Sundakai vettakozhambu

We have a local South Indian store here...and once in a while he gets something different, exotic and rare (at least rare in Scotland!). We went to the store yesterday and they had sundakai! Now, sundakai is something that is quite commonly found in the south of India and M had a plant in the house that he grew up in. Me, being a city-bred girl, had no idea what to do with it!

Anyway, with the promise that M would help, we bought a bag full of these green pea-like fruit.

We decided to make vettakozhambu with these. And here's how we made it -

Preparation time - 20 mins
Cooking time - 40 mins

Ingredients:
Sundakai - 700gms
Tamarind - 2 lemon sized balls
Hing - 1 pinch
1 tsp each of mustard seeds, jeera seeds, urad dal and chana dal
3 green chillies, slit
3 red chillies, broken
2 tsps sambhar powder
4-5 curry leaves
1 tsp haldi
1 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

Method:
Using a mortar and pestle, first crush the sundakai to release the seeds in it.

Sundakai being cleaned

Wash the sundakai to remove these seeds and squeeze out any excess water and leave to dry.
Soak tamarind in some hot water and take out its juice
In a vessel, heat the oil. Add the hing, mustard, jeera, urad and chana dal, chillies and the curry leaves. Stir till the dals start to turn golden
Now put the sundakai in the vessel along with the haldi and sambhar powder.
Saute this till the sundakai starts turning white. This takes about 5 -7 minutes
Next, add the tamarind water and salt. Allow it to boil.
Simmer for 10 - 15 mins till the tamarind looses its raw taste and the vettakozhambu starts to thicken
Serve with hot rice and plain cooked toor dal

Macaroons!!

Red Nose day is coming up on the 15th March...and we are doing a charity run in office. In the start up to the charity week, the first on the agenda is a Bake Off - which is a "competition" in which everyone bakes what they can and the goodies are sold. The "customers" vote for the baked goods that they like best. The money goes to charity and the winner gets a little gift. In the bid to win the bottle of bubbly, I thought I would make something other than the standard muffins and cupcakes.

One of my colleagues had given me the recipe for French macaroons. Ever since I had tasted the "crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside" delicious mini treat, I had wanted to make this sweet cream filled confection. So, after watching a dozen YouTube videos and reading about everything that could possibly go wrong - I decided to make these.

Final product :)

So here goes -

Preparation time - 30 mins
Drying time - 30 mins (could be upto 2 hours, but it never took that long!)
Cooking time - 10 mins

Ingredients:

75g Ground almonds
115g icing sugar
2 egg whites (medium/large)
50g granulated sugar
1/2 tsp of vanilla flavouring
Little gel food colouring - I used red and blue
Betty Crocker butter cream vanilla icing (not enough patience to make my own!)

Method:
Cut up baking paper to fit perfectly inside 2 large flat baking trays - set aside for later.
Weigh out the ground almonds and icing sugar then either blitz together in a food processor or mixie for 15 seconds or sieve together into a clean dry bowl. The point of this is to aerate the mixture and remove any lumps from the icing sugar - any almonds left in the sieve need to be put back into the mixture to keep weight correct.
Weigh out granulated sugar and keep it nearby.

The ingredients - all ready to be mixed

Put your egg whites into a clean, dry, grease free bowl and whisk on lowest speed for around thirty seconds. Increase the speed to medium and whisk until soft peaks form - pull the whisk out and the egg whites should come to a peak then flop back into the mixture. Continue whisking on medium adding 2 tablespoons of sugar at a time in 10 second intervals until all the sugar is incorporated.

Whisking in progress

Turn the speed up to high and whisk until glossy. Stiff peaks should form and stay (even when wobbled) when the whisk is lifted out the mixture. I tested by turning the bowl upside down. And surprise, surprise! The egg whites stayed in the bowl!

The eggs stayed in!

Add any colouring and flavouring and whisk until just coloured. Do not over mix!!

Mixing the colour and flavouring in

Gently fold a third of the almond mixture into the meringue until just combined, very slowly - the spatula should come under and go over the mixture, not through it! Do the same with the next third and the last third being careful not to knock all the air out of the macaroon mixture, when there are no dry bits left check the consistency by using the spatula to pick some macaroon mixture up and see how it falls back into the bowl - does it drop in a blob and still look quite grainy? If so keep gently folding your mixture very lightly until it just flows off the spatula to leave a ribbon trail that will settle and almost disappear after 30 seconds. Again DO NOT OVER MIX!! It shouldn't be a runny mixture!
Fit the piping bag with a 1/2 inch plain nozzle or simply snip the tip off a disposable bag, fill the bag half way for ease and firstly pipe a small amount onto the corners of the baking tray to stick the baking paper to. Pipe the macaroon shells onto baking paper already stuck to baking tray.
Bang the baking tray on the counter top to remove air bubbles and settle the macaroons.
Now leave the macaroons out to dry on the counter top until they form a non sticky surface. Drying time can be anywhere between 30mins and 2hrs but keep checking so they don't completely dry out as this will make them hollow. A slightly warm dry atmosphere will make the drying process quicker whereas a cold damp atmosphere will be a slower drying time.

