Beetroot Pasta

If you have kids or not, sometimes cooking three meals a day everyday can get rather tiring. Especially when you are cooking for Miss. Adventurous and Mr. Nit-Picky almost 2 year olds. One day Miss. A decides she had enough of Kiwi and won't touch it again and Mr. N has had enough of mangoes. I have to constantly cycle a variety of both their favorite and strange foods so that they don't get bored of a favorite item and stop eating it completely. I have to also give them a chance to develop a palette for new and interesting foods. So yesterday as I stared at my Tupperware tub of pureed beets, I really needed some inspiration to create something different but still old and comforting for the little ones. I searched for Beet recipes on Mahanandi's search and found Indira's indianized "borscht" recipe.

So big disclaimer, this recipe is nothing like hers; so her recipe was the inspiration for my pasta with beets. I am mostly writing this recipe up because it was a huge hit with the 2 year olds and one day just want to refer back to this on another bleh day of cooking and say "HA! Beet Pasta it is!".

Warning, this recipe is rough on measurements, my best guesses as I was cooking on the fly.. I think you can't go wrong with a little extra of this or that. Its pretty flexible recipe.

Beet Pasta Recipe

• 1.5 Cups Cooked and Pureed Beets
• 1/2 Can Tomato Paste
• 1 Bell Pepper chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 4 Cups Cooked Elbow Macaroni (al dente)
• 1/2 Cup Roasted Pistachios, powdered
• 2 Tbsp Flax Seed Powder
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 Shallot
• 3 Cloves Garlic
• 1 Green Chili (more if you like spicy)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Water as needed

Method:

Cook pasta of choice and drain. I used elbow macaroni as my kids love it. In a saute pan, heat up garlic and shallots in the olive oil, till translucent. Add red bell pepper and saute till tender (~2 minutes). Add pureed beets, flax seed powder, crushed pistachios, green chili to the veggies. Stir for couple more minutes and add tomato paste into the mix. Cook on medium low till it starts to bubble a bit (~5 minutes). Add salt and pepper to taste and pour in cooked pasta and mix. Serve warm. We ate it with some strawberries but I think a nice leafy salad would go well with this pasta as well as some garlic bread.

Verdict? Well, seeing my daughter gobble it up was the best part of the meal. Mr. N was more tentative but he likes beets because of the sweet undertones and of course anything pasta was another a win for him. I really liked the nutty flavors of pistachio with beets and tomatoes. The tomato paste was great because it brought the intense tang to complement the sweetness of the beets.

RCI Bengal: Patishapta -- Pancakes with Coconut Filling

Happy Ugadi everyone! Traditionally my amma is around for us to gather together and celebrate Kannada ugadi with lots of good food and fun. Unfortunately my mom is in India at the moment and we are left to our own devices to celebrate. My first real taste of Bengali sweets in West Bengal was at Bimala Sweet Shop in Kharagpur (KGP). I went to KGP to visit my cousin and aunty. You know how you imagine a city to be after many years of hearing about it? Well, KGP was nothing like I imagined. It was quiet, lush and green (I went in September) and had the universal college town feel to it. The houses had rambling vines of creepers on the fences and there was not that much car traffic in town. Mostly scooters and bicycles. My cousin let me borrow her bicycle and we spent many afternoons cycling to and from various shops and one that stands out in memory is Bimalas. I probably ate 3 to 4 rasmalais everyday there. I had no care in the world about my waist or caloric count. It was pure heavenly creamy bliss. Scaring all the engineers at IIT with my wild outfits and crazy cycling was the second hobby. Good times!

Anyway, why I went down memory lane was to remind myself of the food choice for RCI Bengal being hosted by lovely Sandeepa over at Bong Mom's Cookbook. I wanted to create a sweet for Ugadi, something simple, something rich, and most importantly, no major grinding of course. :)

I got the recipe for Patishapta in my one and only Bangla Cookbook -- Bangla Ranna by Minakshie DasGupta. I was drawn to it for several reasons. One I had all the ingredients at home, two, it reminded me of Kai Holige (sweet poran poli, similar but different) and finally, I realized after tasting it it was very similar to the street vendors version of coconut pancakes in Southern Thailand! So for this special New Years day, here is some bengali sweets.

Patishapta Recipe

For the batter:

• 1 Cup Flour
• 1/2 Cup Rice Flour
• 250 ml Milk
• 1/8 tsp soda bicarbonate

Mix all of the above and let it rest for about 1/2 hour.

For the filling:

• 1 cup shredded coconut (I used frozen)
• 1/2 cup condensed milk
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup almond slivers
• 1 tsp ghee

Take a saute pan and heat to medium. Add ghee and saute raisins and almonds till raisins puff up golden and almond slivers slightly brown. Add frozen coconut to the raisins and nuts as well as condensed milk and let the entire filling come together into one thick mass. ~ 5 minutes. Take care not to burn the coconut. Take it out of the pan and let it cool.

