Pepper 'n Spice

 I cooked chicken rice, in a slightly different style. Of course. it had my favorite vegetable of the week, namely, pumpkin. There was also green capsicum, cabbage, corn, peas, carrot and celery. I remember I had the best chicken rice in Singapore; it was just chicken and rice. I guess they cook in the chicken broth, which makes it super tasty. The mystical constituents are.. Brown rice - 1 cup Water - 1 and 1/2 cup Olive oil - 2 tsps Green chili - 1 Ginger - 1" Chicken, boneless - 100g Peas, frozen - 1/2 cup Corn, frozen - 1/4 cup Green capsicum - 1 Carrot - 2 Cabbage - 1/4 cup Pumpkin - 1/2 cup Celery - 3 stalks with leaves Salt - 1 tsp Pepper - 1/4 tsp Kashmiri chili powder - 1/4 tsp Chicken masala - 1 tsp Soak rice in water for half an hour. Wash rice and drain water. Pressure cook with water, a pinch of salt and a drop of olive oil. Keep aside. Warm up a saucepan and add oil. When it gets hot, add minced chili and ginger. Sautee for a minute. Add thinly sliced chicken pieces....

 Again, oatmeal wins (100g in) :-) My daughter wanted a cake, so I transferred some of the bread batter  into cupcake covers. And announced that I had baked pumpkin cake ;-)  The mini cakes were done in 20 minutes. And the loaf cake took another 10 minutes more..

So, I have converted the  sourdough pizza recipe  to one with oats too (100g oats flour and 198g of all-purpose flour). And it turned out well. Hope you  like too as much as we loved it :-) The integrals of the toppings are carrot, pumpkin, cabbage, green capsicum, corn and chicken.

Tamarind rice is puliyogare, a Kannada dish. I have had it many times in my Bangalore office cafeteria. And more often now, as my daughter likes the taste of the spicy masala.  I didn't make the puliyogare masala from scratch. I bought a ready to add masala powder, but included vegetables in the dish - pumpkin, cabbage, capsicum (some of which my daughter refuses to eat when made into a dish on its own ;-)). The masala contains some fried coconut pieces and groundnuts too. The phenomenal elements are... Quinoa - 1 cup Water - 2 cups Lemon - 1/2 Extra virgin olive oil - 2 tsps Puliyogare masala - 2 Tbsps Salt - 1/4 tsp Pumpkin - 1/2 cup Cabbage - 1/2 cup Green capsicum - 1 The formula... Warm up a saucepan and add oil. When it heats up, add the masala. Fry it for a few minutes. Add chopped capsicum, pumpkin and cabbage. Add salt and stir to coat the veggies with the masala. Stir fry for about 5 minutes.  Add washed quinoa grains into the saucepan. Add water and juice of lemon. ...

 One for the road...before my evening walk. A refreshing smoothie made from cranberry, blueberry, honey, milk and vanilla extract. Those are the additives. You can make it thin by adding a splash of water. I have been spending my time reading Mark Edwards "Follow you home". The story is about a young English couple who is touring Europe... Daniel and Laura. When they are travelling by train through Romania, their bags, passports and tickets are stolen. The train guards leave them stranded at Breva station in the middle of the night along with another Romanian girl, Alina. From then starts their nightmare when they chance upon an isolated house in the middle of the forest. The couple flees from the house. But it looks like their nightmare is following them even after reaching back in London...

Effortless protein packed breakfast! The fascinating parts of the toast are.. Sourdought oats bread - 3 or 4 slices Tuna - 1/2 can Green capsicum - 1/4 Celery - 1 stalk with leaves Mozarella cheese - 3 or 4 slices Olive oil - 2 tsps The enchanting procedure is.. Sprinkle oil on a saucepan. Toast both sides of bread slice. Place flakes and chunks of tuna on toast. Then top with minced celery and a small piece of capsicum. Top off with a slice of cheese. Transfer back to pan until the cheese softens and melts. Loved the classy tuna nosh! Hope you do too.

 A healthy protein snack I heard about from the fitbit community. Crisp and crunchy! Adapted from another recipe site . The "preternatural" components are.. Chickpeas - 1 cup (soaked overnight, with 2 or 3 changes of water) Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp Salt - 1/4 tsp Kashmiri chili powder - 1/4 tsp Garlic powder - 1 tsp Ginger powder - 1/2 tsp Pepper - a pinch Olive oil - 1 and 1/2 Tbsp Pressure cook chickpeas with little water and a pinch of salt. Drain water and keep aside to cool. In a glass bowl, add all the spices and salt. Mix well. Add olive oil and combine. Add cooked chickpeas and stir so that they are coated with the spices. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Spoon the chickpeas onto the baking tray.  Preheat oven to 180C. Bake for 45 minutes, tossing the chickpeas twice or thrice in between so that they are evenly roasted. Enjoy the spicy nibble!

