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Recipe: Perfectly Pleasing – Peas Paratha

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Peas are in abundance right now – they are in season, cheap to purchase, good for health, and I for one am glad they are flooding the local market. It feels like I am making something with them every day. Recipes I’ve shared with you in the past, like this harra bhara kebab, pea-pomegranate festive kachori and chura matar are being relished at my dining table. I’ve even begun using peas as substitutes for staples. For instance, I usually send my family members off to their offices with some aloo paratha in their tiffin carriers, but the potatoes have been swapped out for – you guessed it – peas. I would like for you to experience the lovely pea-stuffed parathas that they are enjoying at the moment too, so that’s exactly the recipe that I’ve decided to share this week.

Since I am now preparing as well as eating these pea parathas daily, I’ve observed that they are healthier and lighter than aloo parathas, which makes them more suitable for the mid-day meal when one’s work has to be resumed after. The best accompaniment for them is yoghurt and a cup of simple salad – add these two elements and you’re all set with a nice lunch. Traditionally, parathas are meant to be generous in size, but I prefer to make them small. They look pretty and dainty, fit more easily into your Tupperware or tiffin carrier, and the overall presentation just looks and feels nicer. That’s quite important for any meal, not just a special one. When a loved one opens their lunchbox at the office, the dishes within would have been prepared hours earlier and may no longer be warm or as fresh, so making them look attractive makes a difference.

I’ve been using peas grown in my region, but I must admit a preference for those harvested in Jaipur or Delhi at this time of year. The weather there is more conducive to this vegetable, and the yield is smaller in size and so sweet that it can be eaten raw (and even used in desserts, like in peas halwa). I have friends who grow peas on farms there, and visits from or to them during this season would always include some fresh produce. Sadly, no one is able to travel much at the moment, but the local variants are still much enjoyed in my home.

As I was preparing the peas for my photo shoot, I smiled as I recalled helping out in the kitchen when I was growing up. When we were kids, my siblings and I would have a competition about who would peel and shell the most peas. These were a chore that our mother often assigned to us, and this is how we would make it more interesting. The winner had no reward and the loser had no punishment, but this game was just a way for us to pep up a boring activity. Once again, as I did while sharing the previous recipe, I reminisce about how kids of my generation always found ways to keep ourselves entertained. We were innovative and creative in the absence of technology. What sorts of games did you play to make chores go by faster?

Peas Paratha

(Yield: 4-6)

 

Peas stuffing

1 full cup crushed green peas

1 teaspoon aamchur powder

1 teaspoon roasted cumin powder

1 teaspoon ginger/green chilli paste

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon oil (to roast the peas)

 

Paratha dough

1½ cups whole-wheat flour

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon oil

+ Oil for shallow frying

 

Divide the dough and the stuffing separately into equally-sized small balls (lime/lemon-sized).

Roll one dough ball out, and place a spoonful of the peas stuffing in the centre. Gather the dough around the peas and make a smooth round ball, using gentle pressure.

Dust some flour onto the ball and roll out again delicately, making sure the peas do not come out of the dough.

The method of stuffing the paratha with peas is similar to the method for making puran poli, which you can refer to in this post here.

Heat the tava over a medium flame. Once it is hot, place the rolled paratha on it and cook. Flip and spread a ½ teaspoon of oil evenly around the edges and shallow fry both sides until light golden brown spots appear. Repeat with the remaining parathas. Serve.

As I said earlier, some yoghurt and a bit of salad are great accompaniments, but even eaten on its own this peas paratha is flavourful. It is a perfect light meal, and it is lunchbox-friendly, cost-friendly and health-friendly too!

 

 

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Recipe: Simply Satisfying – Ven Pongal

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Here in Tamil Nadu, the harvest festival of Pongal has begun, and all over the state families are celebrating the occasion. Delicious, piping hot chakkara pongal is customarily consumed, but alongside it ven pongal (white pongal, made with freshly harvested rice) is also made. Oh, and let’s not forget certain creative yet authentic pongal renditions that are out there, such as this red rice and jaggery pongal. As you can see, there are many kinds of pongal, and this year, I thought I’d share with you a lovely savoury one.

Ven pongal is a traditional breakfast, one of my own favourites. It is a part of regular temple offerings too. This ven pongal is similar to a khichdi, which is a basic mixture of dal and rice. Unlike khichdi, it’s to be eaten with chutney or sambar. While khichdi is normally eaten for lunch or dinner but seldom for breakfast, with pongal it’s the reverse. As I mentioned, it’s a breakfast dish, and is rarely seen at other times of the day or night – except when it’s eaten for tiffin, which is what we call a late afternoon meal in this region.

Whenever I have breakfast while out and about in Chennai or elsewhere in Tamil Nadu, I always reach for the ven pongal. To me, it takes pride of place on the restaurant menu alongside its more famous counterparts, idli and dosa. The latter two are the “safe choices” that most people usually stick to, but I love ven pongal for breakfast and find it just as reliably made across the state. It’s very refreshing, filling, satisfying and healthy – and sees me through the day up until a hearty lunch.

The rice that I use in the pongal made on Pongal comes from our farm, and I observe a local tradition on this day. As is custom, this is when I store rice for the household for the whole year. The older it gets, the better it tastes. It is preserved well through a natural method: the raw rice is dampened with castor oil, and neem leaves are layered on it as I fill the storage barrels. This ensures that bugs stay away, given the humidity and the climate of this region. This raw rice is eaten throughout the year. When it is rinsed before use, the castor oil goes way, and any residue left is healthy for the body in any case. You can see a part of the process in the photograph below.

