Soulful Creations

So finally before the year ended I learned something new- sourdough bread! Thanks to daring bakers- I am late in posting this not because I made it late but because with friends visiting town it was hard to get to setting up the post. The bread lasted for about half a day- so I have no pictures either but I do, now, have the mighty sourdough starter. Hopefully I will be able to keep it alive and kicking!  Our Daring Bakers Host for December 2011 was Jessica of My Recipe Project and she showed us how fun it is to create Sour Dough bread in our own kitchens! She provided us with Sour Dough recipes from Bread Matters by AndrewWhitley as well as delicious recipes to use our Sour Dough bread in from Tonia George’s Things on Toast and Canteen’s Great British Food! For more on how to let nature do the work, check here . French Country Bread Servings: 1 large loaf plus extra wheat starter for further baking Wheat Starter - Day 1: Ingredients 4 1/2 tablespoons (70 ml) (40 gm/1

This month's Indian Cooking Challenge  is a Sindhi winter special sweet called Majoon. Vaishali of Ribbons to Pastas  shared this wonderful recipe. This event was started by Srivalli of Spice your life . Interestingly if you google "Majoon", the top search results have something to do with marijuana :D. Majoon is an Arabic word for goodies that contain cannabis! Ingredients  1 cup vanilla almond milk 1 cup 2% Milk 1/4 cup Sugar 2tbsp Poppy seeds 1cup Khoya (unsweetened) 1 1/4 cups nuts (Almonds,walnuts, Cashews, Pistachios) 1/4cup Ghee 1tsp Cardamom powder 1/4cup Dry dates (chopped or pulsed) Method Bring milk and sugar t boil. Add the poppy seeds, khoya,cardamom powder and dry dates, and boil until the mixture is reduced to half. Coarsely grind, or mildly pound the nuts and add them to the boiling mixture. Let this mixture cook in low flame stirring in between, add the ghee slowly. Cook until the mixture seems dry (looks like a brownish milk hal

The temperatures have finally cooled down and I can turn the oven ON....!! Nothing else would even compare to take a shot at a Daring Bakers Challenge. The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat! I made a quarter batch (in retrospective I should made at least the half batch and frozen some- it was that good!) Quarter Batch Dough Ingredients (Makes one loaf 1.25 lbs/565 grams) To activate the Yeast: ½ Teaspoon (2½ ml/2¼ gm) Sugar ¼ Teaspoon (1¼ ml/¾ gm) All-Purpose (Plain) Flour 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) Warm Water 1½ Teaspoons (7½ ml/3½ gm/0.125 oz/½ sachet) Dry Yeast Dough : ½ Cup (120 ml) Whole Milk 3 Tablespoons (45 ml/43 gm/1½ oz) Sugar ¾ Teaspoon (3¾ ml/9 gm/0.17 oz) Table Salt 1 Large Egg 1 tablespoon (30 ml/30 gm/¼ stick/1 oz) Unsalted Butter, melted 2 cups (480 ml/280 gm/10 oz/0.62 lb)

These days I rarely watch any cooking shows at all but I am glad I chanced upon this one- Mad hungry with Lucinda. This particular episode caught my eye because most dishes were vegetarian and the few that were not, could easy be turned into a green meal :D. This recipe has been adapted from that show- hers was almost the bare bones rice and beans while mine has a few bells and whistles. Ingredients 1 1/2 cups black beans, soaked for 8-12hrs 2 stalks celery, chopped 1 medium carrot, chopped 1 bunch scallion, chopped (because I love scallions) 1 medium onion, chopped 1 tsp cumin 2-3 tsp ground roasted cumin powder 2-3 tsp ground coriander powder red pepper flakes, I use a lot oil salt and pepper to taste water to cook beans Brown rice- 1 1/2 cups cooked (I did toast them lightly in about 1 tbsp butter and a bay leaf) Garnish Lemon wedges and avocado (I did not have any) Method Pressure cook beans in about 3 cups of water and some salt Drain the bea

A very Happy Diwali! It is the season of lights, warmth, gifts, peace and love! I wish everyone all the happiness in the world- enjoy what you have been bestowed with and share what you been given with everyone else!  I knew someone like that- a larger than life personality. I am in denial and shock- a tragic road accident in Haiti ended her life-that is it, just like that..... reminds one of how fleeting life can be I was not going to make anything then I thought you know why not- she loved to celebrate and share her happiness with her friends. I did not know her that long or that well but that did not matter... I made thattais and pedas (from store-bought khoya!) this year-  For the thattais Ingredients Rice flour (best if you made this yourself, unfortunately mine was store bought*)- 2.5 cups Urad dal flour- 0.5 cups Butter, softened- 25 gms Salt- as necessary soaked in water Hing- a pinch soaked in water Garnish ~1 cup Pottukadalai (I roasted thes

I decorated this blank photo frame (made from recycled material) for my patti- it has the news article about her thoughts on independence in DNA India. I have always been proud of my patti! Love you Savi... PS - do you recognize the pencil shaving?!!

