Pickled carrots

That was a weekend when my refrigerator was empty leaving behind few carrots and was thinking of making something quick and low calorie.. Of course carrot halwa went through my mind but they say it tastes better with orange carrots. Hence thought of pickling it and it hardly took anytime. And it harldy took time to see my jar being emptied too. But would recommend to let it sit for few hours/days for the flavor to get into those carrots. The recipe is as follows

Ingredients
Carrots ( I used the thin ones) - about 1 kg
Water - 1 cup
Vinegar - 1/3 cup ( if you want more sourness you can increase the measurement)
Salt and sugar -as required.
Green chillies, ginger and garlic - optional and as required.
Sugar - a few tspns (optional)

Method
Wash the carrots well and if you are used to peeling carrots, I know few people who wash it thoroughly and not peeling it , its up-to you :) Chopthe carrots into strips, may be one carrot should yield about 6-8 depending on the thickness of the carrots.
Once the carrots are chopped steam in a steamer for about 5-7 minutes, make sure you don't cook it, you just have to make it slightly tender or if you choose to skip this step, please feel free to do so too.
I steamed for 5-7 mins and then dipped those carrots in cold water to avoid further cooking.
Once your carrots are ready, put it in a clean glass jar.
Pour the water and vinegar and add all the other ingredients and please leave it untouched for atleast 12 hours ( preferably)
If you feel you need more sourness you can add more vinegar too
If you have taken more carrots and if you feel you need to add more water and adjust the other ingredients feel free to do so 
You can also add crushed peppercorns, powdered jeera, options are endless. I am for sure going to try this with few other vegetables too.
Try pickling a no fuss carrot pickle and enjoy!! 

Brown beaten rice chocolate squares

Was thinking of making some snack for the kids to take to school  and  that day I dint have anything  to pack for them. No, I usually don't stock store bought snacks and my thought went this way while spreading my dosas :)..it was to temper some chocolate and roast some organic brown beaten rice and add to it and make poha rocks .. :) nice na..

Ok .. I need to confess that I don't have an exact measurement of the ingredients of this recipe, reason b'coz I was in a jiffy and I ran out of time to pick up my cups and spoons.

What you need
 1) A bar of cooking chocolate
 2) Some organic brown beaten rice (poha)

Method
Heat a wok and dry roast the poha till it crisp.
Meanwhile temper the chocolate using a double boiler. 

Tempering is melting finely chopped cooking chocolate using double boiler
Double boiling is cooking using the steam. Finely chop the chocolate in a vessel. Keep it over a bowl of boiling water. Also make sure the steam doesn't enter the chocolate and also the water should boil in the minimum flame possible

Once the chocolate is melted mix the dry roasted poha into it and mix well. Spread the mixture on a butter paper and spread evenly and refrigerate for 7-9 mins. Its advisable not to refrigerate for long time, because the chocolate starts condensing. You can even leave it at room temperature to set and then cut in squares and store in an airtight container

Note: You can deep fry the poha instead of dry roasting.

Buttermilk bread

Had loads of buttermilk when I removed butter from the curd that day, and kept thinking the best way to use it. Ofcourse I use buttermilk for kneading the dough, making traditional Kerala curries, use it for making dhoklas too. But googled further to find a recipe for baking which uses butter milk . And finally a bread recipe which uses buttermilk, what better way than to make use of it than for baking for baking bread :). And voila it came out good too. I am sharing the recipe below

Ingredients

1 cake yeast (2 1/4 tspn)

2 cups buttermilk
2 tbsps. olive oil
4 cups flour ( 2 cups wheat flour + 2 cups all purpose flour)
2 tbsps. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. soda

Method

Soften yeast in small amount of lukewarm buttermilk (about 1/3 cup). Add balance of buttermilk and olive oil. Mix salt, soda, sugar and baking powder together; add to yeast mixture. Beat in 1 cup of flour at a time. Knead on floured board. Place in greased bowl and let it rise, punch down dough. Shape dough into desired shapes; place on baking sheets and baked in preheated 375-degree oven 15 to 20 minutes.

Let it cool and enjoy!!

Pumpkin payasam

I need to agree that making a payasam out of pumpkin has not been my idea at all, this was given by a person who sells vegetables. But I did honour him agreeing that I might try this, I tried it and I did inform him about this trial and its success. This is a very healthy sweet made using coconut milk and jaggery. Its not very difficult either. You can also give it a try.
Following is the recipe

Ingredients
Pumpkin - 500 gms
Coconut milk - 2 cups ( not very thick )
Melted jaggery - 3-4 tbspns or according to your taste
Cardamom powder - a pinch
Cashews fried in ghee - as required

Method
Chop pumpkin and steam until it is cooked.
Remove it into a vessel in which we would bring the payasam together.  Mash the pumpkin with the back of a wooden spoon, You might not want to mash it completely, it will be nice to get a bite or two of the pumpkin.
Pour in the coconut milk and the jaggery syrup , add water if required.
Bring it to boil and remove from the flame. Garnish with cardamom powder and fried cashews and serve hot or cold.
Enjoy!!

