Berry Good

Several months ago my friend A lent me her cast iron skillet; one which she hardly used at all. I'm seriously in love with this skillet. I've used it so often for so many things that unless A explicitly asks for the skillet it is mine.

The first thing I baked in the skillet was a whole wheat-semolina bread. It was to die for. The recipe needs some fine tuning before it is ready for prime time (on this blog).

Meanwhile here is a muffin-cake that I recently baked. This is Vaishali's recipe for blueberry muffins baked in a skillet instead of a muffin pan. They take longer to bake than regular muffins but I think the results are absolutely worth the extra time.

We loved this muffin-cake. The grainy raw sugar added a nice crunch and the oats provided the nuttiness.

I had to make some minor changes to the original recipe because I did not have some of the ingredients (milk) on hand.
Here is the recipe with my modifications.
The original recipe is here.

Berry Muffins
(makes one large or 11 medium muffins)
Ingredients
1½ cups flour (I used a mixture of whole wheat, oat, and quinoa flours)
½ cup all purpose flour
¾ cup raw sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
zest of 1 lemon
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup lemon juice
¾ cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 - 1½ cups berries

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Mix all the dry ingredients together and set aside.
Mix all the wet ingredients and add to the dry ingredients.
Combine well.
Add in the berries.
Pour the batter in the skillet and bake for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the skillet comes out clean.
Enjoy!

Constant Craving

You know how sometimes a tune gets stuck in your head and keeping on playing. You can't get it out of your head. This is particularly vexing if it is a cheesy tune and it gets stuck in the early hours of the day.

Something similar happened last week; instead of a tune, the voices kept saying 'muthia, muthia'.

This was surprising since muthias are not something I make often. So where was this craving coming from? Weird!
Anyway since the craving wasn't for something like pound cake or some deep fried goody I gave in.

Muthias usually have a fair amount of flour, cooked rice, or both.
Since I usually don't have any leftover rice on hand, I used leftover quinoa instead. The quinoa has to be warmed and pounded (into submission) before adding it to the dough. Otherwise the quinoa grains stay apart and don't bind the greens and the rest of the ingredients together.

Here is my take on the very traditional muthias.

Chard Quinoa Muthias
Ingredients
The proportions are a mere guideline.

1 bunch chard leaves. Set aside the stems, see notes below
1 tsp grated ginger
1 (or more) green chillies
1 tsp owa (ajwain, bishop's weed), lightly roasted
½ whole wheat flour
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 tsp oil
a generous pinch baking soda
salt, to taste

Tempering
6-7 kadhilimba (curry leaves)
1 tbsp brown sesame seeds
kothimbir (coriander leaves, cilantro) for garnishing
Phodni kit (oil, mustard, turmeric, asafoetida)

Method
Wash and finely chop the greens. Set aside. Drain/ wipe much of the water.
Grind the chillies and the ginger to make a paste.
Slightly warm the quinoa and run it through the food processor/ blender to get a pulpy mass.
Mix together the greens, ginger-chilli paste, quinoa pulp, flour, owa, oil and the baking soda to make a soft dough.
Do not over mix but make sure all the ingredients are evenly mixed in.
You may need to add more flour if the greens are too moist.

Divide the mixture in 4-5 parts and form each part into a long oval.
Steam (in a pressure cooker) for about 15 minutes or till a glaze appears.
Or your could insert a tooth pick, if it comes out turn off the heat.

Cool completely before slicing.

Prepare the tempering
Heat oil, add mustard seeds. When they start crackling add the turmeric and then the asfoetida.
Add the curry leaves and then the sesame seeds. Toss them around for a bit and turn off the heat.
After about a minute add the lemon juice.
Pour the tempering over the muthias.
Devour!

Notes
This is how I used the stems: chopped them finely, added a bit of yogurt, salt, a pinch of sugar and topped with a bit of phodni (tempering) made for the muthia. Fantastic!

For more muthia variations, see this and this.

Quinoa-Carrot Pulao

If it doesn't contain any rice is it still a pulao?
This is a riff on the classic carrot-pulao.
I go thru these phases where I make an extra effort to eat less rice.

During one such phase, when a friend mentioned how she has virtually given up rice and instead eats quinoa I was all ears.
Even before we could complete our conversation, in my mind the carrot-pulao had morphed into a quinoa-carrot!

This is an incredibly aromatic pulao and no, we didn't miss the rice one bit.
Equally delicious when hot or at room temperature. I'll be making this pulao quite often. The next time I do, I'll swap out the blurred photo.

Quinoa-Carrot Pulao
Ingredients
4 cups cooked quinoa
2 medium sized carrots, grated or chopped
4-5 black peppercorns
3 cloves (lavang)
½ inch cinnamon stick
1 tsp fennel (bishops weed)
2 pods cardamom
1 green chilies, chopped
1 tbsp oil
salt, to taste
4-5 stalks cilantro, chopped

Method
Heat the oil. When hot, add the green chillies.
Next add all the spices and saute for about a minute.
Add the carrots and let them cook for another minute.
Add the quinoa and salt. Mix well.
Cover and cook over low heat for 3-4 minutes.
Adjust the salt and garnish with cilantro.
Enjoy this protein rich pulao on its own or with a simple raita.