To put it all together:Take a 6 inch non-stick pan and grease liberally with some ghee. Take couple tablespoons of the batter and dollop into the pan. Spread out the batter till its thin (almost crepe or dosa like). Let it cook and brown on one side. Add 1 large heaping teaspoon on top of the pancake and fold the pancake over to cover the filling. Set aside. Make rest of the pancakes with remaining batter and filling. Make sure to continue to grease the pan between pancakes.

To serve: Serve warm or room temperature with additional raisins and almonds as garnish. For even more sweet stickiness, you can drizzle some leftover condensed milk over the pancakes.

Verdict? My husband and kids loved this simple sweet treat. S mentioned that it reminded him of his grandma's Patishaptas. Thats a compliment for sure. Next time, I will add some cardamom powder to the filling. I missed it for sure. Weird that the recipe in the book didn't call for any!

Asha had the same idea for dessert for RCI Bengal! But even though we used the same book/author, the versions of Patishapta is different! How interesting.

Thank you Sandeepa for hosting and allowing me to contribute!

Date Shake for MBP

A record of records. I am squeeking an entry into this month's Monthly Blog Patrol event with Ashwini's superb date shake. AND it freaking snowed in Seattle today. March 28th, 2008. Its supposed to be spring!!

Short but sweet this post is, I created the shake as a great alternative to my kids liking for dates and it was a big flop for them but mom and dad sure loved the yummy date-y drink. So here it goes to Sig as a last minute entry. Hope you are having a blast in India while we shiver with the cold spell.

Ashwini, I love the shake and I made it with milk and yogurt but next time its going to be all ice-cream! If you haven't strolled over to Food for Thought, go there now for some tasty and drool worthy recipes. Thank you!

A very kid themed photo shoot for the date shake, looks good in a sippy cup eh?

Hosted by Sig, original brainchild of Coffee at The Spice Cafe

Tomato Rasam Muffins

TOMATO RASAM MUFFINS -- just hearing these three words together is either grossing you out this very moment or you want to keep reading because you are utterly fascinated. You can blame Trader Joes for this creation. I love Trader Joes and although I usually abstain from buying their fresh produce (too many spoilt veggies too soon), I tend to buy their freezer foods (frozen naans, desserts, organic veggies) as well as dried fruits and snacks. We recently found a really yummy veggie tortilla corn chips that the kids love as well as this dried tamarind flavored with sugar and red chili. Its sweet, hot, sour, tangy and completely yumalicious. I practically ate all of the packet in one setting. I started thinking of ways to incorporate it into a special treat. The texture was chewy and I was instantly reminded of a savory raisin. Then I wondered what I would do with savory raisins and baking popped into my head!

So, I got home, I realized the rest of the packet was destined for a savory muffin treat. But what could I combine my savory dried tamarind with in a baked dish? More contemplation brought about the idea of tomato rasam. In our family, we typically flavor our tomato rasam with tamarind, rasam powder, cilantro leaves, fresh tomatoes with toor dhal. So for this recipe I decided to use some of those flavors in the muffin. I remember reading about a pepper and goat cheese muffin over at Jugalbandi so I got over there and stared at their recipe list. With some minor and major modifications my Tomato Rasam Muffins were born. They were consumed within minutes of their birth and soon will be world famous. :)

Tomato Rasam Muffin Recipe

• Half large onion ( I chose a nice purple onion)
• 1 cup chopped sweetened & dried tamarind (i used Trader Joe brand)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk (i used 2%)
• 2 Cups All-purpose flour (you can substitute wholewheat pastry flour also)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 1/2 Green Chili chopped
• 1 cup chopped fresh tomato
• ~3 oz Cream Cheese
• 1/2 Tsp Cumin Seeds
• 1/4 Tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1 Tsp of your favorite Rasam powder (I used MTR brand)
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground lemon pepper or whole pepper
• 3 tbsp Olive Oil

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degree F. Grease a muffin tray.

Heat a saute pan to medium and add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and add cumin seeds, in a few seconds, throw in the onions, garlic, green chili and turmeric powder and saute for about 5 minutes till onions are translucent. Let it cool. If you want to speed up the process, add the milk. In a large bowl beat eggs till whipped, add rest of the oil and sauteed mixture and stir well. In another bowl combine flour, rasam powder, baking powder, salt, pepper. Add tamarind bits and tomato pieces to the dry ingredients and mix in. Pour egg mixture plus cheese into the dry ingredients and blend till combined. Pour into greased muffin trays. Bake in oven for 25 minutes. Muffins will be browning ever so slightly on the edges, poke a toothpick in the middle to test. If its clean, then its done. Cool muffins on a rack, take pictures, etc. etc. Eat warm! Also goes great as a giant crouton in soups!

