Happy Holidays!! Holiday gift ideas for foodies

Happy Holidays everyone!!  This year I have decided to keep the concept of DIY gift ideas for holidays.  There is nothing better than giving simple personalized gifts.
Next time if you get an opportunity to give gifts try these cool and simple DIY gifts.

Mixed Vegetable Stew in Coconut & Yogurt sauce (Avial)

India is high in culture, tradition and cuisine. Every state has a unique cuisine.  Today's recipe is one of those state specific dish(Avial). A dish from kerala.

Avial is nothing but mixed vegetable stew in ground coconut and yogurt sauce. It is very rich in coconut flavor. Avial can be prepared like a thick curry or like medium gravy. I prefer gravy/sauce kind of than curry version. You can change thickness/consistency as you like.

Ingredients:

2 cups thick curd
Veggies cut into cubes. ( I used carrots, bottle gourd, drumsticks). You can add Yam, potato, french beans, okra as well. (Depending on what I have on that day in refrigerator I use those. )
pinch of turmeric
salt as per your taste

Tempering
2 tsp of oil
pinch of asafoetida
1tsp mustard seeds
1tsp cumin seeds
2 red chilies
few curry leaves


Spice Paste:

1 cup fresh coconut
5-6 black pepper corns
2 tbsp split chickpeas or rice (either one is fine. This helps to thicken the sauce)
1tsp coriander seeds
6 green chlies (adjust as per your spice level)

Soak all the ingredients of spice paste except coconut in water for 30 mts. Use a blender and make a paste of soaked ingredients along with fresh coconut.





Beat curd very well. Add turmeric, salt and spice paste to the beaten curd.
Cook all the vegetables till they are slightly crunch not too mushy. Let the cooked vegetables cool down.  Mix vegetables in yogurt sauce and cook on low flame stirring ocassionally.  (do not mix hot veggies in cold yogurt sauce to prevent curdling of yogurt)
Once the sauce comes to the desired consistency remove from heat. ( I like mine medium thick sauce not too dry nor too thin.) . Give a taste test and adjust spices if necessary
In a seperate pan add oil, once oil is hot add tempering ingredients. Once mustrads starts spalttering remove from heat garnish stew with tempering.



Delicious stew is ready to be serve.  I love to eat stew with hot rice and pickle.

Stuffed Ridge gourd with Onion masala /Beerakaya Ulli Karam

Weather in bay area changed a lot. Past few weeks it is so cold. I just don't feel like stepping out of my house. But nothing stops just because I don't want to go out right :) (I wish it was like that ). Last week was one of the hectic week at work. Glad that week is over. Another week is about to start. As usual my sunday chores started with grocery shopping ,cleaning, laundry etc. Today's visit to grocery store I got tender ridge gourd. So decided to make Stuffed Ridge gourd with onion masala for dinner.



Here is the recipe

Ingredients:

2 medium sized onion

4 medium sized or 3 large Ridge Gourd
salt as per taste
red chili powder as per your spirce level

1tbsp oil

Preparation:

Wash and peel ridge gourd and cut into medium sized cubes. Slit cubes into legnth wise. 

Finely chop onions(I used food processor to chop onions).

Mix red chili powder, salt and chopped onions.  check spice and adjust as needed.

Take a 1/2 tbsp of the filling and stuff each cubed ridge gourd

In a skillet keep all the stuffed ridge gourd and sprinkle oil and cook on medidum heat covering with a lid.  Make sure to turn ridge gourds other side once in a while to cook evenly.  Do not add water since ridge gourd has lot of water. 
It will take 10 to 15 mts to cook this curry. Serve this curry either with rice or roti.

Re post- Palak Tofu / Tofu in spinach sauce

Life is little hectic past few weeks. Unable to spend more time to try new recipes. I am glad at least I am getting  time to cook healthy food. Here is one my old healthy, easy recipe(Tofu Palak) for dinner. I posted this recipe a while ago.

Here is the recipe link "Tofu in spinach Sauce"

Celebrating Diwali with a Healthy Sweet- Happy Diwali!!!!!

Wishing you all Happy Diwali with simple and healthy sweet.

Here is the link for recipe. 

Homemade Pizza from scratch

I have been thinking of making pizza at home for a long time. But never found an event/occasion to execute my plan. Last week my nephew got selected in All-Net basketball league. Since he loves pizza I decided to throw a pizza party for him. Instead of ordering pizza, I have decided to make home made pizza.
Believe me or not kids loved the pizza and the best comment I got is from my daughter. She said "This is the best pizza she ever had!!" What else I need right? I was on top of the world with that comment :)




Here is the fool proof method to make pizza at home.

