Masala Pori / Spicy Puffed Rice Salad

This is a quick evening snack that is very very close to the popular Bhel Puri. The only thing that is missing in this snack is some crispy Sev (oma podi), and probably some boiled potatoes. Bhel puri is also served with two condiments - a sweet date-based chutney and a spicy coriander-chilli chutney. 

This dish is almost like a salad. It is healthy, extremely easy to put together when there is company and people are hungry, and not to mention - its yummy!

This version of pori is popular in South-India, especially in our Marina Beach! To make it more authentic, add some chopped raw mango to the snack. 

Green (Monster) Smoothie

We usually prepare a week's worth of smoothies every weekend for a quick breakfast/evening "snack" when we are too tired to make something. Our favorite smoothie combination is berries, banana, apples, natural protein powder, and milk. And no sugar ever. This week, inspired by the Green Monster Movement, I tried a green smoothie and it turned out yummy! It does need more ingredients than a regular fruit smoothie that requires just fruits, milk and protein powder. But the nutritive value of this green smoothie far outweighs the cost of spending a few minutes to assemble the ingredients. And it tastes good too! The husband detests kale and raw spinach, but even he called it "decent", which is saying something. I don't receive any superlative adulation ever (or hardly any adulation for that matter) so "decent" and "okay" are gold standards to aspire!

This smoothie is nutritious, easy to make, filling, and pleasant on the palate. I added a bunch of other ingredients to mask the bitterness and raw taste of Kale. Peanut butter and yogurt are for protein and probiotics, flax seeds are for fiber and omega-fatty acids, almonds for texture, taste, and more omega goodness, and maple syrup for flavor and slight sweetness.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup blueberries
2. 1 banana
3. 3 handfuls spinach
4. 2 handfuls torn Kale leaves (about 4 leaves)
5. 1/3 cup yogurt
6. low fat milk (as needed to thin the smoothie to desired consistency)
7. 1/2 cup almonds
8. 1/4 cup peanut butter
9. 3 tablespoons flax seeds, or ground flax seeds
10. 2 tablespoons maple syrup (optional of course)

Blend everything together to make a yummy smoothie! This makes 5 cups of smoothie. You can get creative and add other combinations of fruits, nuts, cocoa powder etc. I plan to add spirulina powder and wheat grass the next time. My smoothies are going green from today!

Sundal

Another season of Navrathri winds to an end. The festival honors the three important Hindu Goddesses - Lakshmi (The Goddess of wealth and prosperity), Durga/Parvathi (The Goddess of Power), and Sarawathi (The Goddess of Knowledge). In the South, figurines and clay dolls of these Goddesses (and other deities) are displayed in step-like structures. This display is called Golu. Women folk are invited to admire and worship these deities, and are handed prasad (an eatable believed to be blessed by the Gods) along with other little gifts. In the South, this prasad is usually some form of Sundal.

Sundal is actually a very simple yet healthy snack, especially for vegetarians. Boiled/cooked pulses/dhals/nuts are garnished with a flavorful seasoning of mustard, chillies, hing, salt, and coconut grating. This is a significant manner of enriching vegetarians’ protein intake. Why is sundal provided during Navrathri, you may ask? I have no clue. If you do, please enlighten me! But, this doesn’t mean sundals are consumed only during Navrathri - they are healthy, filling snacks that are made quite often. Navrathri just results in copious consumption levels! (especially if you’re a kid and go from door to door collecting sundal packets in exchange for a devotional song you blare out - very much like collecting candies during Halloween - minus the singing!)

The basic cooking formula for Sundals is:

Formula

1. 2 (or more) cups of any pulse/gram/beans - black-eyed beans, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), green sprouts, peanuts, black channa dhal, rajma, black beans... etc. Basically any kind of food that is protein rich, and that can hold its shape after being cooked. Yellow lentils (toor dhal) for example becomes mushy when cooked, so it won’t make a nice sundal.
2. Soak the dhal/beans for a minimum of 6 hours (most beans require this time, it’s more of a rule of thumb) and then cook them till they are tender. (obviously you wouldn’t follow these steps if you use the canned versions)
3. Heat a small quantity of oil (olive oil or vegetable oil) in a pan. Splutter a teaspoon of black mustard seeds, add ½ teaspoon of hing, 3-4 dried red chillies (or green chillies) as per your preferred spice intake, and a few curry leaves.
4. Immediately add the cooked beans/dhal and saute on medium heat till they get coated in the oil and spices. Add 1 teaspoon (or less) of salt and mix well.
5. Finally add a handful (okay, half a handful) of grated coconut, and mix well. Turn off the heat.

