Soulful Creations

I splurged yesterday- cooked three different things (well if making dosa batter counts!). Bajra dosa and to go with it Udupi sambar and Mint-Coriander chutney Bajra Dosa 4 cups Bajra flour 1 cup rava 1/2 cup rice flour 2 cups yogurt Water, enough to make the batter salt to taste Mix all the ingredients and let it sit for about an hour (add only enough water to get a dosa batter consistency). Just before making the dosas, add chopped onions and green chillies Udupi Sambar (adapted from Sia's " Monsoon spice ") Ingredients: 3 carrots diced lengthwise 20 frozen pearl Onions, 2 large tomatoes, cubed 2 green chillies, slit 3/4 cups toor dal pressure cooked with pinch of Turmeric Powder and tsp of Oil and mashed well 1 small lime sized T]tamarind Pulp, soaked in warm water and juice extracted 1/2 tsp jaggery (Adjust acc to taste) ½ tsp Turmeric Powder Small bunch of Cor...

Well, that is a pretty lame name for a good pasta dish! I adapted a spinach malfatti recipe from here so as to be able to make it as a pasta dish. Ingredients For the spinach dumplings 3 cups chopped spinach (I used frozen which is not as finely chopped) 3/4 cup low-fat cottage cheese 1 tsp nutmeg powder 1/2 tsp chopped green chillies 2 tbsp all purpose flour 1/2 tsp baking powder salt and pepper to taste For the tomato sauce (now I got a bit creative here with a beautiful Venetian pasta sauce that a friend had gifted, could not get myself to empty the jar!!) 2 1/2 cups pasta sauce (some regular store-bought and the Venetian sauce) and tomato pulp with roasted garlic 3 spring onions, chopped 1/2 tsp red chilli powder (Will definitely avoid this next time, unless I feel like torturing myself!) 4 tbsp heavy cream 3 tbsp olive oil about 2-3 tbsp roughly torn basil leaves salt and pepper to taste Method For the spinach dumplings Steam the spinach leaves for 5 minutes and squeeze out the ...

I have been wanting to give whole grains a try for a long time now, so when Lisa announced this month's theme for No Croutons Required I was excited. Here is my entry for this month's event. Greek Kasha Salad (Adapted from here, I have marked the changes made in Red) First some introduction to Kasha- It is a porridge commonly eaten in Eastern European countries. A common misconception is that Kasha is buckwheat groats but it is actually a meal made from any ingredient such as wheat, barley and oats. For more information you can check here or here or here ! KASHA SALAD Ingredients 1 cup dried green lentils (I used whole green moong dal) 1 bay leaf Salt and pepper to taste 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided 1/2 cup kasha (I used buckwheat groats) 1 shallot, thinly sliced 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced 1 tsp ginger, minced 1 cup water, vegetable broth 3 tablespoons oregano leaves (I used dried) 1 tomato, chopped 1/3 cup chopped pitted Kalamata olives 2 green onions, thinly slic...

While I found a lot of interesting Mexican recipes that I wanted to try for the Monthly mingle this month, I had to stick to one of my favorite dishes- black bean soup! And that is only because I waited till the last minute and had a hard time deciding on what to make....as usual (and I am not even sure if the picture is in focus!) Well here is the recipe, modified from here Ingredients olive oil 1 tbsp cumin seeds 1-2 tsp turmeric powder 2 tbsp chopped ginger 1½ c. chopped onions (reserve ½ cup for garnish) ½ c. chopped celery 1/3 c. chopped carrots 1/2 cup corn (whole kernel or corn on the cob, when in season) 2 medium jalapeño peppers, seeded and diced 3 15-oz. cans black beans, rinsed and drained Vegetable broth 1 15-oz. can chopped fire roasted tomatoes 1 tbsp ground cumin (I added a generous amount) 2 tbsp ground chilli powder chopped parsley and cilantro 1 lime, juiced Salt and pepper Method Add oil to a pot. When the oil’s hot, but not smoking, add the cumin seeds, then add cho...

Here are a couple of watches I made (well watch straps!)

Today we got a lot of stuff from Ikea, which means we had a blast assembling them (well may be not a blast, we spent the entire day assembling stuff!) Lunch was at Chipotle- lot of food for a reasonable price (Read " not-exactly-healthy "). So after a day of hard work I decided to make some good food. I am not sure if I am on time for Tried and tasted event hosted by Kits Chow but I did make two recipes from a favorite blog of mine "Hooked on heat". I love her blog mainly because of the simplicity of her recipes and of course good photography. I made Alu fry and a rice with lentils and tomatoes. I followed the recipes through except for the alu fry I used yukon instead of red potatoes. Also for the rice dish I used long grain parboiled rice and omitted the garlic (did not feel like garlic today). I also garnished the rice with some nic e crisp brown rice. Judgement : I loved it. What better than good food for a really really long and tiring day. Here are the photo...

So after the disastrous cooking efforts the past two days, I woke up this morning determined to make this bread and make it well. Zopf is a traditional Swiss bread and it literally mean s "braid". This is my entry to A.W.E.D Swiss event . This event was originally started by D of " The c hef in you ". It is a fairly simple bread made with flour, yeast, butter and an egg. I got the recipe here and followed it through. Ingredients 1 package active dry yeast 1 1/3 c warm milk 1 egg yolk 2 tbsp bu tter, softened 2 1/2 cups flour 1 egg white 1 tbsp water Method In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm milk. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Add the egg yolk, butter and 2 cups of bread flour; stir well to combine. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. (Here I must added at least a cup more!) When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, abou...

We moved to a new house (rental guys!!)- last weekend. And yesterday was the first time I cooked anything at all in the new house. For some odd reason- the sambar and beans subzi I made were very mediocre. So to up my spirit- I decided to make a pie and ended up making a mush-pie. The crust was good but I added too much of the filling (made a plum-blueberry filling). And the filling was too tart and sweet (read as "cloying"). So may be this weekend I can get my groove back and cook something decent, something that passes my quality test!