I am constantly churning out fried rice recipes- its like I want to perfect it! Well here is a picture of one- brown rice with broccoli, tofu, carrots, scallions seasoned with low sodium soy sauce, ground roasted cumin and coriander, a pinch nutmeg, some sriracha and sesame oil! It was heaven, I hope I remember the exact recipe at some point :D  

When you too much lauki on hand- this is something you can try. Ingredients 1 medium sized Lauki, cubed 1 tbsp sambar powder 1 lemon-sized tamarind ball, soaked in hot water and the pulp extracted Seasoning  1 tsp Mustard seeds 1/2 to 1 tsp Methi seeds 1 tbsp Chana dal 2 dried red chillies, crumbled Oil 1 - 2tbsp Rice flour, as a thickening agent, dissolved in about 2-3tbsp of water Method Heat the oil, add the seasonings. Once it splatters, add the lauki and saute it. Add sambar powder and saute till the raw smell is gone. Add the tamarind water and cook for about 10 min. Add the rice flour mixture and cook for about 5min or until the kuzhambu is thick. You can also use drumstick  and other berries in this recipe. But the all-time favorite is this one here . Judgement : It tasted great as always- for some reason I thought laukis would turn sweet but thankfully they tasted amazing PS: A halloween horror story about these good ol&

Brazilian cucumber- a farmer's (Harvard University ) market buy! Use them as you would in any salad- mine had carrots, sprouts, cilantro and the star MAXIXE with a minimal lemon-olive oil dressing. Oh and by the way don't be scared the spiky looking skin- they are harmless. You can read all about it here

This month @ ICC we were challenged with Jalebis. I made them as soon as the challenge was announced- experimented with it for Ganesh Chathurthi. I am not going to post the entire recipe here- I followed  the one here very closely. While it tasted great, it was too thin to form any shape- hence the ugly clawy photograph (but do not be fooled by the looks- they tasted like jalebis, I was quite proud of it :D)

A plain mirror (the one I had was from Ikea)- decorated with left over wall paper- I love this wall paper and love the fact that I can see some wood through it! I cut out different parts of the wall paper and hot glued it on to the mirror (the back is covered too) Wall shelves need not be boring- the plain MDF board has been transformed using citron green outdoor paint with Martha Stewart stencil in brown (again outdoor paint). This shelf is to house more plants in the teeny-tiny balcony that we have in our apartment. I did paint one more to hang above my desk (that was painted in teal blue with some flowers as a border)

Since I am home these days- my lunch is usually something extremely simple (like 2-minute maggi noodles withe some veg). On those rare occasions when I cook for lunch, it tend to be one-pot meals like this lauki dal or lauki-lentil soup. Ingredients 1 medium lauki, cut into 1 inch cubes 1 cup washed toor dal or masoor dal (I used toor) 1/2 can (16oz) whole peeled tomatoes 1 tbsp minced ginger 2 green chilli pepper, slit in the middle 1 tbsp ghee/ oil 2 cups water/ veg broth For tempering 2 tsp mustard seeds 2 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp fennel seeds 1 tbsp roasted crushed coriander powder a pinch turmeric 1 tbsp shredded coconut for garnish Method In a pressure cooker, heat the ghee- add mustard seeds, once it starts to splatter add cumin, fennel, green chilli peppers- saute these for about 10sec Add the tomatoes, lauki, ginger, turmeric and crushed coriander seeds- saute for about 4-5 minutes. Add the dal and saute for another minute or two. Add 2 cups of w

It has been hot, hot, hot here in Houston. Ever since we landed here, the temperatures have been in the triple digits. Add to that " stay-at-home " all day situtation- you get one cranky little lady (well may be not little but definitely cranky). So to remind me of some cooler weather- here is an easy dessert that combines most of my favorites- strawberries, lavender and whipped cream Ingredients (adapted from the minimalist's version ) 1 cup strawberries 1/4 cup raw sugar 1/2 cup heavy cream 2 tbsp vanilla powdered sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 tsp lavender- I just crushed it using my mortar and pestle Method Hull strawberries, wash them and chop into 1/4-inch-thick pieces. Toss with half the sugar, and wait 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they give up their juices. Place half the strawberries and all the juice in a food processor, and purée. Pour purée back in bowl with the remaining strawberries. Whip the cream with powdered sugar, crus

