ragi  (finger millet) idlis (steamed cakes) and Ragi dosais (crepes) - From all accounts, millet is a healthy grain, contains protein like Quinoa and less carbs than rice... esp for us Indians who over do the rice, this is a good change and surprisingly, the idlis tasted almost exactly like the regular rice idlis and the dosais too. If there had been a great difference in the taste, this recipe would not have made it on the blog - A true idli and dosai lover like me would not have been able to compromise on the taste - but this is a must try - really simple  recipe and process.

Ingredients:
1-1/4 cup of  Raagi flour/ finger millet flour - available at all Indian stores and at whole foods. (please note that this is the purple kind)
1/2 cup of  black gram (urad dal)

Preparing the dough:
Soak the urad dal for a couple of hours and grind like you would for regular idlis, into a fine past
Soak in a small amount of water the raagi flour and keep for the same length of time
After grinding the urad, add the soaked raagi batter into the grinder and spin it for a minute so that the two batters mix well.
Add salt and keep closed and allow to ferment overnight
Note: The batter rises, but not as dramatically as the idli batter. Just put a drop in your mouth to taste to confirm that it has a slight sourness.
* Mix the dough well,  (you will find the top thick but the bottom watery) so that it is smooth like porridge consistency.
Prepare like regular idlis
Dosais come out great too with the same batter -

Eat it the way you like with your favourite chutney or molagapodi