Muffin with Butternut Squash Soup

Verdict? I have to say, I was nervous creating this one. I think the cream cheese tempered the spicy overtones just right and the tamarind and tomatoes gave this muffin the right tart and tangy flavors. The tamarind bits added the right texture too. Next time I will be sure to add some chopped up cilantro as it was missing. I didn't have any handy! I know what kind of Indian doesn't keep stock of cilantro around!! The rasam powder added a nice spicy touch and if you like them really spicy increase to 1.5 or 2 teaspoon!

Thanks Bee and Jai for the "technical" aspects of a savory muffin. :) You know --how much flour to egg ratio etc.. You guys should try it out as you are fans of savory stuff.

****UPDATE*** I just found out I won a contest, I won second place for the overall SPECTRA award and I was the winner for DELISH - the picture that is most drool-worthy in a click contest!!! WOW, this is so exciting. A recreational blogger, a real amateur photographer getting a photo event award is out of this world. Thank you judges and Bee & Jai for organizing this for the food blogging community. Here I can't even work blogger well to hyperlink my badges to your site. How sad is that! Thanks again!

CLICK: March Click Announcement, plus Judges Entry..

Think Metal, Think Spice -- My official "Judges" Entry for March Click Event

Shot taken with a Nikon D50 with 50mm Fixed Prime Lens in Macro Mode

Yes, folks, I am official. I am a judge!! Please don't ask me why Bee and Jai asked me to do this but I feel very privileged and honored to be part of their monthly CLICK event as one of the judges for the March Entries. I love food, fellow bloggers so send me those bribes and I am happy to taste them for you. All kidding aside, I am truly thrilled to be part of Click. I have submitted entries for almost all the previous click events and to be selected to judge is truly an honor.

You can always count on Bee and Jai to come up with innovative themes for the Click event. With March's theme of metal, I wanted to show case something metal, something personal, something related to food and something Indian. Well, that's when my handy sambara batalu (kannada word, its also known as the Traditional Indian Dabba) came to mind. My mother gave me my dabba years ago and traditionally its given in my family to the bride as she leaves home as part of her wedding kitchen set. The traditional box contains a lid, seven containers with matching spoons and an inner lid.

I have managed to misplace my inner lid and just use my dabba for daily cooking. My amma tells me that we usually put --Mustard Seeds, Urad Dhal, Cumin Seeds, Fenugreek Seeds, Coriander Seeds, Kadale Bele (Chana Dal or Bengal Gram Dhal) and Cardamom/Clove/Cinnamon Stick combo in the main seven cups and put a layer of dried red chillies in the inner lid cover. I am not a purist in most senses and have changed my box of ingredients to match my daily needs. So in my box I include Cumin Seeds, Cumin Powder, Red Chillies, Red Chilli Powder, Mustard Seeds, Urad Dhal and finally Turmeric Powder.

I am thinking of asking my mom to bring me a second dabba as I think I would like to separate the whole spices from my powders. Almost every kitchen India I have been to has one of these cute, convenient dabbas. Its great to have your most frequently used spices in one container and this way, if you are in the habit of grinding fresh spices you can only make enough to keep in your sabara batalu and redo when its over.

So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and CLICK for us! See you at the roundup! A special thank you to Bee and Jai, this was a lot of fun especially no pressure in being judged either!

Resources:

Learn how to organize your spices through this video.

A place to to buy a spice box/dabba.
Other Spice Dabba Narratives in the blogword:

• Saffron Trails
• Mahek's Kitchen
• What's for Lunch Honey?
• Mahanandi

JFI: Meyer Lemon Bread with Candied Ginger

I had heard of Meyer Lemons in the blog world and when I chanced upon it at the local market a few weeks ago, I grabbed just ONE to try. Meyer lemons according to wiki are a cross between a regular lemon and mandarin orange originating in China. They have a slightly less tart flavor and can be used in most lemon recipes that doesn't need the intense pucker of a regular lemon. Amy over at Cooking with Amy has some nice recommendations on how to use Meyer Lemons. Since I had only one lemon to work with after scouring the Internet for good options, I decided that I wanted to bake some kind of bread or muffin with the lemon. I found a yummy sounding recipe for making a lemon with candied ginger muffin over at Nicole's BakingSheet Blog and decided to morph her muffins into a bread recipe using instead of regular lemons my Meyer lemon. I love candied ginger and I eat plain candied ginger with my cups of tea so the recipe really called out to me. Plus it was simple and easy to make, that's exactly what a mom baking during nap time needs! This recipe uses only uses the zest of the lemon in the cake and almost all of the lemon juice in the glaze.