My love for this dish started in childhood. We had many Tamilian friends in our neighbourhood, so my familiarity with South Indian flavours and cooking began early. The house beside ours had girls of my age, and so we used to hang out together all the time. In those days, there were no TVs, computers or other electronic devices to keep us distracted indoors, so our hobbies were to run around, climb trees (eating fruits from them and being bitten by hairy caterpillars, as I’ve recounted on this blog before), play fun games that kids no longer seem to do and generally make a racket.

With these particular neighbours, we often spent the late afternoon together. I would go to their house at around 3.30pm, right in time for tiffin. We would sit on their front porch, enjoying leisure time together. My friends’ grandmother would oil, comb and braid their long hair and decorate it with jasmine. As she did, she would tell stories. I would watch their grooming ritual, listen to their Paati’s tales and enjoy the snack of the day. Very often, it was vada (savoury fried dough) or ven pongal, like the recipe I’m sharing with you today.

While I was growing up, my mother would sometimes make this too. This was because I would bring recipes back and forth between the different homes in our neighbourhood. Pre-blog and even pre-Internet, I already loved the exchange of kitchen techniques and secrets! South Indian families we grew up with also ate quite a bit of Gujarati food as a result. Of course, festivals meant gathering together and sharing meals too. It’s funny how connected we all were in that time before cellphones. I had such a lovely, inter-cultural upbringing – it contained food, heritage, granny tales and so much more from my family and well beyond. I feel like my children missed out on those simpler times, since technology began to dominate when they were little. I wonder how the generation of today fares, with even more at their disposal, and perhaps with even more disconnection in the world. What are your thoughts on all this?

Ven Pongal

(Yield: serves 3-4)

 

½ cup split mung dal

½ cup raw rice

3½ cups water to cook

2 tablespoons ghee

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon whole black pepper

3 tablespoon split cashews

2 teaspoons finely minced ginger

Salt to taste

A handful of curry leaves

 

Mix the dal and rice together and rinse well. Heat a pan and add the mixed rice and dal to it. Sauté until they release an aroma. Do not allow the grains to turn colour.

Now, add the water, salt and 1 tablespoon of ghee. Pressure cook until tender. This will take approximately 20-25 minutes.

In another pan, add the remaining ghee. Once it has heated, add the cumin seeds and pepper. Next, add the curry leaves and ginger. Finally, add the cashews. Once this tempering has turned golden, add it to the steaming hot rice mixture.

Mix well and serve warm. It can be eaten on its own, or with sambar or chutney.

Whether you’re having this as a festive dish, or just snacking on it at tiffin or breakfast, I hope that you find it as delicious as I do. If you happen to enjoy it while sitting on your porch or balcony with dear friends, as I used to as a child, I’d especially love it if you could paint me a picture of those special moments in the comments! Food is such an intrinsic part of bonding, is it not?

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Recipe: Just In Time For Christmas – Date & Orange Cake

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A merry, merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate! Whether you are reading this post on that auspicious day or a little later, I hope that your home and your heart are both filled with all good things. Christmas is a time of feasting and of special delicacies, and as I prepared many re:store orders in the past few weeks, I gave a little thought to what I might want to serve at my own table during the festivities. As you may recall from the last few posts, travels to Europe are brightening my thoughts these days. A delicious dessert that I’ve eaten many times in the U.K. came to mind too on these memory-lane wanderings. That would be this date and orange cake, and I am sharing the recipe for it with you today.

My introduction to date and orange cake was through the commercial versions that are widely available in supermarkets in the U.K. They come in individual portions, in cups, just right for a quick dessert or a tea-time snack for one. I loved them, and I always wondered how much fresher the homemade rendition may be. Somehow, I didn’t have the chance to experience a homemade date and orange cake during any of my visits to the U.K., but I fondly recall baking some right here in Chennai when a group of us from school met after many years at one of our homes. As the baker in our friend group, I was placed in charge of dessert. I made individual portions of date and orange cake, in line with my London memories, and we all enjoyed them very much.

This week, I set about recreating that dessert again, realising that I don’t bake it often enough. As I am fortunate to have many people to share it with – loved ones, family and of course, you – I decided to bake a whole cake, serving the sauce drizzled on top as well as on the side.

I also decided to up the festive quotient a bit by adding a little Grand Marnier orange liqueur to the mix, which helps put us into the happy, grateful mood that this time of year is all about. I had some lovely serendipities in terms of the other ingredients as well. I get many orders for date squares, in general but especially when there are gifting needs, so I had a whole lot of dates in my kitchen. Plus, it’s orange season in Nagpur, so some of India’s best citrus fruits are on hand as well. These tend to be a staple in the house, and it was nice to put them to special use, in this wonderful cake that brings the year to a gentle close.

Date & Orange Cake

Cake

200 grams chopped dates

2 cups water

125 grams maida

2 eggs

150 grams butter (unsalted)

90 grams brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Topping

1 teaspoon freshly squeezed orange juice

 

Sauce

2 tablespoons butter (room temperature)

¼ cup sugar

½ cup cream

1 tablespoon orange juice

¼ teaspoon orange extract

1 teaspoon Grand Marnier (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 170°C for 20 minutes.

Prepare a 9-inch baking tin by greasing the edges and dusting with flour. Set aside.

Boil the dates along with the water, stirring until the dates become soft. You could use a hand blender and slowly mush them. Then, add the baking soda. The mixture will bubble up.

Combine and sieve all the dry ingredients except the baking soda. Set aside.

In a mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugar for approximately 3 minutes. Now, add the eggs and while stirring, slowly add the vanilla extract. Make sure the ingredients are well-incorporated by scraping down the sides occasionally. Then, gently add all the dry ingredients to the bowl, making sure the flour doesn’t fly around. Next, add the tender date mixture. Using a spatula, fold it all together. Pour into the prepared baking tin.

Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

In the meantime, prepare the sauce. In a pan, add the butter, salt, sugar and cream. Allow to boil while stirring. Once combined, add the orange extract and vanilla extract. Drizzle in the Grand Marnier for that festive and indulgent touch.

Once the cake is ready, top with the orange juice and spoon the sauce on top, saving some to serve on the side if you wish. You may give it a light dusting of cinnamon for more flavour, and add fresh cream as well for extra decadence.

Serve with a seasonal beverage of your choice. This boozy, orange-kissed hot chocolate may just be the perfect accompaniment, with more citrusy liqueur to really play up that zest.

To all my dearest friends and lovely readers, I want to take this opportunity to remind you that it is the festive season, and so it is a time to treat ourselves. Especially during these uncertain times, we must celebrate and give thanks for what we have. Let’s not lose out on joy by counting calories, at least this week (that, after all, are what New Year’s resolutions are for!).

As another year dawns, let me also take the opportunity to wish you all good health and happiness. I am reflecting at the moment on how we are each responsible for making this world a better place to live in. How we treat people and how we treat the planet are equally important. We are at a crucial point where we may lose the planet’s good health, and the pandemic we are still in is a reminder of how closely linked we are to Earth, as well as to each other. Let us heal together and return to safety, putting the worst behind us. I look forward to the way that food will continue to connect us all, and eagerly anticipate sharing many more dishes from my kitchen with you too.

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Recipe: Spiciness From Spain – Patatas Bravas

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Last week, I shared the recipe for a saffron crème brûlée, a close rendition of my favourite dessert, crema catalana. Nostalgia for the vibrant city of Barcelona and for all the delicious food I’ve enjoyed there also made me fondly recall how I love patatas bravas too. It’s a typical Spanish dish, with a name that translates to “spicy potatoes”, and I’m so happy to share this recipe with you too.

Patatas bravas fall into the category of tapas or small plates dishes, and can be found delicious and cheap all over Spain. The best I’ve had was at a small and nondescript place, popular with the locals, that a friend took me to. They originated in Madrid, but I first enjoyed them in beautiful Barcelona, naturally. My husband used to export garments and I would accompany him on business trips to the city. We would often end the busy days with a plate of spectacularly-made Spanish potatoes. No trip, however short it may have been, was complete without some patatas bravas.

Intriguingly, I learnt that the Europeans did not consider the potato an edible item when it was first brought there from the Americas. It was looked down on by the elite as food that was only for labourers, who needed its energy benefits. The Spanish armies did consume it for this reason, however. When famines hit in the 18th century, the durable potato finally found pride of place in the European palate. Imagine: they deprived themselves of such deliciousness earlier!

Now, of course, the potato is hardly seen as humble. At El Tomás de Sarrià, the Barcelona restaurant that is most famous for the patatas bravas, their preparation of the dish is so renowned that the son-in-law of the King of Spain, numerous famous football and handball players and other celebrities have been known to frequent it.

But really, who doesn’t love potatoes? At home, we consume them in any form. Fried, sautéed, mashed, you name it. As much as I personally love them too, I do try to avoid eating them because I know how addictive they are. Once I start on just one wedge, I can’t stop myself from reaching out for more. Funnily enough, this is the same complaint – or compliment, rather – that I receive about my almond brittle. It happens quite often that a customer will call me up and say, “I couldn’t stop munching on them and have finished the batch you sent already! Do you have more?”.

These cherished “demands”, that I so gladly fulfil, also come from my family. For instance, whenever I make shakshouka, the family wants potatoes on the side. I discovered that patatas bravas are a brilliant accompaniment to that egg-based dish, and this multi-continental medley is much enjoyed at home. Every time I up my game a little bit, such as by substituting some plain vegetable dish for something more exciting like patatas bravas, the family decides that that’s the combo that they want ever onward. Do you ever find this happening – as your repertoire expands, the meals you prepare become more elaborate because the people you cook for begin to ask for specific dishes more frequently?

Our potato obsession at home is so intense that my husband even went so far as to buy an air fryer so as to eat healthier and feel less guilty about his consumption. But I personally feel that it’s better to have the oil-fried version occasionally than to use the air fryer every day. So that machine has been shelved for now, gathering dust in some poor corner. In the meanwhile, we are enjoying our almost-authentic patatas bravas, made with oil and love and lots of other good stuff!

Patatas Bravas

(Yield portion: 1, serves 2)

 

2-3 cups diced potatoes

2 cups oil for frying

Salt to taste

 

Alioli

2 garlic pods crushed

¼ cup mayonnaise

 

Bravas sauce

¼ cup olive oil

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon chili powder

Salt to taste

1½ teaspoons corn flour

1 cup vegetable broth

 

Patatas bravas are easy to make, and you begin with the potatoes and prepare the two sauces while they are frying.

Heat up the oil in a pan and deep fry the potatoes until they are golden. Drain them on a paper and then place them in a wide bowl.

Prepare the aioli sauce by crushing the garlic well and mixing it into the mayonnaise. Stir until well incorporated.

Prepare the bravas sauce by first adding the oil to a saucepan. Once it has heated, add the chili powders and flour. Stir till toasty. Then, add the vegetable broth gently and stir till emulsified. Boil on a low flame until the sauce thickens (this will take approximately 3-5 minutes). The sauce should have a consistency that can be drizzled.

To assemble the dish, simply drizzle the two sauces, aioli and bravas, over the fried potatoes and serve hot. You can also add some mayonnaise or sour cream, if you prefer.