Piped and ready to go in the oven

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius when the macaroons have just started to dry slightly. When the macaroons have a non sticky surface put them in your preheated oven for 5 minutes before turning the temperature down to 135 degrees, bake for a further 5-7 minutes until the macaroon doesn't wiggle when gently pushed.

Rising in the oven

Remove from oven and leave to cool on the baking trays then transfer the baking paper to a cool surface or wire cooling rack to completely cool

Out of the oven, to cool and sandwich together

Once cool gently and carefully peel back the baking paper from the macaroons and match up like sized macaroons in pairs.
Sandwich together by piping a round of butter cream on one half and gently apply even pressure with your hands by cupping the macaroons and using a gentle twisting motion.

Pudina Poha

This is an easy way to use up left over pudina (mint) chutney. The added vegetables makes it quite a filling breakfast (or lunch if you wake up late!) on a weekend. 

Preparation time - 15 mins

Cooking time - 10 mins

Ingredients:

Medium poha – 4 handfuls (2 handfuls per person)

Juice of 2 lemons 

½ cup spring onions - chopped

½ cup peas (preferably small ones)

¼ cup chopped green beans

¼ cup babycorn - cut into thin slices

3 tbsp mint chutney (made with mint, coriander, green chillies, salt and tamarind water)

1 tsp turmeric powder

Red chilli powder - to taste

Salt to taste

Coriander – chopped for garnish

Method:

Wash the poha in a colander.

Mix lemon juice in a little water. In this put the pudina chutney and salt to taste. Then add this in the poha along with the chopped coriander and stir. Let it soak

 In a pan, heat little oil. Add mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add jeera. Put the chopped spring onions, green beans, peas and baby corn. Add the turmeric powder, salt and red chilli powder to taste. Saute for a couple of minutes

Add a little water, close the pan and allow it to cook till the vegetables turn a little soft. Make sure there is a little water left over in the vegetables. 

Once cooked, add the poha and stir on medium heat.

Garnish with chopped coriander and mint and serve hot with fresh yoghurt

Vegetable Open Sandwich

This sandwich is worth all the effort as it tastes wonderful and is enormously healthy. With a mug of steaming hot chocolate coffee, it's the best start to the weekend!

Preparation time - 15 mins
Cooking time - 10 mins

Ingredients:

4 brown bread slices

¼ cup grated carrot

¼ cup chopped capsicum (any colour you like - I used green and red)

¼ cup chopped spring onions

¼ cup thinly sliced celery

50 gms grated low fat paneer

2 tbsp finely chopped tomato

1 tsp chopped green chilies

1 tsp chopped coriander (dhania)

1 tsp low fat butter

4 tbsps pudina chutney

Chaat masala – to taste

Amchur powder – to taste

Salt – to taste

50gms grated low fat paneer for the topping

Directions:

Pre-heat the grill of the oven to its maximum temperature

Mix all the vegetables in a bowl and add the chaat masala, amchur and salt as per taste

Butter one side of the bread. Place the butter side up and grill for 2 minutes till the top is golden and a little crisp. Take care not to burn it!

On the other side of the bread, apply pudina chutney and place the previously mixed vegetables on it. Top it with grated paneer

Pop it under the grill for a couple of minutes till the paneer on top starts turning golden.

Cut this bread into any shape you like and serve hot with some more chutney or ketchup.

Cranberry Chutney

This is my mother-in-law's take on how seasonal cranberries can be Indianised!

This tangy bright red, hot and sour chutney can be used as an accompaniment to idlis, dosas, chapathis and even hot rice! This chutney can be used as a dip or a spread as well - your imagination sets the limit to its uses. Cranberries cook really quickly, and no real preparation makes this an easy win!

Preparation time - 10 mins
Cooking time - 10 mins

Ingredients:

400g Cranberries, washed and dried (fresh or frozen)

4 Green chilies, chopped (optional)

Salt as per taste

Red chili powder as per taste

2tsp Haldi

1tsp Hing

6 tbsps Oil

Directions:

Heat oil in a shallow pan.

Once heated, put the hing and the green chilies.

Fry the chilies, then add the cranberries, salt, haldi and the red chili powder

Stir till the oil coats the cranberries and allow to cook

As the berries start cooking, they will become soft and come together like a paste.

Once the paste starts leaving the sides of the pan and looks homogeneous, it is done.

Note:

Cranberries can also be cut into half to help them cook faster

This chutney can be made with other sour berries like red currants

In case the cranberries are not sour enough, a little tamarind paste can be added