My entry to JFI:Carrots.

Lapping up the Lapsi

Most weekday dinners are poli (or phulkas), a bhaaji (vegetables) and a simple daal.
There are times (a particularly hectic day, an aced test, or just a very good day) one craves a sweet something to go along. On such days, a welcome addition to the meal is a bowl of kheer or sheera (suji halwa).
Child development experts frown on using food as rewards etc., but sometimes a bowl of warm kheer does so much more for the soul than the body; especially if fat free milk and conservative amounts of sugar are used! So I don't mind; we are like that only.

The kheer of choice is ravyachi kheer (suji, cream of wheat) but I'm always on the lookout for alternatives.
Making the lapsi from Tarla Dalal's The Complete Gujarati Cookbook
Lapsi has been on my to-make list ever since I bought this book last year.
It seemed too rich (6 tbsps of ghee) and too sweet (1 cup of sugar) for my tastes. Using greatly reduced quantities of these ingredients, I went ahead and made the lapsi anyway.

We loved it! But then I already knew I was going to like it.
What ever little was left over tasted even better the next day. The nutiness of the cracked wheat, made better by roasting it in ghee is totally delicious.

So here is a low-fat version of the Fada Lapsi:

Ingredients
1 cup cracked wheat (dalia)
1 cup sugar (I used 1/3 cup and it was sweet enough for us)
6 tbsp ghee (I used 2 tbsp)
3 cups hot water (see Notes below)
a pinch of powdered elaichi
10-15 almonds, coarsely crushed (optional)

Method
Over medium-low heat, roast the dalia in the melted ghee.
Slowly add the water to the dalia.
Add the sugar and elaichi and mix well.
Cook this mixture stirring often and breaking any lumps that form.
Let this mixture cook for about 8-10 minutes or till you see ghee on the sides of the pan. If you use less ghee, it won't be visible right away. In that case cook till the wheat is cooked.
Add the nuts, if using.

Notes
Lapsi is made with either milk or water. This time I used just water, but next time I'll definitely be using milk. Since I've greatly reduced the quantity of ghee, milk (even fat-free) will add some richness.

This lapsi is my entry to RCI:Gujarat, hosted by Mythili. Regional Cuisines of India (RCI) is a brainchild of Lakshmi.

Quinoa Kheer

Though we like the savoury Desi version of quinoa, quinoa kheer is good too.
To make this kheer, wash cooked quinoa in several changes of water to remove much of the bitter taste. In savoury dishes this bitterness is welcome; not so much in sweets.
Add milk, sugar, a pinch of elaichi, and a strand (or two) of keshar and cook for about 10 minutes on medium-low heat.
The quantity of milk and sugar depends on how thick you like your kheer and the preferred sweetness levels, respectively.
I've also made a vegan version of this kheer using soymilk. My cousin, who is a vegan, loved it...I'll take his word for it.

Quinoa: The Mother Grain

Quinoa (keen-wah) has been cropping quite often in food-related news and since we like trying out new ingredients, especially vegetables and grains, it was a matter of time before it showed up on our dinner table.

Quinoa is native to the Andes Mountains of Chile, Peru and Bolivia and has been grown there for about 6000 years! Its protein content is unusually high, contains a balanced set of essential amino acids, is a good source of dietary fibre, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron and is gluten-free. No wonder the Incas called it the mother grain.

This is what uncooked quinoa looks like:

It was easy to get Quinoa; Trader Joe's carries it. Preparing it was another matter. I was at a loss for ideas.
My son suggested I add curry leaves and Ajji's masala (literally it means grandma's masala which is nothing but good ol' Maharashtrian goda masala).

I followed the instructions on the package to cook it (1 part quinoa, 2 parts water, cook till the water is absorbed, 10-15 minutes). Cooked quinoa doesn't have a distinctive taste of its own, which is a good thing as it means one is free to improvise.
Plain cooked quinoa looks like little translucent pearls with a ring around them. Very pretty. Take a look:

Quinoa: With Goda Masala
Ingredients
2 cups quinoa, cooked
4-5 curry leaves
1 tsp goda masala (if unavailable, garam masala will work just as well. different flavour, though)
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp turmeric powder
pinch of hinga (asafoetida)
pinch of sugar
cilantro for garnishing
salt, according to taste

Method
Heat oil, when hot add mustard seeds.
When the seeds sputter, add the hinga and turmeric.
Add the curry leaves and the masala.
Add the quinoa and turn off the heat.
Add the salt and sugar.
Mix very gently until well combined.
Add cilantro.
Enjoy!

Verdict
The quinoa with goda masala was immensely enjoyed.
The texture was like al-dente couscous.

Variations
We now want to try quinoa with:
-basil pesto and Parmesan
-sauted onions & peppers
-in a soup; such as Trupti's corn and zucchini soup
-in a sweet dish, quinoa-kheer sounds good!

I'm quickly sending this quality quaint grain, quinoa, to Nupur for her A-Z of Indian Vegetables series.