I wonder what these patatas bravas will taste like if I swap the regular potatoes out for sweet potatoes. I’m definitely going to give that experiment a try…

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Recipe: The Next Best, Still Better Than The Rest – Saffron Crème Brûlée

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My absolute, all-time favourite dessert in the world is crema catalana. Barcelona is one of my favourite cities in the world as well, and to me the idea of a perfect Spanish meal simply must end with a delectable bowl of crema catalana. I can’t quite make it here in India, but fortunately for me, the next best thing to crema catalana is easy to make, and requires only easy-to-source ingredients. That would be crème brûlée, and I’ve added a dash of a regional element to pep it up, which gives us this week’s recipe: saffron crème brûlée.

Crème brûlée originates in France, and as with many dishes that one didn’t grow up with, I had the impression that it was very complicated to prepare. I can assure you that this was a misconception. The method is quite easy, the ingredients are basic, and you can make parts of it ahead of time, which also considerably speeds up the process. The original crema catalana is similar in all regards, except that it uses something we don’t get in India, an ingredient called farina (which looks like wheat rava).

I’m nostalgic for my travels at this time of year, and I love journeying through my tastebuds. So I thank you for joining me as I head back to Europe in my imagination! As I prepare this dessert, my mind lingers over happy memories of waking up in the mornings to go for a walk around the neighbourhood, finding a crowded café (a clue: if it’s popular with the locals, it must be good) where I would sit and people-watch over fresh, authentic coffee and pastries. This would be the same whether I was in Venice, in Santiago de Compostela or somewhere else.

If I was in Barcelona, this lovely day would later culminate with going out to dinner with friends. How I miss ordering a starter of deep-fried Padrón peppers sprinkled with rock salt, followed by delicious patatas bravas and saving the best for last with a tiny, well-presented portion of crema catalana! I love that culture and even tried to learn Spanish at one point. While studying the language didn’t go so far, I have had better luck with exploring and replicating European cuisines in my own kitchen. To be candid with you, I’ve never had a good crème brûlée in Chennai, which is one of the reasons why I tried my hand at it. So without further ado, here is my recipe, so that you can do so too!

Saffron Crème Brûlée

4 egg yolks

2 cups heavy cream

¼ cup sugar + 4 tablespoons

¼ teaspoon salt

2 pinches of saffron

Topping

2 teaspoons white sugar

1 teaspoon brown sugar

 

There are four parts to this method: preparing the custard, preparing the egg yolks, baking and then brûléeing. If you’re familiar with baking, you’ll find this method to be easy to follow. If you’re new to baking, keep in mind that the secret is in following the recipe to a tee.

Before we begin, here are a few more tips:

  • There are two key elements to a good crème brûlée: being mindful while adding the yolks to the custard and maintaining a continuous whisk, and baking only up to the correct moment so that the different textures of the dish are maintained.
  • Ovens vary and temperatures vary. I was literally sitting in front of mine with my eyes peeled, so that I would know exactly when to switch it off.
  • You can prepare the custard a couple of days ahead, then bake it and stick it back in the fridge, and then do the brûléeing just before you serve it. If you’re expecting guests, this paces the process well so that you can make the dish in a leisurely way.

Preparing the custard

In a pot, add cream, ¼ cup sugar and salt. Cook on a medium flame and stir often so the mixture doesn’t stick to the bottom.

Midway through mixing, add the saffron. It adds a nice festive colour to the dessert, as does the flavour. Once the cream comes to a simmer, remove from stove and cover with a lid. Rest this for 20 minutes, during which you must open and stir again no more than twice.

Preparing the egg yolks

Meanwhile, take the egg yolks, add the remaining sugar and stir well.

After the custard has rested for 20 minutes, it’s time to add the yolks to it. Slowly and in a single steady pour, add the custard to the yolks. Beat continuously while pouring. At this point, you have to be careful that the eggs don’t become a scramble due to the heat. This is where you may wind up with breakfast rather than dessert! The key is to stir constantly. Once all the cream is added, mix the custard well and refrigerate until you are ready to bake. This can keep in the fridge for up to 2-3 days.

Baking

Preheat the oven at 150° C. In a wide enough tray with tall sides, arrange 6 ramekins. Now, it’s time for the bain-marie technique, used for delicate baked goods like this. You do this by simply pouring hot water into the tray. With the help of a ladle, gently fill the ramekins with the custard-yolk concoction to ¾.

Place the tray gently into the preheated oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until the centre looks jiggly while the edges are not.

Remove the ramekins from the tray and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Once they are at room temperature, refrigerate for at least 5-24 hours.

Brûléeing

Remove the ramekins from the refrigerator and sprinkle 1 teaspoon each of brown sugar and white sugar on top. Brûléeing is the process of using a torch to heat the sugar until it melts and changes colour. Hold the torch longer to make it a nice crust on top and until all the sugar melts. You may add another spoonful of sugar if you like and repeat the same. Do this for each individually.

Serve immediately. The custard must be cold and the brûléed sugar on top must be warm. This play of temperatures, along with the play of textures, is what a good crème brûlée is all about!

It’s quite a simple recipe once you get a little practice at it. Remember to follow it very closely. The one place where you have room to innovate is in the flavouring. The authentic dessert is plain, but I have no doubt that others must also be playing with the taste additions like I am.  If you’re not a fan of saffron, you may want to try vanilla, rose or lavender. I also like to have the plain one with a little passion fruit on top of the brûléed sugar, which brings in a fun flavour interaction.

If you have any questions at all about the process, especially if you are still a little intimidated about trying out what is usually considered a somewhat fancy dessert, drop a comment below. I’m happy to help you figure it out. Trust me, you deserve to taste this loveliness!