Who does not love candy? I certainly do and it is just the perfect challenge to come out of hibernation! The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?! . These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy! Fruit and Nut chocolate bark To temper: With tempered chocolate pieces, also called “seeding” Tempering Ranges: Fahrenheit Dark: 113°F-122°F > 80.6°F > 89.6°F Chocolate is melted and heated until it reaches 45°C / 113°F. Tempered un-melted chocolate is then stirred and melted in until it brings the temperature down to 27°C/80.6°F. It is then put back over heat and brought up to its working temperature of 32°C/30°C/29°C /// 89.6°F/86°F/84.2°F depend

Its been 2 months since my last post, isn't it? Our move from Boston to Houston was a long wonderful winding road. We flew to Denver, CO and drove from there to San Diego CA. On our way we did devour some great food. From San Diego the wise guy flew to Boston for some last bits of work while I set sail to SFO and had a great time there- oh so much to eat, so little time! More on that in a later post- but today read on for my first Indian Cooking Challenge post The melt-in-your-mouth tirunelveli halwa Ingredients Wheat berries- 3/4 cups Sugar- 1 cup almonds & walnuts, chopped- 3/4 cup, reserve 1/4 cup for garnish Ghee- 5 tbsp cardamom- 1tsp Pachai karpooram- a pinch Food color Method Soak the wheat berries overnight. Grind in a blender with about a cup of water. Strain the milk into a bowl. Return the husk to the blender and grind again with water. Strain and repeat the process about 4-5 times. Note*: Clean the strainer and blender immediately, otherwise you wo

A few weekends ago, we were at a potluck-poker party (yes, a really sweet couple from wise guy's work had this party to celebrate our marriage!). I did my part for the potluck and the wise guy did his for poker (oops, that is a teeny-weeny lie now- he did his part for both the potluck and the poker game!). I rarely talk much and when it comes to parties I become super-calm (except before the party when it looks like a rioted kitchen and a nail biting-me), and super-quite. I love to watch people, listen to conversations around me and gather the most inconsequential pieces of information. I do love food talk, so when someone asks me what I brought for the party- they better be prepared for a long may be even boring monologue. This party was not much different except a big bunch (read six) of kids running around. We had great food- our Japanese friend brought a gorgeous Japanese vegetarian soup, the host had roasted beautiful green nori with olive oil, salt and pepper and even told u

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt . They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle. The vegan recipe that I used were created by Ashlae of Ladycakes , thanks Ashlae! Vegan Chocolate Pudding ( http://ladycakesbakes.blogspot.com/ ) Ingredients 1 package Mori- Nu soft silken tofu (approximately 12.3 oz.) 1 cup up vegan chocolate chips (approximately 6 oz.) 1 Tablespoon vegan butter (approximately ½ oz.) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Directions: In a food processor, blend the tofu until it is creamy and lump-free; keep in food processor and set aside. In a double boiler over medium heat, melt the butter into the chocolate chips until smooth. Once melted, remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes. Pour chocolate mixture and vanilla extract into food processor; blend with tofu until combine

Warning: I am no professional restaurant reviewer by any measure but I have come to learn "good food" in the past few years. I decided to do this now because I am leaving Cambridge to go to Houston, Texas and this is a tribute to all those foodie joints (good and not-so-good) that I visit often! This one is yet another fave, an all vegetarian and vegan place in Watertown (now that is the only disadvantage since it is not on any T line)- The Red Lentil . Every dish that I have tried is actaully different from the other- unusual flavor combinations are a big draw (for me anyway). I will surely miss their Nirvana Delight and ooh the gobi manchurian. I also love their entire line of brunch menu (think I can safely brag that between the wise guy, my mom and me- we have tried most of what is on their menu).While their food is great- there are times when I have been frustrated with their wait staff. In fact this year's Mother's day was celebrated at The Red Lentil.