Source -- Craftsy class of making pizza with slight modifications


Ingredients

Dough:

3 cups of all purpose flour
1 tsp instant yeast
1tsp salt
1tbsp honey/agave/sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
1 - 1 1/2cup of water (depending on the consistency increase or decrease. It is always better to add slowly and check the consistency)

Sauce:  I did two types of pizza one with Tomato sauce one with nut free Pesto

Tomato Sauce :

1 can organic crushed tomatoes
pinch of salt as per the taste
1tsp red wine vinegar (Optional)
1 tsp dried oregano
water as needed

Nut free Basil Pesto:

2 cups of tightly packed basil leaves
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
4 garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 green chilies ( I like to add spice to my pesto. this is completely optional)
salt as per taste

Pizza toppings:  Whatever u like

I used onions, Jalapeños, tomatoes and mozzarella cheese

Preparation:

Tomato Sauce :

In a mixing bowl add all the ingredients and whisk into easily spreadable sauce. If the sauce is too thick add water to thin. Taste and adjust salt as needed. 
If you are using diced or whole tomatoes use a food processor to process into smooth sauce. 

Basil pesto Sauce:

Combine basil, garlic, lemon juice, salt, cheese and pulse till coarse in food processor. Add olive oil and process until fully incorporated  and smooth. Give a taste test and adjust the salt as needed. If the sauce is too thick add oil if it is too thin add cheese. Cover and store in a air tight container to minimize oxidation.


Dough:

Sift the flour and mix all the dry ingredients with a whisk or a spatula in a mixing bowl.
In a food processor add dry ingredients, honey, oil.  With mixer on add water slowly till  all the ingredients are mixed into a dough consistency. Dough will look very sticky. Don't worry that is how it should be.
Remove the dough from the food processor and form into a ball and store in a  container coated with oil. Cover it with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator for at least 20 hours. It is always best if the dough rises slowly in cool temperature

This dough will  make 2-  11 inch pizzas.

Making Pizza:

Pre heat oven 500 degrees F

Cut the dough into two half. Remove one half and form into a round shaped ball.  Dust the cooking surface with flour and stretch the dough using your fingers into 11 inch round pizza pan. You can go little fancy and stretch using your knuckles or back of the hand.  I tried doing that :) Trick is not to get tears in the dough.  Dough should be thin.

Coat the pizza pan with olive oil. Transfer the stretched dough on the pan. Drizzle olive oil(Optional)
Spread the sauce (Whichever u like. You can even do half Tomato and half pesto) Sauces and toppings
are left to your imagination and interest. Spread veggies/toppings evenly and sprinkle mozzarella cheese.

Bake pizza for 10 minutes until crust is golden color and cheese is bubbly. Cut and serve immediately. Hot pizza from oven with a nice cold drink!! Yummm!!!




Note: Since I don't own pizza stone I used Cookie pan as the base to keep my pizza pan( I learned this tip from Craftsy class to get the evenly cooked pizza)

Crib Cake for friend's Baby Shower

Finally got some time to write. Last week I made a Chocolate cake shaped like Crib for my friend's baby shower.
It was a surprise shower for my friend. Considering this is her second baby it was real hard to plan a surprise shower. But we pulled it very well.

Theme for the party was Jungle.
All decorations  I made at home. (Including party favors and party favor boxes. ) . I found Elli's website with lots of ideas for to decorate with DIY concept.  Here is the link to elli's website.

Coming to the cake, It  was an eggless chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream frosting.

For party favors I decided to continue the concept of DIY so made almond butter for all the elders. Made cookies for kids. Everyone loved the favors, cake and decorations.

Here are few pics.

Inspiration for this cake is from Karrencakes.

Cake pics :

Decorations:

Kale, Cilantro Flat bread/Roti

How about Roti with Kale for dinner?  I guess everyone who is reading my blog might observe I like to eat kale in different forms. Today's recipe is trying kale in the form of Roti.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup kale
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1tsp minced garlic
1 tsp red chili powder (Adjust as per spice)
1 tsp coriander powder
salt as per taste
1 cup yogurt (If you want to make it vegan use vegan yogurt)
3 cups wheat flour or multigrain flour
1tbsp oil

Process:

Use either food processor or finely chop all green leaves.  I used food processor so it was more of coarse paste than finely chopped.
In a bowl add yogurt, all spices mix well.  Add finely chopped greens or coarse paste of greens and mix well. To this add flour  and make a soft dough. (Add water as needed)  Rest the dough for 10 mts covering with damp kitchen towel.
Or use food processor to make soft dough.







Take the dough and divide into small balls. Dusting with flour roll the dough into flat bread approximately 5" to 6" diameter.

On a hot griddle or pan place roti/flat bread. Cook both sides till it turns golden color drizzling few drops of oil or ghee.