On that note, more desserts are coming up here on this blog later this month, in time for Christmas, so do stay tuned! You may want to explore the dessert archive as you plan your menu as well. If you’re in Chennai and want to order from the re:store kitchen for the festivities, give me a buzz!

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Recipe: Made With Bits & Bobs – Vegetable Soup

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Given the heavy rain in Chennai, along with the fact that I recently recovered from a bad flu, I’ve been feeling like having more immunity-boosting foods of late. The turmeric tea that I have before bed is one among these – have you given it a try too? Another new item among my frequent meals is this simple, seasonal vegetable soup. It contains almost no processed ingredients and is a very healthy, can’t-go-wrong dish that really makes you feel well-nourished and warm.

This kind of weather also makes me feel like going into the kitchen less, so what makes this dish all the more convenient is that I can just make a large pot of it in one go, and then help myself to it whenever I feel hungry throughout the day.

The interesting part about how it’s made is that it’s really a “bits and bobs” kind of soup. You can prepare the soup stock by adding whatever you have around. For instance, I had some leftover ridge gourd, half an onion and other assorted vegetables, and all these went into it. The stock itself is a versatile item, and you can use it in dals and so on as well. As I’m a vegetarian, I’ve stuck to vegetables, but if you’re not, it’s a good idea to include some chicken while boiling the stock, and make it more protein-rich.

Making soup stock, and soup itself, with whatever is on hand came about because of necessity. All of you who are also in Chennai have faced a similar situation in recent weeks, with vegetables either unavailable or available only at skyrocketing prices. I believe that farmers have also had trouble being able to distribute the produce to the cities, in addition to flooding impacting the fields themselves. A combination of factors has led to this scarcity. The way I see it, and the way I choose to respond to it, is that it’s not so much about affordability as it is about accessibility. As a believer in Macrobiotics and someone who feels that seasonal and local ingredients are always best, I prefer to reach out for that which is most easily available at all times. That means that sturdier vegetables like potatoes, gourds, beans and carrots that still make it to our markets relatively smoothly and in good shape are what I’ve used in this dish, as well as in most of the dishes being prepared at home at the moment.

I tend to eat salads and raw vegetables at lunch, so cooked and steamed vegetables, which this soup is rich in, are my go-to for dinner. I prefer a light meal at night as it’s easier on the digestion. Also, while you’ve definitely heard quite a bit on other posts on this blog about how I’ve been cutting down on carbs, I’m in a new phase now where I let myself have some carbs at night. So sometimes I have a dosa or two, which is certainly a lighter dinner than the regular Gujarati thaali we eat at lunch. It’s all about listening to your body and adapting to the circumstances, including the weather and the vegetable supply chain!

Vegetable Soup

(Yield: Serves 3-4)

Stock

Thick peel of a potato

Cabbage leaves

Peel and parts of a ridge gourd

1 onion

Soup

1 tablespoon oil

2 cups finely cut vegetables (carrots, beans, onion, broccoli, corn)

A piece of ginger (grated)

3 cloves garlic (grated)

3-4 cups vegetable stock (above)

Salt to taste

½ cup rice starch (use corn flour if you prefer)

1 tablespoon soya sauce

1 teaspoon homemade chili sauce

A squeeze of lemon

Optional

Grated tofu

Sprouts

Leafy greens

Coriander garnishing

 

Prepare the stock by adding all the vegetables to about six cups of water. Allow this to boil until it reduces to ¾th the earlier quantity. Strain and cool. Set aside.

Then, begin preparing the soup.

Add the oil to a pot. Then, add the ginger and garlic and sauté for a few minutes.

Next, add all the vegetables and stir fry for a few minutes.

Then, warm and add the vegetable stock prepared earlier. Next, add the starch. Cover and allow to boil. I have opted to use rice starch from rice cooked earlier in the day, but you can use the usual corn flour, tapioca flour or any other thickening or gelling agent that you prefer.

Once it starts boiling, add the salt, soya sauce and chilli sauce. Cook for a little while and once it starts to thicken slightly, squeeze in the lemon.

The soup is ready now, but to make it go an extra mile, garnish with coriander and add some grated tofu or moong sprouts for a nice boost of protein. I added all these as well as some leafy greens I had on hand that day. Serve hot.

This vegetable soup works beautifully as a meal-in-a-bowl, or you can have it as an appetiser or complement it with a range of sides. Something like this cheesy, garlicky sourdough toast may make a lovely accompaniment. You can also check out some of the other delicious soups that I’ve shared over the years: minestrone, simple zucchini soup, broccoli and almond soup and vegan whole corn and lemongrass soup. Stay warm, and enjoy!

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Recipe: Tinged With Goodness – Turmeric Tea

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I was recently down with a virus (thankfully, it was not COVID), and that was when I began consuming this turmeric tea every night. I had long been making it on a nightly basis, for my husband who insists on a cup of it before bedtime. Despite his urging me to have it as well, I somehow never did. That bout of illness was an important reminder for me that we need to keep our immunity high. Healthy, homemade remedies are a time-honoured way of doing this.

It isn’t that I wasn’t occasionally consuming turmeric-based boosters – such as this turmeric shot and this sniffle-season tonic  – but making a point to have a beverage like this one every night was just not part of my routine until a few weeks ago. However, there was a nightly drink that my mother would prepare for us while we were growing up. She would put a drop of ghee in a cup, add two pinches of turmeric powder, pour hot milk over this, stir it and make my siblings and I drink it. Like most children, we hated it. Now that I am older and appreciate the medicinal values of common ingredients, it’s been a pleasure to bring some turmeric back into my bedtime routine. Now, I can’t get enough of it, and even look forward to it.