Meyer Lemon & Candied Ginger Bread Recipe

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter, soft
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Zest of 1 Meyer lemon (about 1 tbsp zest)
• 3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
• 1/2 cup candied ginger, in small pieces
  Meyer Lemon Glaze
• 2 to 3 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice (~1 Meyer lemon)
• 1 cup confectioners sugar

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Zest the rind of the lemon and set aside. Mix flour, salt and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. In another large bowl, beat sugar and butter till whipped. Add eggs to the sugar/butter mix and whip together till incorporated. Add lemon zest and vanilla extract to the egg mixture and mix. Alternate adding flour and milk to the sugar/egg/butter mixture and slowly blend together. Finally add chopped ginger to the batter and mix in. Pour the batter into two greased 4x2" bread pans and bake in 400F oven for approximately 30 to 40 minutes or a tester comes out clean. The bread should be lightly browned and springy to touch.

Cool the bread on a wire rack. Prepare the glaze by mixing lemon juice with the sugar. Take a fork and mix together lemon juice and sugar till you have a drizzle-able consistency. Once the bread is not hot, move them to a platter and gently drizzle the lemon glaze all over the bread. Cut into slices and serve warm with tea.

Verdict? The Meyer lemon is definitely more subtle than a regular lemon. For this recipe, I would double the amount of zest used in the future if I used a Meyer lemon again for a more lemony flavor. The bread had more ginger tones to it than the lemon and it will be a huge hit with any ginger lover. If you love the taste of lemon, I would increase it to 2 tablespoons of Meyer lemon zest to balance off the ginger. I really liked this recipe and will probably do it again for a nice tea time snack.

This recipe is going to Coffee for this month's JFI started by Indira of Mahanandi. Coffee has chosen lemon/lime as the flavor of the month and I think a fantastic choice.

Source: BakingSheet

Greenlake, Seattle and an old MEME

The weather in Seattle has been unusually mild and sunny. We took our kids down the road to Greenlake and spent a wonderful afternoon walking, relaxing, playing and soaking up the sun. It seemed like everyone in Seattle had the same idea as the entire 2.8 mile loop around the urban park was packed as was the kiddy playground. We had to wait our turn for swings! Now, thats unusual for a city park in the winter! We use the park almost daily between the four of us for its nice jogging trails, playgrounds, indoor pool and community center, outdoor playgrounds, bathhouse, theatre. It has something for everyone. During the peak summer hours its virtually impossible to find a parking spot near the lake. Lucky us, we are only a mile away and an easy 15 minute walk to beat the parking blues.

When I was taking the pictures and later decide to post them up here, it reminded me of a meme that I was passed on by dear Nabeela in October over at Trials and Error . I never got around to doing it. It seems appropriate to fill out this meme on this particular day as one of the questions posed in meme is where would you rather be and for this moment, I want to say no place but Seattle!

So Nabeela, sorry for the delay but here it is, enjoy and I have decided not to pass it on to others, if someone reading it wants to do it, please feel free!

Four Places I've Lived:

1. Bangalore, India (when i was a kid)
2. Austin, Texas (when I was in college)
3. Colorado Springs, CO (when I got married and ran off to be with hubby for 6 months)
4. Seattle, WA (almost 16 years!)
   

Four Jobs I've Had:

1. I worked as an giant APPLE for an apple juice company at the annual Bite of Seattle during a summer break. I handed out samples of apple juice and fended off smart alec comments. Made $100.00 for 4 hours of discomfort. Not bad.
   
2. My first job in high school was at the local Wendy's in San Antonio. I almost got fired for not wearing my name tag. I quit soon after.
3. Technical Support Engineer
4. IT Software Consultant
   

Four Favorite Places I've Holidayed:

1. Nepal - Hiking near Annapurna range, rafting down the Seti and seeing Rhinos
   
2. Burma - a cycle trip through the back roads of Burma
3. India specifically Rajasthan, Konark (in Orissa), Badami & Aihole & Kabini (in Karnataka) Kerala and Kanha National Park (in Madhya Pradesh).
   
4. Indonesia - Yogyakarta, Sumatra, Gili Air, Ubud - Bali.
   

Four Favorite Foods:

1. Most Indian foods - dosas, rasam/saaru + pallyas, chaat
2. Ice-creams -fruity or minty or vanilla.
   
3. Recently anything chocolate
4. Everything asian - chinese, thai, indonesian, nepalese, burmese, kabobs..
   

Four Places I'd Rather Be:
Considering we are having a great weather here in Seattle, I am going to list all the places I want to vacation at rather than "Be". I love being in Seattle.

1. Costa Rica
2. I have always wanted to go to several countries in Africa - Morrocco, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia..
3. Ladakh, India - missed going there when I backpacked through India.
4. Seychelles for the beaches.
   

Thanks Nabeela, this was fun! Here are some more pictures from our fantastic day at the Greenlake Park.