Starting from Left in Clock-wise order - black channa dhal based sundal, black-eyed beans sundal, and chickpeas sundal

Sundal is ready to be served. Chickpeas sundal and peanut sundal are the most popular, commonly made varieties. Sundal can also have ingredients such as finely diced, spiced raw mangoes in them - the kind served at the beach. Most people are paranoid of adding coconut gratings/milk these days. But unless one’s cholesterol levels are already very high, I think one can still afford to add a few sprinkles :). As I keep saying, everything in moderation will work fine.

Using the above simple formula, you can innovate as much as you like! For instance, you can also add some onions, tomatoes, and perhaps a few other diced vegetables and turn it into a sundal-salad.

Pineapple-Rosemary-Cilantro Popsicle

On one of his recent trips, Anand chanced upon an interesting popsicle flavor and recipe included in a tiny section of an airline magazine. He immediately took a picture of it and dutifully showed it to me, requesting that it be made as soon as possible. How convenient for me! :).

But these days, I can’t seem to obediently stick to a given recipe. I am always tempted to add a bit of this and that, and eliminate things that I believe won’t go well together. I was very skeptical of adding a bunch of coriander leaves (cilantro) along with pineapple. I associate cilantro with savory, aromatic dishes and not sweet, fruity dishes. Licking cilantro bits from a popsicle just didn’t fit well with my tiny flavor-related-mental-model. And so, I adapted. I’ve been experimenting with other herbs available on this side of the world, and have recently fallen in love with fresh rosemary and tarragon. Rosemary has a wonderful, lavender-like pleasant fragrance, but it doesn’t make the dish taste/smell flowery. Similarly,  Tarragon has a strong fennel-like note to it, except it is much sweeter and subtle. They are strong, aromatic herbs which go a long way in subtly enhancing the scent and flavor of a dish. A few months back, I had a rosemary-ginger-lemon soda and I swooned over the refreshing flavors! Since I was convinced that these ingredients would play very well with the sweet and tangy pineapple to give a refreshing zing to the popsicle, I added them. But Anand vehemently insisted that I add cilantro and not digress from the original recipe. And so, cilantro went in too - and I am still not in great favor of it! But Anand and other friends loved it, so I guess I’m the minority in this!

Rosemary

 
Ingredients

1. 3 cups of finely diced fresh pineapple
2. ⅓ cup of sugar
3. ½  a teaspoon of salt
4. Juice of half a lemon (or lime)
5. 2 sprigs of cilantro
6. 2 small sprigs of fresh rosemary (remove the leaves from the inedible stem)
7. a pebble-sized piece of ginger

Preparation

1. Add all the ingredients in a blender and pulse, grind, puree until smooth. Do not add any water. If it’ easier, puree the pineapples first and then add the rest of the ingredients and give it a blitz.
2. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze for 4-5 hours.

 

Pineapple-rosemary-cilantro-ginger popsicle is ready! This might seem odd to many, but it did taste good and the flavors were unique. The only change I would recommend is adding mint leaves instead of cilantro to make the posicle even more refreshing. It will turn into a pineapple-mojito on a stick - without the rum ;).

Spiced up Nachos

Nachos are popular Mexican starters and fillers. It is made of simple corn-tortilla chips (imagine crisped up mini Naans), that are piled high with beans, salsa, sour cream, cheese, and guacamole. I don’t think I need to explain what salsa or guacamole is, but on principle, let me. Salsa is nothing but tomatoes, onions, garlic, jalapeno peppers, corn kernels, and beans, bathed and preserved in vinegar, salt, lime juice, and coriander leaves. There are several kinds of salsas, so this is just the basic form. Guacamole is a rich, creamy paste of avocados, onions, garlic, tomatoes, lime juice, and coriander leaves. Both salsa and guacamole are yummy dips for all kinds of chips.

I don’t know why I never thought of making nachos at home until I feasted on some of my friend’s home-made, lip-smacking nachos. Nachos are very easy to assemble at home, and they make excellent appetizers. So, I finally tried making (or rather, assembling) one recently, with a little bit of Indian twist to it.