I first consumed this drink while visiting my son in Bangalore. The lady who comes in to do his cooking prepared it one day when the kitchen ran short of tea leaves. She called it “a healthy tea” and offered it as a substitute. It was so refreshing that it became a keeper in my family, and I got the recipe from her and began making it once I got back home too. It was reminiscent of the homemade remedies I’ve known, and easy to prepare as well. When I look back on my childhood, I hardly recall being given pills; nor do I recall falling seriously ill. Common, seasonal illnesses were always treated with traditional, natural cures.

It’s a healthy tea indeed, made with the goodness of turmeric. Turmeric is an antioxidant, anti-bacterial and anti- inflammatory ingredient, and has been trusted for centuries as a disease preventative. It is not for nothing that a turmeric stamp is re:store’s signature, and has taken pride of place in the brand logo for six years now. You can see it right there on this blog’s header and on my product packaging too. To me, it represents good health and vibrance in all aspects of life. I love the ingredient for its versatility: it’s as useful in a curry as it is in a beverage like this.

It happens to be turmeric season now, and I’m planning to go to the South Indian heartlands where it is harvested to track the process. This adventure is something I will be sharing with you in time.

Coming back to this turmeric tea itself: you can experiment with more spices to flavour it with, depending on the season and what’s on hand in your kitchen. In rainy or wintry weather like what we’re having now in Chennai, the spices can be warming too. I like to just add lemon and honey, and sometimes a cinnamon stick or star anise. At home, we are currently mostly off dairy so we prefer it as a turmeric tea. You can turn it into a turmeric latte by adding milk and eliminating the lemon. As long as turmeric is the base, you can play around with the rest of the recipe.

The best part of this drink is that unlike my other turmeric remedies, which I use seasonally or only when I have fallen sick, this is good as a year-round drink. Many of us enjoy a warm beverage at night, and this makes for a great replacement (especially if you prefer to be dairy-free). Also, it kills your night-time sugar craving. This is good news for those of us with a sweet tooth, and I’m telling you this from experience! Something about this drink just takes away that itch. Quite the benefit, in addition to all its healing properties, no?

Turmeric Tea
(Yield: 1 cup)

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 small piece of ginger
A few drops of lemon juice
¼ teaspoon honey
1 cup boiling hot water
Some star anise

Boil the water along with the ginger and star anise. In a cup, add the turmeric powder, honey and lemon juice.

Once the water boils, pour it into the cup.

Stir and drink while it’s hot.

Incredibly simple, yet so very soothing. As I said earlier, add selected spices to flavour the beverage further, as per your wish. Let this turmeric tea relax you, and heal you as you sleep. Sweet dreams!

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Recipe: Even Better At Breakfast – Bajra Rotlo Cereal

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Still on the theme of post-festive millet-based goodness, after the previous post’s millet upma, I’m glad to share another recipe that I’ve been turning to frequently. This is another breakfast dish, and what’s even better is that it makes use of the previous day’s leftovers, maximizing resources and minimizing time. There’s a long tradition of innovative dishes that do this, as we’ve seen in my second helpings series from a few years back, and this bajra rotlo cereal fits beautifully into that category too.

Bajra, or pearl millet, is a long-fingered crop with hundreds of grains on the cob. It has been cultivated on the Indian subcontinent for thousands of years, and is a staple across different cuisines in this region. As a darker coloured millet, which indicates that it is heavier on the digestive system, it is perfect for monsoons and Indian winters. It keeps the body warm, since the digestive system is active for longer, working on those slow-release carbs, and thus reduces hunger between meal-times. I have noticed that it is one of the key ingredients consumed by farmers, such as the people I’ve met on my travels to the Rann of Kutch, where the salt-harvesting community eats bajra with chutney daily.  It has a high iron quotient, is gluten-free and is rich in amino acids, fibre and antioxidants.

Bajra rotlo is a flatbread, one of many varieties enjoyed by the Gujarati community. It is most often accompanied by a garlic chutney, but while I was growing up my mother would usually serve it to us with jaggery and ghee or else with homemade white butter. In those days, the milk quality of brands that are still around today was pure and excellent, which meant we could extract our own buttermilk from the curd, and from this the butter. I remember watching my mother churning the buttermilk, which would make the butter float on top. She would often ask me for my help. We would collect the white butter and set it aside. Having it with some bajra rotlo over dinner was one of my favourite meals.

Of course, the homemade butter no longer exists and the store-bought ones just don’t compare when it comes to this purpose. Which brings me to my second-favourite way of eating bajra rotlo: as cereal.

It’s funny how things come full circle. As a child, this was a dish that I scorned at the breakfast table. My mother would always prepare a few extra bajra rotlos, to be kept overnight for my father and her to have in the morning. She would crumble these with her hands, turning them into a cereal consistency, and my parents would eat this cereal with milk. It looked like cornflakes to us kids, which was interesting in theory, but we did not like the taste back then. I grew to love it, however. In fact, I now enjoy this deconstructed version more than I enjoy the previous night’s freshly-made, unbroken bajra rotlos themselves!

Now, when I prepare bajra rotlo cereal, the memory of my mother’s hands and the way she would crumble the rotlos always comes to me. The dish is all the more special because of this.

For the time being, no one else in my family likes bajra rotlo cereal. But they watch me eat it, just as I once watched my parents eat it. I’ve never forced it on my kids, but maybe somewhere later down the line, they’ll reach out for this comfort food on some mornings too. Fond memories really are what make food palatable, above all else. Besides, as parents we always set an example. The next generation, be they little or a little older, will make similar choices to ours. So the more healthily we eat, the better a model we set for them.