 Been thinking of making chicken in a different style today and found one for which I had almost all the ingredients in my refrigerator . And my daughter's pronouncement was that Ït's good amma." So, the mystifying innards of the dish are.. Chicken, boneless - 800g, sliced into 1 inch pieces Olive oil - 2 tsp Carom seeds - 1/2 tsp Curry leaves - a handful Green chili - 2 Garlic - 5 or 6 Ginger - 1 and 1/2 inches Onion - 2, medium Salt - 2 tsp Coriander powder - 1 and 1/2 tsp Chicken masala - 1 and 1/2 tsp Tomato - 2 Celery - 3 stalks with leaves Potato - 2 Water - 1/4 cup Coconut milk - 1/4 cup The unbelievable formula for the chicken bowl... Heat up a saucepan and sprinkle oil. Add carom seeds. Then add curry leaves, minced green chili, ginger, garlic and chopped onions. Sautee for 6 to 7 minutes until onions become soft. Add spices and salt. Stir for 2 minutes. Add roughly chopped tomato, celery stem and leaves. Stir for 2 to 3 minutes and keep away from heat to cool. Gr...

A lazy breakfast day...break an egg on a hot pan, add spices, hurl in some leaves, veggies and scramble. Done! :) The cryptic (:D) contents are... Olive oil - 2 tsp Organic brown egg - 1 Salt - a sprinkle Pepper - another sprinkle Curry leaves - a few Cabbage - a fistful of shreds The enigmatic instructions are.. Heat a saucepan with oil. Break the egg directly on the saucepan. Sprinkle salt and pepper (If you feel up to it, add a bit of minced green chili instead of pepper). Add curry leaves and shredded cabbage. Scramble until the egg is cooked, Serve as such or with a toasted bread slice.

This is my version of a khichdi, which is usually a mix of rice and lentils (like mung dal) cooked together. My dish evolved from a mung bean dosa recipe shared by my aunts, Geetha and Sneha. I accidentally added too much water, thinking it should come to the usual dosa batter consistency. So I converted it into a curry. Looks can be deceptive! :) It turned out great as a side dish for steaming hot basmati rice. The inconceivable ingredients are... Mung beans - 1 cup (soaked overnight) Green chili - 1 Small onions - 5 or 6 Coriander leaves - a fistful Salt -1/4 tsp Turmeric powder - a pinch Water - a splash Soak mung beans for eight hours. If possible, change the soaking water two or three times. This helps reduce flatulence.  Strain water. Pressure cook with mung beans with a new batch of water and a pinch of salt. A single whistle will do, as this beans cooks quickly. Keep aside after draining any excess water. Allow to cool. Mince chili and shallots. Grind mung beans, chili, sha...

Success!!! I finally converted a  sourdough banana bread recipe  to one with oatmeal. Of course, the 100g sourdough part is still refined flour (I haven't yet had the courage to do a trial run on that). But this oatmeal banana bread came out unimaginably amazing; soft and moist with a surprise strong banana flavor here and there.  Also it took longer to bake than the one with refined flour....about 75 minutes. After the first 35 minutes, tent the bread with a tin foil (so that the top of the bread doesn't burn). After the baking time, take out of oven and cool on a wire rack. Slice after half an hour. :-)

Unripe green plantains are the raw nendrakkazha. They cannot be eaten raw, they have to be cooked. We do so after trimming the edges and scraping off the skin with a peeler. The remarkably easy South Indian dish made out of it is called vazhakka mezhukkupuratti in malayalam (I know, quite a tongue twister!). The incredibly simple contents of the stir fry are... Raw banana - 2, big Turmeric powder - a pinch Chili powder - 1 tsp Salt - 1/4 tsp Water - 1/2 cup Coconut oil - for shallow frying Mom's uncomplicated modus operandi is.. Peel the outer skin of the bananas. Chop them into small, but long (about 1/2 inch) pieces. Wash them properly and transfer into a cooking vessel. Add spices, salt and water. Cover. Cook until water is absorbed completely and the banana becomes soft.  Heat a flat saucepan. Add oil. Tilt the saucepan so that the oil spreads to all corners. Add the cooked banana and shallow fry. Stir in between. Fry until they become crisp.

Drumstick is called moringakka in malayalam. We make dishes out of the plants leaves and seed pods (which are the long green sticks called drumsticks). Drumsticks are cut into long pieces and boiled with the dal in sambar. It is also added along with other vegetables in avial. The way to eat the cooked drumstick is to suck at one end so that you can squeeze out the seeds, and then eat the seeds. The outer part (seed pod) is not eaten. This plant seems to grow easily in our climate, because at least two of my neighbors have this plant. You have to pick the drumsticks which are tender for this thoran.      The amazing ingredients of this super food dish are... Drumsticks (tender) - 4 Onion - 1, big Green chili - 1 Coconut, grated - 1/2 cup Cumin seeds - a bit Turmeric powder - a pinch Salt - 1/4 tsp Oil - 2 tsp Curry leaves - a few Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp Rice grains - 1/4 tsp Urad dal - 1/4 tsp     Mom's method for making the supernatural dish... Scrape out the i...