My mom is visiting and one of the things I ask her to make every time she visits is some form of paruppu thuvaiyal (a kind of pesto that you eat with rice, similar to chutney except a lot more thicker) This recipe uses yellow moong dal- skinned and split mung beans that are easy to digest. Ingredients 1 cup yellow moong dal 1 clove garlic 2 dried red chillies * a pinch of asaefotida (hing) 2 tbsp oil salt to taste water, minimal quantity for grinding Method Heat oil in a pan. Add the garlic, red chillies, asaefoetida- saute for about 30 seconds. Then add the yellow moong dal and roast till the dal is golden brown. Cool it down and grind with minimal amount of water. Serve with hot rice, ghee (clarified butter) and some fried papad! Judgement With the garlic and the heat from red chillies, it sort of warmed me up- exactly what I needed after kind of weather we have been put through here in the area. (I guess I cannot complain about it being cold when people dow

Warning: I am no professional restaurant reviewer by any measure but I have come to learn "good food" in the past few years. I decided to do this now because I am leaving Cambridge to go to Houston, Texas and this is a tribute to all those foodie joints (good and not-so-good) that I visit often! Tucked away in a neat little spot in Central Square, Cambridge (MA) is this great burger joint- Four Burgers . I chanced upon it accidentally on my walk from Harvard square to Central square. There are not too many choices- basically they have an organic vegan black bean burger which is served with either salsa or guacamole (your choice). So you go in- choose your bun (or not), the burger, toppings and fries if you want any that is (including cheese). The vegan burger in itself tastes really good- I had it with guac while the wise guy had it with salsa. Each of us had a couple of toppings and each of our burgers tasted different (and good!). Now that is a rarity even today- veggi

Plantains are something that I grew up with. Although, I never liked the ripened version much- my mom or grandma would eventually have to force it down my throat (well, I would eat it myself once they have uttered their few choice words :D). But the raw plantains, now that is a different story... If you do use bananas and plantains interchangeably- then you would be wrong, because they are different. You can find the differences between these cousins here . The key difference is that plantains have more starch content than their sweet cousin (I read somewhere that you should think of bananas as the dessert wine). I remember my peeps telling me how everyone should have at least one of these herbs in their backyard (that is right, it is an herbaceous plant). My mom would tell us how every part of this plant is useful, it got compared to the kamadhenu (the cow that keeps giving)- you can eat the stem (வாழைத்தண்டு), the flower (வாழைபூ, I never liked this either except when cooked as a

the creativity of this month's Daring Bakers challenge. By virtue of its simplicity it provides us bakers with a wide-range of opportunity to explore our creative side. Go on over to the daring kitchen site listed below to check out and vote for some amazing concoctions! The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz . Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com ! As for me, I decided to keep it simple- my edible container was a vegan mocha cupcake which I filled with this extremely light and mildly sweet maple mousse. Vegan maple mousse Ingredients 1 package (12 oz.) soft silken tofu ¾ cup (14 fluid oz.) pure maple syrup 2 tsp agar-agar 2 tbsp dark brown sugar Method Let tofu come to room temperature. Using a food pro

Methi/ Fenugreek, a relatively under-utilized herb that belongs to the Fabaceae family, a family with more famous members such as chick peas, peanuts and alfalfa (the poor methi does not stand a chance now, does it?). Despite having its roots in the Mediterranean region, this herb is widely used in Indian cuisine and I guess this is not really surprising given that India is the largest producer of fenugreek.  Sources: wiki , spice pages The recipe for this lovely sambar comes from Shyamala's blog- I did not change much here.   Ingredients 1/2 cup toor/tuvar dal Fresh methi (fenugreek greens), leaves and tender stems chopped finely 1 onion, sliced thin 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 medium tomato, chopped 1.5 tsp tamarind paste dissolved in 4 cups water 2 tsp oil 1/3 tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp cumin 1/4 tsp asafoetida powder 2 tsp (heapful of homemade powder) sambar powder 1 tbsp rice flour 1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves for garnish Method: Pressure-cook the

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookie. Well I have given up-  I do not even feel an iota of guilt for posting so late these days. I am the "lets-do-everything-last-minute" kind of person- I do it even the most important things- like paperwork for soon-to-expire passport! I tried fighting it- no more because it is simply not who I am! This month's DB challenge was no different- I had everything planned as soon as the challenge was announced but clearly the execution of it left much to be desired! So here goes my version- had fun with it all the way! Ingredients: 2/3 cup (160 ml) (150 gm) (5.3 oz) unsalted butter 2 cups (480 ml) (160 gm) (5 2/3 oz) quick oats (I soaked the oats in 2 cups warm water and 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar for 24 hrs and then dried it in the oven using the warm setting, tem