Serve with curry or raita or pickle. Or just eat the roti as it is.

Zucchini Noodles with Pesto

A trip to farmers market on Sunday made me realize in few more weeks Summer is about to end and I will not be able to find fresh summer vegetables like zucchini, corn, basil etc in farmers market. Before they vanish I bought few pounds all my favorite veggies.
Today's recipe is low carb, low calorie, inexpensive zucchini noodles with pesto.  Next time when you really want to eat noodles try these zuchhini noodles instead of regular noodles.

Ingredients:



2 Zuchhinis (I used 2 zucchinis considering 1 per person)- Use a Julienne peeler or mandoline or spiralizer to cut into julienne strips. Always stop when you reach seeds and turn.

Pesto:

2 cups fresh packed organic basil leaves
1 tbsp cilantro (optional)
1/4 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves
1tbsp lemon juice
2 green chilies (I like spicy so I added chilies. this is optional)
sea salt

Combine basil, garlic, salt, lemon juice and pulse till coarse in food processor. Add 1/4 cup oil and process until fully incorporated  and smooth.







In a large skillet add 1/4 tsp of oil, once skillet is hot add zucchini noodles, season with salt and pepper and cook for 1 mt or until the veggies are cooked through yet firm.
Remove cooked zucchini noodles in a serving bowl add pesto and give a good stir. Adjust spices as needed.

Healthy, delicious dinner ready in minutes.

Homemade Almond Butter (Preservatives Free)

Whenever I go to Whole foods I always stop at the nut butters aisle. But never bought one looking at the ingredients list. I somehow cannot accept so much sodium in nut butter. So decided to make home made almond butter without any preservatives and added sugar.

Here is the incredibly easy recipe. The best part is you can control what goes in. Who doesn't want control right?

Here is some health information about almonds and almond butter (If any one is interested to know)
Health Benefits




Ingredients:

2 cups of Almonds (roasted or raw)
If you are planning to roast,  Pre heat oven at 350 degrees F.  Lay almonds on baking tray and roast for 8 to 9 minutes. Remember to turn occasionally.
FYI- Raw almonds will take longer time than roasted almonds to get the almond butter consistency.

1/4 tsp sea salt (Optional)


Process:









In the food processor add roasted almonds and switch on button. If you are looking chunky almond butter when almonds chopped coarsely stop the food processor and remove 2 tbsp of chopped almonds and keep it aside. Rest of the batch back to grinding. Depending on batch size it might take some time to get to the right consistency. Be patient. Make sure you stop every few minutes and scrape the sides with spatula. After some time you will finally see the right texture similar to peanut butter. At this time you can add sea salt. This step is completely optional.  Give it a quick mix and remove in air tight container if you are looking for smooth texture. If you are looking for chunkier one, then add coarse almonds which kept aside and give it a quick mix.

Delicious, healthy almond butter is ready for you to enjoy as a snack or as a spread on the toast for your breakfast.

Shelf Life:  up to 2 months without any flavor in the fridge in a airtight container.

Tip: You can also flavor almond butter with 2 tbsp of honey / Agave / Maple syrup. If you add these flavors shelf life will be shorter. So make sure you do smaller batches when you add flavors.

Kale, Chickpeas Salad with Tahini dressing

Past few months have been pretty hectic with many events in my life both professionally and personally. My parents visited us for few weeks after pestering them with many calls J. I guess lot of people can relate to my statement. It is really hard for our parents to stay here for a longer duration. But I am glad they came here and spent sometime with us. Initially, I thought I will blog every recipe which my mom makes while she was here but with a hectic schedule never got a chance to implement my idea.

After my parents left it took me a while to be back on track. Lately I started experimenting with salads. Today’s recipe is one of those salad experiments.

Here is the recipe for crunchy, high protein and nutrient salad. What else do you need to be healthy yet satisfying your taste buds? Try and let me know your experience.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked chickpeas or 1 can of chickpeas

2 cups of chopped organic baby kale or regular kale ( I used organic baby kale)

1 cucumber peeled and diced

1/4 cup of chopped walnuts and pecans or any nuts of your choice nuts 

1tbsp of dried cranberries

1/2 tsp lemon zest

Dressing:

2 tbsp of tahini paste (I used home made tahini)

1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

pinch of cayenne pepper (Optional. If you are spicy eater like me you can add cayenne or else leave this ingredient)

1tbsp lemon juice

salt and pepper as per your taste

Preparation:

In a large mixing bowl add greens, diced cucumbers, chickpeas,nuts and cranberries. 

In a small bowl add all dressing ingredients and whisk well. 

Pour the dressing on the veggies and toss well. Enjoy as a main course or a side dish.