This exceptionally easy breakfast dish is also called eggy bread. In India, it is called Bombay toast, a name coined by the Mumbai street vendors. It can be sweet and sugary with toppings of jam, cream and fruits like strawberry, banana. It can also be made spicy and savory, with salt and pepper and served with ketchup and sausages. We have a local coffeeshop cum bakery called French Toast where their specialties are just this. It was one of our favorite haunts pre-pandemic times. The mystical ingredients are.. Sourdough oats bread - 5 slices Organic brown egg - 1 Honey - 1 tsp Cinnamon powder - a little more than pinch Milk - 2 Tbsp Olive oil - 1 Tbsp Whisk egg, milk, honey and cinnamon.  Slice bread into small pieces (if you want to. I did, so that everyone gets an equal number).  Heat a saucepan with oil. Dip the slices in the eggy mixture and gently place on the pan. After about 5 minutes on low heat, flip the slices. Pan fry until both sides are evenly cooked. To set the ...

In a quest to completely replace refined flour and gluten flours in my recipes, I blindly replaced all of the whole wheat flour ( that was recommended ) with oats flour. It surprisingly turned out well, though a bit on the dry side and not as fudgy as expected. So it is more cakey. Brownies are usually flattish and cut into squares or rectangles. I didn't have a large square baking pan, so I used my heart shaped cake baking pan. That's why it didn't turn out like a sheet cake as brownies usually are. Coffeeshop menu's have brownies with vanilla ice-cream which is a great combination! :-) The raw materials for the unusual brownie are.. The dry ingredients.. Oats flour - 1 and 1/2 cup Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup Baking powder - 1 tsp Salt - 1/2 tsp Wet ingredients.. Milk - 3/4 cup Organic jaggery powder - 1 and 1/2 cup Vanilla extract - 1 tsp Combine dry and wet ingredients separately. Add dry into wet bowl in batches, until the flour is mixed well. Pour batter into a baking t...

"Set your life on fire. Seek those who can fan your flames." - Rumi Pakoda is an Indian dish that is usually deep-fried. But I did a shallow fry with minimal oil. If you have chickpea flour, you can make a pakoda out of almost anything. I had some leftover sourdough bread, so why not. The batter is made from.. Chickpea flour (besan) - 1 cup Semolina (rava) - 2 Tbsp Salt - 1 tsp Kashmiri chili powder - 1/2 tsp Water - 1/2 cup Combine the dry ingredients. Add water, little by little, until the batter is neither too thick or too loose. Heat a saucepan with just enough olive oil for shallow frying. Dip the bread slices in the batter and gently place on the sucepan. Cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, before flipping. Again cook for 10 minutes or until both sides are evenly cooked and browned. The pakodas with a pressed leaf...done by my daughter :-)

Kadai or cheena chati is a deep-bottomed pan which is like a wok pan. This is a North Indiian dish. With paneer added, it becomes kadai paneer . The ingredients are... Olive oil - 4 tsps Carom seeds - 1 tsp Cloves - 1 Cardamom - 1 Onion - 1 large Green chili - 1 Garlic - 7 or 8 cloves Ginger - 1" Tomato - 3 small Salt - 1 tsp Turmeic powder - a pinch Kashmiri chili powder - 1/4 tsp Coriander powder - 1 and 1/2 tsp Green capsicum - 1 Celery - 2 stems Heat a deep bottomed saucepan with 2 tsps oil. Add carom seeds, cloves and cardamom. Chop half of the big onion into thin slices, mince chili, ginger and garlic. Add these into the saucepan after frying the spices. Sautee for 5 to 7 minutes or until the onions become soft. Add roughly chopped tomato. Stir for 3 or 4 minutes. Add salt and spice powders. Stir for 2 or 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and allow to cool. Grind to a rough paste. Chop the rest of the onion into 1 inch slices. Do the same with the capsicum. In the same saucepa...

It is cooked in the Chinese and Indian style. Quite a mixed dish, but vegetarian. Goes well with yogurt and papad. You can add protein by mixing in some scrambled egg. The vegan ingredients are.. Basmati rice - 1 and 1/2 cup Lemon - 1 Water - 2 cups Olive oil - 1 Tbsp Carom seeds - 3/4 tsp Green chili - 1 Onion - 1 Curry leaves - a handful Salt - 1 tsp Turmeric powder - a pinch Chicken masala - 1 tsp Soya sauce - 2 Tbsp Beans - 100g Green capsicum - 1 Green peas - 1 cup Celery - 2 sticks Soak rice in water for 15 mins. Wash and strain water. Add 2 cups of water, a pinch of salt, juice of a lemon and pressure cook the rice. Keep aside. Heat a saucepan and add oil. Add carom seeds and curry leaves. After a few seconds, add chopped onion and minced chili. Sautee for 5 to 7 minutes. Add salt, turmeric powder and chicken masala. Add thinly sliced beans, capsicum and thawed peas. Stir for 5 to 8 minutes. Add soya sauce and stir. Add chopped celery stem and leaves, and then cooked rice. Stir ...