Broccoli soup

First thing I would say about this soup is it is very easy to make and tasty too, and how I love that vibrant green colour of the soup. And yea this was made for my kid's evening snack and it was garnished with  home made tomato garlic bread croutons, and yea kids enjoyed it.

Following is the recipe

Ingredients
Broccoli head - one
Garlic - 2-3 cloves
Ginger - a small piece
Onion - one med size
Milk - 1.5 cups
Salt and pepper
Bread croutons

Method
Wash the broccoli florets in hot water with salt and turmeric powder, throw in a pressure cooker along with coarsely chopped onion, garlic and ginger and also add half cup of water and half cup of milk. Pressure cook for one whistle in high flame and remove from stove. Open the lid of the cooker and blend the ingredients, I used a hand blender for blending. Add the remaining milk, salt and pepper powder.

At this stage if you want your soup slightly thick mix a tspn of corn flour or arrowroot powder in a 1/4 cup of water and add to this and bring it back to flame and let it boil while the soup thickens. (I skipped this step). Alternately you can add cream instead of milk if you want a thicker soup and avoid corn flour.

Serve hot with toasted bread croutons and a dollop of butter.
Enjoy! :)

Tomato garlic and herb bread

Breads can be incorporated with various flavours and one flavour among them being tomato :) , this bread is easy to make provided you know the importance of yeast and 'rising of the yeast'. Once you have crossed that part successfully bread making is as easy as any other baking, oh yea another thing you need is patience to give the dough to prove, that obviously will happen , again if you know the importance of yeast in the bread, So good luck with bread baking !!. Following is the recipe and yea the recipe calls for all purpose flour and I am always naughty when it comes to flour, have always been substituting with 100 percent wheat flour, be it cakes or cookies or pies or tart. But for breads I do include all purpose flour/maida in a ratio of 40-20 percent at least depending on my gut feeling. I am yet to see success in baking a 100 percent whole wheat bread. Will let you all know once that happens. So, yea here is the recipe 

Ingredients

2 cups tomato juice
1/2 cup tomato sauce
2 tablespoons butter
6 to 6 1/2 cups all−purpose flour ( substitute in the above mentioned ratio)
2 packages (2 tablespoons) dry yeast
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground rosemary
1/4 teaspoon ground fennel
1 garlic clove, crushed

Method
Heat tomato juice, sauce and butter to 120 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine 3 cups flour with yeast, sugar, salt, basil, oregano, rosemary, and fennel; add warmed tomato mixture and garlic. Mix with dough hook (or by hand) 3 minutes or 300 strokes,scraping bowl frequently.
Add 3 to 31/2 cups additional flour, until firm enough to handle; turn out onto floured board. Add
enough flour that dough is not sticky; knead until smooth and elastic.
Place dough in a greased bowl; cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
Punch down; let rest 15 minutes. Shape into two loaves; place in greased 9−inch bread pans. Cover loosely; let rise until nearly doubled, about 45 minutes.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake 30 minutes longer, until loaves sound hollow when tapped. Remove from pans; cool on a rack.

 Enjoy!!!

Hazelnut cupcakes

Now that's hazelnut cupcakes and it has no hazelnuts in it, but if you wish have a bite of the nuts, please feel free to have it in the batter before baking. I dint have it when I baked these little ones. And this oil have been lying in my refrigerator for sometime, had bought this to make home made nutella.So thought of making use of it before it gets spoilt. But yea it was tasty and the cakes have a very nutty flavor in it. As usual I avoided white flour, used brown sugar instead of white sugar and of course it is  butterless. Following is the recipe for the same

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tspn baking soda
a pinch of salt
3/4 cup hazel nut oil
1/2 cup butter milk
1 egg
1/2 tspn vanilla extract 
1/2 tspn vinegar/lemon juice
zest of one lemon ( optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Place a rack in the center of the oven.  Line a cupcake pan with 12 cupcake liners and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.  In another medium bowl, whisk together hazelnut oil, buttermilk, egg, vinegar, vanilla extract and lemon zest.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once.  Whisk together until just combined and no lumps remain.  Divide between twelve cupcake cups and bake for 18-22 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center of one of the little cakes comes out clean.

let it cool and enjoy!!!