Ingredients

1. ½ bag of corn tortilla chips (easily available in stores these days). Else, they are easy to make from tortilla. Cut tortilla into triangular wedges, and bake at 350 F for 15 minutes or longer until the wedges crisp.
2. 3 cups of Black beans ( one can even use cooked garbanzo beans or kidney beans - channa or rajma)
3. 1 onion finely chopped
4. 2 tomatoes finely chopped
5. handful of coriander leaves
6. 2 teaspoons of Chaat masala powder
7. 2 teaspoons of salt
8. 2 teaspoon of pepper
9. Juice of 2 limes (or the juice of 1 lemon)
10. ¾ cup of grated cheese (any cheese of your liking - but cheddar is fool-proof with this)
11. 1 ripe avocado
12. ½ cup of low-fat sour cream

Preparation

1. Prepare the Salsa by mixing together the beans, onions, tomatoes, chaat masala, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper, coriander leaves and juice of 1 lime.
2. I took a shortcut and prepared my own version of “guacamole”. I mashed the creamy pulp of the avocado with sour cream, and spiced it with salt, pepper, and the juice of ½ a lime.
3. Line the tortilla chips on a baking tray layered with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
4. Pile the chips with a spoonful of salsa, and the mixture of sour cream + avocado. Top it with a sprinkle of grated cheese.
5. Broil the chips in the oven for 3-4 minutes (or until the cheese melts). Do not over-bake/broil the chips, for they will burn easily and will become stiff and hard.
6. That’s it! Serve hot.

You can even add other Indian spices like turmeric, red chillies, and cumin while preparing the guacamole the authentic way.

This cannot get simpler, can it? :)

Cantaloupe-Banana Smoothie

I know, why act all pompous and call it smoothie when it’s just a milk-shake? Yeah, but doesn’t the term “smoothie” sound cute, funny, and babyish? I think some little kid at some point called a milk-shake a “smoothie” (“Mommy, I want that smoothy-smoothy drink”), and the dad who overheard it decided to revamp the term milk-shake to smoothie, because the people of this land always crave to establish their own unique identity. If the rest of the world calls something by a certain name, the people here will go to any lengths to rechristen it and adapt it to their ways.

So well, smoothie or milk-shake, the preparation of this drink cannot be more intuitive and easy. Of the several dreams and inane thoughts I have, starting a smoothie place used to be one such brainwave. It’s ridiculously easy to mash together a bunch of different combinations of fruits, add a splash of milk, cream, or yogurt, a bit of sweetness, and a few nuts or extra flavors, and you get an endless array of “healthy” drinks that people never tire of. Every time I wait in line at Jamba Juice, I sigh.

Every so often, I ambitiously buy a cartload of fresh fruits thinking that I would religiously eat them every single day. But time has a way of playing tricks on us. By the time I remember to pick out one huge fruit from the fridge, an unpleasant sight awaits me. I face an ultimatum posed by the fruits - eat us within the next two days before we hit the road to rapid decline. And so, driven by such desperation, I plonk all the assortment of fruits into a blender, pour some milk, add a dash of honey, give everything a whir, and I have four glasses of filling smoothie for breakfast and pre-dinner nourishment.

This time I picked a cantaloupe and watermelon, envisaging eating cubes of them after dinner. When I didn’t see that happening for the first two days, I decided to be proactive. The result was a cantaloupe-banana smoothie.

Ingredients:

1. Half of a medium-sized cantaloupe (peeled and cubed)
2. One banana
3. 4 cups of milk (or more depending on how thick you like your smoothie)
4. 1 teaspoon of chocolate powder (I use Ovaltine)
5. 1 Tablespoon of honey (optional; skip, if you like your smoothie to be a little less on sweet)
6. 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (optional)

Preparation:

Dump everything into a blender and puree till smooth.

As I mentioned, the adaptions are numerous. Get creative! I always like adding banana to most smoothies because I like the texture, the flavor and yummy consistency it brings to the drink. At one point, inspired by Anand’s words, I used to add a spoon of protein powder instead of chocolate powder. I could then call it a fruity-protein drink. 

You can also add yogurt along with a bit of milk, and you get Lassi! We tried cantaloupe lassi (without banana) recently, and it came out decently. I garnished the Lassi with a teaspoon of cardamom powder, and it tasted really good - almost like dessert! 

Also, I typically don’t use citrus fruits like orange, lemon, grapefruit etc. I fear that the acidity would curdle the milk. Berries and bananas are perfect for smoothies. Without the chocolate and the honey, a glass of this smoothie is a nutritious and filling drink. It’s a perfect and easy breakfast for non-morning people like me who have barely enough time to get ready and rush. But this is also an easy way of adding calories - just because something has healthy ingredients doesn’t make the resulting output always healthy. Everything in moderation - that’s the mantra!