Silken Chickpea Gravy - Inspired from Holy Cow Blog!!!!

The Other Day, when i was blog-hopping, Came across this Wonderful Recipe Silken Chickpea Gravy from Holy Cow Vegan Recipes. First thing that got me to try that recipe was that Vaishali has told that it was from a Book named "Appetite for Reduction"!!!! :) For Somebody who is trying to loose some weight for a very long time, that sounded like Sweet Music!!!! :) I have tried the recipe my own way, Please follow the link for the Original Recipe

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups Chickpeas, Soaked overnight(Forgot to Mention that before!!! Sorry)

2 Small Tomatoes, Chopped

2 Cloves of Garlic

1 green chilli Slitted

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp Red Chilli Powder

1 tsp Coriander Powder

a Small piece of Ginger

Salt to taste

Method

Take the Chickpeas in a Microwave Safe Bowl,add Water just to immerse the chickpeas and Microwave High for 10 minutes.  Drain the excess water  and take it a mixer and Grind it to a fine paste along with green chilli.

In a Pan, add oil, add cumin seeds, let them roast, then add garlic and chopped tomatoes. Add a 1/2 cup of Water. Add the Red Chilli powder, Coriander powder and Salt. Once the Tomatoes are well Cooked and mashed out completely, add the grounded chickpeas and another 1 cup of water. Mix Well and Cook in a simmer flame for 5-10 minutes. Put off the flame and Garnish with fresh coriander. Serve Hot with Roti/Rice. We enjoyed with Roti's!!!!

Sending this MLLA-31, Event hosted by Simona, brainchild of Susan. Check out my other Marathon Buddies Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Jay, Monika, Reva, PJ, Azeema , Ayeesha ,Veena and Soumya

Thani Kootu-A Lentil Gravy-A Pongal And Sankranti Treat

THANI KOOTU

This is a dish prepared in advance during the Pongal festival and comes in handy on the next day when Kanu Pandigai is celebrated. Since the Pongal festival calls for an elaborate feast, one can be assured of a lot of left over vegetables and lentils in the form of currys, porials, kootus, rasam and sambar after the feast. These dishes are neatly preserved and converted into a dish called Ericha kuzhambu on the following day.
All the left over vegetables and lentil preparations are combined in a pot and cooked for a long time using low heat - similar to crock pot cooking . The end product is a hot and spicy flavoursome gravy called ericha kuzhambu which can be relished with rice. The addition of a required quantity of the previously prepared Thani Kootu renders a delicious taste and distinct aroma to the ericha kuzhambu.
Thani Kootu can be savoured as it is with hot rice, idlies, dosas or chapaties. Save it up in the refrigerator ( it can be preserved up to one week ) to enhance your daily sambars or kootus.

INGREDIENTS

Black gram dal - 1/2 cup
Bengal gram dal - 1/2 cup
Fresh coconut gratings - 1/2 cup
Tamarind - 1/2 cup ( Soak in warm water)
Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Red chillies - 10
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 2 tsps
Oil - 1 tsp

SEASONING INGREDIENTS

Coconut oil - 2 tbsps
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Black gram dal - 1tsp
Bengal gram dal - 1 tsp
Red chillies - 2
Curry leaves - a handful
Fresh coconut gratings- 2 tbsps

METHOD

1. Dry roast black gram dal and bengal gram dal till they become reddish in colour emanating a pleasant aroma.
2. Heat one teaspoon of coconut oil and fry red chillies.
3. Add asafoetida, fry and remove from fire.
4. In the same pan roast the fresh coconut gratings till it becomes red in colour.
5. Allow all the roasted ingredients to cool down.
6. Extract a thick juice from the soaked tamarind .
7. Gring all the roasted ingredients into a fine powder.
8. Add water and grind into a fine paste and mix in the tamarind juice.
9. Heat coconut oil in a pan and add mustard seeds.
10. When it splutters add the dals and roast till golden in colour.
11. Add broken red chillies, curry leaves and the fresh coconut gratings one by one, and roast well.
12. Add the tamarind juice and paste mixture, jaggery and salt.
13. Keep stirring to avoid lumps.
14. Switch off the flame when the gravy becomes thick .

Thani kootu is now ready for future use.

TO PREPARE FRESH KOOTU

Pressure cook -
mixed vegetables chopped - 2 cups ( I have used carrots,peas,chow chow and beans. Usually native vegetables are used.)
Green gram dal - 1/2 cup
Turmeric powder - 1 pinch
Add 3 or 4 tbsps of Thani Kootu to the cooked dal and vegetables.
Add one more tsp of salt to taste and boil together. Crushed pepper and cumin seeds can also be added.

Relish with steaming hot rice or chapaties.

No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

Though I wanted to clear my drafts at the earliest, I do not want to postpone the posting of recipes which makes use of the seasonal fruits/vegetables. Strawberries are in plenty in the market and its hard to ignore those red beauties.  When  Mahabaleshwar is nearby, you can find them in heaps at the carts lined up near the market. I wanted to make best use of them during the season. My husband is happy with the milkshake. He says why bother to use them in any other way when the milkshake is heavenly. While looking for strawberry recipes, I came across the cheese cake recipe at Nandita's. And I decided it was the dessert for the New Year's eve.  I did not make much changes to her recipe except that I used some chocolate biscuit too and increased the sugar by 1/4 cup.

For the base

 

• Marie biscuit - 1 packets (24 nos)
• Chocolate biscuit - 1 pkt (I used Hide & Seek)
• Melted butter - 3 tblspn

 

For the cake

 

• Fresh Strawberries - 250 gm
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Hung curd - 1 cup
• Fresh cream - 1 cup (used Amul cream 200ml)
• Agar agar/China grass - 1 pkt (10 gm)
• Water - 4 tblspn

Method

 

I used a combination of marie biscuit and chocolate biscuits. You could use marie biscuit alone. Pulse the biscuit coarsely in the mixer along with the melted butter. Or take the biscuits in a zip lock cover and powder it coarsely with the chappathi roller.

  

Take a round tin. Line it with cling film. Make sure you leave some of the film hanging over the edge, to make it easier to lift the cake out of the tin, later. Spread the biscuit mix on the tin. The base should be firm. So press it down tight. Freeze the base for half an hour. Meanwhile prepare the cake mix.

 

 

 

Mix hung curd and cream in a bowl. To get hung curd, take almost 4 cups of fresh curd and tie it in a muslin cloth and hang it. The whey will be drained and you will be left with creamy curd.

 

 

Puree strawberry with sugar till smooth.

 Mix in the strawberry puree to the curd+cream mix. Mix well so that its uniformly blended in.

 

 

 

The agar agar I used were strands. I put them in warm water for 10 minutes. Then put that bowl in a pan of boiling water for the china grass to fully dissolve. Add the liquefied agar agar to the mix. Mix it well with a spatula. I reserved few drops of the puree and made a marble effect. But on setting, the effect was not seen, though. Leave in the refrigerator for overnight, to set.

 

 

 

Once set, take the pan and pull the cake out by lifting the cling film. You could garnish with some fresh strawberries or strawberry preserve. I served it plain

 

 

 

Notes:

 

The quantity of agar agar used  helps in the setting of the cake. I used only half a packet (5 gms) which I found was not enough. On leaving it in the fridge overnight also, the cake did not set well. Later I had to move it to the freezer to set. Then it set well. But once taken out, after sometime, it started melting like an ice cream. The full packet of agar agar would have worked well. But for that, the cake tasted well. No after taste of agar agar.