Bajra Rotlo Cereal

(Yield: 4 servings)

1 cup bajra flour

½ cup water

A pinch of salt

½ cup flour for rolling

 

Optional (non-cereal version)

1 tablespoon finely chopped onion

1 tablespoon finely coriander leaves

 

Put the flour in a bowl, add the pinch of salt and stir. If you plan on having the bajra rotlo as a bread, not a cereal, then make the savoury version and add the onion and coriander now. Skip these optional ingredients if you plan on having the cereal version.

Add the water. Leave a little bit behind in the cup – use just enough to make a malleable dough.

Once the dough is made you, don’t let it sit. You will have to roast the rotlo immediately.

Make four smooth balls with the dough. On a rolling board, sprinkle more flour. Place a ball of dough on it and use your palms to gently pat it out. Use your fingers to press down the edges of the rotlo. If you need the help of the rolling pin, you may use it, but very lightly and gently. Since there is no gluten, the dough will be soft and needs to be handled with care. Add more flour if necessary. Each rotlo needs to be ¼ inch in thickness. Keep dusting with flour at the bottom too. Make all four pieces.

On a hot griddle, place each rotlo individually. Use your fingers to wet the top of the rotlo with water.

Roast on one side and flip over. Cool on a medium flame. As it’s thick, it needs to cook well on the inside. Once it has spots on both sides, place the rotlo directly on the flame to cook further.

Remove from the stove and top with ghee. Allow to cool. You can now serve this bajra rotlo with chutney or dal, if you like.

To make a cereal, once it has cooled, either the same day or the next morning, simply crush or crumble the rotlo with your hands.

You can have this with cold milk, if you prefer that. I usually have mine with warm milk. Specifically, I enjoy it with almond milk, which I’ve been reaching for more and more in my quest to make my diet more vegan. You can also add some sugar, if you wish to sweeten the cereal. All in all, it makes for a complete and healthy breakfast.

The festive season also coincides with the wedding season, which means that there is a general period of celebration until February or so in most Indian communities, peppered with religious occasions as well as personal gatherings. Foods like this dish, which nourish the body and let it recover from the heavy, fried, sugary, buttery, ghee-rich foods that are eaten at special events, are welcome and appreciated after and between feasts. This isn’t to knock indulgent foods at all – in fact, I have noticed how traditional ingredients like gond or gum resin, which are used in laddoos, are a warming agent and boost immunity. There’s a culinary and seasonal logic to indulgence too. But the body really does feel better when some millets are in the mix, balancing out the treats.

I’ve got quite a repertoire of millet-based dishes in my recipe archive, if you are keen to bring this nutritious category into your kitchen more often. Having tried this bajra rotlo cereal, if you find that you’re a fan of pearl millet at breakfast, the traditional Gujarati bajra ghensh is also a fantastic option. Here’s to happy, healthy mornings!

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Recipe: Post-Diwali Downtime – Millet Upma

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After the abundance of sweets, treats and fried foods of Diwali and Navaratri, hopefully accompanied by equally large helpings of blessings and joy, it’s back to trying to eat clean and healthy. This month is all about giving the body’s systems time to settle down before the culinary excitements of Christmas and the New Year beckon again. In this part of the world, this is also a time of rains, which call for immunity-boosting and warming foods as well. With all of this in mind, and taking a cue only from what I’ve been preparing for my family and myself, I’m delighted to share the recipe for a type of comfort food that is ideal for this time of year: millet upma.

Upma is a kind of porridge that is consumed across South India, in several variations. Its base may be semolina, vermicelli, corn, whole wheat or rice. Here, I have chosen to use a millet as the base, specifically the little millet. Millets and soups are perfect for the current weather. While soups are not really a part of the local cuisine, millets have a very long tradition of usage here. I’m quite an advocate for cutting down on white rice consumption in favour of nutritious millets, and you can explore many more millet-based recipes in my blog archives if you’re interested in doing the same.

As well as being a great place to start if you’re new to millets, this dish is also just the perfect way to start your day. Now, the truth is that millets taste healthy, which you know means that the family will fuss over it and make faces – at first. But as I’ve observed from my own grown kids, a millet upma is most welcome at breakfast after a night of partying or feasting. It’s just the kind of thing that calms body and mind, and boosts energy levels at the same time. So I choose a millet upma at the right moment during other times of the year, but it’s whipped up quite frequently in my kitchen in the post-festive period. We also have it as a light dinner, with more vegetables added to the mix. It’s especially great if you’re like me and have dinner early, as the millet gives you energy for the remaining hours of the evening, while still being easy to digest at night.

When cooking millets, the amount of water you add will depend on the size of the grain. Heavier millets – bigger in size and darker in colour – are traditionally used in monsoons and winters as they take more time to digest, hence warm the body for a longer time. However, I’ve chosen a sort of in-between. The little millet, known in Tamil as samai, is a larger grain but has a lighter colour. Use the millet of your preference, and do remember that depending on the type, you may need to pressure cook it or soak it overnight. You will also need to figure out the water level so that the result is a dish that is tender and crumbly. The consistency of the cooked millet should not be sticky.

Millet Upma

(Yield: 2-4 persons)

¾ cup little millet

¼ cup finely chopped onion

¼ cup chopped beans and carrots

2 tablespoons oil

¼ teaspoon mustard seeds

¼ teaspoon cumin seeds

A few curry leaves

1 green chilli

1¼ cups water

A squeeze of lemon juice

Salt to taste

Rinse the millet and set aside. Heat a kadai and add the oil. Once the oil heats up, add the mustard and cumin seeds. Allow them to splutter and then add the remaining vegetables, green chilli and curry leaves.

Cook until the vegetables become tender and then add the water. Once the water has boiled, add the millet. Then add the salt and stir well. Keep the flame low, cover the kadai with a lid, and allow all the water to be cooked. The millet grain should be tender and not sticky.

Add some lemon juice and stir gently. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot, and enjoy the taste of a healthy meal that your body will thank you for!

As I said earlier, there is a long history of millet consumption both in India as well as in my household, as shared here on my blog. I hope this millet upma recipe intrigues you into exploring this food category further. I’ve got a whole range, from the traditional – bajra ghensh, seven-grain khichdo, ragi dosa with peanut chutney, chakkara pongal, ragi kanji and little millet rice with green beans poriyal – to the innovative or internationally-inspired – vegan millet thayirsadam, vegan chili and Indian veg millet salad. I’d love to know about your own journey with millets, too!

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Recipe: To Relish This Festive Season – Rose Water Peda

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A while ago, I noticed on Instagram that many people had been making pedas in lovely shapes. These Indian milk sweets are always a mood-lifter, and seeing them online inspired me to put them on my own festive menu this year. I’ve always been a believer that presentation goes a long way when it comes to any dish, and we usually eat with our eyes first. That said, taste is ultimately the most important factor. So, while dreaming up my own pedas, the two elements came together. Firstly, I sought out exquisite little moulds that would beautify my sweets, thinking of Kolkata’s famously attractive sandesh. Secondly, I gave the flavouring quite a lot of thought. Through some trials, I eventually settled on one of my favourite flavours, and indeed one of re:store’s signature ingredients: rose water. These rose water pedas are aromatic, delicious and very sweet, just like I hope your Diwali will be.

Whenever I see something beautiful – either culinary or creative – I must learn to make it immediately. You could call it a flaw of sorts, or maybe a happy curse, but that’s just how I’m wired. From the moment of inspiration onwards, it becomes an obsession for me until I arrive at a rendition that I am happy with. That’s how I learnt how to bake, to photograph and to cook so many beloved items in my repertoire. I experiment, make mistakes and keep going until I succeed. Only sometimes do I concede that it’s time to give up, but even then I don’t consider those experiences failures. Rather, there are lessons in them too. When I succeed, the journey doesn’t just end at having made something. The next step is sharing it, which is why this blog exists, but also why I am an inveterate giver of gifts. In my case, my gifts are mostly edible nowadays.

The reason for this is that people really do receive enough and plenty of other kinds of gifts, and unlike a memento which may not be to one’s taste, food almost invariably will be consumed. Before I visit a friend, I now bake or cook a little gift, or else select organic vegetables and arrange them in a basket. These are items which I know for certain will be used by the recipient, and will never gather dust. Personally as well, there’s nothing more exciting to me than fresh ingredients, and I love getting gifts of the same. You may have noticed that many of my recipes here have been spurred by a present of some kind: such as lavender, cinnamon, saffron or more wonderful pleasures that travelled to me with love. Recipes, too, are fabulous gifts – and it’s my pleasure to keep gifting you these.

I learnt how to make basic pedas from my sister, who is the peda queen in my eyes. Peda-making was truly in my destiny because of a nickname in my extended family. My mother had nine siblings, and each had many children of their own, among whom I was one of the very youngest. As a baby, I seemed to that huge group of cousins to look like a little peda. So that’s what they called me: “pendo”, the Gujarati word for this dish. I remain Pendo to many of them, even to this day!

 

Rose Water Peda

(Yield: 10 pieces)

125 grams paneer

50 grams full fat milk powder

50 grams powdered sugar

2 teaspoons ghee

1 teaspoon rose water

1 teaspoon milk

Grate the paneer and place it onto a plate. Knead it with the palm of your hand until it is soft and even, like dough. Form a ball and set aside.

Heat a non-stick pan and add the ghee. Once it is hot, add the paneer. Keep stirring and pressing the paneer down. The paneer will become soft and smooth. This process should take no more than two minutes.

Add the rose water and the milk powder. Mix well. Then add the sugar and turn off the flame. Mix it all well together once more. Spread onto a plate. Allow to cool.

Once cooled, use the palm of your hand to knead this mixture until it’s smooth. It will feel sticky, but do not worry.

Then, wrap the mixture with cling film. Keep it in the refrigerator for between ½ an hour to five hours.

You will notice that this recipe uses milk powder rather than milk, and this is a common modern innovation on the old method, which involved boiling and boiling milk for hours on end. Milk powder makes the process far simpler and faster, while retaining the classic taste of this deeply cherished Indian sweet.

When you are ready to prepare the peda, take out the cold mixture and knead it once again, making sure there are no lumps. Now, make small balls and reshape them as you desire, or use moulds. Garnish with rose petals and pistachio slivers.

Keep the peda at room temperature, but protected by a netted cover. Allow to sit for a few hours.

Serve, and relish the delicate taste of these lovely rose water pedas. You can store any remainder in the refrigerator, as long as you consume them within three days.

In my home, whenever I make peda, the first offering is always to Balakrishna or Baby Krishna, the god who is very fond of dairy according to all the stories about him. He is our family deity and we have a seva or service for him every day, an elaborate process of waking him, bathing him, treating him lovingly like a child and of course feeding him. So when I’m making pedas, I always make tiny ones to offer at the altar, alongside the regular-sized ones. As with all kinds of prasad, it is never tasted while being cooked, as it must be offered pure.

Do you have rituals like these too, in which food and faith come together? I’m always interested in learning more about world cultures, and would love to hear from you.

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